This country is at war with Germany.

We shall go on to the end.

I remember the sheets of flame which came up and almost blinded us from our guns.

What was the situation in Burma following the Allied victories in Fowl and Kohima?

By the summer of 1944, those two hard-fought battles had marked a major turning point in the Burma campaign.

Japanese forces were in retreat and the initiative had passed firmly to the Allies. But pushing into central Burma would require bold, strategy, speed and coordination across air, land and river.

I'm joined by Jack Boucher, author of Thunderrun, McTeeleer, 1945. We're going to be discussing the dramatic

and fast-paced battle of McTaylor, a pivotal moment in the Allied Drive South that contributed

significantly to the conclusion of the Burma campaign. Welcome back, Jack. It's nice to

see you again. Let's start by setting the scene.

What was the situation in Burma following the Allied victories at Imphal and Kohirma?

Yeah, so when Imphal and Kahima take place, obviously, that's Slim's big battle where he defeats the

Japanese attempted invasion of Burma.

And the first of really, really important thing that Slim does is that instead of him

doing the sort of, you know, what they've done every previous year is they sit out of the monsoon,

they rebuild their army, you know, take on a new recruit, or replacements are brought in, sorry,

from the recruitment pools and so on, refit the troops, new equipment and all that sort of thing.

After Infarl and Kahima, and just, you know, partway through the monsoon,

Slim takes a decision, a very brave one, to continue the fight and effectively break out from

Infile and Kahima.

And he does this on two different routes.

And that's basically to him just hedging his best.

...