War  |  Memory  |  Gratitude

Sustain to Victory: Resupplying the 14th Army

Sustain to Victory: Resupplying the 14th Army

 

KET is delighted to announce our next webinar with guest speaker Lt Col Mike Tickner (retd), introduced by Dr Robert Lyman MBE.

The Burma Campaign was fought in the most demanding environment of the Second World War. Daily, the 14th Army’s logisticians resupplied Indian, Gurkha, African and British soldiers along the war’s longest, most fragile and least resourced supply chain. From factories in UK, America and India, stores were moved over the mountains, through the freezing rain of Nagaland, jungle and mangrove swamp, across mile-wide rivers and through Burma’s dry belt.

Without the infrastructure to support modern mechanised warfare, innovation and adaption were essential. Every possible means to resupply, both ancient and modern, needed to be employed. Air resupply was used more extensively than any other operational theatre yet elephants and pack animals were equally common.

To have defeated the Japanese with the level of resupply available to the Allies in North Western Europe would have been a magnificent achievement. To have achieved victory in the Far East with such limited resources stands out as a truly inspirational story of endurance, dedication, innovation and adaption.

The recording is now available to view below:

 

Speakers: 

 

Dr Robert Lyman MBE - Military Historian, Author and Trustee of KET  Born in New Zealand in January 1963 and educated in Australia, Robert Lyman was, for twenty years, an officer in the British Army. Educated at Scotch College, Melbourne he was commissioned into the Light Infantry from the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, in April 1982. In addition to a business career he is an author and military historian, publishing books in particular on the war in the Far East. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Robert is married to Hannah, has two sons, and lives in Berkshire. For information about Robert's publications please visit his website: robertlyman.com

 

Lieutenant Colonel Mike Tickner is a retired Regular Army officer with a long term interest in the British Army in India and particularly the Far East campaigns and the immediate aftermath. He regularly gives talks to military and civilian groups, clubs and museums and writes the occasional article. He has led battlefield studies to India and South-East Asia, most recently to Singapore.  As well as spending many rainy nights on both the North German plain and Salisbury Plain, he has also served in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.

 

Sylvia May - CEO of The Kohima Educational Trust Sylvia May was born in New Jersey, USA in 1957. Her parents moved to England in 1963. Educated at High Wycombe School for Girls, she decided to pursue a career in the world of books. Sylvia worked for HarperCollins for 37 years, the last eleven of which she headed up their UK-based International Sales team. Sylvia May is the daughter of the late Gordon Graham, Founder and President of the Kohima Educational Trust. She is proud that her father has inspired many people to share his vision to commemorate those who fought and died in Kohima, and the wonderful Naga people who have done so much for the British in the past. She first visited India in 1994 with her husband Robert, and has returned on numerous occasions, staying in Kohima several times. In 2000, they followed the WWII route of the Queens Own Cameron Highlanders, her father’s regiment. The regiment’s first main engagement in this theatre of war was at Zubza shortly before the Battle of Kohima.

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