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****Introduction****

World War II was the largest and most violent armed conflict in thehistory of mankind. However, the half century that now separates us fromthat conflict has exacted its toll on our collective knowledge. While WorldWar II continues to absorb the interest of military scholars and historians,as well as its veterans, a generation of Americans has grown to maturitylargely unaware of the political, social, and military implications ofa war that, more than any other, united us as a people with a common purpose.
 
Highly relevant today, World War II has much to teach us, not only aboutthe profession of arms, but also about military preparedness, global strategy,and combined operations in the coalition war against fascism. During thenext several years, the U.S. Army will participate in the nation's 50thanniversary commemoration of World War II. The commemoration will includethe publication of various materials to help educate Americans about thatwar. The works produced will provide great opportunities to learn aboutand renew pride in an Army that fought so magnificently in what has beencalled "the mighty endeavor."
 
World War II was waged on land, on sea, and in the air over severaldiverse theaters of operation for approximately six years. The followingessay is one of a series of campaign studies highlighting those strugglesthat, with their accompanying suggestions for further reading, are designedto introduce you to one of the Army's significant military feats from thatwar.
 
This brochure was prepared in the U.S. Army Center of Military Historyby Clayton R. Newell. I hope this absorbing account of that period willenhance your appreciation of American achievements during World War II.
 
GORDON R. SULLIVAN   General, United States Army   Chief of Staff 
 **Burma, 1942****7 December 1941-26 May 1942**
 
On 8 December 1941, after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the UnitedStates declared war on Japan and became an active participant in WorldWar II. For some months prior to that attack, however, the United Stateshad been supporting China's war against Japan with money and materiel.Pearl Harbor formally brought America into World War II, but it was anearlier American commitment to China that drew the United States Army intothe Burma Campaign of 1942.
 
Japan had invaded China in 1937, gradually isolating it from the restof the world except for two tenuous supply lines: a narrow-gauge railwayoriginating in Haiphong, French Indochina; and the Burma Road, an improvedgravel highway linking Lashio in British Burma to Kunming in China. Alongthese routes traveled the materiel that made it possible for Chiang Kai-shek'sNationalist Chinese government to resist the Japanese offensives into theinterior.
 
In 1940 Japan took advantage of the German invasion of France to cutboth supply lines to China. In June, with France focused on the war inEurope, Japanese warships moved into French Indochina and closed the railroadfrom Haiphong. A month later, threatening war if its demands were not met,Japan secured an agreement from the hard-pressed British government toclose the Burma Road to war materiel temporarily.
 
The Burma Road reopened in October 1940, literally the sole lifelineto China. By late 1941 the United States was shipping lend-lease materielby sea to the Burmese port of Rangoon, where it was transferred to railroadcars for the trip to Lashio in northern Burma and finally carried by truckover the 712-mile-long Burma Road to Kunming. Over this narrow highway,trucks carried munitions and materiel to supply the Chinese Army, whosecontinuing strength in turn forced the Japanese to keep considerable numbersof ground forces stationed in China. Consequently, Japanese strategistsdecided to cut the Burma lifeline, gain complete control of China, andfree their forces for use elsewhere in the Pacific.
 ***Strategic Setting***
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Burma, a country slightly smaller in area than the state of Texas, liesimbedded in the underbelly of the Asian landmass between India and China.Along the northern, eastern, and western borders of Burma
 **3**