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The Second Sino-Japanese War (July 7, 1937 – September 2, 1945), called so after the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95, was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from 1937 to 1941.<br/><br/>

China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany (until 1941), the Soviet Union (1937–1940) and the United States. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the war merged into the greater conflict of World War II as a major front of what is broadly known as the Pacific War. The Second Sino-Japanese War was the largest Asian war in the 20th century. It also made up more than 50% of the casualties in the Pacific War if the 1937–1941 period is taken into account.
Stilwell's caustic personality was reflected in his nickname 'Vinegar Joe'. Although distrustful of his allies Stilwell showed himself to be a capable and daring tactician in the field but a lack of resources meant he was continually forced to improvise.<br/><br/>

He famously differed as to strategy, ground troops versus air power, with his subordinate, Claire Chennault, who had the ear of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. George Marshall acknowledged he had given Stilwell 'one of the most difficult' assignments of any theater commander.
Field Marshal William Joseph 'Bill' Slim, 1st Viscount Slim KG GCB GCMG GCVO GBE DSO MC KS (6 August 1891 – 14 December 1970) was a British military commander and the 13th Governor-General of Australia.<br/><br/>

He fought in both the First and Second world wars and was wounded in action three times. During World War II he led the 14th Army, the so-called 'forgotten army' in the Burma campaign. From 1953 to 1959 he was Governor-General of Australia, regarded by many Australians as an authentic war hero who had fought with the Anzacs at Gallipoli.
Field Marshal William Joseph 'Bill' Slim, 1st Viscount Slim KG GCB GCMG GCVO GBE DSO MC KS (6 August 1891 – 14 December 1970) was a British military commander and the 13th Governor-General of Australia.<br/><br/>

He fought in both the First and Second world wars and was wounded in action three times. During World War II he led the 14th Army, the so-called 'forgotten army' in the Burma campaign. From 1953 to 1959 he was Governor-General of Australia, regarded by many Australians as an authentic war hero who had fought with the Anzacs at Gallipoli.
Field Marshal William Joseph 'Bill' Slim, 1st Viscount Slim KG GCB GCMG GCVO GBE DSO MC KS (6 August 1891 – 14 December 1970) was a British military commander and the 13th Governor-General of Australia.<br/><br/>

He fought in both the First and Second world wars and was wounded in action three times. During World War II he led the 14th Army, the so-called 'forgotten army' in the Burma campaign. From 1953 to 1959 he was Governor-General of Australia, regarded by many Australians as an authentic war hero who had fought with the Anzacs at Gallipoli.
Field Marshal William Joseph 'Bill' Slim, 1st Viscount Slim KG GCB GCMG GCVO GBE DSO MC KS (6 August 1891 – 14 December 1970) was a British military commander and the 13th Governor-General of Australia.<br/><br/>

He fought in both the First and Second world wars and was wounded in action three times. During World War II he led the 14th Army, the so-called 'forgotten army' in the Burma campaign. From 1953 to 1959 he was Governor-General of Australia, regarded by many Australians as an authentic war hero who had fought with the Anzacs at Gallipoli.
The Burma Road is a road linking Burma (also called Myanmar) with China. Its terminals are Kunming, Yunnan, and Lashio, Burma. When it was built, Burma was a British colony under Japanese occupation.<br/><br/>

The road is 717 miles (1,154 km) long and runs through rough mountain country. The sections from Kunming to the Burmese border were built by 200,000 Chinese laborers during the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and completed by 1938. It had a role in World War II, when the British used the Burma Road to transport materiel to China before Japan was at war with the British. Supplies would be landed at Rangoon (now Yangon) and moved by rail to Lashio, where the road started in Burma. In 1940 the British government yielded to Japanese diplomatic pressure to close down the Burma Road to supplies to China for a period of three months.<br/><br/> 

After the Japanese overran Burma in 1942, the Allies were forced to supply Chiang Kai-shek and the nationalist Chinese by air. They flew these supplies from airfields in Assam, India, over 'the hump', the eastern end of the Himalayas.<br/><br/>

Under British command Indian, British, Chinese, and American forces, the latter led by Vinegar Joe Stilwell, defeated a Japanese attempt to capture Assam and recaptured northern Burma. In this area they built a new road, the Ledo Road which ran from Ledo Assam, through Myitkina and connected to the old Burma Road at Wandingzhen, Yunnan, China. The first trucks reached the Chinese frontier by this route on January 28, 1945.
The Burma Road is a road linking Burma (also called Myanmar) with China. Its terminals are Kunming, Yunnan, and Lashio, Burma. When it was built, Burma was a British colony under Japanese occupation.<br/><br/>

The road is 717 miles (1,154 km) long and runs through rough mountain country. The sections from Kunming to the Burmese border were built by 200,000 Chinese laborers during the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and completed by 1938. It had a role in World War II, when the British used the Burma Road to transport materiel to China before Japan was at war with the British. Supplies would be landed at Rangoon (now Yangon) and moved by rail to Lashio, where the road started in Burma. In 1940 the British government yielded to Japanese diplomatic pressure to close down the Burma Road to supplies to China for a period of three months.<br/><br/> 

After the Japanese overran Burma in 1942, the Allies were forced to supply Chiang Kai-shek and the nationalist Chinese by air. They flew these supplies from airfields in Assam, India, over 'the hump', the eastern end of the Himalayas.<br/><br/>

Under British command Indian, British, Chinese, and American forces, the latter led by Vinegar Joe Stilwell, defeated a Japanese attempt to capture Assam and recaptured northern Burma. In this area they built a new road, the Ledo Road which ran from Ledo Assam, through Myitkina and connected to the old Burma Road at Wandingzhen, Yunnan, China. The first trucks reached the Chinese frontier by this route on January 28, 1945.
Frank Dow Merrill (December 4, 1903 in New Hampshire – December 11, 1955 in Fernandina Beach, Florida) is best remembered for his command of Merrill's Marauders, officially the 5307th Composite Unit (provisional), in the Burma Campaign of World War II. Merrill's Marauders came under General Joseph Stilwell's Northern Combat Area Command. It was a special forces unit modelled on the Chindits' long range penetration groups trained to operate from bases deep behind Japanese lines.
The Burma Campaign in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II was fought primarily between British Commonwealth, Chinese and United States forces against the forces of the Empire of Japan, who were assisted to some degree by Thailand, the Burmese Independence Army and the Indian National Army. The British Commonwealth land forces were drawn primarily from the United Kingdom, British India and Africa.<br/><br/>

Partly because monsoon rains made effective campaigning possible only for about half of the year, the Burma campaign was almost the longest campaign of the war. During the campaigning season of 1942, the Japanese had conquered Burma, driving British, Indian and Chinese forces from most of the country and forcing the British administration to flee into India. After scoring some defensive successes during 1943, they then attempted to forestall Allied offensives in 1944 by launching an invasion of India (Operation U-Go). This failed with disastrous losses.<br/><br/>

During the next campaigning season beginning in December 1944, the Allies launched offensives into Burma, capturing Rangoon, the capital and principal port, from the weakened Japanese just before the monsoon struck, to ensure their hold on the country.
The fall of Mandalay on 20th March 1945 was the culmination of an advance of 640 kilometres (400 miles) against ever increasing opposition which carried the 19th Indian Division of the British Indian Army from the banks of the Chindwin River to the walls of Fort Dufferin in Mandalay.<br/><br/>

Both the 1st and 4th Battalions of the 6th Gurkha Rifles served in the 19th Indian Division during this period. The 1st Battalion was in the 64th Indian Infantry Brigade, for the most part leading the Division’s advance and covering the north and west flanks. The 4th Battalion was in the 62nd Indian Infantry Brigade. It was this lightening advance over difficult and sometimes treacherous terrain chasing a tenacious and often fanatical enemy that was a principal factor in the defeat of the Japanese.
Chiang Kai-shek (October 31, 1887 – April 5, 1975) was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin.<br/><br/>

Soong May-ling or Soong Mei-ling, also known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek (traditional Chinese: 宋美齡; simplified Chinese: 宋美龄; pinyin: Sòng Měilíng; March 5, 1898 – October 23, 2003) was a First Lady of the Republic of China (ROC), the wife of former President Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正 / 蔣介石).<br/><br/>

General Joseph Warren Stilwell (March 19, 1883 – October 12, 1946) was a United States Army four-star General known for service in the China Burma India Theater. His caustic personality was reflected in the nickname 'Vinegar Joe'.
Soong May-ling or Soong Mei-ling, also known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek (traditional Chinese: 宋美齡; simplified Chinese: 宋美龄; pinyin: Sòng Měilíng; March 5, 1898 – October 23, 2003) was a First Lady of the Republic of China (ROC), the wife of former President Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正 / 蔣介石).<br/><br/>

Lieutenant General Claire Lee Chennault (September 6, 1893 – July 27, 1958), was an American military aviator. A contentious officer, he was a fierce advocate of fight-interceptor aircraft during the 1930s when the U.S. Army Air Corps was focused primarily on high-altitude bombardment. Chennault retired in 1937, went to work as an aviation trainer and adviser in China, and commanded the 'Flying Tigers' during World War II, both the volunteer group and the uniformed units that replaced it in 1942.
This Chinese child soldier, age 10, with heavy pack, was a member of an army division boarding a plane returning them to China, following the capture of Myitkyina airfield, Burma, under the allied command of US Major General Frank Merrill, May 1944.<br/><br/>

Chinese and allied troops had earlier crossed through the treacherous jungle of the Kumon Bum Mountains before attacking Japanese troops to the south. Exhaustion and disease led to the early evacuation of many Chinese and allied troops before the coming assault on Myitkyina town.