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that no casualties could be carried, and thus badly wounded men must be put out of their misery. This policy might have been merciful, given their inevitable fate in Japanese hands, but it proved hard for Allied soldiers to fulfil. After one Chindit action, Gurkha Lt. Harold James found himself obliged to follow Wingate’s orders: ‘I had a wounded Gurkha, shot to bits in great pain, and dying. After agonizing for a bit, I gave him a lethal dose of morphia … The Gurkhas were amazing, they just accepted it … To my horror I found another very seriously wounded Gurkha. I said, “I’ve just had to do it.” George looked at me as if to say “You do it again.” I protested, “There’s no way I’m going to do it twice.” He gave the chap a lethal dose.’

Another survivor of the 1943 Chindit foray, Dominic Neill, was among those who realised how little the columns accomplished, beyond creating a legend of suffering and sacrifice. ‘The newspapers back in India had banner headlines about Wingate’s expedition. We couldn’t believe our eyes. We had achieved absolutely nothing, we had been kicked out by the Japs again. The publicity was the work of the authorities in GHQ Delhi grasping at any straws after the defeat in 1942, closely followed by the disastrous Arakan campaign of 1942/43.’ But Churchill thrilled to the exploits of the Chindits, which seemed to provide an honourable contrast to the inertia that suffused the main army in India.

In August 1943, the Japanese achieved a useful propaganda coup by declaring Burma an independent state. Many Burmese were briefly seduced, their enthusiasm increased by Japanese success in repulsing Britain’s Aykab offensives. But in Burma as elsewhere, the occupiers’ arrogance, cruelty and economic exploitation progressively alienated their subjects. However eager were the Burmese to throw off British rule, evicting the Japanese became a more pressing concern. In the first half of the Asian war, only hill-dwellers assisted British arms. By 1944, the Japanese faced the hatred of Burma’s townspeople as well as guerrilla activity by the tribes.

The autumn monsoon put an end to each year’s campaigning season on the India–Burma frontier as effectively as did the spring thaw in Russia. Thus, after the failure of British and Indian forces to break through in the Arakan, 1943 passed without significant progress on the Burma front. Churchill was obliged to content himself with using Indian formations to assist the Allied campaigns in North Africa and Italy. Critics of the Indian Army argued then, and have maintained since, that its romantic reputation was significantly higher than its performance justified. Some units, Gurkhas notable among them, displayed skill, courage and tenacity. Others did not. British imperial endeavour against the Japanese persistently lagged behind that of the United States.

Yet even in the Pacific, until massive resources reached the theatre during 1944, there were long pauses between successive American initiatives. In June 1943, MacArthur and South-West Pacific Area Commander Admiral William Halsey began their new campaigns in New Guinea and the Solomons. The seizure of New Georgia took a month of tough fighting. Thereafter, Halsey leapfrogged several Japanese-defended islands to land 4,600 men on Vella Lavella. By December, the Americans had secured positions on Bougainville and captured Cape Gloucester at the western end of New Britain. By January 1944 a major air offensive against Rabaul had rendered the base almost useless to Japanese ships and aircraft. Its 100,000-strong garrison became strategically irrelevant; since the troops could move nowhere, they could safely be left to rot.

The expansion of the US Navy made possible a growing Pacific buildup in the course of 1943. Four huge Essex-class fleet carriers and five light carriers provided the core of fast task forces which included battleships and cruisers for shore bombardment, destroyers for radar picket and anti-submarine escort duties. A vast fleet train of oilers and supply vessels enabled the fighting ships to sustain