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The Burma Road: The Epic Story of the China-Burma-India Theater in World War II Hardcover – October 13, 2003

by Donovan Webster (Author)

92 customer reviews

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The harrowing story of one of the greatest chapters of World War II---the building and defense of the Burma Road

The Burma Road tells the extraordinary story of the China-Burma-India theater of operations during World War II. As the Imperial Japanese Army swept across China and South Asia at the war's outset--closing all of China's seaports--more than 200,000 Chinese laborers embarked on a seemingly impossible task: to cut a seven-hundred-mile overland route--which would be called the Burma Road--from the southwest Chinese city of Kunming to Lashio, Burma. But with the fall of Burma in early 1942, the Burma Road was severed, and it became the task of the newly arrived American General Stilwell to re-open it, while, at the same time, keeping China supplied by air-lift from India and simultaneously driving the Japanese out of Burma as the first step of the Allied offensive toward Japan.
In gripping prose, Donovan Webster follows the breathtaking adventures of the American "Hump" pilots who flew hair-raising missions over the Himalayas to make food-drops in China; tells the true story of the mission that inspired the famous film The Bridge on the River Kwai; and recounts the grueling jungle operations of Merrill's Marauders and the British Chindit Brigades. Interspersed with vivid portraits of the American General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, the exceedingly eccentric British General Orde Wingate, and the mercurial Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, The Burma Road vividly re-creates the sprawling, sometimes hilarious, often harrowing, and still largely unknown stories of one of the greatest chapters of World War II.

The Burma Road: The Epic Story of the China-Burma-India Theater in World War II

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Editorial Reviews

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Mountainous and malarial, northern Burma is terrible terrain for war, but the Allies resolved to fight there to keep China in World War II. The effort's executant, American general Joseph Stilwell, occupies center stage of Webster's chronicle, which benefits from the author's visits to battle sites and remnants of a supply road. Applying concrete visualization of the mud, leeches, and heat of tropical combat, Webster renders the misery experienced by soldiers on both Japanese and Allied sides, blending them with the tactical details of the war's ebb and flood in Burma. These flow into Webster's accounts of Merrill's Marauders, Wingate's Chindits, Chennault's Flying Tigers, and other such colorful objects of Eric Sevareid's and Theodore White's reportage, all under Stilwell's nominal control, as was, on paper but infrequently in fact, the military of Chiang Kai-shek. Stilwell's headaches running such a sprawling theater, while previously researched by Barbara Tuchman (Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45, 1970), are ably integrated by Webster into the infantryman's viewpoint: the result is a high-quality overview. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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"In World War II, Japan sealed parts of China. Nothing could get in or out. Disaster loomed. In The Burma Road—a gripping recounting of those dark days—Donovan Webster tells us the harrowing and heroic story of how China survived."
–James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers

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Product details

Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (October 13, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0374117403
ISBN-13: 978-0374117405
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 92 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,154,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1275 in Books > History > Asia > Southeast Asia
- #1302 in Books > History > Asia > India
- #1708 in Books > History > Asia > Japan

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Probably better because we was a master at getting the most ...

Bywoodwackeron April 24, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Well worth reading. This campaign was not nearly so important as the Guadalcanal invasion, but was equally trying of human endurance. There is much to ponder here about Stillwell, who was an interesting figure. I wonder how he would have done against the Germans instead of Patton. Probably better because we was a master at getting the most affect from the fewest resources. The many excellent maps are especially nice.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

How did we win the war?

ByHappy Readeron February 16, 2012

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This is a wonderful book for people interested in World War II history. It gives detailed information about our involvement in the CBI, the China Burma India Theater of war where we were attempting to help the Chinese repel Japanese invaders. General Joseph Stilwell was given a job to do but not the authority he needed. He was aware of the corruption in the Chinese government and did what he could to combat it. However, he also had to cope with the English Lord Louis Mountbatten, a real prima donna. Chiang Kai Shek, the Chinese leader and general, had General Stilwell recalled and relieved of his command. He had the power to do this because we were afraid he would make a seperate peace with the Japanese and we would then be at war with China as well as the Japanese. The U.S. and allies did not rank the CBI as high as they did the war in the Pacific and Europe so that General Stilwell was always short of supplies and much needed troops. He did a magnificient job with what he had and in spite of the Chinese he was attempting to rescue from the Japanese. With all of the infighting among top military brass, it is amazing that the Allies won the war. This is basically a history of our American General Joseph Stilwell and his tour of duty in the CBI. He was a soldier's soldier and admired and respected by the troops who called him "Vinegar Joe." I don't know if a movie was ever made of the CBI and General Stilwell. A fascinating British officer was Lt. General Orde Wingate who headed a Special Forces group called Chindits who operated behind Japanese lines. General Wingate died in a plane crash in Burma in 1944. The plane was American and the 9 crew members, all American, also died. They were originally buried on the mountain in Burma but in 1950 all the remains, including those of General Wingate, were interred in our Arlington National Cemetery in a common grave, Section 12, No. 288. His life, and that of General Stilwell, would make a fascinating movie but I don't know who could portray them. It would require a John Wayne type and Hollywood today does not seem to have that super masculine actor.

0Comment 4 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

They Also Served-and Fought

ByMcgivern Owen Lon May 15, 2008

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

"The Burma Road" is about the Allied campaign in the China-Burma-India theatre during WW2. The main character is General Joseph (Vinegar Joe) Stillwell, the area commander. BR is quite well researched and gives a solid account of brutal jungle fighting and the battle just to survive the harsh South Asian environment. The Japanese side of the conflict is notably included. They suffered too. This reviewer was disheartened to read that wounded men unable to march and fight were simply abandoned in the boonies. For their part, the Japanese executed wounded comrades to preclude their becoming POWs. One fact which becomes starkly evident is how starkly overextended Japan became. Why on earth did that nation even invade Burma and India? What strategic advantage could she have gained? If author Webster explained that, this reader missed it. There are two weak points to BR: 1) The MAPS are inadequate. They are not well placed and many towns mentioned in the text don't appear on the maps. For that matter, many locations also did not appear in the World Atlas this reader used to follow the action. That Atlas seems essential to most military tales. Publishers routinely skimp on space for maps. 2) The "Road" is not essential to the story. There was a Burma Road but the fighting took place in jungle-far from any solid surface. A most interesting aspect of BR is the swirl of the personalities surrounding Stillwell in the CBI theatre. We meet Brits LTG Orde Wingate and Vice Admiral Louis Mountbatten. The Americans include Major Frank Merrill ("Merrill's Marauders") and MG Claire Chennault, CO of the Flying Tigers. Stillwell's main bete noire was Chinese leader Chaing Kai-Shek (aka "The Peanut"). With friends like these, one wonders how we won the War. The bottom line is that "The Burma Road" is a solid and easily recommended military history. The CBI theatre is hardly an over-reported. The all too common shortfall of those maps calls for a reduction in rank to 4 stars. When will publishers learn to print a few more pages to place a geographical face on the action?

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Nice

ByDave B.on November 25, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is a very good book. Enjoyed reading this book before I traveled to China and went to the Stillwell museum. I'm glad I did. Gave me a lot of knowledge about the CBI theater before going to Chongqing.

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Building the Ledo Road in Burma, A Critical aspect of WWII

ByCelestine Arndton March 26, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is the most comprehensive, detailed account of a critical mission during WWII that rarely gets mention. The construction of the Ledo Road in Burma and the pipeline beside it that provided the Chinese army and our aircraft with their gas and oil needs was not only incredibly challenging given the terrain and climate, but the men who worked on these two extraordinary engineering feats were under constant Japanese attack. My father worked on the pipeline for a number of years but he never spoke about that part of his life. Since he died in 1964, I am now trying to find information about this aspect of the war, and this book has been invaluable!

I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in WWII or who wants to read a book on human ingenuity, fortitude and stamina- an amazing story.

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Love listening to the stories when she tells them

ByNancy Smithon September 5, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

She is reading book now. My mom 96 years old, WWII veteran and volunteer, station in India, Army nurses corp She was a Captain and new Claire Lee Chennault, Gregory "Pappy" Boyington and other pilots with the Flying Tirgers. Love listening to the stories when she tells them.