It is February 1944, in the jungles of Burma. It's 6 AM local time. There is a lot of shouting and screaming and gunfire to the immediate north. A man named Messervy, commanding the seventh Division, is in his pajamas and awakens immediately. There has been talk for days now of Japanese forces to the north of the position of the 7th Division.
However, nothing has come of it until this outbreak of fire. What does it mean? The general must make decisions immediately. He dresses and heads to the radio to inform his command. This is a scene that opens a struggle for not only Burma, but all of the Far East between the Japanese Imperial Army and the British India Army of 1944.
I welcome the author of Burma ‘44: The Battle that Turned the War in the East. James Holland has written very carefully of these events, and they start picture within picture within picture.
So we starting with the detail of a man in his pajamas, a fighting general who's fought his way across the British Empire map from Africa. And now he's in India, given the command of an infantry division that's part of a general advance designed by Lord Mountbatten and General Slim, commanding all the forces.
Think of them as dolls within dolls. General Messervy is at the point of the spear in these jungles that you cannot see through there. They’re surrounded by hills and jungles. Somebody can be ten feet away from you and you don't see him.
I welcome James now to explain to us this moment in time in 1944 and the risks for both combatants, the Japanese Empire and the British Empire, and the larger war being fought in Europe.
Who is Messervy at that moment? What do we need to know about the decisions he'll make over the next two weeks?
Watch the full interview above, or listen to an audio version below:
LINKS:
CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor on YouTube
Burma ‘44: The Battle that Turned the War in the East by James Holland on Amazon
The John Batchelor Show on Apple Podcasts:
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Burma '44: Britain's War in the East with James Holland