Bill' Slim was one of the greatest British generals of World War II. In a career that stretched from 1914 until 1958, Bill Slim's greatest triumphs came in India and Burma in the long war against the Japanese. Thrust into a desperate situation, he orchestrated the longest retreat in British Army history in the withdrawal from Burma. He then turned on the Japanese in India, shattered their army, and pursued them to destruction. Apart from his great military victories, Slim also left a legacy of training and morale building that endures in the British Army to this day. This book examines both Bill Slim's military career and his place in military history by examining some of his greatest battles and the strategy and tactics that set him apart from his contemporaries.
By birth a New Zealander, I was educated in Australia and at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. After a 20-year career in the British Army I turned my hand to writing, my PhD being published in 2004 as 'Slim, Master of War, a military biography of arguably Britain's greatest field commander of WW2.
I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
I am a trustee of the Kohima Educational Trust, which seeks to provide educational opportunities for young learners in Nagaland.
For those in the know, Slim is one of the best army level commanders of World War II, and certainly Britain's best. This is a good enough introduction to his life and campaigns. I did find it a bit hard to follow the 1945 battles in Burma and generally the book seems to skip around too much.
as a ww2 v e t, I have been startled by the revelations of not only the man (Sims) but of the significance of the Japanese incursions into India. An often overlooked theater of WW2, I was surprised at the multinational nature of t He effort and the early and effective use of air-land-sea resources that allowed the Allies to take advantage of Sims' extraordinary vision.