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)
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