The book, for young readers, starts by explaining why Japan went to war, then goes into Japan's attack on Burma. The second chapter is about General Joe Stilwell. The book also describes the types of personal arguments and military disagreements that happened in the war.
It then goes into just why jungle fighting was so hard, and how the allied soldiers learned jungle fighting techniques.
The next section is about the British general Orde Wingate and his Chindit Raiders. They fought behind Japanese lines, working to disrupt the Japanese bases as much as possible.
Merrill's Marauders is the next chapter. This is followed by a chapter about the Flying Tigers and similar relatively small-sized groups.
Chapter 7 is about the OSS, which was like today's CIA, in Burma. Chapter 8 starts off talking about the Ledo road, and then covers the freeing of southern Burma.
The only thing wrong with this book is the title. It's really about the fighting in Burma, not jungle warfare in general. Although it discusses jungle warfare in relation to Burma, it doesn't mention at all the various other jungle battles on the various Pacific islands (Guadalcanal, New Guinea, etc). Thus, it's title is a little misleading. Otherwise a very interesting book.
Main Index
Japan main page
Japanese-American Internment Camps index page
Japan and World War II index page
