by RNS | Sep 1, 2021 | Beating Tsundoku
Philip Jowett, The Battle for Burma 1942-1945 (Pen & Sword, 2021)
Philip Jowett argues that Burma was a strategic sideshow with the main Allied purpose of keeping Nationalist China in the war. The Japanese too fell into this country that held no strategic value to them. But the intense and sustained combat that ripped through this theatre belied Burma’s importance. In this photograph heavy account, part of Pen and Sword’s Images of War series, Jowett takes us on a wild ride along the Cinderella Front.
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Jowett is keen to point out how massive and inhospitable Burma was with mountains, jungles, and monsoons to contend with along with the constant struggle against various diseases. And it is with that in mind that he begins his narrative with the Allies having retreated into India and China in 1942, and the Japanese in full control of Burma and ready to jump forward again into India. The Allies, however, were intent on recovering Burma. Thus, Jowett describes a series of offensives, including the Arakan – one failed, one successful – Chindit and Marauder operations behind enemy lines, and the over-optimistic 1944 Japanese offensives on Kohima and Imphal that ended in disaster. The subsequent Allied pursuit of the Japanese proved relentless, even through the monsoon and across many swollen rivers, until Mandalay fell in March 1945. That opened the road to Rangoon on the coast, which proved to be Japan’s last major holdout in Burma. Jowett also considers the air war, which like all other aspects of war in this theatre, had swung towards the Allies by the end of 1944.
The Battle for Burma is thicker than the usual Images of War series books. That is mainly because of the numerous excellent photographs that accompany Jowett’s engaging text. A second unusual feature is the amount of combat photographs Jowett includes, which are mostly from the Allied side, as you might expect, but also some from the Japanese perspective. Jowett also highlights the roles of the Chinese Nationalists, Americans, Indians, East and West Africans, and native Burmese, illuminating the joint Commonwealth and Allied war effort that it took to defeat the dogged Japanese. As an avid reader of the Burma campaigns, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learned a lot from it.
by RNS | Sep 1, 2021 | Beating Tsundoku
W.B. Barrett, Vikings – a History of the Northmen (Amberley, 2019)
(Guest Review by Dom Sore)
Books about the Vikings are many and varied, covering the minutiae of archaeological finds through to sweeping epics covering all aspects of Viking life and everything else. Where does this tome from W B Barrett fall? Towards the ‘all aspects of life’ but it isn’t an epic. Coming in at 432 pages, it is no small book, but it does purport to cover the whole of Viking history. It does this via thirteen chapters that split that history into easily digestible parts.
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There is a lot of information to cover when you talk about the Vikings, and Barrett tries to do that without bogging the reader down in too much technical detail. What you do get is a fast-paced journey through Viking life from prehistory to their “demise”. You will learn about some of the lesser known characters and the possible origins of some of the more well-known characters, looking at you Ragnar Hairy pants and Ivarr the Boneless. Speaking of Ivarr the Boneless, it seems there is a lot of evidence for his existence and the Boneless may refer to something a little more risqué than you would expect.
Where the book suffers is in providing a lot of disparate details without their connections, sometimes leaving more questions asked than answered –now and then you want that extra detail about specific instances. For example, the Viking origins of the Normans are almost skimmed over and not explored; that also happens for the circumstances surrounding the Hebridean, Shetland, and Orkney communities. This is combined with a lack of editing; there is occasional repetition and random addition of information. The prime example of this is the passage about Tryggve Olafsson, which ends with a paragraph regarding the minting of coins in Dublin likely using pillaged dies. These missing links between passages and sections are quite common.
The book is a decent primer for Vikings, and if that is all you need, this will suffice. It is easy enough to read, if somewhat repetitive, and it is somewhat Anglocentric. There are no glaring errors, but having the end of the Viking age concomitant with the death of Harald Hardrada at Stamford Bridge in 1066 will not sit well with many. Where the book does excel is in providing a potted history of the Vikings from start to end without getting stuck or missing any major parts out.
