China Burma India Theater of World War II

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China Burma India Theater (CBI) was the name used by the United States Army for its forces in China, Burma, India during World War II. Well-known US units in this theater included the Flying Tigers, transport and bomber units flying the Hump, the engineers who built Ledo Road, and Merrill's Marauders.

Contents

[edit] Command structure

[edit] U.S. Land forces

The US forces in the CBI theater were grouped together for administrative purposes under the command of General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, but unlike the other theaters in the war, for example the European Theater of Operations, it was never a "theater of operations" and did not have an overall operational command. Initially the forces were split between those who came under the operational command of the British India Command under General Sir Archibald Wavell the Commander-in-Chief in India and those in China, which (technically at least) were commanded by Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek[1], as the Supreme Allied Commander in China. However, Stilwell often broke the chain of command and communicated directly with the US Joint Chiefs of Staff on operational matters. This continued after the formation of the South East Asia Command (SEAC) and the appointment of Admiral Lord Mountbatten as the Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia in October 1943.

When the joint allied command was agreed upon, it was decided that the senior position should be held by a member of the British military because the British dominated Allied operations on the South-East Asian Theatre by weight of numbers (in much the same way as the US did in the Pacific Theater of Operations).

Stilwell, who also had operational command of the Northern Combat Area Command (NCAC), a US-Chinese formation, was supposed to report to General George Giffard — commander of Eleventh Army Group — so that NCAC and the British Fourteenth Army, under the command of General William Slim, could be co-ordinated. This is something Stilwell refused to do.

Stilwell was able to do this because of his multiple positions within complex command structures, especially his simultaneous positions of Deputy Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia, and Chief of Staff to Chiang. As SEAC's deputy leader, he was Giffard's superior, but as operational commander of NCAC, Giffard was Stilwell's superior. As the two men did not get on, this inevitably lead to conflict and confusion.

Stilwell, however bitterly resisted [taking orders from Giffard]... To watch Stilwell, when hard pressed, shift his opposition from one of the several strong-points he held by virtue of his numerous Allied, American and Chinese offices, to another was a lesson in mobile offensive-defence.[2]

Eventually at a SEAC meeting to sort out the chain of command for NCAC, Stilwell astonished everyone by saying "I am prepared to come under General Slim's operational control until I get to Kamaing"[2]. Although far from ideal, this compromise was accepted.

It was not until late 1944, after Stilwell was recalled to Washington, that the chain of command was clarified. His overall role, and the CBI command was then split among three people: Lt Gen. Raymond Wheeler became Deputy Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia; Major-General Albert Wedemeyer became Chief of Staff to Chiang, and commander of US Forces, China Theater (USFCT). Lt Gen. Daniel Sultan was promoted, from deputy commander of CBI to commander of US Forces, India-Burma Theater (USFIBT) and commander of the NCAC. The 11th Army Group was redesignated Allied Land Forces South East Asia (ALFSEA), and NCAC was decisively placed under this formation. However, by the time the last phase of the Burma Campaign began in earnest, NCAC had become irrelevant, and it was dissolved in early 1945.

[edit] U.S. Air forces

USAAF General George E. Stratemeyer, the American air commander of the Allied Eastern Air Force in the CBI had a status comparable to that of Stilwell[3]. One of Stratemeyer's favorite cartoons showed him sitting at his desk surrounded by pictures of his eight bosses, all of whom could give him orders in one or another of his capacities. Part of Stratemeyer's command, the Tenth Air Force, had been integrated with the RAF Third Tactical Air Force in India in December 1943 and was operating under Mountbatten's SEAC. Another part of it, the Fourteenth Air Force in China, was at least technically under the jurisdiction of Chiang as theater commander. And although the India-China wing of the Air Transport Command received its assignments of tonnage from Stratemeyer as Stilwell's deputy, control actually stemmed from Washington.

By the spring of 1944, when the B-29's arrived in the theater, another complex air factor would be added to the potpourri. Although the command of the Twentieth Air Force tasked with the strategic bombing of Japan under Operation Matterhorn reported directly to the JCS in Washington, they were totally dependent on Stratemeyer's command for supplies, bases, etc. The imposition of command upon command produced divided responsibilities and crisscrossing lines of authority that promoted confusion, especially in times of crisis when heavy demands poured in from all sides.

Supposedly, Stilwell was the control and co-ordinating point for all activity, but with his assumption of personal direction of the advance of the Chinese Ledo forces into north Burma in late 1943, he was often out of touch both with his own headquarters and with the over-all situation.[1]

[edit] Timeline

  • Early 1942 Stilwell was promoted to lieutenant general and tasked with establishing the CBI.
  • February 25, 1942 Stilwell arrived in India by which time Singapore and Burma had both been invaded by the Japanese Army.
  • March 10, 1942 Stilwell is named Chief of Staff of Allied armies in the Chinese theatre of operations.
  • March 19, 1942 Stilwell’s command in China is extended to include the Chinese 5th and 6th Armies operating in Burma after Chiang Kai-Shek gave his permission.
  • March 20, 1942 Chinese troops under Stilwell engage Japanese forces along the Sittang River in Burma.
  • April 9, 1942 Claire Chennault inducted into U.S. Army as a colonel, bringing the AVG Flying Tigers squadrons under Stilwell's authority.
  • May 2, 1942 The commander of Allied forces in Burma, General Harold Alexander, ordered a general retreat to India. Instead of flying out, Stilwell remained with his troops and began a long retreat to India.
  • May 24, 1942 Stilwell arrived in Delhi. Most of his Chinese troops had deserted and gone back to China.
  • New Delhi and Ramgarh became the main training centre for Chinese troops in India. Chaing Kai-Shek gave Stilwell command of what was left of the 22nd and 38th Divisions of the Chinese Army.
  • December 1, 1942 British General Sir Archibald Wavell, as Allied Supreme Commander South East Asia, agreed with Stilwell to make the Ledo Road an American operation.
  • August 1943 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved the creation of a US jungle commando unit, similar to the Chindits, to be commanded by Major General Frank Merrill.
  • December 21 Stilwell assumed direct control of operations to capture Myitkyina, having built up forces for an offensive in Northern Burma.
  • February 24, 1944 Merrill's Marauders, attacked the Japanese 18th Division in Burma. This action enabled Stilwell to gain control of the Hakawing Valley.
  • May 17, 1944 British general Slim in command of the Burma Campaign handed control of the Chindits to Stilwell.
  • May 17, 1944 Chinese troops, with the help of Merrill's Mauraders, captured Myitkina airfield.
  • August 3, 1944 Myitkina fell to the Allies. The Mauraders had advanced 750 miles and fought in five major engagements and 32 skirmishes with the Japanese Army. They lost 700 men, only 1,300 Marauders reached their objective and of these, 679 had to be hospitalized. This included General Merrill who had suffered a second-heart attack before going down with malaria.
  • Some time before August 27, 1944, Mountbatten supreme allied commander (SEAC) ordered General Stilwell to evacuate all the wounded Chindits.
  • During 1944 the Japanese in Operation Ichi-Go overran US air bases in eastern China. Chiang Kai-Shek blamed Stilwell for the Japanese success, and pressed the US high command to recall him.
  • October 1944 Roosevelt recalled Stilwell, whose role was split (as was the CBI):
    • Lieutenant General Raymond Wheeler became Deputy Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia.
    • Major General Albert Wedemeyer became Chief of Staff to Chiang Kai-shek and commander of the U.S. Forces, China Theater (USFCT).
    • Lieutenant General Daniel Sultan was promoted from deputy commander to became commander of US Forces India-Burma Theater (USFIBT) and commander of the Northern Combat Area Command

[edit] See also

[edit] Bibliography

  • Jon Latimer, Burma: The Forgotten War, London: John Murray, 2004.
  • Maurice Matloff Strategic planning for coalition warfare 1943-1944 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 53-61477, First Printed 1959-CMH Pub 1-4.
  • Field Marshal Sir William Slim, Defeat Into Victory is a first hand account by the British commander.
  • Julian Thompson The Imperial War Museum Book of War Behind Enemy Lines. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1998.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a  Chapter XIX: The Second Front and the Secondary War The CBI: January-May 1944. The Mounting of the B-29 Offensive See Maurice Matloff Bibliography Page 442
  2. ^ a  See Slim Bibliography Pages 205-207
  3. ^  Air of Authority - A History of RAF Organisation: Overseas Commands - Iraq, India and the Far East

[edit] External links


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