The Special Operations Executive (SOE) in Burma

Jungle Warfare and Intelligence Gathering in WW2

Richard Duckett

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781784539122
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781786722720
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

In the mountains and jungles of occupied Burma during World War II, British special forces launched a series of secret operations, assisted by parts of the Burmese population. The men of the SOE, trained in sabotage and guerrilla warfare, worked in the jungle, deep behind enemy lines, to frustrate the puppet Burmese government of Ba Maw and continue the fight against Hirohito's Japan in a theatre starved of resources. Here, Richard Duckett uses newly declassified documents from the National Archives to reveal for the first time the extent of British special forces' involvement - from the 1941 operations until beyond Burma's independence from the British Empire in 1948. Duckett argues convincingly that `Operation Character' and `Operation Billet' - large SOE missions launched in support of General Slim's XIV Army offensive to liberate Burma - rank among the most militarily significant of the SOE's secret missions. Featuring a wealth of photographs and accompanying material never before published, including direct testimony recorded by veterans of the campaign and maps from the SOE files, The SOE in Burma tells a compelling story of courage and struggle in during World War II

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Note on Translation and Transliteration
• Abbreviations
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Timeline of the War in Burma
• Introduction The Special Operations Executive in Burma, 1941–5
• Literature Review
• Prologue Burma, its Geography and its People
• 1. The Oriental Mission, October 1940–December 1941
• 2. The Oriental Mission and the First Burma Campaign, December 1941–June 1942
• 3. Reorganisation and Early Operations, August 1942–August 1943
• 4. Getting Behind the Lines: The India Mission in Burma, September 1943–December 1944
• 5. Operation Character, November 1944–September 1945
• 6. The Billet Operations: Nation, Manual and Grain, November 1944–September 1945
• Epilogue A Legacy? Force 136 and Postwar Burma, 1945–50
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Plates