THE LOST WAR: America’s World War II Battle For Burma

by Douglas Smock

The United States played an important, but forgotten, role in freeing China from Japan in 1945. The main battleground for American infantry was in the former British colony of Burma, not China. Thousands of US Army soldiers participated in two classified long range penetration marches operating separately from the British Army, which engaged the Japanese in separate battles. The first march, spearheaded by a group popularly known as Merrill’s Marauders, ended in a death-to-the-end slugfest in the remote village of Myitkyina. Surviving Marauders were joined by US Cavalry replacements who led mule teams through mountains to another desperate battle for control of the Burma Road, a vital military supply route to China. The infantrymen received substantial help from teenage tribal fighters who were organized by American intelligence officers. One was Roger Hilson, who would become one of President John F. Kennedy’s key planners in the early stages of the Vietnam War. One of the most unlikely heroes of the Burma War was a Baptist missionary who became a legendary combat surgeon. The end result was the expulsion of the Japanese from Burma and the opening of a new land supply route for the Chinese army. The American fighters are celebrated in China today with monuments spontaneously erected by Chinese citizens, not the government. In Burma, now called Myanmar, tribes continue their fight for freedom in a deadly civil war.

181 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 4, 2025