Robert Lyman

This is a detailed account of the long campaigns fought in 1941-1945 for the possession of Burma, modern Myanmar. On the one side, the Japanese Imperial Army, and a small number of Indians and Burmese who sided with them. On the other side, soldiers from India, China, Britain, the USA, West-Africa, and Burma. Robert Lyman strongly argues for the predominance of the Indian Army in this war. British officers remained in charge at the top, but most soldiers and a growing number of officers were now a truly Indian force, forging a national identity in their struggle against the Japanese offensives.

At the level of politics, grand strategy and the events in the wider context, Lyman appears to want to limit himself to the minimum necessary to provide context to the events in Burma. He leaves a lot of cans of worms unopened, mentioning events such as the Bengal famine mostly in passing. This may have the effect, intended or not, of white-washing British colonial policy, even if he concedes that the actions of a number of individuals were wrong.

At the operational level, Lyman highlights a contrast between the Allied and the Japanese forces in ability to learn and evolve. The former, thanks to more competent leadership and greater resources, were able to greatly improve their fighting ability. They trained their troop for jungle warfare, brought in additional armour and artillery, developed combined arms tactics between the land and air forces, boosted their logistics and mobility by adding air transport, and experimented with deep penetration tactics. The Japanese army was not able to evolve its ability in a similar way, so that they demonstrated excellent tactical skills in 1942 but found themselves outclassed by 1945.

Tactically, this is a very detailed account of a conflict fought over some of the most difficult campaigning terrain in the world, and Lyman’s account is very positional, pre-occupied with the movement of troops and strategic positions. This can be very confusing when many of the place names are not to be found on the (otherwise very clear) maps in the book. Some sections were so difficult to keep track of, that I gave up on trying to figure out the geography.

Otherwise, this is a very informative work, highlighting a part of WWII that has been largely ignored by the general public but remains surprisingly controversial among those who do remember it. Lyman’s perspective is probably only one of many. But it is a study that has been carefully built to connect the fighting and suffering on the ground with the wider strategy and the political evolutions in the region, and that deserves respect.… (more)