Flight By Elephant: The Untold Story of World War II’s Most Daring Jungle Rescue

by Andrew Martin

The incredible story of Gyles Mackrell and his Burmese, elephant-assisted wartime rescue mission.


In the summer of 1942, Gyles Mackrell – a decorated First World War pilot and tea plantation overseer, performed a series of heroic rescues in the hellish jungles of Japanese-occupied Burma – with the aid of twenty elephants.


At the age of 53, Mackrell went into the ‘green hell’ of the Chaukan Pass on the border of North Burma and Assam. Here, Mackrell and a team of elephant riders rescued Indian army soldiers, British civilians and their Indian servants, from the pursuing Japanese, directing the elephants through raging rivers, and territory infested with sand flies, mosquitoes and innumerable leeches. Those he saved were all on the point of death from starvation or fever: that summer was spent in a fight against time.


Now in Andrew Martin’s hands this tale of heroics is given the shape of a suspenseful adventure, a wartime rescue whose facts are the stuff of fiction. ‘Flight By Elephant’ is a gripping chronicle of war and survival, starring everyone’s favourite animal – the powerful, exotic and hugely loveable elephant.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, War, World War II, Animals, Asia

322 pages, Paperback

First published June 6, 2013

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Andrew Martin (born 6 July 1962) is an English novelist and journalist.

Martin was brought up in Yorkshire, studied at the University of Oxford and qualified as a barrister. He has since worked as a freelance journalist for a number of publications while writing novels, starting with Bilton, a comic novel about journalists, and The Bobby Dazzlers, a comic novel set in the North of England, for which he was named Spectator Young Writer of the Year. His series of detective novels about Jim Stringer, a railwayman reassigned to the North Eastern Railway Police in Edwardian England, includes The Necropolis Railway, The Blackpool Highflyer, The Lost Luggage Porter, Murder at Deviation Junction and Death on a Branch Line. He has also written the non-fiction book; How to Get Things Really Flat: A Man's Guide to Ironing, Dusting and Other Household Arts.

Reviews

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went into this book with some baseline knowledge of Burma's role in WWII, after reading "Now the Hell Will Start: One Soldier's Flight from the Greatest Manhunt of World War II," which is generally about American forces in Burma, with emphasis on one man's plight there. Prior to that book, I never knew much, if anything really, about Burma, and even less about its role in WWII. "Flight by Elephant" is a story about an exodus through a remote section of the Burmese jungle to escape the Japanese, who were blowing through Burma and taking control of various cities as they progressed north. The book is largely from the perspective of the British, even though they were accompanied by various servants and assistants who were from India or Burma. Many of the individuals featured in the book are British army, but "army" implies a cohesive unit and survival training. This was not really the case, given the fact that they were evacuating entire towns (including pregnant women) through dangerous terrain. The individuals featured in the book are of varying ages and are, in reality, regular citizens trying to escape the Japanese using a somewhat spur-of-the-moment plan and through an unforgiving jungle.

The descriptions of the perils of the jungle were excellent, and the role of the elephants was fascinating (though it's not until you're about 35-40% of the way through the book before you really get to meet the elephants and see how their presence was so helpful...they are mentioned briefly prior to that, but it's not until later in the book when we see their day-to-day activities). Also, prior to the book, I knew nothing of the British role in Burma or Assam, and in that regard, I learned a great deal.

My biggest issue with the book is the lack of fluidity - it skipped around a lot, from one group of escapees to the next, and I found myself sometimes getting lost or bored with some of the content. I think the author was attempting to set the scene for a dramatic rescue via foreshadowing (hence the skipping around), but the large cast of characters and the fact that the book wasn't always in chronological order ended up being confusing rather than dramatic. I think the previously mentioned "Now the Hell Will Start" is a better action adventure tale, at least from a writing perspective. The writing in this book is somewhat dry.

Nonetheless, I do still highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Burma's role in WWII, and I think it is a very worthwhile read.

[Suzette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using letters and diaries, Martin tells the story of adventurers by necessity who fled the Japanese during WWII into the savage region of the Chaukan Pass on the border between Burma and India. I really enjoyed this book - the topic was fascinating, the writing witty and descriptive, and the research wide-ranging. Although there are no photos (other than the one on the cover)despite references in the book to extant photos and films of the personages and events described, Martin does a great job of placing the reader in the midst of the jungle with those fleeing the Japanese army. For example, on describing the difficulty of dealing with elephants for transport, Martin writes:

"Then an aeroplane flew over...[I]t flew low and loud and elephants do not like noise. It is one of their endearingly middle-aged characteristics, along with their usually docile nature, and their appearance of wearing a pair of baggy corduroy trousers. Mackrell's own elephants didn't mind so much, but the wild herd began trumpeting, that is, screaming with rage. On top of this, the rain had increased, and Mackrell's own herd had come to a precipitous ascent with rivers of red mud flowing down between the trees, causing the animals to slide and slither, and in some cases to topple over while others proceeded cautiously, on their knees, but even their loads would slide to the side, all of them being overloaded....In addition, Mackrell and his men were beginning to be attacked by hundreds of leeches."

Oh, the leeches - so disgusting and so prevalent. At one point, Martin describes a starving man dreaming of eating steak only to wake and discover a leech in his mouth. Martin effectively describes the difficulty of the terrain, including cliffs of mud and raging rivers to cross, the lack of food, the high probability of contracting malaria or Beriberi, and the constant worry that a Japanese plane would fly over and strafe the survivors. Martin also educates the reader in a very droll manner about opium, tea, elephants, the native peoples of Burma and India, British military hierarchy during the war, the Gurkhas, marmite, and many other issues relevant to the story. This is well-told account of flawed but heroic people who struggled to survive a horrific journey through a savage region.

[Celia Crotteau · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1942, after the Japanese invaded the British colony of Burma, British civilians and soldiers fled north towards India, braving treacherous jungle paths and steep mountain passes to reach safety. An unsung hero, a middle-aged tea planter gone native, mounted one rescue mission with a herd of mahout-driven elephants and the aid of Gurkha soldiers and other non-British workers (read non-white here). He succeeded in the face of overwhelming odds.
Although the story starts out slowly, it definitely caught and held my interest the further I read. The tea planter, Gyles Mackrell, modestly and appropriately credited his support crew - porters and other workers - with not receiving deserved recognition for their roles in this daring rescue.
This book was published in Great Britain and may not be widely available in the U.S. but is well worth the read if you can find it.

[Kayleigh McMillan · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting account of a very specific niche in WW2 history, telling the story of how people fleeing the Japanese invasion of Burma were rescued from the Chuakan Pass. Though at times it was hard to follow the place names and the people involved, it is yet another extraordinary story from the war and the limits of human survival. I would have loved to see some of the pictures it references as it is hard to really understand the scale of the feats undertaken, or to truly understand how harsh the conditions mentioned were. If you've any interest in WW2 its worth a read but does take a little bit to get into.

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent true tale of endurance as a group of civilians have to evacuate Burma by foot in 1942 throught he thought to be virtually impassable Chawkhan Pass during the monsoon. The author uses diaries and other information to build a portrait of those in the group, tell their story and give plenty of background to the situation for the evacuating British/Indian population of Burma.
Well worth a read and the ISIS audio book narrator really brought the author's style to life.

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very detailed and truly awful experience for all involved, amazing heroism from all, but a little difficult to follow at times. Really could have used a map, and I was very frustrated that the author referenced photos and videos frequently yet there wasn’t a single one included (in the paperback version at least).

[John Aitchison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This tale of courage and fortitude has so many characters and places that I had to read it with two fingers in the pages describing who was who and one in the page with the map of the Burma/India border. Maybe this would not have been necessary had a I read it over a couple of days instead of over a couple of weeks.

[Marty Durham · Rating 3 out of 5]

wished it was better. story sounded good.

[Mairead Rochford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing feat of endurance. What they had to endure was awful. It makes for a fascinating story

[Robin Henry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this relatively unknown story about the evacuation of British colonials from Burma during WWII somewhat entertaining. Chatty and detailed, Martin writes of a motley group of unusual characters who end up, for the most part, making it out of a perilous situation with their dignity intact. Having used mostly diaries of the adventurers as sources, there is perhaps a little too much detail, as Martin feels it necessary to give quite a bit of background on each of the main characters. It may have been better to let those details come out as he told the story rather than back up and give the bio as each person is introduced. There is also rather too much detail in some cases. For example, he mentions the telephone listing for a possible wife (not even a known wife). Martin may have needed a little more help from his editor in deciding what to omit. We all know that when one writes nonfiction, there is a lot of research that never makes it into the story. It almost seems as though he is regurgitating every bit of data he discovered, so much so, that it gets in the way of the story. While this is an interesting subject, and it is obvious that Martin has done his homework, it is a little meandering for my taste. Those who love backstory and loads of details will be charmed.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this - I thought that the author's dry wit enhanced what was a very interesting and well-told story. I came across it a month or so after reading Vicki Croke's Elephant Company, which tells a very similar-sounding story of the efforts to extricate some of those fleeing the Japanese advance in Burma.

But whereas I found that tale to be oversold, with not enough story to really justify the book, this one contains plenty of action. And in addition it throws in a few glimpses of life at the tail end of Empire.

The one caveat regards the elephants - if that's your main interest then Croke's is probably the one to seek out first, as it focuses much more on the amazing animals and the main character's relationship and fascination with them. While they do appear in Flight by Elephant, they are fringe characters at best, and very little attention is really paid to them.

[Dave · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really hate not liking a book like this. It was probably dramatic, heroic and dangerous. I won't ever know, as I gave up after a third of the way through (with very little about elephants up to this point). It was disjointed, tedious, went into great detail about someone at school 40 years ago, not one personality to focus on. I actually hated picking up my e-reader to carry on reading, hoping that it would get better

[Jan · Rating 1 out of 5]

An interesting story but so poorly written and edited, full of British idioms which were difficult to understand. I very seldom quit reading books that I start but I got about half way through this one and just couldn't continue.

[Don Wilton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly I gave up on this book and just flitted through it. The writing style was very disjointed and did not give this important subject the attention and depth it deserves.

[Les Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've given this book 5 because of the book itself and the fact that I have not read a book of this genre, which had me looking forward to the next page.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating story. A little confusing at times as activities at multiple places was covered, but a well told story of an impressive set of people.

[Curt · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 the story was interesting but the telling was disjointed and hard to stay focused on at time

[Recato · Rating 2 out of 5]

It should read "Flight by Elephant: The Untold Story of World War II's Most Boring Jungle Rescue".