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Monsoon Victory
1969. No Edition Remarks. 189 pages. Paperback book with pictorial cover. Pages and binding are presentable with no major defects. Minor issues present such as mild cracking, inscriptions, inserts, light foxing, tanning and thumb marking. Overall a good condition item. Paper cover has mild edge-wear with light rubbing and creasing. Some light marking and tanning.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1946
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 14, 2013
This is an easy to read and informative book that was written so closely to the end of the war (published 1946) by a war correspondent who in today's terminology was embedded with the 11th (East African) Infantry Division of the 14th British Army in Burma.
The book's writing has a very strong and ever present feeling of the author's distaste and dislike of the Japanese and its army's approach to war; having witnessed their fighting capability, ethos as people and soldiers and their treatment of the Burmese people first-hand in their long retreat from the borders of India to war's end.
The author's respect, regard and I believe love of these black African troops shouts loudly from the pages and with good cause too. They are seen fighting the Japanese through some of the most pestilential jungle in the world down the Kabaw valley during the long monsoon that turned tracks into seas of mud and made advances against enemy positions difficult in the extreme as tanks, lorries and even the Jeep were bogged in. Mules also suffered and allied air-cover whilst holding superiority was also restricted greatly by the rains. Advances were measured in just a few hundred yards a day and the smells and sights of the dead Japanese army that the 11th faced and smelt/saw is sharply described.
Troops in this division came from Kenya, Uganda, Nyasaland, Tanganyika and Rhodesia and fought with courage, guile and much distinction.
History shows the 11th along with the 5th Indian Division pushed a huge Japanese army back hundreds of miles in defeat and near starvation down a valley full of thick jungle rampant with disease in dreadful weather in a full monsoon.
The British 14th army is described as the forgotten army (by Britons back home during the war) and these brave, loyal and very competent African troops were a key part of that army.
I lament that many people in Britain - black and white - are probably unaware of the 11th or indeed just how fine a division it was and what sacrifice they gave during WWII.
I leave it to the words of the Kohima Epitaph to end my review more aptly than I can..."When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say, For Your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today ..."
The book's writing has a very strong and ever present feeling of the author's distaste and dislike of the Japanese and its army's approach to war; having witnessed their fighting capability, ethos as people and soldiers and their treatment of the Burmese people first-hand in their long retreat from the borders of India to war's end.
The author's respect, regard and I believe love of these black African troops shouts loudly from the pages and with good cause too. They are seen fighting the Japanese through some of the most pestilential jungle in the world down the Kabaw valley during the long monsoon that turned tracks into seas of mud and made advances against enemy positions difficult in the extreme as tanks, lorries and even the Jeep were bogged in. Mules also suffered and allied air-cover whilst holding superiority was also restricted greatly by the rains. Advances were measured in just a few hundred yards a day and the smells and sights of the dead Japanese army that the 11th faced and smelt/saw is sharply described.
Troops in this division came from Kenya, Uganda, Nyasaland, Tanganyika and Rhodesia and fought with courage, guile and much distinction.
History shows the 11th along with the 5th Indian Division pushed a huge Japanese army back hundreds of miles in defeat and near starvation down a valley full of thick jungle rampant with disease in dreadful weather in a full monsoon.
The British 14th army is described as the forgotten army (by Britons back home during the war) and these brave, loyal and very competent African troops were a key part of that army.
I lament that many people in Britain - black and white - are probably unaware of the 11th or indeed just how fine a division it was and what sacrifice they gave during WWII.
I leave it to the words of the Kohima Epitaph to end my review more aptly than I can..."When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say, For Your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today ..."
December 1, 2018
For the two years leading to June of 1944, the Germans had been on the defensive in Russia, Africa, and Italy, as had the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean. On mainland Asia, however, the Imperial Japanese Army was still on the offensive, undefeated, and attacking at the frontier of India.
This book begins in July 1944, after the Battle of Imphal, and tells the story of the 11th Division East African Rifles in their advance down the Khabaw Valley to the Chindwin River. This terrain was notoriously pestilential, and during the monsoon season turned into a swamp.
The 11th Division was made up of "askaris". An askari was a local soldier serving in the armies of the European colonial powers in Africa. These particular soldiers came from all over east Africa: Tanganyika (now Tanzania), Nyasaland (Malawi), Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Uganda, and Kenya. They came from a variety of cultures and spoke a variety of languages. They were commanded by British officers and non-coms. The 11th Division was part of the 14th Army, which also included Indian and Ghurka units.
About two-thirds of the book covers action during the monsoon. This was a particularly nasty environment in which to operate. Through thick, roadless jungle the 11th pressed the retreating Japanese army, scaling steep mountains and crossing swollen rivers while the ground they covered turned to deep, thick mud. The author spent more time moving from unit to unit than he did at the front and gives us a good accounting of the logistical difficulties involved.
Published in 1946, it not surprisingly was written in the language and attitudes of the time. The Japanese are uniformly referred to as "Japs" and there is little attempt to humanize or understand them. There is quite a bit more understanding of the Africans, in spite of being written by a European. Hanley moved to East Africa at age 18 and his attitudes to the Africans was enlightened compared to the norm of the time.
The writing is solid and paints a vivid picture of the experience of the action. The combat infantryman is often called the "tip of the spear". The tip is just a small part of the spear, and combat is a relatively small part of the book. The author does a good job telling us about all the various facets of combat in trying conditions.
The book is less than 200 pages, but the print is small and it reads more like a 300 page volume. I expected no notes or bibliography (and none are present) but an index would be nice. The biggest failure I can cite is the lack of any maps.
This was Hanley's first book. He later wrote several novels mostly set in East Africa.
(For a good look at the Allied flight through this area in 1942, see Wrath in Burma by Fred Eldrige, about General Stillwell's retreat)
This book begins in July 1944, after the Battle of Imphal, and tells the story of the 11th Division East African Rifles in their advance down the Khabaw Valley to the Chindwin River. This terrain was notoriously pestilential, and during the monsoon season turned into a swamp.
The 11th Division was made up of "askaris". An askari was a local soldier serving in the armies of the European colonial powers in Africa. These particular soldiers came from all over east Africa: Tanganyika (now Tanzania), Nyasaland (Malawi), Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Uganda, and Kenya. They came from a variety of cultures and spoke a variety of languages. They were commanded by British officers and non-coms. The 11th Division was part of the 14th Army, which also included Indian and Ghurka units.
About two-thirds of the book covers action during the monsoon. This was a particularly nasty environment in which to operate. Through thick, roadless jungle the 11th pressed the retreating Japanese army, scaling steep mountains and crossing swollen rivers while the ground they covered turned to deep, thick mud. The author spent more time moving from unit to unit than he did at the front and gives us a good accounting of the logistical difficulties involved.
Published in 1946, it not surprisingly was written in the language and attitudes of the time. The Japanese are uniformly referred to as "Japs" and there is little attempt to humanize or understand them. There is quite a bit more understanding of the Africans, in spite of being written by a European. Hanley moved to East Africa at age 18 and his attitudes to the Africans was enlightened compared to the norm of the time.
The writing is solid and paints a vivid picture of the experience of the action. The combat infantryman is often called the "tip of the spear". The tip is just a small part of the spear, and combat is a relatively small part of the book. The author does a good job telling us about all the various facets of combat in trying conditions.
The book is less than 200 pages, but the print is small and it reads more like a 300 page volume. I expected no notes or bibliography (and none are present) but an index would be nice. The biggest failure I can cite is the lack of any maps.
This was Hanley's first book. He later wrote several novels mostly set in East Africa.
(For a good look at the Allied flight through this area in 1942, see Wrath in Burma by Fred Eldrige, about General Stillwell's retreat)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews