The British colony of Burma was lost to Japan in 1942, symbolized by the "walkout" of Gen. Joseph Stilwell from Maymyo to Imphal by May 20, 1942: "We got a hell of a beating ... and it is humiliating as hell."
Gen. and Madame Chiang Kai Shek and Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, on the day following the Doolittle Raid. Maymyo, Burma. 1942/04/19, (NWDNS-111-SC-134627) from NA
As commander of the China-India-Burma theater, Stilwell planned to train Chinese troops equipped with Lend-Lease aid to retake Burma and open a road from India to China. But the plan was opposed by Gen. Claire Chennault who wanted to use airpower to attack Japan from bases in China, by Chiang Kai-shek who wanted Lend-Lease aid for his government in China, by the British who wanted men and supplies diverted to "Europe-first" and North Africa. FDR supported a Burma theater with limited supplies, and by Sept. 1943 Stilwell was able to start his GALAHAD offensive with the help of the Kachin guerillas trained by the OSS, aimed at taking the airfield at Myitkyina, the largest city in Kachin province. The British finally agreed to help and created the South East Asia Command Nov. 15, 1943, under Lord Mountbatten to protect India ("Save England's Asian Colonies") and to begin an offensive in Burma.
1944
Burma map from Time, 1944/04
Feb. 4 - Japan began attack on the Arakan coast of the Bay of Bengal to stop Mountbatten's offensive, but the Japanese were defeated
Mar. 6 - Japan Gen. Mutaguchi began the U-Go offensive
3 divisions crossed the Chindwin River to attack Kohima and Imphal in the hills of Assam
British Gen. William Slim used American air transport planes to reinforce his 14th Army with the 5th Indian Division from the Arakan front Mar. 19-29, and continued to be supplied from the air during the siege of Imphal and Kohima
Japan troops not supplied, suffered from disease, slowed by monsoon rains
Japan retreated June 22 from Imphal and re-crossed the Chindwin back into Burma with only 20,000 of 85,000 troops that had started the campaign
Apr. 17 - Japan began the Ichi-Go offensive in south China to open railroad from Peking to Nanking, and to attack Chennault's airfields
May 11 - China's Y-Force finally crossed the Salween - map of "Double Gamble" from Time, 1944/04
May 17 - Stilwell captured Myitkyina but remained under siege by Japan until Aug. 3
"Back Door to Tokyo" by March of Time, June 1944, praised Stilwell's efforts
July-Oct. - Military Observers Mission (DIXIE) with Henry Wallace and John Service sent to gain support of Mao Tse-tung in Yenan; Service wrote 77 memos from Yenan to Ambassador Clarence Gauss and Patrick Hurley, with copies to Stilwell, that communists controlled "most of North and part of Central China" with morale "very high" and no "defeatism" or "war-weariness" and the movement "is strong and successful" and "it will not easily be killed."
Sept. 12-16 - 2nd Quebec Conference - FDR pledged support of Chiang who wanted direct command of the Chinese army fighting in Burma, and supported the British who wanted to absorb Stilwell's Galahads into SEAC
"Inside China Today" by March of Time, released Dec. 1944, praised China
Oct. 18 - Stilwell given his 4th star, but replaced by Gen. Albert Wedemeyer as commander of US Army in China, and by Gen. Daniel Sultan who commanded Mars Force (formerly Merrill's Marauders) and Chinese forces trained in India.
1945
Jan. 12 - Col. Lewis A. Pick led the first convoy over the new Ledo Road built by Army and Chinese engineer battalions to connect the Burma Road with China.
Jan. 27 - Chinese forces under Gen. Sultan from Myitkyina and Chiang's Y-Force from Yunnan joined to reopen the Burma-Ledo Road, renamed the "Stilwell Road" by Chiang Kai-shek.
Feb. 4-11 - Yalta conference - Russian entry into war against Japan more important than Poland or Chiang's China.
June1 - FBI raid on Amerasia offices in New York leads to arrest of John Service.
John Service 1945
Lt. Col. Dean Rusk in China 1944
Julia McWilliams [Child] in Ceylon 1944
Sources:
photo of Julia Child from Noel Riley Fitch. Appetite for Life: the Biography of Julia Child. New York : Doubleday, 1997.
Tuchman, Barbara. Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-1945. New York: Macmillan, 1971, argued that Stilwell was not just another general, but was a folkhero, honest and direct with the American people, was "quintessentially American" in his idealism and self-sacrifice and hard work to help the Chinese people, but she concluded that "China was a problem for which there was no American solution."
Smith, R. Harris. OSS: The Secret History of America's First Central Intelligence Agency.University of California Press, 1972, argued that Detachment 202 in China provided a great amount of accurate information that politicians in Washington ignored.
