The WW2 Podcast 288 - Beyond Burma: The Forgotten Armies
The fighting in Burma during the Second World War was among the most demanding of the entire conflict. Soldiers faced dense jungle, monsoon rains, disease, and a determined enemy — conditions that made the campaign both brutal and complex.
Yet for decades, Burma remained one of the least remembered theatres of the war. The men who fought there — British, Indian, African, and Burmese — became known as the "Forgotten Armies."
A new exhibition at the National Army Museum in London, Beyond Burma: Forgotten Armies, seeks to change that. It explores not only the campaign itself but also the wider human and political stories that emerged from the fighting in Southeast Asia.
In this episode of the WW2 Podcast, I visit the museum to speak with Dr Alan Jeffreys, Head of Equipment and lead curator of Beyond Burma. We discuss the exhibition, its themes, and the challenge of bringing this complex history to life.