Down by Mandalay

DESCRIPTION: "Out there in the jungle, down by Mandalay, A few forgotten soldiers slowly fight their way." The dream of home. They urge the soldiers who fought on other fronts, "Don't forget the war they won... Against the Rising Sun."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Page-KissMeGoodnightSergeantMajor)
KEYWORDS: soldier | Japan
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Page-KissMeGoodnightSergeantMajor, pp. 202-203, "Down By Mandalay" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "South of Meiktila" (subject of the 1945 Burma campaign)
cf. "Spud Spedding's Broken Boys" (subject of the 1945 Burma campaign)
NOTES [119 words]: There were two Burma campaigns in World War II: the British tried and failed to defend the territory in 1942, then retook it in 1945. According to Elizabeth-Anne Wheal and Stephen Pope, The Macmillan Dictionary of The Second World War, second edition, Macmillan, 1997, p. 292, the city of Mandalay itself, defended by Chinese troops led by the American general "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell, was captured in April 1942. William Slim's British and Chinese army retook it in 1945. But it wasn't until May 6, 1945, that Rangoon was recaptured (Wheal/Pope, p. 79), and that still left mopping-up. Thus soldiers in Burma would have heard of the end of the war in Europe on May 8 while they still had to keep fighting. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.2
File: PKMG202

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