Burma Conference

Join us for an all-day academic conference highlighting new and emerging research into the ‘forgotten’ armies of the Burma campaign.

Complementing our Beyond Burma: Forgotten Armies exhibition, this special day of talks and panel discussions will provide a platform for established academics and early-career researchers to share new insights.

Programme

10.00am – 10.40am

Opening keynote: ‘The Rise of the Phoenix: The Reform of the Fourteenth Army’

• Professor Daniel Marston (Johns Hopkins University)

10.40am – 11.20am

‘Sending a Sailor to Do a Soldier’s Job: The Appointment of Lord Louis Mountbatten to South East Asia Command’

• Dr Joe Moretz (US Naval Academy)

11.20am – 11.40am

Coffee break

11.40am – 12.20pm

‘Malaria is Enemy No 1’

• Dr David Omissi

12.20pm – 1.00pm

‘Major General Reginald Savory: 23rd Indian Division and the Infantry Directorate’

• Dr Alan Jeffreys (National Army Museum)

1.00pm – 1.40pm

Lunch

1.40pm – 2.45pm

National Army Museum panel

• Dr Matilda Greig (chair)
• Dr Emma Worrall - ‘Reported Missing’: A Case Study of the Casualties of the 2nd Buffs Crossing the Shweli River, 1-2 February 1945
• Melanie O’Brien-Price - ‘Their Casualties Were Rather Heavy’: The Price of War in Burma for the 1st Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
• Anna Lavelle - ‘Covered in Darkness’: Conflict, Allegory and the Art of Dick Romyn from the Burma Campaign

1.40pm – 2.45pm

Early-career researchers panel

• Dr Alan Jeffreys (chair)
• Luke Usher (University of Northumbria) - ‘The Night Was Dark and Full of Terror’: Recalled Experiences of Night Fighting and ‘Jitter’ Tactics During the Burma Campaign, 1941-45
• Megan Hamilton (King’s College London) - ‘Learning to Fight in the Jungle’: Army Training Liaison Across the British Empire
• Sam Evans (King’s College London) - 'East Africa Command and Britain’s Imperial Military Strategy in the Burma Campaign, 1941-45': Leadership, Manpower and Strategic Reach of the Empire

2.45pm – 3.00pm

Coffee break

3.00pm – 3.40pm

‘Stopping the Breakout: Lieutenant General Francis Tuker, IV Corps and the Battle of the Sittang Bend, July 1945’

• Dr Chris Mann (Royal Military Academy Sandhurst)

3.40pm – 4.20pm

‘Wales, the Welsh in India and Burma, 1944-45’

• Peter Robinson

4.20pm – 5.00pm

‘That Damned Tiddim Mess: Re-Assessing the Problems of 17th Indian Light Division’s Withdrawal, March 1944’

• Tim Bean (Royal Military Academy Sandhurst)

5.00pm – 5.40pm

Closing keynote: ‘Burma? Why Write About That?’

• Professor Raymond Callahan (University of Delaware)