For all you history buffs: Imphal Kohima: Help needed

[hamiclar01]

Gents,

I have been reading about the Imphal Kohima campaign recently, and am quite impressed, enough to want to read more. However, most books i have come across in libraries/stores deal with the British/American side of things, which I feel is incomplete. In fact, the only print references to Indian troops have been the Time Life world war two series "China/Burma/India", Volume I of Pushpinder Singh's "Himalayan Eagles" and Slim's own account "Imphal".

May I request the more learned members here to forward me a list of books, covering the Indian contribution in detail. I believe the INA fought here with the Japanese, the 1st air force squadron (Tigers) were bloodied, and the Japanese advance to India was stopped dead. I'm sure there must be more out there, dealing with Indians, not just Americans and the British .

Please note, this is a request for a list of BOOKS. I am old fashioned and do not trust half the stuff put up on the internet, so thanks in advance, but no thanks for urls, website addresses and the like.

[nagarifle]

ok try non indian ones first.

the burma road, naga path makes a good read.

i have not come across of Indian writers on the subject. try the Indain army website for info. may have a list of books. will keep an odd eye out .

-- Fri Jun 25, 2010 13:32 --

oh yes try the folies bookshop on Tottenham court road, london, and the village of hay on why herford. the villege bookshop

[MoA]

I actually am writing a biography/ficitionalised novel based on the war diaries of my uncle. He served in the area, which at that time was refered to as the Arakaan and included Burma. He recieved a MC for action in the sector, and had he been white would've probably gotten the VC.

[prashantsingh]

"When you go home, tell them of us and say,
For their tomorrow, we gave our today."
Immortal lines on the war memorial in Kohima.

[hamiclar01]

Thanks Naga, I think I must clarify that I'm not specifically looking for Indian writers, just books dealing with the Indian contribution.

MoA, can you lend me the bibliography you are using to cross reference your work?

[shooter]

Guruji now a writer?

Jai ho.

You should have got Priyanka's role in whats your rashee

[MoA]

Thanks Naga, I think I must clarify that I'm not specifically looking for Indian writers, just books dealing with the Indian contribution.

MoA, can you lend me the bibliography you are using to cross reference your work?

I am actually not using any other sources per se. Wikipedia and my uncles diaries... Novel.. not history.

[Nitro Express]

Well, its nice to know that there is someone who is still interested in the forgotten war.

I have posted a few links below.Hope it serves your purpose.

http://www.mgtrust.org/burma.htm
http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/4C2B25FC ... kohima.pdf


Nitro Express

[nagarifle]

also the burma star asso, about 100 members left now, may have more info, they may be on the web.

aslo try another book the bone road.

[hamiclar01]

I am actually not using any other sources per se. Wikipedia and my uncles diaries... Novel.. not history.

Well , what can I say, another Mani Ratnam in the making, if not a Len Deighton

Naga, is the "Bone road" the same book at "Road of bones"?(fergal keane). The latter seems interesting

Nitroexpress, I was actually looking for printed matter, not websites. But thanks for your effort

[nagarifle]

hi
its the Road of bones like you say, by a lady,

just an idea, why not check out the japs side of the story as well? to see what they have to say.

[MoA]

Well , what can I say, another Mani Ratnam in the making, if not a Len Deighton

Actually wont be my first, and may not be the last either. The previous ones didnt do well either..

[hamiclar01]

just an idea, why not check out the japs side of the story as well? to see what they have to say.

You are right. No account of the battle would be complete without telling the Japanese side of things. As Slim wrote later, "If five hundred Japanese were ordered to hold a position, we had to kill four hundred and ninety five before it was ours, and then the last five killed themselves".

OTT, speaking of Japanese versions of the war, have you come across Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully's meticulously researched work "Shattered Sword".......the Japanese story of the battle of Midway, a remarkable improvement on Fuchida's earlier (whitewashed) account.

[Sakobav]

Related story or perspective..


http://savykr.wordpress.com/2009/08/07/ ... -princess/
… HERMAN PERRY: THE AMERICAN SOLDIER WHO MARRIED A NAGA PRINCESS !

PRELUDE:

This story is based on “Now the Hell Will Start,” – an epic World War II manhunt story written by Brendan I. Koerner, on the quest to apprehend Herman Perry, a black soldier who went to India to help build a road to China via Burma, shot and killed a white commanding officer, then disappeared into the jungles of Naga hills of Assam, where he joined a tribe of head-hunters and eluded capture for months. This story published as a book by Penguin-USA publications in 2008, is an amazing piece of reporting—part thriller & part history. It gets its start as a State “Explainer” (Explainer deals with offenses committed by military personnel, which are punishable by death). Koerner came across this story in 2003 while researching for an explainer about an Air Force translator who was charged with spying for Syria and on conviction of the spying charges; he could face the death penalty. While researching about this Koerner encountered the following titbit about “Pvt. Herman Perry, murderer who long evaded capture by living with Burmese tribe, 1944-1945.” Koerner’s curiosity was increased and he started to search for survivors where the action took place. He spent five years talking to the survivors of the road’s construction and poring over yellowed military documents to piece it all together. Most of the characters in this story are dead, except Earl Cullum, a Texan officer stationed in Burma at that time that was involved with Perry’s capture; it was he who committed much of his memories of the episode to paper in the hope of getting it published in the form of above mentioned book.

HERMAN PERRY – ORIGINS:

Herman Perry was a 19 year old meat cutter from Washington D.C. who was first made to undergo compulsory military service for giving a false birth date to his employers at the slaughter house in 1942. In July 1942, when Herman Perry came out of the training camp in South Carolina after induction into US Army, he donned his uniform for the first time and posed for the photograph (Fig -01)—a souvenir for his family and his girlfriend, a skinny-limbed black beauty named Alma Talbot.

He and scores of other black GIs were then packed into the crowded, poorly ventilated lower decks of a commandeered ocean liner and shipped around the Cape of Good Hope across half of world to work for the US Army throughout allies’ forces locations.

[nagarifle]

no i have,t read the "Shattered Sword, like most people i do not read the loosers account may be i should.

the story about the naga princess?, well there are no naga princess , never have been.
the story may or may not be true, but certain facts are there that it talks abut the stillwell road, which is from Ledo Assam, the nearest naga tribe in the area are the Konyaks, who have an ang who is regarded as a king but the rest of the family are just not royalty, their areas include parts of Burma. the name patikai is the name of mountain range in the area.