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. Jump to: navigation, search US Army Seal HHC, US Army Distinctive Unit Insignia The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces which has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... Jump to: navigation, search World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atom bomb. ... In warfare, a theater or theatre is normally used to define a specific geographic area within which armed conflict occurs. ... Jump to: navigation, search A blood chit issued to the American Volunteer Group Flying Tigers. ... The Hump was the name given by Allied pilots to the eastern end of the Himalayan Mountains over which they flew from India to China to resupply the Flying Tigers and the Chinese Government of Chiang Kai-shek. ... The Ledo Road was built during World War II so that the Western Allies could continue to supply the Chinese after the Japanese cut the Burma Road. ... In the Quebec Conference in August 1943 Allied leaders decided to form a US deep penetration unit that would attack Japanese troops in Burma. ...

Command structure

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. Jump to: navigation, search Stilwell with Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-shek. ... The European Theater of Operations, or ETO, was the term used by the United States in World War II to refer to most United States military activity in Europe north of the Mediterranean coast. ... The British India Command the name given to the general staff of the India. ... Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (May 5, 1883 - May 24, 1950) was a British Field Marshal and the commander of British Army forces in the Middle East during World War II. He led British forces to victory over the Italians, only to be defeated by the German army. ... This article is in need of attention. ... Jump to: navigation, search A generalissimo is a commissioned officer of the highest rank; the word is often translated as Supreme Commander or Commander in Chief. It is an Italian superlative substantive, which grammatically would actually be disallowed in Italian (superlatives can be made with adjectives only). ... Chiang Kai-shek (October 31, 1887–April 5, 1975) was a Chinese military and political leader who assumed the leadership of the Kuomintang (KMT) after the death of Sun Yat-sen in 1925. ... Joint Chiefs of Staff symbol The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JSC) is a panel comprising the highest-ranking members of each major branch of the armed services in any particular country. ... South East Asia Command (SEAC) was the body set up to be in overall charge of Allied operations in the South-East Asian Theatre during World War II. The initial supreme commander of the theatre was General Sir Archibald Wavell, initially as head of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command... Jump to: navigation, search Sir Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, PC, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, FRS, (25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979) was a British admiral and statesman and an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. ...

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). The South-East Asian Theatre of World War II was the name given to the campaigns of the Pacific War in India, Burma, Thailand, Malaya and Singapore. ... The Pacific Theater of Operations (PTO) is the term used in the United States for all military activity in the Pacific Ocean and the countries bordering it, in World War II. Pacific War is a more common name, around the world, for the broader conflict between the Allies and Japan...

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. The Northern Combat Area Command or NCAC was a mainly Sino-American formation that held the northern end of the Allied front in Burma during World War II. For much of its existence it was commanded by the acerbic General Joseph Stilwell. ... Jump to: navigation, search General Sir George Giffard GCB, DSO (1886 - 1964) was a British military officer, who had a distinguished career in command of African troops in World War I, and who rose to command an Army Group in South East Asia in World War II. // Early Career After... The British 11th Army Group was the main British Army force in Southeast Asia. ... The British Fourteenth Army, in spite of its name, was a multinational force: most of its units were from the Indian Army and there were also significant contributions from East African divisions within the British Army. ... Field Marshal Sir William Slim (pictured here as a Major General) Field Marshal William Joseph Slim, 1st Viscount Slim (6 August 1897 - 14 December 1970), British military commander and 13th Governor-General of Australia, was born near Bristol, Gloucestershire. ...

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. Lieutenant General Raymond Albert Wheeler (1885 – February 9, 1974) was an American general. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... General Daniel Isom Sultan, (December 9, 1885 – January 14, 1947) was born Oxford, Mississippi and died in Washington, D.C., while on active duty. ... The British 11th Army Group was the main British Army force in Southeast Asia. ... The Burma Campaign was a campaign in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II. It was fought primarily between Commonwealth, Chinese and American forces against the Empire of Japan. ...

U.S. Air forces

USAAF General George E. Stratemeyer, the American air commander in the CBI had a status comparable to that of Stilwell. 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 in India in December and was operating under Mountbatten. 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. USAAF recruitment poster. ... Jump to: navigation, search The USAAF Tenth Air Force was created for air combat operations in China-Burma-India (CBI) theater during World War II. In the years since World War II, the Tenth Air Force has served the air defense and reserve training programs. ... The United States Fourteenth Air Force operated primarily in China during World War II and subsequently served Air Defense Command, Continental Air Command, and the Air Force Reserve. ...

By the spring of 1944, when the B-29's arrived in the theater, another complex air factor would be added to the potpourri. Because although the command of the Twentieth Air Force tasked with the stratigic bombing of Japan under Operation Matterhorn reported directly to the JCS in Washington, they were totally dependent on forces under the command of Stratemeyer 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. The XX Bomber Command of the USAAF was established in November 1943 to oversee B_29 Superfortress training in the US. The XX, an operational unit under the Twentieth Air Force was then moved to India. ... Twentieth Air Force is one of numbered air forces that comprise the United States Air Force. ... Operation Matterhorn was organised by U.S. XX Bomber Command during World War II to place USAAF B29 Bombers in China for use against Japan. ... Joint Chiefs of Staff symbol The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JSC) is a panel comprising the highest-ranking members of each major branch of the armed services in any particular country. ...

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]

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, 1943, 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 for which he has 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.
• In 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

Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the year. ... Jump to: navigation, search February 25 is the 56th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the year. ... Jump to: navigation, search March 10 is the 69th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (70th in Leap years). ... Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the year. ... Jump to: navigation, search March 19 is the 78th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (79th in leap years). ... Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the year. ... Jump to: navigation, search March 20 is the 79th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (80th in Leap years). ... Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the year. ... Jump to: navigation, search April 9 is the 99th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (100th in leap years). ... Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the year. ... Jump to: navigation, search A blood chit issued to the American Volunteer Group Flying Tigers. ... Jump to: navigation, search May 2 is the 122nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (123rd in leap years). ... Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the year. ... Field Marshal Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis (December 10, 1891 - June 16, 1969) was a British military commander and Field Marshal, notably during World War II as the commander of the 15th Army Group. ... Jump to: navigation, search May 24 is the 144th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (145th in leap years). ... Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the year. ... Jump to: navigation, search December 1 is the 335th (in leap years the 336th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ... Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (May 5, 1883 _ May 24, 1950) was a British General and the commander of British Army forces in the Middle East during World War II. He led British forces to victory over the Italians, only to be defeated by the German army. ... The Ledo Road was built during World War II so that the Western Allies could continue to supply the Chinese after the Japanese cut the Burma Road. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ... Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882–April 12, 1945), 32nd President of the United States, the longest-serving holder of the office and the only man to be elected President more than twice, was one of the central figures of 20th century history. ... Jump to: navigation, search The French Navy commando Jaubert storm the Alcyon in a mock assault. ... The Chindits (Officially in 1942 77th Indian Infantry Brigade and in 1943 Indian 3rd Infantry Division) were a British jungle Special Forces unit that served in Burma from 1943 until 1945 as part of the Fourteenth Army during the Burma Campaign in World War II. They were formed into long... Major General Frank Merrill (1903 – 1955) He is best rembered for his command of Merrills Marauders, officially 5307th Composite Unit (provisional), in the Burma Campaign of World War II. Merrills Marauders came under General Joseph Stilwells Northern Combat Area Command. ... Jump to: navigation, search December 21 is the 355th day of the year (356th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search Myitkyina is a city, and the capital of Kachin State in Myanmar, located 919 miles from Yangon, or 487 miles from Mandalay. ... Jump to: navigation, search February 24 is the 55th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... In the Quebec Conference in August 1943 Allied leaders decided to form a US deep penetration unit that would attack Japanese troops in Burma. ... Jump to: navigation, search May 17 is the 137th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (138th in leap years). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Field Marshal Sir William Slim (pictured here as a Major General) Field Marshal William Joseph Slim, 1st Viscount Slim (6 August 1897 - 14 December 1970), British military commander and 13th Governor-General of Australia, was born near Bristol, Gloucestershire. ... The Burma Campaign was a campaign in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II. It was fought primarily between Commonwealth, Chinese and American forces against the Empire of Japan. ... Jump to: navigation, search May 17 is the 137th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (138th in leap years). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search August 3 is the 215th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (216th in leap years), with 150 days remaining. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... August 27 is the 239th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (240th in leap years), with 126 days remaining. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search Sir Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, PC, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, FRS, (25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979) was a British admiral and statesman and an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... This article needs to be wikified. ... Lieutenant General Raymond Albert Wheeler (1885 – February 9, 1974) was an American general. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... General Daniel Isom Sultan, (December 9, 1885 – January 14, 1947) was born Oxford, Mississippi and died in Washington, D.C., while on active duty. ... The Northern Combat Area Command or NCAC was a mainly Sino-American formation that held the northern end of the Allied front in Burma during World War II. For much of its existence it was commanded by the acerbic General Joseph Stilwell. ...

See also

• U.S. campaigns in WWII#China Burma India Theater
• OSS Detachment 101

The names below are as used by the US Army, although they were Allied campaigns. ... Jump to: navigation, search Detachment 101 of the Office of Strategic Services operated in the China Burma India Theater of World War II. On January 17, 1946, it was awarded a Presidential Distinguished Unit Citation by Dwight Eisenhower, who wrote, The courage and fighting spirit displayed by its officers and...

Bibliography

• Field Marshal William Slim Defeat Into Victory is the definitive account of the Burma campaign.
• Julian Thompson The Imperial War Museum Book of War Behind Enemy Lines. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1998.
• Maurice Matloff Strategic planning for coalition warfare 1943-1944 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 53-61477, First Printed 1959-CMH Pub 1-4.

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

External links

• CBI Order of Battle Unit Lineages and History
• Remembering the Forgotten Theater

• Records of U.S. Theaters of War, World War II:332.3.2 Records of Headquarters U.S. Army Forces, China-Burma-India (HQ USAF CBI)
• US Center of Military History (USCMH):The China-Burma-India Theater
• US Center of Military History (USCMH): Burma 1942
• USCMH Centeral Burma 29 January - 15 July 1945
• USCMH India-Burma 2 April 1942-28 January 1945
• Office of the US Surgeon General: Office of Medical History(USOMH): Index: Original Reports on Military Medicine in India and Burma
• list of links to CBI pages
• Forgotten Warriors: China-Burma-India
• OSS Detachment 101 in Burma, OSS-101
• Annals of the Flying Tigers
• encylopedia Chindits