Burma Road: The Epic Story Of One Of World War II's Most Remarkable Endeavours
In the tradition of Band of Brothers and Anthony Beevor's Stalingrad, Donovan Webster's The Burma Road vividly recreates one of the astonishing and important events of the Second World War - and the basis for the film The Bridge over the River Kwai. With gripping prose, Webster follows the breathtaking adventures of the Allied 'Hump' pilots who flew hair-raising missions over the Himalayas delivering food and supplies to the 200,000 Chinese labourers charged with creating an overland link with the outside world.
For the first time, we learn of the war in Burma from the perspective of the soldiers who fought and died there - the bravery, hardships and fears that motivated them to risk everything to avoid a full Japanese occupancy of China. Touching, moving and riveting, Webster's account of this gruelling and arduous campaign is a brilliant and important history, as well as an epic adventure story.
In 1941, as the Imperial Japanese Army swept across Asia and the Pacific, no country seemed able to defend itself against its rapid and brutal aggression. China in particular was the target of increasing Japanese invasion and occupation until it no longer had any active seaports under its control. To give themselves an artery to trade with the outside world, more than 200,000 Chinese laboureres cut a 700 mile overland route - the Burma Road - from the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming to Lashio, Burma, in less than a year.
Lashio was connected by rail to the Burmese port of Rangoon, and through this tenuous system of conveyances the Chinese people were kept briefly supplied with goods from the outside world. But when Burma fell to Japan in early 1942, the Burma Road was severed. largely unknown stories of the war in Burma from the perspective of the soldiers who fought and sometimes died there, and whose recollections bring a largely forgotten chapter of World War II into focus.
Author | Donovan Webster |
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Publisher | Macmillan |
Place | London |
Year | 2004 |
ISBN | 9781405041461 |
Binding | Hardcover |
Condition | Very Good |
Dustjacket Condition | Very Good |
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