The Jungle War: Mavericks, Marauders, and Madmen in the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II

by Gerald Astor

Praise FOR Gerald Astor

""No one does oral history better than Gerald Astor. . . . Great reading.""
-Stephen Ambrose on The Mighty Eighth

""Gerald Astor has proven himself a master. Here, World War II is brought to life through the hammer blows of their airborne triumphs and fears.""
-J. Robert Moskin, author of Mr. Truman's War, on The Mighty Eighth

""Astor captures the fire and passion of those tens of thousands of U.S. airmen who flew through the inferno that was the bomber war over Europe.""
-Stephen Coonts on The Mighty Eighth

""Oral history at its finest.""
-The Washington Post on Operation Iceberg

""Quick and well-paced, this will please even the most jaded of readers.""
-Army magazine on Battling Buzzards

""A stout volume by a distinguished historian of the modern military makes a major contribution on its subject.""
-Booklist on The Right to Fight (starred Editor's Choice)

""Today, as we lose the veterans of World War II at an alarming rate, we must not lose sight of their sacrifices or of the leaders who took them into battle. Astor, an acclaimed military historian, provides an in-depth look at one of the war's most successful division combat commanders, Maj. Gen. Terry Allen. . . . This well-written portrait makes for enjoyable reading.""
-Library Journal on Terrible Terry Allen

Genres: History, War, World War II

392 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2004

About the author

Gerald Morton Astor, a native of New Haven, grew up in Mount Vernon, N.Y. After his Army service in the Second World War, he received a bachelor’s degree from Princeton. He was the picture editor of Sports Illustrated in its early years and worked as an editor for Sport magazine, Look, The Saturday Evening Post and Time.

Besides his accounts of the Battle of the Bulge and the air war in Europe, Mr. Astor wrote of World War II in books including “The Greatest War: Americans in Combat, 1941-1945,” “June 6, 1944: The Voices of D-Day,” “Operation Iceberg: The Invasion and Conquest of Okinawa in World War II” and biographies of Maj. Gen. Terry Allen, a leading combat commander in both North Africa and Europe, and the Nazi medical experimenter Dr. Josef Mengele.

He also wrote “The Right to Fight: A History of African Americans in the Military” and “Presidents at War,” an account of presidents’ evolving assertion of authority to take military action in the absence of a Congressional declaration of war.

Mr. Astor edited “The Baseball Hall of Fame 50th Anniversary Book” and wrote a biography of the heavyweight champion Joe Louis, “And a Credit to His Race.” He collaborated with Anthony Villano, a former F.B.I. agent who recruited informants from the Mafia, in “Brick Agent.”

Reviews

[Ari · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the book but can't recommend it.

The China-Burma-India theater was a significant but overlooked part of the Second World War. It was the only land front where the western allies were continuously in contact with the enemy throughout the war. The combatants included many colorful individuals and units -- Slim, Wingate, Stilwell, and Chennault all feature prominently in this account. Allied special forces units -- the Chindits and Marauders -- were pioneers in developing integrated air-land tactics, including airborne medical evacuation.

This book is a highly readable account of the CBI war, written by a prominent practitioner of oral history. It hits most of the cultural high points -- we hear a lot about the Flying Tigers, the Chindits, and so forth. Stilwell's personal retreat from Burma, on foot, is narrated in detail.

Unfortunately, this book is not a solid history of the fight. It's more a selection of cultural high points than a serious history. It's entirely written off existing sources, mostly memoirs and letters of individual combatants. There is virtually no use of Japanese or other non-Western sources. There is no serious attempt at analysis. Kohima/Imphal, one of the most important battles in the whole conflict, is barely mentioned. There are only two maps, and they aren't detailed. There are no footnotes.

I got something out of the book -- I do now have a considerably better understanding of what the CBI theater was like and what the major interpretive topics are -- but I wish I had read something else and would generally recommend some other book to any reader who was interested in the topic.

[JimC · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good telling of the forgotten theater of China, Burma and India (CBI) in WW2. Provides a good tactical overview of the main actions in battle and the main characters in leadership in the CBI, Stilwell, Slim, and Wingate, to name a few.
The biggest drawback of the book is that it only has one map so the detail noted by the author goes to waste as there's no map to support.

[Steve Dedier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice overview of the theater but bit dry and desperately needs decent maps.

[Lozza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read about the 'forgotten war' of WW2, in the Pacific theater of China-Burma-India. Where conventional warfare rules didn't work and troops had to learn fast how to survive jungle warfare plus a lethal combo of heat, humidity, disease and bugs. Brilliant read and I learned a lot from this book.

[Tomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book on an often-overlooked part of WWII.

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is different from other Astor titles in that it lacks the personal accounts he's known for. If you're looking for a book on the CBI with lots of personal stories/recollections, you'll be disappointed by this book. However, this book provides good insights into the minds and characters of some of the CBI's main personalities: Slim, Stilwell, Chennault, and Mountbatten. It also provides a fairly well-detailed account of the war in the CBI, predominantly the fighting in Burma. Unfortunately, it suffers from an almost complete absence of maps, so unless your knowledge of Indian and Burmese geography is excellent you might get a bit lost when trying to figure out where battles and such are taking place.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book with lots of oral history-type accounts. Author sums up at end with impression of all the CBI leaders. Probably would have read the whole book under normal circumstances, but I was using two other books at the same time for context to Joseph Stilwell's diary and didn't want or need to spend any more time with this book.

Also, ran across one of those errors that make you doubt the accuracy of other things or at least the quality of the editing and/or proofreading (sadly, a problem these days): In one place a C-46 cargo plane was called a "Dakota" instead of a "Commando" -- so was it really a C-47 being described and just a typo, or was it just plain a dumb mistake? In either case, that sort of thing is a wet blanket.

[Abhuston · Rating 2 out of 5]

Took and interesting topic, and made it boring.