Burma Campaign 1942-1943
Encyclopedia
The Burma Campaign in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II
took place over four years from 1942 to 1945. During the first year of the campaign, the Imperial Japanese Army
(with aid from Thai
forces and Burmese insurgents
) had driven British forces
and Chinese forces
out of Burma, and occupied the country. From May to December, 1942, active campaigning ceased, as the monsoon
rains made tactical movement almost impossible in the forested and mountainous border between India and Burma, and both the Allies and Japanese faced severe logistical constraints.
When the rains ceased, the Allies launched two offensives. One, an attack in the coastal Arakan
province, failed, with severe effects on Allied morale. This was restored partly by improvements to administration and training, and partly by the much-publicised results of a raid by troops under Brigadier Orde Wingate. This raid may also have goaded Japanese commanders into launching major offensives the following year, which failed disastrously.
on the Chindwin River
, while the Allies depended on inadequate rail and river links to Dimapur
in the Brahmaputra River
valley, from where a single road led to the base at Imphal
.
in Britain. British military efforts were instead concentrated on the Middle Eastern theatre, partly in accordance with the declared "Germany First" policy of the United States government under President Franklin Roosevelt. Few resources were allocated to India, and indeed newly raised formations of the British Indian Army
were being trained in desert warfare rather than for jungle warfare, until December 1942, when it was clear that the North African Campaign
was finished to all intents and purposes.
Allied efforts in India were also hampered by the disordered state of Eastern India at the time. In the aftermath of the Allied military disasters in the early months of 1942, there were violent Quit India movement
protests in Bengal and Bihar which required large numbers of British troops to suppress. There was also a disastrous famine in Bengal
which may ultimately have led to 3 million deaths through starvation, disease and exposure. Although the immediate causes were a typhoon which devastated large areas in October 1942 and a premature scorched earth
operation in Eastern Bengal to deny resources to the Japanese in case of invasion, the reserves of food available for relief were reduced by the loss of rice normally imported from Burma and Allied demands for exported rice in other theatres, while the dislocation caused by sporadic Japanese bombing, and corruption and inefficiency in the government of Bengal prevented any proper distribution of aid, or other drastic measures being taken for several months.
, commander of the Japanese Fifteenth Army
, was asked by higher headquarters for his opinion as to whether to resume the offensive after the rains stopped. He in turn consulted the commanders of his forward divisions, who felt that the terrain was too difficult and the logistical problems could not be overcome. Lieutenant General Renya Mutaguchi
, commanding the Japanese 18th Division
, was particularly scathing. Plans for an attack were accordingly dropped.
Within Burma, the Japanese disbanded the Burma Independence Army
, which had grown rapidly during the Japanese invasion of Burma, but was only loosely organised and in some cases was opposed to Japanese control. The Japanese replaced it with the Burma Defence Army, trained by Japanese officers. They also prepared to form a Burmese government, which was eventually established in May 1943, under Ba Maw
. This government had little real power, and the Japanese remained in control of most aspects of Burma's administration. The Burmese economy, already damaged by the earlier fighting, declined further through damage to the transport infrastructure (resulting from the fighting of the previous year and British demolitions) and lack of commercial markets for exported rice and other products.
Lieutenant General Iida made efforts to promote Burma's interests, but he was repeatedly overruled by directives from Tokyo, and was relieved in 1943, partly because he objected to Tokyo's economic policies in Burma.
region of Burma. The Indian "Eastern Army" under British General Noel Irwin
intended to reoccupy the Mayu peninsula and Akyab Island
, which held an important airfield. Beginning on 21 December 1942, the 14th Indian Division
advanced to Donbaik, only a few miles from the end of the peninsula. Here they were halted by a small Japanese force (initially of only two battalions but with heavy artillery support) which occupied nearly impregnable bunkers. Indian and British troops made repeated frontal assaults without armoured support, and were thrown back with heavy casualties.
Japanese reinforcements, amounting to an understrength division, arrived from Central Burma. Crossing rivers and mountain ranges which the Allies had assumed to be impassable, they hit 14th Division's exposed left flank on 3 April 1943 and overran several units. The division's headquarters was replaced by that of 26th Indian Division, which attempted to hold a defensive line south of the town of Buthidaung, and even to surround the Japanese as they pressed their advantage. The exhausted units which the division had inherited were unable to hold this line and were forced to abandon much equipment and fall back almost to the Indian frontier.
Irwin was dismissed, partly as a result of this disaster. He made several disparaging remarks regarding the state of equipment, training and morale of Eastern Army. Although not wholly inaccurate, they were widely resented. Irwin's successor, General George Giffard
, concentrated on restoring the army's administration and morale.
, better known as the Chindits
, infiltrated through the Japanese front lines and marched deep into Burma with the initial aim of cutting the main north-south railway in Burma. The operation (codenamed Operation "Longcloth") had originally been conceived as part of a much larger coordinated offensive, which had to be aborted due to lack of supplies and shipping. Rather than let the Chindits' training be wasted, Wingate nevertheless carried out the operation, even though its original purpose was invalid.
Some 3,000 men entered Burma in seven columns. They caused some damage to the communications of the Japanese in northern Burma, cutting the railway for possibly two weeks. However, they suffered heavy casualties: 818 killed, wounded or missing, 27% of the original force. Those who did return were wracked with disease and quite often in dreadful physical condition. Though the operational results were questioned, both at the time and subsequently, the raid was used to great propaganda effect to prove to British and Indian soldiers that they could live, move and fight as effectively as the Japanese in the jungle, countering the impression created after the battles of early 1942 that the Japanese could not be beaten in such terrain.
It was also said by the Japanese commanders after the war that the Japanese in Burma decided later to take the offensive in 1944, rather than adopt a purely defensive stance, as a direct result of the Chindit operation.
. The Japanese had a shorter and easier supply line from the port of Kalewa
on the Chindwin River
and had the upper hand for most of 1942 and 1943.
V Force
, an irregular force raised by GHQ India in the frontier areas of Burma and India, also patrolled and scouted in the large areas controlled by neither army, but could have no decisive effect on Japanese operations.
government under Chiang Kai-Shek
. When the Japanese had occupied Burma, the supply route via Rangoon
had been cut. The Americans organised an airlift of supplies over the Himalaya mountain range. The route, and the airlift itself, acquired the nickname of The Hump
. There were heavy losses from the natural hazards of the route, and at this stage of the war, the Allied transport aircraft were vulnerable to Japanese fighter aircraft operating from Myitkyina
airfield in northern Burma.
At the insistence of the American Joseph Stilwell
, who was Chief of Staff to Chiang Kai-shek among other appointments, the Allies also began construct the Ledo Road
to link India with China, which was to prove an enormous engineering task. As part of the preparations to drive this road through Japanese-occupied northern and eastern Burma, two divisions of Chinese troops who had retreated into India in 1942 were re-equipped and trained by the Americans at camps in Ramgarh in the upper Brahmaputra valley. Following Wingate's raid and the expansion of his force for the campaigning season of 1943-1944, the Americans also formed the long-range penetration unit which later became known as Merrill's Marauders
and deployed them to Ledo.
The Americans also supplied logistical units (especially construction units and railway operating personnel) which improved and maintained the Allied railway lines and river transport in North Eastern India, in preparation for Allied offensives in 1944.
, was established. The airstrip was improved to become an emergency landing strip for aircraft flying the "Hump" route.
Although the Kachin Levies were directly controlled at first by Eastern Army (and later by Fourteenth Army), they were later transferred to the American Northern Combat Area Command
, to cooperate more closely with the impending American and Chinese advance from Ledo.
in Siam
. Construction began on 22 June 1942 and was completed on 17 October 1943. The project became notorious for the deaths among the labour force (90,000 out of 180,000 conscripted Asian labourers and 16,000 out of 60,000 Allied prisoners of war
).
and Iraq
(where there had been fears of a breakthrough by German forces in North Africa and the Caucasus
until late 1942) and against the Japanese in Burma, and also for internal security in wide areas of India and the administration of the rapidly expanding Indian Army. GHQ India itself was derided as overstaffed and inefficient. The Australian war correspondent Wilfred Burchett
described it as "... an antiquarium of Colonel Blimp
s."
In August 1943, the new Allied South East Asia Command
was created, to take over control and planning of operations against the Japanese in Burma and the Indian Ocean
. In November, Admiral Louis Mountbatten
was appointed as Commander in Chief of the new command. Because the theatre was linked to the American administrative China Burma India Theater
or CBI, and because increasing numbers of American air force units and logistical resources were being dispatched to India, General Stilwell was appointed Deputy Supreme Commander.
Wavell meanwhile became Viceroy of India, and immediately addressed the famine in Bengal, although the crisis was eased only when the Government in Britain was persuaded to ship relief supplies of food to Bengal. He was replaced as Commander in Chief of the Indian Army by General Claude Auchinleck
, who had been relieved as Commander in Chief of the Middle East Command
a year previously. During the Arakan campaign it had been noted that morale among the inadequately trained Indian troops had declined to the point where many desertions had occurred, and even defections to the Indian National Army
. (Similar low morale among British troops manifested itself as apathy and very high rates of malaria
infection.) Auchinleck reinvigorated the Indian Army's headquarters, rear-area and training establishments. Other reforms were made to improve the Indian Army's morale; soldiers' pay was increased, non-commissioned officers and Viceroy's commissioned officer
s were given better training and more responsibility, and efforts were made to counter Indian National Army propaganda.
Eastern Army was also split, into the Fourteenth Army, part of South East Asia Command and responsible for the conduct of operations in Manipur and the Arakan, and Eastern Command, which reported to GHQ India and was responsible for rear-area security and the lines of communication.
was the army's Commander. The army took the Fifteenth Army under command in the north and east of the country, and for the moment, directly controlled units in the south and west of the country. (Twenty-Eighth Army
was created to assume this responsibility on 6 January 1944.)
In August, Lieutenant General Iida was replaced as commander of Fifteenth Army by Lieutenant General Mutaguchi, former commander of the 18th Division. From the moment he took charge, Mutaguchi forcefully advocated a bold offensive into India for the following year, in contrast to his earlier dismissal of the chances of such an attack succeeding. The offensive plan, codenamed U-Go
, was endorsed by Imperial General Headquarters
and was launched the following year.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
took place over four years from 1942 to 1945. During the first year of the campaign, the Imperial Japanese Army
Imperial Japanese Army
-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...
(with aid from Thai
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
forces and Burmese insurgents
Japanese occupation of Burma
The Japanese occupation of Burma refers to the period between 1942 and 1945 during World War II, when Burma was a part of the Empire of Japan. The Japanese had assisted formation of the Burma Independence Army, and trained the Thirty Comrades, who were the founders of the modern Armed Forces...
) had driven British forces
British Armed Forces
The British Armed Forces are the armed forces of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.Also known as Her Majesty's Armed Forces and sometimes legally the Armed Forces of the Crown, the British Armed Forces encompasses three professional uniformed services, the Royal Navy, the...
and Chinese forces
National Revolutionary Army
The National Revolutionary Army , pre-1928 sometimes shortened to 革命軍 or Revolutionary Army and between 1928-1947 as 國軍 or National Army was the Military Arm of the Kuomintang from 1925 until 1947, as well as the national army of the Republic of China during the KMT's period of party rule...
out of Burma, and occupied the country. From May to December, 1942, active campaigning ceased, as the monsoon
Monsoon
Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...
rains made tactical movement almost impossible in the forested and mountainous border between India and Burma, and both the Allies and Japanese faced severe logistical constraints.
When the rains ceased, the Allies launched two offensives. One, an attack in the coastal Arakan
Rakhine State
Rakhine State is a Burmese state. Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State in the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady Region in the east, the Bay of Bengal to the west, and the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh to the northwest. It is located approximately between...
province, failed, with severe effects on Allied morale. This was restored partly by improvements to administration and training, and partly by the much-publicised results of a raid by troops under Brigadier Orde Wingate. This raid may also have goaded Japanese commanders into launching major offensives the following year, which failed disastrously.
India and Burma, May - December 1942
A total of about 450,000 Allied troops faced 300,000 Japanese. However, both Allied and Japanese operations were constrained by terrain and logistics. The frontier region between Burma and India was for the most part almost impassable country, with very few practicable routes through the jungle-clad hills. The Japanese could make use of rail and river transport only as far as the port of KalewaKalewa
Tahan is a town at the confluence of the Chindwin River and the Myittha River in Kale District, Sagaing Division of northwestern Burma...
on the Chindwin River
Chindwin River
The Chindwin River is a river in Burma , and the largest tributary of the country's chief river the Ayeyarwady . It flows entirely within Burma and is known as Ning-thi to the Manipuris.-Source:...
, while the Allies depended on inadequate rail and river links to Dimapur
Dimapur
Dimapur in Nagaland is bounded by Kohima district on the south and east, Karbi Anglong district of Assam on the West, the Karbi Anglong and stretch of Golaghat District of Assam, in the west and the north...
in the Brahmaputra River
Brahmaputra River
The Brahmaputra , also called Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, is a trans-boundary river and one of the major rivers of Asia. It is the only Indian river that is attributed the masculine gender and thus referred to as a in Indo-Aryan languages and languages with Indo-Aryan influence...
valley, from where a single road led to the base at Imphal
Imphal
Imphal is the capital of the Indian state of Manipur.In the heart of the town and surrounded by a moat, are ruins of the old Palace of Kangla. Kangla Fort used to be the home of the Assam Rifles, a paramilitary force and on November 2004 it was handed over to state of Manipur by Prime minister Dr....
.
Allies
The Far Eastern theatre was accorded the lowest priority by the Chiefs of Staff CommitteeChiefs of Staff Committee
The Chiefs of Staff Committee is composed of the most senior military personnel in the British Armed Forces.-History:The Chiefs of Staff Committee was initially established as a sub-committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence in 1923. It remained as such until the abolition of the CID upon the...
in Britain. British military efforts were instead concentrated on the Middle Eastern theatre, partly in accordance with the declared "Germany First" policy of the United States government under President Franklin Roosevelt. Few resources were allocated to India, and indeed newly raised formations of the British Indian Army
British Indian Army
The British Indian Army, officially simply the Indian Army, was the principal army of the British Raj in India before the partition of India in 1947...
were being trained in desert warfare rather than for jungle warfare, until December 1942, when it was clear that the North African Campaign
North African campaign
During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia .The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had...
was finished to all intents and purposes.
Allied efforts in India were also hampered by the disordered state of Eastern India at the time. In the aftermath of the Allied military disasters in the early months of 1942, there were violent Quit India movement
Quit India Movement
The Quit India Movement , or the August Movement was a civil disobedience movement launched in India in August 1942 in response to Mohandas Gandhi's call for immediate independence. Gandhi hoped to bring the British government to the negotiating table...
protests in Bengal and Bihar which required large numbers of British troops to suppress. There was also a disastrous famine in Bengal
Bengal famine of 1943
The Bengal famine of 1943 struck the Bengal. Province of pre-partition India. Estimates are that between 1.5 and 4 million people died of starvation, malnutrition and disease, out of Bengal’s 60.3 million population, half of them dying from disease after food became available in December 1943 As...
which may ultimately have led to 3 million deaths through starvation, disease and exposure. Although the immediate causes were a typhoon which devastated large areas in October 1942 and a premature scorched earth
Scorched earth
A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area...
operation in Eastern Bengal to deny resources to the Japanese in case of invasion, the reserves of food available for relief were reduced by the loss of rice normally imported from Burma and Allied demands for exported rice in other theatres, while the dislocation caused by sporadic Japanese bombing, and corruption and inefficiency in the government of Bengal prevented any proper distribution of aid, or other drastic measures being taken for several months.
Japanese
The Japanese were consolidating their position in Burma. Lieutenant General Shojiro IidaShojiro Iida
- Notes :...
, commander of the Japanese Fifteenth Army
Fifteenth Army (Japan)
The was an army of the Imperial Japanese Army during the World War II.-History:The Japanese 15th Army was formed on November 9. 1941 as a component of the Southern Expeditionary Army Group for the specific task of invading the British colony of Burma....
, was asked by higher headquarters for his opinion as to whether to resume the offensive after the rains stopped. He in turn consulted the commanders of his forward divisions, who felt that the terrain was too difficult and the logistical problems could not be overcome. Lieutenant General Renya Mutaguchi
Renya Mutaguchi
- Notes :...
, commanding the Japanese 18th Division
18th Division (Imperial Japanese Army)
was an infantry division in the Imperial Japanese Army. Its call sign was the .-History:The 18th Division was formed in Kurume, Kyūshū on 13 November 1907, together with the 17th Division, as part of the post Russo-Japanese War expansion of the standing Japanese military...
, was particularly scathing. Plans for an attack were accordingly dropped.
Within Burma, the Japanese disbanded the Burma Independence Army
Burma National Army
The Burma National Army served as the armed forces of the Burmese government created by the Japanese during World War II and fought in the Burma Campaign...
, which had grown rapidly during the Japanese invasion of Burma, but was only loosely organised and in some cases was opposed to Japanese control. The Japanese replaced it with the Burma Defence Army, trained by Japanese officers. They also prepared to form a Burmese government, which was eventually established in May 1943, under Ba Maw
Ba Maw
Dr. Ba Maw was a Burmese political leader, active during the interwar and World War II period.-Early life and education:Ba Maw was born in Maubin. Ba Maw came from a distinguished family of mixed Mon-Burmese parentage which bred many scholars and lawyers...
. This government had little real power, and the Japanese remained in control of most aspects of Burma's administration. The Burmese economy, already damaged by the earlier fighting, declined further through damage to the transport infrastructure (resulting from the fighting of the previous year and British demolitions) and lack of commercial markets for exported rice and other products.
Lieutenant General Iida made efforts to promote Burma's interests, but he was repeatedly overruled by directives from Tokyo, and was relieved in 1943, partly because he objected to Tokyo's economic policies in Burma.
First Arakan campaign
In spite of their difficulties, the Allies mounted two operations during the 1942-1943 dry season. The first was a small scale offensive into the coastal ArakanRakhine State
Rakhine State is a Burmese state. Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State in the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady Region in the east, the Bay of Bengal to the west, and the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh to the northwest. It is located approximately between...
region of Burma. The Indian "Eastern Army" under British General Noel Irwin
Noel Irwin
Lieutenant General Noel Mackintosh Stuart Irwin CB, DSO & Two Bars, MC was a British soldier, who played a prominent role in the British Army after the Dunkirk evacuation, and in the Burma Campaign...
intended to reoccupy the Mayu peninsula and Akyab Island
Sittwe
-Economy:In February 2007, India announced a plan to develop the port, which would enable ocean access from Indian Northeastern states, so called "Seven sisters", like Mizoram, via the Kaladan River....
, which held an important airfield. Beginning on 21 December 1942, the 14th Indian Division
14th Indian Infantry Division
For the World War I formation see 14th Indian DivisionThe Indian 14th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the Indian Army during World War II...
advanced to Donbaik, only a few miles from the end of the peninsula. Here they were halted by a small Japanese force (initially of only two battalions but with heavy artillery support) which occupied nearly impregnable bunkers. Indian and British troops made repeated frontal assaults without armoured support, and were thrown back with heavy casualties.
Japanese reinforcements, amounting to an understrength division, arrived from Central Burma. Crossing rivers and mountain ranges which the Allies had assumed to be impassable, they hit 14th Division's exposed left flank on 3 April 1943 and overran several units. The division's headquarters was replaced by that of 26th Indian Division, which attempted to hold a defensive line south of the town of Buthidaung, and even to surround the Japanese as they pressed their advantage. The exhausted units which the division had inherited were unable to hold this line and were forced to abandon much equipment and fall back almost to the Indian frontier.
Irwin was dismissed, partly as a result of this disaster. He made several disparaging remarks regarding the state of equipment, training and morale of Eastern Army. Although not wholly inaccurate, they were widely resented. Irwin's successor, General George Giffard
George Giffard
General Sir George Giffard GCB DSO was a British military officer, who had a distinguished career in command of African troops in World War I, rising to command an Army Group in South East Asia in World War II.-Early career:...
, concentrated on restoring the army's administration and morale.
First Chindit expedition
The second action was much more controversial. Under the command of Brigadier Orde Wingate, the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade77th Indian Infantry Brigade
The 77th Indian Infantry Brigade was a infantry formation of the Indian Army during World War II. It was formed in India June 1942. The brigade was assigned to the Chindits and organised into eight columns for operations behind enemy lines in Burma...
, better known as the Chindits
Chindits
The Chindits were a British India "Special Force" that served in Burma and India in 1943 and 1944 during the Burma Campaign in World War II. They were formed into long range penetration groups trained to operate deep behind Japanese lines...
, infiltrated through the Japanese front lines and marched deep into Burma with the initial aim of cutting the main north-south railway in Burma. The operation (codenamed Operation "Longcloth") had originally been conceived as part of a much larger coordinated offensive, which had to be aborted due to lack of supplies and shipping. Rather than let the Chindits' training be wasted, Wingate nevertheless carried out the operation, even though its original purpose was invalid.
Some 3,000 men entered Burma in seven columns. They caused some damage to the communications of the Japanese in northern Burma, cutting the railway for possibly two weeks. However, they suffered heavy casualties: 818 killed, wounded or missing, 27% of the original force. Those who did return were wracked with disease and quite often in dreadful physical condition. Though the operational results were questioned, both at the time and subsequently, the raid was used to great propaganda effect to prove to British and Indian soldiers that they could live, move and fight as effectively as the Japanese in the jungle, countering the impression created after the battles of early 1942 that the Japanese could not be beaten in such terrain.
It was also said by the Japanese commanders after the war that the Japanese in Burma decided later to take the offensive in 1944, rather than adopt a purely defensive stance, as a direct result of the Chindit operation.
Central Front
There was continual patrol activity and low-key fighting on the frontier south of Imphal, but neither army possessed the resources to mount decisive operations. 17th (Light) Indian Division held positions around the town of Tiddim at the end of a precarious supply line 100 miles (160.9 km) south of Imphal, and skirmished with units of the Japanese 33rd Division33rd Division (Imperial Japanese Army)
was an infantry division in the Imperial Japanese Army. Its call sign was the .-History:The 33rd Division was raised in Utsunomiya, Tochigi prefecture, but its headquarters was in Sendai. It was raised from conscripts largely from the northern Kantō prefecturers of Tochigi, Ibaraki and Gunma...
. The Japanese had a shorter and easier supply line from the port of Kalewa
Kalewa
Tahan is a town at the confluence of the Chindwin River and the Myittha River in Kale District, Sagaing Division of northwestern Burma...
on the Chindwin River
Chindwin River
The Chindwin River is a river in Burma , and the largest tributary of the country's chief river the Ayeyarwady . It flows entirely within Burma and is known as Ning-thi to the Manipuris.-Source:...
and had the upper hand for most of 1942 and 1943.
V Force
V Force
V Force was a reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering organisation established by the British during the Burma Campaign in World War II.-Establishment and organisation:...
, an irregular force raised by GHQ India in the frontier areas of Burma and India, also patrolled and scouted in the large areas controlled by neither army, but could have no decisive effect on Japanese operations.
Burma Road and the "Hump"
At American insistence, one of the overriding Allied strategic aims was the maintenance of supplies to the Nationalist ChineseHistory of the Republic of China
The History of the Republic of China begins after the Qing Dynasty in 1912, when the formation of the Republic of China put an end to over two thousand years of Imperial rule. The Qing Dynasty, also known as the Manchu Dynasty, ruled from 1644 to 1912...
government under Chiang Kai-Shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
. When the Japanese had occupied Burma, the supply route via Rangoon
Yangon
Yangon is a former capital of Burma and the capital of Yangon Region . Although the military government has officially relocated the capital to Naypyidaw since March 2006, Yangon, with a population of over four million, continues to be the country's largest city and the most important commercial...
had been cut. The Americans organised an airlift of supplies over the Himalaya mountain range. The route, and the airlift itself, acquired the nickname of The Hump
The Hump
The Hump was the name given by Allied pilots in the Second World War to the eastern end of the Himalayan Mountains over which they flew military transport aircraft from India to China to resupply the Chinese war effort of Chiang Kai-shek and the units of the United States Army Air Forces based in...
. There were heavy losses from the natural hazards of the route, and at this stage of the war, the Allied transport aircraft were vulnerable to Japanese fighter aircraft operating from Myitkyina
Myitkyina
Myitkyina is the capital city of Kachin State in Myanmar , located from Yangon, and from Mandalay. In Burmese it means "near the big river", and in fact "Myitkyina" lies on the west bank of the Ayeyarwady River, just below from Myit-son of its two headstreams...
airfield in northern Burma.
At the insistence of the American Joseph Stilwell
Joseph Stilwell
General Joseph Warren Stilwell was a United States Army four-star General known for service in the China Burma India Theater. His caustic personality was reflected in the nickname "Vinegar Joe"...
, who was Chief of Staff to Chiang Kai-shek among other appointments, the Allies also began construct the Ledo Road
Ledo Road
The Ledo Road was built during World War II so that the Western Allies could supply the Chinese as an alternative to the Burma Road which had been cut by the Japanese in 1942. It was renamed the Stilwell Road in early 1945 at the suggestion of Chiang Kai-shek...
to link India with China, which was to prove an enormous engineering task. As part of the preparations to drive this road through Japanese-occupied northern and eastern Burma, two divisions of Chinese troops who had retreated into India in 1942 were re-equipped and trained by the Americans at camps in Ramgarh in the upper Brahmaputra valley. Following Wingate's raid and the expansion of his force for the campaigning season of 1943-1944, the Americans also formed the long-range penetration unit which later became known as Merrill's Marauders
Merrill's Marauders
Merrill’s Marauders or Unit Galahad, officially named the 5307th Composite Unit , was a United States Army long range penetration special operations unit in the South-East Asian Theater of World War II which fought in the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations, or CBI...
and deployed them to Ledo.
The Americans also supplied logistical units (especially construction units and railway operating personnel) which improved and maintained the Allied railway lines and river transport in North Eastern India, in preparation for Allied offensives in 1944.
Fort Hertz
In mid 1942, a small reconnaissance party was parachuted into the Myitkyina area, to investigate Myitkyina and the outpost at Fort Hertz in the far north of Burma, which had been cut off from India. Fort Hertz was found to be still in Allied hands. Liaison and engineering parties were flown or parachuted into Fort Hertz, and a locally-raised irregular force, the Kachin LeviesKachin Levies
The Northern Kachin Levies were a British special force created in World War II in Burma. The Levies were made up of members of the Kachin people under the command of British officers and they fought the Japanese in the jungle of north Burma....
, was established. The airstrip was improved to become an emergency landing strip for aircraft flying the "Hump" route.
Although the Kachin Levies were directly controlled at first by Eastern Army (and later by Fourteenth Army), they were later transferred to the American Northern Combat Area Command
Northern Combat Area Command
The Northern Combat Area Command or NCAC was a mainly Sino-American formation that held the northern end of the Allied front in Burma during World War II. For much of its existence it was commanded by the acerbic General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, and controlled by his staff...
, to cooperate more closely with the impending American and Chinese advance from Ledo.
Burma Railway
Like the Allies, the Japanese sought to improve their lines of communication within South East Asia. To this end, they constructed the Burma Railway which linked Moulmein in Southern Burma with BangkokBangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
in Siam
History of Thailand
Tai peoples who originally lived in southwestern China, migrated into mainland Southeast Asia over a period of many centuries. The oldest known mention of their existence in the region by the exonym Siamese is in a twelfth-century A.D. inscription at the Khmer temple complex of Angkor Wat in...
. Construction began on 22 June 1942 and was completed on 17 October 1943. The project became notorious for the deaths among the labour force (90,000 out of 180,000 conscripted Asian labourers and 16,000 out of 60,000 Allied prisoners of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
).
Allied Command Changes
The Allies regarded the command structure in India as inefficient. GHQ India (commanded by General Archibald Wavell) was responsible for operations in PersiaIran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
(where there had been fears of a breakthrough by German forces in North Africa and the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
until late 1942) and against the Japanese in Burma, and also for internal security in wide areas of India and the administration of the rapidly expanding Indian Army. GHQ India itself was derided as overstaffed and inefficient. The Australian war correspondent Wilfred Burchett
Wilfred Burchett
Wilfred Graham Burchett was an Australian journalist known for his reporting of conflicts in Asia and his Communist sympathies...
described it as "... an antiquarium of Colonel Blimp
Colonel Blimp
Colonel Blimp is a British cartoon character.The cartoonist David Low first drew Colonel Blimp for Lord Beaverbrook's London Evening Standard in the 1930s: pompous, irascible, jingoistic and stereotypically British...
s."
In August 1943, the new Allied South East Asia Command
South East Asia Command
South East Asia Command was the body set up to be in overall charge of Allied operations in the South-East Asian Theatre during World War II.-Background:...
was created, to take over control and planning of operations against the Japanese in Burma and the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
. In November, Admiral Louis Mountbatten
Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma
Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas George Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC, FRS , was a British statesman and naval officer, and an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
was appointed as Commander in Chief of the new command. Because the theatre was linked to the American administrative China Burma India Theater
China Burma India Theater of World War II
China Burma India Theater was the name used by the United States Army for its forces operating in conjunction with British and Chinese Allied air and land forces in China, Burma, and India during World War II...
or CBI, and because increasing numbers of American air force units and logistical resources were being dispatched to India, General Stilwell was appointed Deputy Supreme Commander.
Wavell meanwhile became Viceroy of India, and immediately addressed the famine in Bengal, although the crisis was eased only when the Government in Britain was persuaded to ship relief supplies of food to Bengal. He was replaced as Commander in Chief of the Indian Army by General Claude Auchinleck
Claude Auchinleck
Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck, GCB, GCIE, CSI, DSO, OBE , nicknamed "The Auk", was a British army commander during World War II. He was a career soldier who spent much of his military career in India, where he developed a love of the country and a lasting affinity for the soldiers...
, who had been relieved as Commander in Chief of the Middle East Command
Middle East Command
The Middle East Command was a British Army Command established prior to the Second World War in Egypt. Its primary role was to command British land forces and co-ordinate with the relevant naval and air commands to defend British interests in the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean region.The...
a year previously. During the Arakan campaign it had been noted that morale among the inadequately trained Indian troops had declined to the point where many desertions had occurred, and even defections to the Indian National Army
Indian National Army
The Indian National Army or Azad Hind Fauj was an armed force formed by Indian nationalists in 1942 in Southeast Asia during World War II. The aim of the army was to overthrow the British Raj in colonial India, with Japanese assistance...
. (Similar low morale among British troops manifested itself as apathy and very high rates of malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
infection.) Auchinleck reinvigorated the Indian Army's headquarters, rear-area and training establishments. Other reforms were made to improve the Indian Army's morale; soldiers' pay was increased, non-commissioned officers and Viceroy's commissioned officer
Viceroy's Commissioned Officer
A viceroy's commissioned officer was a senior Indian member of the British Indian Army. VCOs were senior in rank to warrant officers in the British Army, and held a commission issued by the viceroy...
s were given better training and more responsibility, and efforts were made to counter Indian National Army propaganda.
Eastern Army was also split, into the Fourteenth Army, part of South East Asia Command and responsible for the conduct of operations in Manipur and the Arakan, and Eastern Command, which reported to GHQ India and was responsible for rear-area security and the lines of communication.
Japanese command changes and plans
In March 1943, the Japanese created a new army-level headquarters, Burma Area Army, to control operations in Burma. Lieutenant General Masakazu KawabeMasakazu Kawabe
was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army. He held important commands in the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and during World War II in the Burma Campaign and defense of the Japanese homeland late in the war...
was the army's Commander. The army took the Fifteenth Army under command in the north and east of the country, and for the moment, directly controlled units in the south and west of the country. (Twenty-Eighth Army
Twenty-Eighth Army (Japan)
The was an army of the Imperial Japanese Army during the final days of World War II.-History:The Japanese Twenty-Eighth Army was raised on 6 January, 1944 in Rangoon in Japanese-occupied Burma as a garrison force and in anticipation of Allied attempts to invade and retake southern Burma...
was created to assume this responsibility on 6 January 1944.)
In August, Lieutenant General Iida was replaced as commander of Fifteenth Army by Lieutenant General Mutaguchi, former commander of the 18th Division. From the moment he took charge, Mutaguchi forcefully advocated a bold offensive into India for the following year, in contrast to his earlier dismissal of the chances of such an attack succeeding. The offensive plan, codenamed U-Go
Operation U-Go
The U Go offensive, or Operation C , was the Japanese offensive launched in March 1944 against forces of the British Empire in the North-East Indian region of Manipur...
, was endorsed by Imperial General Headquarters
Imperial General Headquarters
The as part of the Supreme War Council was established in 1893 to coordinate efforts between the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy during wartime...
and was launched the following year.