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The British Army’s report on the Japanese invasion of Burma during WWII—based on first-hand accounts by the officers who survived it.

In 1942, the Japanese military drove British and Indian forces out of Burma. Colonel E.C.V. Foucar, M.C., was given the task of discovering what happened. Seeking information and documentary evidence from officers of the First Burma Campaign, Foucar wrote this detailed account for the Director of Military Training. This volume describes the challenging geographical, climatic, and political conditions in Burma before turning to the devastating Japanese ground assault. He describes harrowing episodes such as the ‘Disaster’ at Sittang Bridge, the evacuation of Rangoon, and the march to the river Irrawaddy in an attempt to secure the north of Burma and its oilfields. With the Japanese closing in on the beleaguered British force, the decision was taken to abandon Burma and try to reach India. The ragged, disease-ridden troops battled their way west just as the monsoons broke. General Wavell, wrote that, “operations were now a race with the weather as with the Japanese and as much a fight against nature as against the enemy.”

Born in 1894, during the First World War EMILE CHARLES VICTOR FOUCAR was serving in the London Regiment as a Second Lieutenant when he was awarded the Military Cross, this being announced in The London Gazette on 26 September 1917. After the war, Foucar returned to Burma where he as a lawyer based in Rangoon; he was the fourth generation of his family living in the country. Re-joining the Army in the Second World War, by 1942 had risen to the rank of Colonel. In October that year, he was appointed to a General Staff post for the purpose of assembling the records and writing a narrative of the First Burma Campaign. 

Reviews

As another reviewer has written, this is not necessarily a book to be read cover to cover, but it is a densely information-packed resource which will be very useful to student of the Far East campaign in the Second World War, and specifically the Japanese conquest of Burma in 1942.

This is not a re-telling of events many years later, rather eye-witness accounts compiled shortly after the Japanese advance through Burma, as British troops sought first to withstand the onslaught and then, later, to abandon the country and head for India.

I have the hard copy book version but I suspect the Kindle version will be more useful to readers as there is no index in the book and whilst the chapter headings do give a summary of what is to follow, and index would have been useful. For this reason, only I deduct one star, but it’s a minor quibble which is far outweighed by the book’s general usefulness.

I often find books that I review a little predictable, so I was delighted when I opened and read this gem. It is based on a narrative written by Colonel FOUCAR immediately after the conclusion of the First Burma Campaign in 1942. The manuscript was lodged in The National Archives (CAB 44/324) but John GREHAN has taken it and produced it in this book, together with a short introduction by himself.

I have both the official British and Indian histories of this campaign, so I was surprised to find how comprehensive and detailed this narrative is. Not only does it cover the events of this campaign, but Colonel FOUCAR also included insights into the nature of the campaign for the people involved, and he provides a good indication of the climate, geography and the people who lived and worked in Burma at the time of the invasion.

There are five comprehensive appendices, four of which are full orders of battle, and the other gives the state of the infantry battalions of the 17th Indian Division on 24 February 1942. There are no maps with this book, although good maps are available from other sources, and some photographs are included to provide some reference.

In conclusion, I was delighted to receive this book, and I am impressed with its content. It is not a book I would read cover to cover, but its twenty-six chapters are better read singularly, as each one covers a specific event or issue. In my humble opinion, this book is essential for anyone with an interest in the Second World War in Burma, both in the 1942 campaign and later 1944/45 campaign. It is simply a gem, and I am delighted to see it published.