Slim, Master of War

Rating:
Summary: Slimeball Slim, maggot of war!
Review: This is on the plane of Slim's own autobiography, a fictionalized, pathetic and hagiographical account of one of the few land campaigns (mostly sideshows though, like the Libya campaign) that the British Army won largely on their own (though not without massive US help, in logistics, aerial and naval support and armaments), allegedly on the efforts and brilliance of that maestro of war, Bill Slim.

Now if you have complete air and naval supremacies, total land, airlanding and amphibious mobilities, an (mostly Indian/African colonial) army, fully armoured and motorized that outnumbered your enemies by a factor of ten, against half starving foot slogging Japs, you might think that should be a walkover in weeks, not a campaign for years! One cannot but notice the fact that the SEAC was a joke, and a refuge for failed commanders (Wavell), shirkers (Fraser, Sommerville), idiots (Slim) , lunatics (Wingate) and incompetent queers (Mountbatten) and that the British Army and the RN were sitting out the war, waiting for King, McArthur , the US Army and USN doing the hard slogging for them slackers.

Which leads us to the conclusion that Slim, like Montgomery, are getting the full Monty spin to cover up for their incomptence, mediocrity and amateur generalship that are the hallmarks of the Brits.

Both were no more qualified to lead anything bigger than an infantry squad, what with their meat heads and bumbling ways.

Read Louis Allen;s book, Burma, the Longest War for an impartial account of the savagery, bravery, incompetence and fiascos on both sides in what was Britain's last shot to regain its rotten colonial empire.