Road Of Bones

Product Description

Winner of the British Army Military Book of the Year 2011 The story of one of the most brutal battles in modern history -- fought at a major turning point of the Second World War. Kohima. In this remote Indian village near the border with Burma a tiny force of British & Indian troops faced the might of the Imperial Japanese Army. Outnumbered ten to one the defenders fought the Japanese hand to hand in a battle that was amongst the most savage in modern warfare. A garrison of no more than 1 500 fighting men desperately short of water & with the wounded compelled to lie in the open faced a force of 15 000 Japanese. They held the pass & prevented a Japanese victory that would have proved disastrous for the British. Another six weeks of bitter fighting followed as British & Indian reinforcements strove to drive the enemy out of India. When the battle was over a Japanese army that had invaded India on a mission of imperial conquest had suffered the worst defeat in its history. Thousands of men lay dead on a devastated landscape while tens of thousands more Japanese starved in a catastrophic retreat eastwards. They called the journey back to Burma the Road of Bones as friends & comrades committed suicide or dropped dead from hunger along the jungle paths. Fergal Keane has reported for the BBC from conflicts on every continent over the past 25 years & he brings to this work of history not only rigorous scholarship but a raw understanding of the pitiless nature of war. It is a story filled with vivid characters: the millionaires son who refused a commission & was awarded a VC for his sacrifice in battle the Roedean debutante who led a guerrilla band in the jungle & the General who defied the orders of a hated superior in order to save the lives of his men. Based on original research in Japan Britain & India Road of Bones is a story about extraordinary courage & the folly of imperial dreams.