Imperial military transportation in British Asia : Burma 1941-1942 / Michael W. Charney.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Charney, Michael W., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Military railroads--Great Britain--Colonies.

Military railroads.

Railroads--Great Britain--Colonies.

Railroads.

Railroads--India--History.

Transportation, Military--History.

Transportation, Military.

Great Britain--Colonies--Asia.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (249 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

[London] : Bloomsbury Academic, 2019.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

"Imperial Military Transportation in British Asia sheds light on attempts by royal engineers to introduce innovations devised in the UK to wartime India, Iraq, and Burma, as well as the initial resistance of local groups of colonial railwaymen to such metropolitan innovations. Michael W. Charney looks at the role of the railways in the First Burma Campaign to show how some kinds of military technology - as an example of imperial knowledge - faced resistance due to 1930s-era colonial insularity. The delay this caused significantly compromised the early defense of the colony when the Japanese invaded in 1942. Charney examines the efforts made by one engineer in particular to revive the railways and shows how this effort was responsible for the development of a truly imperial technology that was suitable for extra-European contexts and finally won acceptance in India. Incorporating newly accessible primary source material from the files of the military Director of Transportation during the Campaign, this book highlights a hitherto unfilled gap in the archival record and explores an ignored but crucial aspect of the 1942 Japanese invasion of Burma."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

Contents:

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

1. Metropolitan Transportation Technique from Britain to India and Iraq

2. Local, Colonial Railway Experience

3. A Colonial Railway in Wartime

4. Militarisation

5. Kings of the Road

6. The Technical Limits of Military Supply

7. Dark Territory and the Collapse of the Burma Defense

8. After the Campaign: India Learns from Burma

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Compliant with Level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Content is displayed as HTML full text which can easily be resized or read with assistive technology, with mark-up that allows screen readers and keyboard-only users to navigate easily.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781350089488

1350089486

9781350089464

135008946X

9781350089471

1350089478