40,000 casualties during the Japanese conquest of Burma in 1942[14][15][16]
31,443 dead by all causes (1943–1945)
35,948 wounded (1943–1945)[17]
~86,600 excluding sick[18][19]
28,878 killed and missing
44,731 wounded
~12,700 died of disease
3,253 total casualties[20][21][vi]
Total Allied: ~207,244
200,000 overall
144,000[22] – 164,500[23] total dead including disease
40,000 killed in action[24]
56,000 wounded[25]
~5,600[26][27] 2,615 dead or missing
Total Axis: ~210,000
250,000[28] to 1,000,000[18] Burmese civilians killed[vii]
^ abThe Burma National Army after it revolted against the Japanese and joined the allies as the Patriotic Burmese Forces.
^Chinese Expeditionary Force in Burma.
^They were drawn primarily from British India. Most of them stayed and defended in India, and did not participate in the counter-offensives in Burma.
^The X Force (About 75,000 troops) and Y Force (175,000 troops)
^3,000 were frontline combat troops (Merrill's Marauders); the rest were engineering and air force personnel.
^Merrill's Marauders losses accounted for 2,394 of this figure, including 424 combat casualties and 1,970 deaths or evacuations due to disease.
^Total excludes the approximately 3 million civilians who died in the Bengal famine.
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The Burma campaign was a series of battles fought in the British colony of Burma. It was part of the South-East Asian theatre of World War II and primarily involved forces of the Allies (mainly from the British Empire and the Republic of China, with support from the United States) against the invading forces of the Empire of Japan. Imperial Japan was supported by the Thai Phayap Army, as well as two collaborationist independence movements and armies. Nominally independent puppet states were established in the conquered areas and some territories were annexed by Thailand. In 1942 and 1943, the international Allied force in British India launched several failed offensives to retake lost territories. Fighting intensified in 1944, and British Empire forces peaked at around 1 million land and air forces. These forces were drawn primarily from British India, with British Army forces (equivalent to eight regular infantry divisions and six tank regiments),[29] 100,000 East and West African colonial troops, and smaller numbers of land and air forces from several other Dominions and Colonies.[4] These additional forces allowed the Allied recapture of Burma in 1945.
The campaign had a number of notable features. The geographical characteristics of the region meant that weather, disease and terrain had a major effect on operations. The lack of transport infrastructure placed an emphasis on military engineering and air transport to move and supply troops, and evacuate wounded. The campaign was also politically complex, with the British, the United States and the Chinese all having different strategic priorities. It was also the only land campaign by the Western Allies in the Pacific Theatre which proceeded continuously from the start of hostilities to the end of the war. This was due to its geographical location. By extending from South East Asia to India, its area included some lands which the British lost at the outset of the war, but also included areas of India wherein the Japanese advance was eventually stopped. The climate of the region is dominated by the seasonal monsoon rains, which allowed effective campaigning for only just over half of each year. This, together with other factors such as famine and disorder in British India and the priority given by the Allies to the defeat of Nazi Germany, prolonged the campaign and divided it into four phases: the Japanese invasion, which led to the expulsion of British, Indian and Chinese forces in 1942; failed attempts by the Allies to mount offensives into Burma, from late 1942 to early 1944; the 1944 Japanese invasion of India, which ultimately failed following the battles of Imphal and Kohima; and finally the successful Allied offensive which liberated Burma from late 1944 to mid-1945.
The campaign was also strongly affected from the political atmosphere which erupted in the South-East Asian regions occupied by Japan, who pursued the Pan-Asianist policy of a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere". These led to a Japanese-sponsored revolution during the initial invasion and the establishment of the State of Burma, whose Burma Independence Army had spearheaded the initial attacks against the country. The Provisional Government of Free India, with its Indian National Army fought under Imperial Japan, especially during Operation U-Go in 1944. The INA had earlier collaborated with Nazi Germany. The dominating attitude of the Japanese militarist who commanded the army stationed in the country, ultimately doomed the co-prosperity sphere as a whole, leading to local hopes for real independence fading and a revolt by the Burma National Army in 1945. On the Allied side, political relations were mixed for much of the war. The China Burma India Theater American-trained Chinese X Force led to cooperation between the two countries, but the clashing strategies proposed by General Joseph Stilwell and Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek would lead to Stilwell's eventual removal from his position as American Commander of the theater. On the other hand, China–India relations were positive from the cooperative Burma Road, built to reach the Chinese Y Force and the Chinese war effort inside China, as well as from the heroic missions over the extremely dangerous air route over the Himalayas, nicknamed "The Hump". The campaign would have a great impact on the independence struggle of Burma and India in the post-war years.
^The Burma Boy, Al Jazeera Documentary, Barnaby Phillips follows the life of one of the forgotten heroes of World War II Archived 3 February 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Al Jazeera Correspondent Last Modified: 22 July 2012, 07:21.
^Killingray, David (2012). Fighting for Britain: African Soldiers in the Second World War. London: James Currey Ltd. p. 7. ISBN 978-1847010476.
^>Facts on File: World War II in the China-Burma-India theater Archived 1 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved 20 March 2016.
^ abEllis, John, World War II: A Statistical Survey: The Essential Facts and Figures for All the Combatants, 1993.
^中国抗日战争正面战场作战记 (in Chinese). pp. 460–461. Archived from the original on 7 January 2016. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
^《中缅印战场抗日战争史》,徐康明 著,解放军出版社,2007年
^"远征军入缅作战简介_远征军入缅作战的时间死亡人数_远征军入缅作战的意义结果损失 – 趣历史 – 趣历史". Archived from the original on 18 March 2017. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
^McLynn, p. 1.
^Donald M. Seekins, Historical Dictionary of Burma (Myanmar) (Scarecrow Press, 2006).
^Bayly & Harper 2005, p. 273.
^Reynolds, Bruce E. (1994). Thailand and Japan's Southern Advance, 1940-1945. Palgrave Macmillan US. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-312-10402-3.
^Donald M. Seekins, Historical Dictionary of Burma (Myanmar) (Scarecrow Press, 2006), 125.
^Allen, Burma: The Longest War, p. 662.
^Japanese conquest of Burma, December 1941 – May 1942 Archived 16 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved 20 March 2016.
^Mclynn pp. 67
^Bradford, James (19 September 2006). International Encyclopedia of Military History. Routledge. p. 221.
^中国抗日战争正面战场作战记 (in Chinese). p. 476. Archived from the original on 2 June 2016. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
^ abMcLynn, The Burma Campaign: Disaster into Triumph, 1942–1945, p. 1.
^Nesbit, The Battle for Burma pp. 240.
^US Army Battle Casualties and Non-battle Deaths in World War 2: Final Report. Archived 22 April 2021 at the Wayback Machine Combined Arms Research Library, Department of the Army. 25 June 1953. P. 76. Includes 1,466 "battle deaths" (1,121 killed in action) and 123 who died of wounds, for a total of 1,589 killed.
^Marauder.org: casualties. Archived 22 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 22 July 2015.
^McLynn, The Burma Campaign: Disaster into Triumph, 1942–1945, p. 1. Includes 144,000 dead and 56,000 wounded.
^Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery Archived 16 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
^USSBS Japan pp. 12 Archived 16 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
^Mclynn, p. 1.
^Meyer, Milton Walter (1997). Asia: A Concise History. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 309. ISBN 978-0-8476-8063-4.
^Lewis et al. World War II, p. 287.
^Micheal Clodfelter. Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Reference to Casualty and Other Figures, 1500–2000. 2nd ed. 2002 ISBN 0-7864-1204-6. p. 556.
^Martin Brayley, Mike Chappell. "The British Army 1939–45 (3): The Far East". Osprey Publishing, p. 6.
The Burmacampaign was a series of battles fought in the British colony of Burma. It was part of the South-East Asian theatre of World War II and primarily...
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