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Nations in the Balance

By: Kolakowski, Christo

ISBN: 9781636240961

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"...a highly readable and engrossing text, richly adorned with strategic nuances, operational art, tactical accounts of vicious jungle battles, and some of the most fascinating leaders of World War II or any era." – Army History Magazine

From December 1943 to August 1944, Allied and Japanese forces fought the decisive battles of World War II in Southeast Asia. Fighting centered around North Burma, Imphal, Kohima and the Arakan, involving troops from all over the world along a battlefront the combined size of Pennsylvania and Ohio. The campaigns brought nations into collision for the highest stakes: British and Indian troops fighting for Empire, the Indo-Japanese forces seeking a prestige victory with an invasion of India and the Americans and Chinese focused on helping China and reopening the Burma Road. Events turned on the decisions of the principal commanders—Admiral Louis Mountbatten and Generals Joseph Stilwell, William Slim, Orde Wingate, Mutaguchi Renya, among many others. The impact of the fighting was felt in London, Tokyo and Washington, among other places far away from the battlefront, with effects that presaged postwar political relationships. This was also the first U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia, and Stilwell's operations in some ways foreshadowed battles in Vietnam two decades later.

The Burma and India battles of 1944 offer dramatic and compelling stories of people fighting in difficult conditions against high odds, with far-reaching results. They also proved important to the postwar future of the participant nations and Asia as a whole, with effects that still reverberate decades after the war.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Prologue: Longcloth

1. Nations in the Balance
2. The Gathering Forces
3. Stilwell’s Advance
4. Battles Front and Rear
5. The Triple Invasions
6. The Critical Weeks
7. “I Believe It Will Be Difficult To Hold”
8. “A Brilliant Feat of Arms”
9. The Balance Tips

Epilogue
Appendices