"A general who has taken part in a campaign is by no means best fitted to write its history. Thatr if it is to be complete and unbiassed, should be the work of someone less personally involved. Yet such a general might write something of value. He might, as honestly as he could, tell of the problems he faced, why he took the decisions he did, what helped, what hindered, the luck he had, and the mistakes he made. He might, by showing how one man attempted the art of command, be of use to those who later may themselves have to exercise it. He might even give, to those who have not experienced it, some impression of what it feels like to shoulder a commander's responsibilities in war. These things I have tried to do in this book."

The vast crescent of British-ruled territories from India down to Singapore appeared in the early stages of the Second World War a massive asset in the war with Germany, providing huge quantities of soldiers and raw materials and key part of an impregnable global network denied to the Nazis. Within a few weeks in 1941-2 a Japanese invasion had destroyed all this, almost effortlessly taking the 'impregnable fortress' of Singapore with its 80,000 strong garrison, and sweeping through South and Southeast Asia to the frontier of India itself. This revolutionary, absolutely gripping book brings to life the entire experience of South and Southeast Asia in this extraordinary period, telling the story from an Indian, Burmese, Chinese or Malay perspective as much as from that of the British or Japanese. Effectively it is the story of the birth of modern South and Southeast Asia and the hopes and fears of the dozens of 'forgotten armies' marching through the jungle battlefields, so many dying for causes swept away by the reality that emerged in 1945. Even as the British successfully fought back in the bloodiest battles in South and Southeast Asia's history, there was no going back to colonial rule.

Defeat into Victory

Forgotten Armies: Britain's Asian Empire and the War with Japan

1. A 'happy combination of clemency with firmness'. The small wars prologue 2. The road from Sedan 3. The paroxysms of imperial might in the shadow of the Great War 4. From Tipperary to Tel Aviv: British counterinsurgency in the shadow of World War II 5. From small wars to La Guerre Subversive. The radicalization and collapse of French counterinsurgency 6. Vietnam, counterinsurgency, and the American way of war 7. 'A conspiracy of heroes' - revolution and counterinsurgency in Latin America 8. Building the 'most successful counterinsurgency school' - COIN as the British way of war 9. Britain's thirty years' war in Northern Ireland 10. Vietnam with a happy ending - Iraq and 'The Surge' 11. Conclusion Bibliography.

Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War

: Military historian Williamson Murray has prepared this selected bibliography as a guide to the vast body of military histories and as a reading program that could extend our understanding and comprehension of that terrible, yet intriguing, human phenomenon that is war. JAWP) is making it available to those individuals in DoD and the Services who feel that history can shed light on the problems they confront today. The bibliography is derived from the substantial literature on European and American military history The works were chosen for a variety of reasons: quality of scholarship, point of view subject matter, and readability. They are categorized by period and subject matter, and given a rating by the author. The first chapter contains an annotated list of twenty-five books that Dr. Murray considers essential to the library of a warfighter, scholar, or student of military history.

/pdf/military-history-a-selected-bibliography-r6ncnemii9.pdf

Military History: A Selected Bibliography

Vietnam and the American Theory of Limited War

How are soldiers made? Why do they fight? Re-imagining the study of armed forces and society, Barkawi examines the imperial and multinational armies that fought in Asia in the Second World War, especially the British Indian army in the Burma campaign. Going beyond conventional narratives, Barkawi studies soldiers in transnational context, from recruitment and training to combat and memory. Drawing on history, sociology and anthropology, the book critiques the 'Western way of war' from a postcolonial perspective. Barkawi reconceives soldiers as cosmopolitan, their battles irreducible to the national histories that monopolise them. This book will appeal to those interested in the Second World War, armed forces and the British Empire, and students and scholars of military sociology and history, South Asian studies and international relations.

Soldiers of Empire: Indian and British Armies in World War II

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/41317803.pdf

Defeat into Victory

Citations

Forgotten Armies: Britain's Asian Empire and the War with Japan

Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War

Military History: A Selected Bibliography

Vietnam and the American Theory of Limited War

Soldiers of Empire: Indian and British Armies in World War II

Related Papers (5)

Burma, the longest war, 1941-1945

Three Concepts of Free Action

Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941-1945

The Jungle, Japanese and the British Commonwealth Armies at War, 1941-45: Fighting Methods, Doctrine and Training for Jungle Warfare

The Face of Battle