In order to keep China in the war against the Japanese, the Western Allies believed they had to return to Northern Burma. Colonel Orde Wingate, a military maverick and proponent of guerrilla warfare, knew that a different type of British infantryman was required for this role - the Chindit, indoctrinated with special training - to re-enter the jungles and mountains of Northern Burma in order to combat the victorious Japanese forces there. The Chindits' opponents would include the 18th Division, one of Imperial Japan's most seasoned formations, which by 1941 had already accumulated as much operational experience as most Anglo-American divisions would acquire in the entire 1939-45 war. In a host of encounters the two sides clashed repeatedly in the harsh conditions of the Burmese jungle; the intended role and subsequent operational performance of the Chindits remains fraught with controversy today. Featuring full-colour artwork, specially drawn maps and archive photographs, this gripping study offers key insights into the tactics, leadership, combat performance and subsequent reputations of six representative Chindit and Japanese infantry units involved in three pivotal actions that hastened Japan's defeat in Burma during World War II.

Orde Wingate rose to fame by creating the Chindits in Burma in 1943. He is an extremely important figure in military history, and deserves just as much attention as Alanbrooke, Montgomery, and Auchinleck. Unlike them, however, he always operated outside the accepted etiquette and the formal chain of command. He was a maverick and misfit, and he held to the belief that the type of mass warfare demonstrated on the Western Front (1914-18) had very little to do with the warfare of the future. He believed that the latter would require an 'indirect approach', in which heavily lumbering armies would be exquisitely vulnerable to small groups of highly motivated, mobile and well-armed guerrillas. This book covers Wingate's experiences in pre-war Palestine, in Ethiopia in 1941 (where he formed an irregular guerrilla unit to harrass the Italian garrisons) and in World War II Burma, where the two Chindit campaigns would be his apotheosis.

“Vinegar Joe” Stilwell's assault on the Japanese position at Myitkyina, the key to northern Burma.
Myitkyina was a vital objective in the Allied re-conquest of Burma in 1943–44. Following the disastrous retreat from Burma in April 1942, China had become isolated from re-supply except for the dangerous air route for US transports over the Himalaya Mountains.
The Burma Road, which ran from Lashio (south of Myitkyina) through the mountains to Kunming was closed as a supply route from Rangoon after the Japanese conquest. Without military assistance, China would be forced to surrender and Imperial Japanese Army forces could be diverted to other Pacific war zones.
This is the history of the ambitious joint Allied assault led by American Lt. Gen. Joseph W Stilwell and featuring British, American and Chinese forces as they clashed with three skilled regiments of the Japanese 18th Division. Packed with first-hand accounts, specially commissioned artwork, maps and illustrations and dozens of rare photographs this book reveals the incredible Allied attack on Myitkyina.