Author:Tim Harper,Christopher Bayly
The vast crescent of British-ruled territories from India down to Singapore appeared in the early stages of the Second World War a massive asset in the war with Germany, providing huge quantities of soldiers and raw materials and key part of an impregnable global network denied to the Nazis. Within a few weeks in 1941-2 a Japanese invasion had destroyed all this, almost effortlessly taking the 'impregnable fortress' of Singapore with its 80,000 strong garrison, and sweeping through South and Southeast Asia to the frontier of India itself. This revolutionary, absolutely gripping book brings to life the entire experience of South and Southeast Asia in this extraordinary period, telling the story from an Indian, Burmese, Chinese or Malay perspective as much as from that of the British or Japanese. Effectively it is the story of the birth of modern South and Southeast Asia and the hopes and fears of the dozens of 'forgotten armies' marching through the jungle battlefields, so many dying for causes swept away by the reality that emerged in 1945. Even as the British successfully fought back in the bloodiest battles in South and Southeast Asia's history, there was no going back to colonial rule.
Lucid and comprehensive-a vivid essay on wartime blunders and the post-war bluster that tried to hide them
—— Charles King , Times Literary SupplementExhaustively researched and scholarly-an exciting story and one that benefits from accounts written at the time by various soldiers and observers
—— Beryl Bainbridge , GuardianBetween these covers you will find a wholly unpretentious, terrifyingly honest breakdown of a war-exceptionally harrowing and impossible to put down
—— Mick Middles , Manchester Evening NewsPonting is both incisive and original in his account of what contemporaries called the "Russian War"
—— Michael Kerrigan , ScotsmanGutsy, humorous and a tiny bit snobby, she's a brilliant correspondent and chronicler of the times.
—— Sainsbury's MagazineA wonderful, insightful illustration of the activities, thoughts and feelings of a young woman during the turbulent time of war.
—— Family History MonthlyLively letters from Maureen, a Wren, to her RAF boyfriend kept their romance alive from 1941-45. Eric, who married her, was a lucky man.
—— Saga MagazineChildren are history's forgotten people; amidst the sound and fury of battle, as commanders decide the fate of empires, they are never seen. Yet as Nicholas Stargardt reveals in his heart-rending account of children's lives under the Nazis, to ignore them is to leave history half-written. This is an excellent book and it tells a terrible story... As Stargardt so eloquently reminds us, the tragedy is that children were part of the equation and suffered accordingly
—— Trevor Royle , Sunday Herald'Nicholas Stargardt evokes the individual voices of children under Nazi rule. In re-creating their wartime experiences, he has produced a challenging new historical interpretation of the Second World War
—— History Today
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