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After the retreat from Burma in 1942, Lieutenant General Sir William Slim, commander of the British XIV Army, played a crucial role in the remarkable military renaissance that transformed the Indian Army and then, with that reborn army, won two defensive battles in 1944, and in the 1945 campaign shredded his Japanese opponents. Behind this dramatic story was another: the war marked the effective end of the Raj. This great transformation was, of course, brought about by many factors but not the least of them was the 'Indianization' of the Indian Army's officer corps under the pressure of war. As Slim's great victory signposted the change from the army Kipling knew to a modern army with a growing number of Indian officers, the praetorian guard of the Raj evaporated. 'Every Indian officer worth his salt is a nationalist,' the Indian Army's commander-in-chief, Claude Auchinleck, said as the XIV Army took Rangoon.
The Burma campaign may not have contributed in a major fashion to the final defeat of Japan, but it was of first-rate importance in the transformation of South Asia, as well as underlining the continuing importance of inspired leadership in complex human endeavors.
Reviews
"There is a stage in every topic when it becomes possible to produce a study that will be 'the' book everyone interested in the matter should read. That time has come, and The 1945 Burma Campaign and the Transformation of the British Indian Army is 'the' book. Callahan and Marston explain how and why the liberation of Burma in 1945 was the peak of military excellence for Allied combined-arms campaigns during the Second World War." - Brian P. Farrell, professor of history, National University of Singapore, and author of The Defence and Fall of Singapore
Pages | 288 |
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Dimensions | 229 x 152 |
Date Published | 28 Feb 2021 |
Publisher | University Press of Kansas |
Subject/s | Asian history   Second World War   Land forces & warfare   Battles & campaigns   |
Daniel Marston is senior research professor and the director of the Secretary of Defense Strategic Thinkers Program, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University and author of The Indian Army and the End of the Raj.