ABSTRACT
General Slim’s campaign in Burma during the years 1943-5 is a treasure trove of lessons learnt at the operational level of war. This may be surprising to some since it has been more fashionable to derive modern day lessons from the Second World War campaigns of north-west Europe and the Western Desert. In those theatres the British or Allied Armies were confronting a modern, in contemporary terms, European army with all the features of a future conflict that we currently envisage. Nevertheless the study of Burma 1943-5 reveals all the relevant lessons on the operational art that concerns us today. Indeed there are some striking similarities between the conditions that confronted Slim in 1943 and those which confronted the operational commander in Operation Desert Storm. In both cases a neighbouring state has been occupied by an oriental power which is fanatically motivated and perceived to be of great strength. In response to both enemies, an alliance involving differences of culture has been formed to reconquer lost territory. Also both scenarios start with the alliance possessing air superiority although the contemporary example is of an entirely different scale. The similarities may be superficial but there is enough substance to propose that old lessons learnt remain unmistakably relevant today.
