The Jungle War: Mavericks, Marauders and Madmen in the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II
A haunting tale of the Burma theater during World War II. Burma was the most distant theater for Americans and on the outskirts of the British Empire. Out of sight and mind, perhaps, but Burma became a site for savage, murderous, brutal, terrifying combat among men against a backdrop of nature at its most primeval--thickly encrusted jungle; steep hills and mountains; canyons; gorges; swift, wide streams; monsoon torrents; blistering sun; infernal pestilence; starvation; and dehydration.
Reluctant to fight a war in Burma as some were, the stakes were enormous: immense tracts of land, inestimable natural resources, huge markets, richly endowed trade routes, and control of half the world’s population. Advance towards the west by imperial forces if it broke through into India, would also link Japan with its Axis partners. Burma could not be ignored.
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Book details
- Author
- Gerald Astor
- Imprint
- Trade Paper Press, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Pages
- 400
- Formats
- Hardcover
- Subjects
- History › Wars & Conflicts › World War II
- Topics
- Burma theater · jungle warfare · military history · veterans' oral histories · U.S. military aviation
- ISBN-13
- 9780471273936
About the author
GERALD MORTON ASTOR published more than thirty books over a twenty-five-year period, many focusing on World War II oral history. His books include Presidents at War, The Jungle War and The Right to Fight: A History of African Americans in the Military.
Astor worked as a picture editor at Sports Illustrated in its early years and as a senior editor at Look, Sport, The Saturday Evening Post, and Time. He held a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and later attended Columbia University.
Astor was born in New Haven, Connecticut, grew up in Mount Vernon, New York, and served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He died on December 30, 2007, in Scarsdale, New York.