Through festering jungle and across burning plains to high mountains and lazy rivers, the Burma campaign of the Second World War involved the longest retreat in British history, and the longest advance; long-range penetration miles behind enemy lines, vicious hand-to-hand fighting, and the horrors of forced labour. The Figureheads of the campaign were singular characters like Slim, Mountbatten, Stilwell and Wingate; while its ranks were dominated by ordinary soldiers gathered ‘like a whirlpool from the ends of the earth’ - from Britain, America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, West, East and South Africa, but overwhelmingly from India.