Osprey Men-at-Arms 375 : The British Army (3) 1939-1945 : The Far East

The importance of the British Army's contribution to World War II - and of World War II in the history of the British Army - is impossible to overstate. No campaign of the war was harsher than the 'forgotten' 14th Army's long struggle against the Japanese in the jungles, mountains and swamps of Burma. This third of three titles devoted to the uniforms and equipment of 1939-45 describes and illustrates the unprepared garrisons of Britain's Asian colonies which crumbles under the Japanese onslaught after Pearl Harbor in 1941; the bitter retreat to India; the audacious Chindit operations which took the fight back to the enemy in the jungles of Burma; the long build-up, and General Slim's final decisive offensive in 1944-45, when British and Indian Army troops smashed the Japanese armies in mainland South-East Asia. At first kitted out with unsuitable clothing, equipment and weapons of an imperial security garrison, the British and Indian armies gradually modified their equipment to suit local conditions. More realistic study of jungle war conditions led - in anticipation of the invasion of Japan planned for 1945 - to the issue of some of the most up-to-date designs in the world. Text by Martin Brayley with illustrations by Mike Chappell.

Contents

• Organisation of the British Army in the Far East 1941
• Summary of the Malayan and Burmese Campaigns 1942
• Development of British forces in India
• The Chindits
• 14th Army in the Reconquest of Burma 1944-45
• Pre-war Tropical Uniforms
• Modification of Khaki Drill 1942-44
• Jungle Green Uniforms
• Development of Personal Equipment
• The Lethbridge Mission, and 1944 Pattern Clothing and Web