China-Burma-India theater
The China-Burma-India (CBI) theater was a crucial yet often overlooked front in World War II, primarily aimed at defending India and ensuring Chinese involvement in the conflict against Japanese forces. The region's strategic importance stemmed from its role as a staging area for a potential invasion of Japan. However, due to the Allies' greater focus on defeating Adolf Hitler, the CBI theater received limited resources and attention, resulting in fewer U.S. forces deployed compared to other theaters of war.
Initially, the CBI theater was affected by the Second Sino-Japanese War, which began with the Japanese invasion of China in 1937. The vital Burma Road was China’s main supply line, but it became inaccessible after Japan's conquest of Burma in 1942. To sustain Chinese forces, the U.S. established the perilous India-China Ferry Command, which transported supplies over the Himalayas, known as "flying the Hump." Despite the challenges, this operation successfully delivered significant amounts of aid to China.
The CBI theater also saw efforts to reclaim Burma, led by General Joseph Warren Stilwell, who coordinated with Chinese and British forces. The long-term impact of the CBI theater extended beyond the war itself, contributing to the tensions between the Nationalists and Communist factions in China, which ultimately led to the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
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China-Burma-India theater
The Event Japanese invasion and occupation of China and Southeast Asia and the Allied response
Date 1939-1945
Places China, India, and Burma
The China-Burma-India theater of World War II evolved in response to the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 and the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. This theater was organized to coordinate the protection of Burma and India and to support the Chinese. A particularly brutal theater, which involved many atrocities, it was often ignored by the press and public.
The China-Burma-India (CBI) theater of World War II has often been called the “forgotten theater.” Operations in this theater were designed to defend India and to keep the Chinese actively involved in the war. Part of China’s significance lay as a staging area for the future invasion of Japan. The Allied emphasis on defeating Adolf Hitler relegated the CBI to a secondary theater, resulting in the commitment of fewer forces and less material to the theater. The success of the campaign in the Pacific further diminished the importance of China for the invasion of Japan.
The Second Sino-Japanese War actually began with the Japanese attack on July 7, 1937. Responding to an incident at the Marco Polo Bridge, the Japanese Kwantung army advanced against Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist army. Japanese forces quickly captured Beiping (Beijing) and all the major coastal cities, effectively isolating China.
With the Japanese conquest of the coastal cities, China was forced to rely on the Burma Road from Kunming to Lashio, a railhead in Burma, which connected to the port of Rangoon (Yangon). At best, this road was inadequate to meet China’s needs. With the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States became more directly involved with the resupply effort, granting $26,000,000 in relief supplies. This amount had grown to $1,107,000,000 by 1945. Even with this massive increase in support, U.S. forces in the theater accounted for less than 2 percent of the total U.S. forces involved in the war.
In 1941, Captain Claire Chennault became a special adviser to Chiang. Chennault formed the American Volunteer Group, which came to be known as the Flying Tigers. He recruited pilots and crews and obtained Air Corps P-40 fighter aircraft. The Flying Tigers were to defend Chinese cities and the Burma Road from Japanese aircraft. By January, 1942, the unit had destroyed more than seventy-five Japanese aircraft. In spite of the success of the Flying Tigers, by April, 1942, the Japanese had conquered Burma, cutting off the Burma Road and the lifeline to China. The Allied forces under General Joseph Warren Stilwell retreated into India.
In an effort to continue supplying China with critical equipment and supplies, the India-China Ferry Command was established, which flew supplies from bases in India over the Himalayan Mountains to Kunming. This was known as flying “the Hump” and was very dangerous. Operating at altitudes in excess of 20,000 feet, aircraft were lost to accidents as well as to Japanese fighter attacks. Nevertheless, planes continued to depart twenty-four hours a day in the supply effort. By war’s end, 650,000 tons of supplies were flown over the Hump at the cost of six hundred aircraft and numerous crews.
While General Stilwell was reorganizing in India, he ordered the construction of a road from Ledo, India, to Mong Yu, China. At Mong Yu, the Ledo Road (later renamed Stilwell Road) joined the existing Burma Road. This construction effort included a fuel pipeline with pumping stations along the entire route. Eventually, 35,000 tons of material traveled this road into China. Construction of this road was an integral part of Stilwell’s plan for the reconquest of Burma.
In spite of strained relations with Chiang and Chiang’s distrust of the British, Stilwell commanded five divisions of Chinese forces; in concert with the British attacking from the south, he reconquered Burma and reopened the supply lines to China. Conflict between Stilwell and Chiang over command of Chinese troops and the need for offensive operations led to Stilwell’s recall in October, 1944.
Impact
Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, after two devastating atomic bomb attacks—the first on Hiroshima on August 6 and the second on Nagasaki on August 9. The CBI theater had prevented hundreds of thousands of Japanese troops from being deployed elsewhere. However, the defeat of Japan did not signal an end to fighting in China. At the conclusion of hostilities, the United States assisted the Nationalists, moving troops to areas abandoned by the Japanese. Nevertheless, the communist armies of Mao Zedong controlled a large a portion of the country, and the long-simmering conflict between these groups reignited. In 1949, Mao’s forces drove Chiang and the Nationalist army from mainland China to Formosa (Taiwan), and the People’s Republic of China became the official government. American support of Chiang and the Nationalists contributed to strained relations between the People’s Republic and the United States that continued for decades.
Bibliography
Daugherty, Leo J., III. The Allied Resupply Effort in the China-Burma-India Theater During World War II. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2008. A military historian’s detailed take on the competing policies of rival commanders in the CBI theater and the heroic efforts to carry out orders.
Davies, John Paton, Jr. Dragon by the Tail: American, British, Japanese, and Russian Encounters with China and One Another. New York: W. W. Norton, 1972. An American foreign service officer stationed in China, Davies presents a unique perspective on Sino-Japanese relations as well as profiles of the major characters in the China-Burma-India theater.
Peers, William R., and Dean Brelis. Behind the Burma Road: The Story of America’s Most Successful Guerrilla Force. Boston: Little, Brown, 1963. The authors recount the experience of organizing and leading OSS Detachment 101 and the ensuing guerrilla operations that contributed to the capture of the Japanese-held city and airbase at Myitkyina and the reconquest of Burma.
Stilwell, Joseph Warren. The Stilwell Papers. Edited by Theodore H. White. New York: Sloane, 1948. An intimate look at the China-Burma-India theater by the commander of the American forces in the CBI theater.
Thorne, Bliss K. The Hump: The Great Military Airlift of World War II. New York: J. B. Lippincott, 1965. A pilot’s personal reminiscences of flying the Hump and the incredible challenges that existed in supplying the Chinese with vital material.
Webster, Donavan. The Burma Road: The Epic Story of the China-Burma-India Theater in World War II. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003. An well-researched work that examines the entire China-Burma-India theater of operations beginning with the retreat from Burma and concluding with the completion of the Burma Road.