In this Book
- Rails of War: Supplying the Americans and Their Allies in China-Burma-India
- Book
- 2017
- Published by: University of Nebraska Press
In a theater of war long forgotten and barely even known at the time, James Harry Hantzis and his fellow soldiers labored at a thankless task under oppressive conditions. Nonetheless, as Rails of War demonstrates, without the men of the 721st Railway Operating Battalion, the Allied forces would have been defeated in the China-Burma-India conflict in World War II.
Steven James Hantzis’s father served alongside other GI railroaders in overcoming danger, disease, fire, and monsoons to move the weight of war in the China-Burma-India theater. Torn from their predictable working-class lives, the men of the 721st journeyed fifteen thousand miles to Bengal, India, to do the impossible: build, maintain, and manage seven hundred miles of track through the most inhospitable environment imaginable.
From the harrowing adventures of the Flying Tigers and Merrill’s Marauders to detailed descriptions of grueling jungle operations and the Siege of Myitkyina, this is the remarkable story of the extraordinary men of the 721st, who moved an entire army to win the war.
For more information about Rails of War, visit railsofwar.com.
Table of Contents
- Title Page, Copyright
- pp. i-iv
- List of Illustrations
- pp. vii-viii
- Acknowledgments
- pp. xi-xvi
- 1. SS Mariposa
- pp. 1-10
- 2. Leaving Bombay
- pp. 11-14
- 3. Indian Rails
- pp. 15-22
- 4. To Parbatipur
- pp. 23-24
- 5. Air Raid
- p. 25
- 6. The Ledo Road
- pp. 26-28
- 8. First Encounters
- pp. 34-35
- 9. Inside the 721st
- pp. 36-37
- 10. Merrill’s Marauders
- pp. 38-42
- 11. Company B
- pp. 43-47
- 13. Mutaguchi’s Gift
- pp. 55-57
- 14. The Battle of Kohima
- pp. 58-62
- 15. After the Storm
- pp. 63-64
- 16. Inbound
- pp. 65-66
- 17. Material Inferiority
- pp. 67-69
- 18. Monsoon
- pp. 70-71
- 19. The Siege of Myitkyina
- pp. 72-92
- 20. A Ghost in the Yards
- pp. 93-94
- 21. Kaunia Junction
- pp. 95-96
- 22. Brothers
- pp. 97-99
- 23. Japanese Retrench
- pp. 100-101
- 24. Medic! Medic!
- pp. 102-104
- 25. Stepping Up
- pp. 105-110
- 26. Another Christmas
- pp. 111-112
- 27. Milepost 103
- pp. 113-117
- 28. The Road Less Traveled
- pp. 118-126
- 29. Toy Train to Shangri- La
- pp. 127-130
- 30. Crossing Irrawaddy
- pp. 131-148
- 31. The Home Fires
- pp. 149-150
- 32. Blue Flag
- p. 151
- 33. Coupled Up
- pp. 152-158
- 34. The New President
- pp. 159-163
- 35. Endgame
- pp. 164-168
- 36. Above Rangoon Jail
- pp. 169-173
- 37. Germany Surrenders
- pp. 174-177
- 38. Discharge
- pp. 178-179
- 39. The Conductor
- pp. 180-182
- 40. Around the World
- pp. 183-184
- 41. Departure
- pp. 185-186
- 42. Christmas 1945
- pp. 187-188
- Bibliography
- pp. 197-204