Burma ’44: The Battle That Turned World War II in the East

Allied soldiers are sorely tested over 18 days of vicious and pivotal fighting in this kinetic account from historian Holland (The Savage Storm). In early 1944, General Bill Slim’s Fourteenth Army was tasked with pushing Japanese forces out of northwest Burma after multiple attacks originating from the remote region. Slim’s British, Indian, and West African forces, creeping forward along barely penetrable jungle passes, were ordered to “hold on at all costs.” (It was a matter of honor, Holland suggests; there could be “no running” from “an enemy that British forces had never decisively beaten.”) Soon surrounded in a boggy, bug-infested jungle, the soldiers fell victim to disease and surprise attacks. (In one incident, “the Japanese... bayoneted men in their beds”; in another, radio and typewriter operators fended off an ambush.) Eventually, the Allies’ superior firepower took its toll—entire hills were defoliated to eliminate enemy combatants, finally proving there was “a way to win” in Southeast Asia’s jungles. With a keen eye for detail, Holland highlights how the undaunted performance of routine maintenance, like that of repair crews who kept military vehicles running, set the stage for victory. It makes for a propulsive tale of resourceful protagonists triumphing over terrible odds. (June)