Customer Reviews

The Jungle War: Mavericks, Marauders and Madmen in the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II

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This book is different from other Astor titles in that it lacks the personal accounts he's known for. If you're looking for a book on the CBI with lots of personal stories/recollections, you'll be disappointed by this book. However, this book provides good insights into the minds and characters of some of the CBI's main personalities: Slim, Stilwell, Chennault, and Mountbatten. It also provides a fairly well-detailed account of the war in the CBI, predominantly the fighting in Burma. Unfortunately, it suffers from an almost complete absence of maps, so unless your knowledge of Indian and Burmese geography is excellent you might get a bit lost when trying to figure out where battles and such are taking place.

This book while not as detailed as I wished is a good solid introduction to a basically forgotten but extremely brutal war. Where the Japanese invaded the British Colony of Burma. What followes is a long hard slog with some of the strangest set of Characters that ever graced the Stage of War. For Example the corrupt Chiang Kai Shek, the crazy Wingate, a Royal Moutbatten,Vinegar Joe Stilwell and a host of others. The only bright spot being the use of more Japanese sources. The major problem of this book was that it did not really cover the only real leader of this campaign that being FM Slim. But it is an honest effort for those starting out on a study of this campaign.

this book is a precursor of the present political landscapes of burma and india. most specifically burma. that the present bandits landlords of the countries mountain lands are dominated by karens tribal rebels who actually support their existence with poppy production and traffics which actually are encouraged if not promoted by renegades ex kuomintang generals and soldiers who forrayed into the country thrun the frontiers during worid war II. A MUST READ for all who are interested in current situation in SOUTH ASIA!