STILWELL ROAD, Story of the Ledo Lifeline - WW2 Publication

Can you recognize the river shown below ;-) Probably you may say is this river or something else now that I have done some editing on original photo taken in late 40s. Well, if you view such landscape 30000 feet above the ground, you will have no doubt that it is indeed a river rather an intriguing and mysterious one :-)

No wonder, that was the same thought Lord Mountbatten had when flying over the Hukawng Valley during the monsoon on a visit to Gen. Stilwell. He asked his staff the name of the river below. An American officer accomanied him replied, "That's not a river, it's the Ledo Road."

Ledo Road was not the way it is shown above in the photograph then. The water covered the road, and some surveyors considered this to be proof of their perspicacity when they had said of the Ledo Road project: " It is impossible."

This post is about the booklet prepared by The Office of Public Relations, USF in IBT (India Burma Theater), Advance Section, APO 689, in conjunction with the Information and Education Division, IBT called STILWELL ROAD - Story of the Ledo Lifeline.

The publication was planned and written by S/Sgt. C. M. Buchanan and Sgt. John R. McDowell while layout, illustrations and map was done by Cpl. Sydney Kotler. All photographs were provided by men of the 164th Signal Photo Company. It was printed at the Indian Press Ltd, Calcutta, India.

The booklet is all about construction of one of the engineering marvels of the world, the 1079 mile Stilwell Road which encompasses two separate projects. First, the 507 mile Ledo Road from Ledo, Assam to Wanting, China. Secondly, the Burma Road from this point to Kunming, a distance of 960 kilometers. Both the section were renamed as the Stilwell Road (named after General Vinegar Joe Stilwell of the U.S. Army) in early 1945 at the suggestion of Chiang Kai-shek.

On March 8, 1942, the invading Jap armies captured Rangoon, closed the last overland supply route to China and surged northward to eventually overrun all of Burma. General Joseph W. Stilwell, lacking the men and equipment to offer suitable resistance, was forced to retreat. It is then that he made his famous statement, "I claim we took a hell of a beating. We got run out of Burma and it's humiliating as hell. I think we ought to find what caused it, go back and retake it."

It was obvious that a new supply artery would have to be opened if America was to carry out her commitments to China. And in order to open a road, the Japs would have to be driven back.

The first step in the plan was formulated in October 1942, when Gen. Stilwell and the supreme commander of the Far Eastern Theatre, Lord Wavell (then Gen. Wavell) met and decided the construction of a road from the railhead at Ledo would be an American responsibility (NCAC Operation). Plans were drawn up hastily and submitted to Stilwell on November 5, 1942. On December 1 the advance contingent of Americans arrived in Ledo and thus was started a project visualized by Uncle Joe Stilwell as the only means of driving the Japs from Burma and re-establishing land communications with blockaded China.

The booklet starts with interesting note on how when everyone who worked on Ledo Road were asked what did you see in India, they replied how focused they were on their task which was building the Ledo Road and what all they conquered to make it happen.

It then starts with the introduction of the booklet:

This booklet has been prepared to give you some worthwhile information about the Stilwell Road. It tells about the places to be seen along the great military supply line, about the customs and religions of the people who inhabit this remote corner of the world, and about the part played by the men who pushed through the greatest engineering project ever undertaken in time of war.

The opening of a land route and pipeline, to maintain a constant flow of supplies to China, has been the Number One job of the India-Burma Theater of Operations. Planned and visioned by General Joseph W. Stilwell, the gigantic project was carried to a speedy completion through the combined efforts, leadership and ability of Lt. General Dan I. Sultan, Commanding General of the India-Burma Theater, Major General W. E. R. Covell, Commanding General, Services Of Supply, IBT, and Major General Lewis A. Pick, Commanding General of the Ledo Road project, with the superb teamwork of thousands of American officers and enlisted men, plus the help of soldiers and peoples of our allies.....

Continuing its journey through routes of Stilwell Road and milestones, the booklet captures major landmarks on the road with its historical background and significance. How the towns were captured and men fought all the way against Japanese on route to let IBT section construct the road behind them.

The booklet then touches the history, religion and customs of inhabitant of the region through which the road was built to let its readers familiarize with them.

It covers how the road was built and the people from various department making it happen such as Signals, Medics, Pipeline, GIs, Burma Road Engineers, Coolies, local inhabitants, Air Force, Railroads to name a few.

Just to give you idea of this mammoth road project. It is said that prodigious quantities of earth were moved by the white and colored engineers in building the Ledo Road. An Average of 50,000 cubic yards of earth were handled in the first 270 miles, totaling 13,500,000 cubic yards. With this much dirt, it would be possible to build a solid earthen wall three feet wide and ten feet high from New York to San Francisco.

The booklet ends with the bravery and stories of the American, British, Chinese, Indians and Kachins soldiers whose contribution in letting it happen and re-capturing Burma is unforgettable.


You can read the complete book here. I have scanned all the pages of book for my readers convenience.

Documentary about the construction of the Stilwell Road, narrated by none other than Former US President Ronald Reagan from YouTube:

Outward Bound Souvenir Edition - WW2 Newspaper

As the Cyclonic Storm ‘JAL’ is weakening over Bay of Bengal, I think it is time for another voyage into history :-) Hell, no I even don't know swimming forget about sailing. The only sea where I can attempt to dive is history. So, I will post a small article today on one of the on board publication called "Outward Bound".

June 1945, a British ship sailed towards India carrying British Soldiers to carry on their duty in that vague area termed S.E.A.C (South East Asia Command). The warship was commanded by Lt. Col. G. M. Perry of Coldstream Guards. As usual, the two main things which the troops missed on board the ship were mail and news. To compensate that and keep sailors in high spirit for long voyage to India, the officers of ship made use of reverse side of Army Form N1513.C. by converting them into a wall-newspaper. The broadsheet contained all the latest news [culled from the B.B.C.'s news broadcasts], items of topical interest en route, Quizzes [with prizes] and items of general information. Based on the grand reception the newspaper received along with contribution from soldiers, it was decided to conjure a kind of newspaper out of absolutely nothing. Hence the Outward Journey, a souvenir edition was printed on board the ship.

It was 12 page special edition newspaper, published just above the water line with 3,000 copies only. The newspaper or booklet contains short stories and poems penned down by the sailors along with interesting events organized on board the ship through the eyes of sailors.

The booklet just leaves short of naming the actual ship. It gives some hint though. It mentions that the ship (named S.S. ----) was once the pride of P.&O. line. It was kind of a floating palace-like the Ritz. During the war, it was rechristened as Mistress H.M.T. (His/Her Majesty Trawler) carrying troops overseas.

I tried looking into P&O line ships but couldn't identify this one which sailed in June 1945 to India. It will be great if someone can shed some light on this beauty so I can dig more on history of this ship.

Indian Information - WW2 Stories from North Africa

Today, I am going to share some of the stories of WW2 from Indian Information magazine. If you remember, I had introduced most of you to Indian Information in my old post.

The publication was fortnightly issued by J. Natarajan, Principal Information Officer, Government of India. It was printed in India by Madan Gopal Mitter at Lal Chand & Sons, 76, Lower Circular Road, Calcutta. The same publication was reprinted with color cover and distributed by British Information Services, Washington, D.C. (USA) to save shipping space and cost.

Today's stories come from Vol. 11, No. 103, October 15, 1942 edition; front cover is shown below:

This edition is full of war news/stories/account and interesting cartoons. It shows a snapshot from a movie of that time "Defenders of India" where Indian Soldiers are shown manning lorries in western desert in Africa.

This is followed by actual account of how Indian soldiers are playing an active role in Africa. I won't type it for you unlike earlier :-) I will let you open the image and read it on our own. It really gives nostalgic feeling while reading WW2 magazine rather than my typed letters!

This is followed by an amazing tale of courage and survival of a Gurkha Soldier who was captured and tortured by Italian/German forces in Battle of Tobruk. He escaped from captivity of enemy and walked 5 weeks to live the tale.

Hope, you will like it. I know, you will say this is another easy post for me :-) I don't have to do any research on items!

Indian Information - Three Million Airgraphs A Month

Today, I am going to introduce another series in my blog :-) Sometime back last year, I had found a magazine or publication you can say on eBay which sounded me very interesting. It was an original publication but none bid on it. Despite putting it on my watch list, I forgot but later got it once seller agreed on re-opening it for me to bid. The price was higher still I bought it just out of curiosity.

The publication was "Indian Information". This publication was fortnightly issued by J. Natarajan, Principal Information Officer, Government of India. It was printed in India by Madan Gopal Mitter at Lal Chand & Sons, 76, Lower Circular Road, Calcutta. The same publication was reprinted with color cover and distributed by British Information Services, Washington, D.C. (USA) to save shipping space.

Its main aim was to provide a condensed record of the main peace and war activities of the Government of India, together with some outstanding facts about the British Government's war activities. The publication stated that it did not intend to compete with the Press; it existed for their convenience and was not intended for general circulation among the public.

It was meant for all those person and institutions whose general role was to inform the public, e.g., the public administrator, whether he be governmental (Central or Provincial), municipal, commercial, educational or institutional, the editor, the publisher, the journalist and the publicist.

It is very tough to get hands on reprinted publications forget about original ones. Remember even reprinted versions are official ones only. I don't see any difference in reprinted or original versions in terms of matter though original will always command more price when it comes to valuations. But, both are now days rare to find. It is indeed a WWII collectors treasure especially those who are interested in WWII literature given that this is official publication. Most of these are now available in libraries and museum only world wide. Well, I was fortunate enough to get hold of some editions :-) at very reasonable price.

Since it is publication thus it is difficult to cover completely in one post. So, I have decided to selectively publish articles from this publication here. The publication really gives good insight of war activities and related situation in India and other nations.

As part of that, today I am presenting an article from Vol. 13, No. 120, August 15, 1943 dated edition front cover of which is shown above. This article is about Airgraph Service in India, from its inception to war time situation including difficulties that Postal Department was facing at that time. A very interesting article touching even stamp theft cases those times and reason behind them. It also provides information why certain changes were done in Postal system to overcome theft problem which is still in existence today.

It took me a while but I have typed complete article as it is from publication. In fact, I have also provided enlarged image of the Director General of Posts and Telegraphs Department of India those days.

THREE MILLION AIRGRAPHS A MONTH
Mr. W. H. Shoobert In Expansion Of The Service

The fact that the Indian post office handles three million airgrphs a month- a million and a half inward and an equal number of outward airgraphs - was enclosed by Mr. W. H. Shoobert, Director-General of Posts and Telegraphs, in a broadcast talk on "The Airgraph Service" from the Delhi Station of All India Radio on July 19. Mr. Shoobert gave a brief history of the service and its extension to India in 1942 and explained its particular advantages to the general public for overseas correspondence.

Here is the full text of Mr. Shoobert's Talk:

I have been asked to speak tonight about Airgraphs for a particular reason which I will explain presently. First, however, may perhaps recall, to those who are interested in this most useful device for wartime correspondence, a little of its brief history.

An airgraph service between the United Kingdon and our Army in the Middle East was introduced two years ago as a means of solving the problem of making the best possible use of the capacity available for mails on the direct air route - capacity which was very limited, indeed, owing to the heavy demands for other purposes connected with the war. The service from India to the United Kingdom became available in February, 1942.

A Thousand An Hour
As most of you know, letters on airgraph forms received at post offices throughout India are sent to the Airgraph Section in the Bombay General Post Office, where all outward airgraphs are collected, numbered, sorted, made up into bundles and transferred to the Kodak Studios. At the Studios each letter is photographed upon a tiny negative about half an inch square - and the rate at which the airgraphs forms pass through the special machine installed for the purpose is about 1000 an hour.

The rolls of films are developed in the Studios, carefully examined for faults, and packed in containers which are returned to the General Post Office for transmission by air to their destination. On arrival they are enlarged and a photographic reproduction of each original letter about 5 inches by 4 inches is printed and delivered to the addressee in a special type of envelope with a cut0out panel through which the address on the airgraph enlargement shows out.

A Great Future
Some of you may not know that while one pound weight of ordinary air or surface mail would on an average comprises only about thirty letters, one pound weight of airgraph film including the spool and container carries about three thousand airgraphs. Three thousand communications to the pound - instead of thirty - a hundred times gain in capacity!

That is the great future of the service - and it has a considerable advantage over all other forms of correspondence - for if an airgraph in spite of the careful examination to which it is subjected in the Studios is found on enlargement to be indecipherable for any reason (except, of course, just bad writing), or if owing to any accident a batch of films is lost in transit, a report is telegraphed from the place of receipt, and the original message is traced, re-photographed and transmitted a second time.

Another special convenience of this method of communication is that it can be utilised for advising remittances in code by approved Banks - and I may perhaps add a further great advantage in it which must appeal to the busy man - that is that limited space on an airgraph form furnishes him with an excellent excuse for writing only the briefest of letters to his devoted relations. Did I hear the opinion expressed that it is pity the noting of some Secretariat Departments is not confined to airgraph forms?

Service From India
It is an interesting fact that the airgraph service from India to the United Kingdom was available some months before that from the United Kingdom to India. As I have mentioned, the former started in February, 1942, but it was not until June 11 of that year that the first inward airgraphs arrived from England via Cairo, where they were enlarged and printed, because no enlarging apparatus was then available in India. The result was that for some time the inward service took considerably longer in transit than the outward, but in September 1942 Messrs. Kodak were able to install enlarging machinery in India and the first direct airgraph from the United Kingdom was received at the end of that month.

In addition to the service to the United Kingdom, airgraphs were introduced for Eire in April 1942, for Canada in October 1942 and for Newfoundland in April 1943. On the 10th of the current month a new direct airgraph service will also be available to and from New Zealand, the Fiji Islands, Tonga Islands and New Hebrides.

A Blessing
That a large number of people regard the airgraph as a blessing can be gauged from the fact that while in February 1942, the month of its introduction, 98,593 outwards airgraphs were flown from India, during the four weeks which have just passed more than a million and a half airgraphs left these shores - a very large proportion of which written by men in Fighting Forces. In the first full month for which the inward airgraph mail was available 255,300 of them were brought to India, but by April 1943 inward receipts also had risen to almost a million and a half monthly.

The average time taken by airgraphs in transit during the last two months has been nine days. Normally, about three days are occupied in enlarging and processing airgraphs received, but when consignments are very heavy this standard cannot, of course, be maintained. For communications with the countries for which it is available the airgraph is therefore incomparably quicker than the ordinary air mail which, owing to the load difficulty, still has to be carried for large part of its journey by surface route.

Theft Of Stamps
Each month, then, airgraphs in millions are being dispatched from India and safely delivered at their destinations, but it is of certain very disquieting cases, in which airgraph forms, duly stamped by those who wrote them, have never reached our Airgraph Section in Bombay, that I wish particularly to speak tonight.

Some publicity has already been given to the detection of thefts of undefaced stamps from airgraph forms in Karachi and Calcutta, and it is not unlikely that reports which have been current may have effected the confidence of some who have been using this method of correspondence. That those responsible for the administration of the Postal Services in India have been gravely disturbed by the disclosure of organised pilfering is an understatement of our feelings. The discovery that a group of minor officials of the Department were involved in this particularly contemptible form of postal crime was even more upsetting. But now that the crime has been detected and a number of arrests have been made it is only fair to inform the public of measures which have been taken to obviate the recurrence of this kind of thing in future.

Checks And Safeguards
I must explain that there are, of course, a number of ordinary departmental checks prescribed to prevent the theft of stamps by an occasional dishonest officer, and supervising officers are continually reminded of their responsibilities in this respect but it is the business of the determined thief to circumvent checks and safeguards and unfortunately the present extraordinary economic conditions and the fact that stamps have, in many places, been passing as currency have rendered both temptation and opportunity to commit crimes of this nature more obvious.

A dishonest private servant or orderly on a comparatively low pay must obviously find in the eight-anna stamp affixed to an airgraph, entrusted to him for posting, an easy means of supplementing his salary just as a minor postal official may find in it a ready temptation to conceal and pilfer an occasional article when opportunity offers. That such a danger might exist became particularly evident when the shortage of small coin was first felt in various parts of India. For that reason, in 1942, a Postal Notice was issued announcing that the postage stamps affixed to the airgraph forms, handed over by members of the public to postal officials for onward transmission, would be defaced in their presence.

We have recently made further announcements earnestly requesting the public, in their own interests, to see that this instruction is strictly followed, and advising them, as far as possible, to hand in personally at the Post Office counter their airgraphs or any mail letters bearing stamps of eight annas or more in value. Alternatively, it is wise to send a reliable servant to do so. This should not be very much trouble. After all, telegrams are booked in much the same way.

Embossed Forms
I have also to tell you that for some months we have been exploring the possibility of producing an airgraph form with the stamp embossed or printed upon it. There were certain difficulties, but it is hoped that forms embossed with three-anna stamps for the use of troops and eight-anna stamps for the use of the general public will be available for sale at post offices in a short time, and this should prove an effective solution of the problem with which we have had to deal.

You may ask whether any provision will be made for exchanging embossed forms which have become spoiled in any way. The reply is "yes". It is proposed to refund the value of such forms at post offices with a deduction of one anna for the cost thereof. I would here remind you that, for ordinary air mail, envelopes with 14-anna stamps printed on them can be purchased at all big post offices.

We may trust with confidence that the measures which have been taken will ensure that incidents such as those which occurred in Calcutta and Karachi will not happen again. Our regret that they have happened is none the less bitter. I hope that the information which I have given will reassures the listeners that the Posts and Telegraphs Department, under difficulties which are at the present time extreme, is fully mindful of its duty to the public and watchful of the public interests.

In conclusion, I would once more appeal to those who use foreign air mail to help protect their own interests by getting the stamps defaced by the postal staff in their own presence whenever possible.

Special Junagadh War Number - WWII Publication

Today's post is getting published on weekdays, breaking the old tradition of posting only on weekends. Well, there are couple of reasons for that: I was bit busy in some apartment meetings/inspection work, there was some laziness on my part as usual and last but the least, I watched 3 movies over weekends :-) It was long time since I decided to watch movies.

Coming back to today's item, there is little known about it other than that the publication itself provides some very useful information on war preparations and activities in Junagadh and other princely states during WWII. Yes, today's item is about a publication called "Naresh" published by some Mr. Makhan Singh.

The gentleman used to publish this magazine which used to cover news and stories from princely states of India. The edition I have is mainly dedicated to Junagadh called "Special Junagadh War Number".

The main magazine

This edition is dated June 10, 1942 and seems published from Kot Radha Kishen, a place in (now) Pakistan near Lahore. The publication itself is of unusual size, paper greater than an A4 Legal size. It has a main magazine and a supplement magazine and couple of pictorial posters. The main magazine is of some 12 pages excluding 2 posters attached to it. There are 2 more posters which are not attached to magazine and a supplement, a rather small booklet of 10 pages (shown below).

The supplement magazine

Since the edition was concentrating on Junagadh state, it has Captain His Highness Nawab Sir Mahabathkhanji Rasulkhanji Bahadur, C.C.I.E., K.C.S.I. (Knight Commander), Nawab of Junagadh state on front cover of both main magazine and the supplement magazine.

You can find tons of article on web about Junagadh. Junagadh is mainly famous for two reasons: the history behind accession of Junagadh state to India and one of popular tourist destination (do Lions ring bell ;-)

The main magazine talks about the war efforts of Junagadh state, loyalty of its Nawab and heir apparent to throne the princes and the Diwan of state towards British Empire. I must say that the magazine is one of the best example of flattery of Nawabs. This is how people used to worship rulers of princely states those times. It used to be like a break neck competition among people to show their loyalty to rulers by showing their devotion in such form of art and win some accolades in return in any manner.

The main magazine starts with that on 1st page. Let's skip all those glorification part and concentrate on war efforts. The magazine mentions that as soon as war was declared, the Nawab made his first contribution of 2.5 Lakh Rupees, followed by donating money for 3 spitfires to be named after "Junagadh" , "Lady Linlithgow" and "Dilawar".

It also mentions that the servants of the State, in order to show their loyalty towards the Empire voluntarily came forward to contribute in one month's salary and in another month 5% of their salaries to aid the War efforts.

The state also organised a Lucky Bag Scheme twice and tickets worth thousands of rupees were sold amongst the subjects of the State exclusively. After deducting the amount of prizes, the balance was subscribed towards the War Gifts Fund.

And then it goes on elaborating how Begum Sahiba had organized Ladies meet to raise funds and the two prince son of Nawab show their keen interest in war related activities. It also praises the effort of Diwan of state for his able administration during war period.

Finally, there are other pages covering news about National War Front activities from other princely states and other general news of those times like marriage and food situation etc. Finally at the end there are 4 pages written in Urdu.

Then the supplement magazine (booklet) starts with ID greetings to Captain His Highness Nawab Sir Mahabathkhanji Rasulkhanji Bahadur, C.C.I.E., K.C.S.I. (Knight Commander), Nawab of Junagadh state as shown above.

I have uploaded the complete scans of both the magazines here for leisure reading: Special Junagadh War Number. You can read them on your own. I tried but I can't keep off my hands from the text of these booklets. Here are some more samples of flattery:

Services in the Present War

As soon as the British Power declared War against the aggressive forces of Hitlerism, His Highness at once came forward and offered his personal services, the services of his troops and the entire resources of his state to His Majesty the King Emperor. The British Government has accepted His Highness' offer most gratefully.

Not to speak of this His Highness has contributed Rs 2.5 lakhs for War purposes. It is his first installment and if the War remains in the force, His Highness will certainly grudge no sacrifice for the British Government and will help it with men, money and material as best as he can.

All the resources of help are being mustered and it is hoped that state would beat the record of that help which it rendered during the Great War of 1914-1918.

The British Government can safely feel proud on the help of such loyal and faithful friends.

The people of the state are giving encouraging response to the appeal of their master the ruler. According to their means they have begun to contribute their help to the British Government.

To be brief Junagadh is very progressive state in Western India. --- I think this might be a fact.

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Read it completely and enjoy the contents. I liked the magazine in first glance itself despite its flattering articles which was obvious of those time, isn't it? The magazine is also very colorful with so many portraits. I wish I could get hold of some more editions!

World War II - Pamphlets on India

Well, I learnt today couple of essential features of blogging :-) As a lazy blogger, I never checked advanced features offered by Google. I used to write my blog hard way ;) by making all changes myself as required in "Edit HTML" tab (yeah, I still have some element of programming left in me!!) I plan to explore more to make blog more user friendly and presentable slowly so you may observe some changes (including blackouts!!) over period of time.

I never asked for feedback from my readers (again because of my laziness) but I would like to know if you would like certain features to be enabled/disabled or want change in layout etc. Feel free to comment or drop me an email.

Now, lets return to original post. Today's item is about two pamphlets produced by the Directorate of Army Education, India meant for British soldiers arriving in India during war period.

The first pamphlet is on India itself titled "This India". There were some 15000 copies of this pamphlet printed in April, 1945.
The pamphlet talks about the first impression soldiers get when they land versus what they learn through movies and books. For most of them, it is disappointing end of an illusion that they had. Then in next couple of pages it goes on explaining what is India all about - starting from its thousands year old civilization (giving a short lecture on history) to its current state.

Of course the pamphlet is kind of propaganda showing East India Company and British Crown in positive manner and what all they have done for Indian subcontinent dismissing all allegations of wrong doing or not doing enough to improve the living standard of Indians despite exploiting them for hundred of years.

And the uniqueness about this pamphlet is that it is not brain cleansing program for Indians but for British soldiers so that they don't get discouraged observing current situation of India and return to England at this need of hour.

For benefit of readers, I have scanned the pamphlet completely so one can read it here on my picasa link This India. It's a small but very interesting pamphlet.

Once the pamphlets succeeds brain washing soldiers then comes the next step of introducing them to Indian soldiers. Here the second pamphlet comes into picture. This pamphlet is also produced by the Directorate of Army Education, India titled "The Indian Army". Similar copies of this pamphlet were printed in same time.
This pamphlet introduces British soldiers to Indian army and its various regiments. The pamphlet describes the valor and bravery of Indian soldiers in current and previous war. This one is rather fact than any propaganda. It encourages soldiers to get accoustomed to Indian traditions and befriend their Indian counterparts. That's the key to success in this war as both British and Indian soldiers have to fight together in all fronts.

This is another interesting read and for those of you who would like to read it completely, here's link The Indian Army.

Finally, the pamphlets shown here are reprinted version from original pamphlets but these are original reprints during war days not the usual modern reprint. It's just like the way "Indian Information" - periodical of British India goverment were reprinted in US during war timer to save the paper and transportation cost.

Red Cross Booklets - WWII

Today's post will be relatively smaller than earlier ones. Over the last couple of months I have amassed so many books/booklets and literature item that now I concentrate more on literature items than postal items which used to be my first passion :-)

I will try to show more of these over period of time along with postal items striking proper balance between them for all of my readers.

First item is "A Guide Book to Calcutta, Agra, Delhi, Karachi, and Bombay". The booklet was published by The American Red Cross of the China-Burma-India (CBI) command. It was printed at Modern Art Press, Calcutta. This booklet seems to be printed somewhere around 1942.

The booklet describes about Red Cross in brief and then addresses the audience of this booklet i.e. the American servicemen and women who will be stationed in India as part of strengthening CBI (China-Burma-India) and SEAC (South East Asia Command) front.

WHAT IS THE RED CROSS ?

The American Red Cross - chartered by Congress to give aid in time of peace and war - is the agent of the American people, who support it by voluntary contributions. Its services are world-wide.

Field directors and hospital workers are aided by volunteers in more than 3700 chapters and 6000 branches serving every county in the country. The Red Cross gives services too numerous to mention here - such as helping in disaster, promoting health and safety, collecting blood-plasma, and so on. But remember this: that a prime duty of the Red Cross is to aid service and ex-service men and their families - with everything from advice to a financial lift in emergency.

In 1942 field directors aided 864,000 active service men and gave loans and grants amounting to $4,500,000; local chapters aided families of 800,000 service and ex-service men; and hospital workers served 264,000 convalescents in Army and Navy hospitals.

You can read most of its content at CBI Theater website.

Another book is "The American Red Cross With The Armed Forces". The book was published in May, 1945 almost near end of war and printed at Allied Printing, Washington D.C. Although, this booklet is not related to India in any manner still I have shown it here as it applies in general to Red Cross activities wherever American servicemen and women served including India.

The booklet describes red cross charter and area of work in more detail like the services provided to the soldiers, welfare programs run, services to the sick and wounded, recreation for troops overseas, services to the soldier and his family, services to the veteran and his family and finally services to prisoners of war.

The booklet was published to answer personal questions of the American families and neighbors of some 11300000 servicemen and women in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps , and Coast Guard: What is the American Red Cross doing for the serviceman himself? What are its representatives doing for him when he is homesick and worried, bored, restless, sick or wounded? What are they doing for him in the field, the leave area, the hospital? What are they doing when he returns home, discharged, and has problems resulting from his service? The trained men and women who are, we are told, "at his side" -who are they, what facilities do they have to work with, and exactly how do they work? Finally, how do the Red Cross chapters here at home help him and his family?

China-Burma-India Booklets for Soldiers

Today's item is an interesting one, specially for people who love reading literature. I will be showing two of army pocket guides published by China-Burma-India division, one by India-China division, and another by private party.

To start with, shown below is "A Pocket Guide to India" booklet prepared by "SPECIAL SERVICE DIVISION" of United States army. The booklet was printed and approved by "WAR AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS", WASHINGTON, D.C. sometime in 1942.

The booklet was prepared for United States army men who were being positioned in India to serve on China-Burma-India front. The small booklet provides very interesting facts and figures about India. Some of the numbers and details were even unknown to me. It gives very appealing account of India from outsider point of view.

Well! I just love this booklet. If you read it, you will know why India has always been a altogether different country and one of most fascinating place on earth. Now, don't start on "When I was in India......" :D

The booklet has a statement by the United States' Department of State, dated August 12, 1942:

American Soldiers in India

1. The sole purpose of the American forces in India is to prosecute the war of the United Nations against the Axis Powers. In the prosecution of the war in that area the primary aim of the Government of the United States is to aid China.

2. American forces are not to indulge to the slightest degrees in the activity if any other nature unless India should be attacked by the Axis powers, in which event American troops will aid in defending India.

3. American forces in India will exercise scrupulous care to avoid the slightest participation in India's political problem, or even the appearance of so doing.

4. In the event of internal disturbances American troops will resort to defensive measures only should their own personal safety, or that of other American citizens be endangered or for the necessary protection of American military supplies and equipment.

You can read complete booklet here: A Pocket Guide to India

The link is maintained by one of the most resourceful website China-Burma-India: Remembering the Forgotten Theater of World War II. When such website exists then as less I talk about China-Burma-India division or CBI (as it was known popularly) here the better. The website is loaded with facts on contribution done by CBI in turning the tide. I leave all my readers to browse the gem of information on that website.

The same website lists another pocket guide "The Calcutta Key", prepared by "SERVICES OF SUPPLY BASE SECTION TWO", information and education branch of United States Army Forces in India & Burma sometime in 1945.

The booklet was printed by the "The Indian Press Limited", in Calcutta. The booklet has interesting forward section by then Brig. Gen. R. R. Neyland. The booklet provides an introduction to Calcutta.

Calcutta was one of important center on CBI front. The city served in war with its airbases and harbor which was one of largest in Asia at that time.

It was important transit point for all the allied forces moving in and out of Burma and China from India.

You can read complete booklet here: The Calcutta Key.

A third booklet on same China India front is shown below. The booklet was issued by India China Division of Air Transport Command of Unites States Air Force.

Note that all of these booklets were marked as restricted with the statement: "This publication is not approved for mailing home, but may be taken out of the theater by individual. FOR USE OF MILITARY PERSONNEL ONLY."


But the above booklet that I have carries another page pasted inside to it which states that you can mail this home!. The page shown below is dated 1 September 1945.


And the last of all booklet that I want to show today is a very small pocket guide welcoming allies forces to Bombay. The booklet is titled "Welcome to Bombay: V For Victory ...".



This is private booklet published by B. R. Gobhai & Co. and printed by G. Claridge & Co., Ltd. in Bombay. The booklet carries Churchill's message and a letter by Katharine Lumley who was president of the hospitality for forces stationed in Bombay. The booklet carries facts & figures about Bombay and lots of advertisements by companies located in Bombay. Another very interesting booklet!

I think with this I started another thread in my blog :D In coming weeks, I will continue to show more literature materials on war. So, keep hanging around!