Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32243 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-02
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Dr Richard Holmes, Cranfield University
'This is a first-rate book, and without doubt the best account of Bill Slim's conduct of the Burma Campaign.'

Max Hastings, The Sunday Telegraph, 25 January 2004
Robert Lyman, himself an ex-soldier ... asserts that Slim was the outstanding British general of the war. He is surely right.

Andrew Lycett, The Sunday Times, 25 January 2004
Lyman is good on strategy... (and) astute on what it took to fight the war on the ground.

Customer Reviews

Outstanding
This has to be one of the most outstanding books I have ever read. Lyman completely convinces me not just that Slim was a great man and an extraordinary military leader, but that he did something in war that set him apart from the crowd, by creating - perhaps unwittingly - an approach to warfare that has since become the pattern for modern British military doctrine. I was struck by the power of Lyman's logic and the masterful way in which he demonstrated his argument. Brilliant.

Close but no cigar....
Overall a really good book highlighting the insights into the situation in Burma during WW2, and had this book been entitled "Burma and Bill" it may have been slightly more accurate.

What I'm getting at is that the book really could have made more effort to understand Bill Slim as a person, and bogged itself down with the troop movements and overall situation of the war in Burma.

I would recommend this book as great insight into the infuence that Bill Slim had over the ups and downs of the conflict Burma, but not if you really want to gain a deeper understanding about Bill as a person.

Masterful
Robert Lyman has produced a brilliant history of Slim's victory in Burma and convinces the reader that he was the outstanding British commander of the Second World War. Slim, although relatively unknown now, transformed a defeated and dejected force into the Army that would defeat the seemingly invincible Japanese Army -that had mastered the terrain in 1942- just two years after its crushing defeat in 1942.

Robert Lyman's thoroughly researched book lucidly displays his mastery of the subject with ample maps and quotes from Slim and the other commanders in the Burma chain of command. It should be read by anyone with an interest in military strategy, the Second World War or indeed the battle for Burma.