Famine, Sword, and Fire: The Liberation of Southwest China in World War II

Famine, Sword, and Fire is an intimate portrait of war and cooperation between the United States and China. It is the untold story of Chinese and Americans standing side-by-side, fighting together and dying together on the highest, most rugged battlegrounds of WWII. In May 1942, the Japanese 15th Army conquered Burma and southwest China. Only a desperate defense by disorganized and defeated Chinese troops and the war-weary remains of Claire Chennault's mercenary Flying Tigers stopped the advance at the Salween River. For two years, the people of southwest China lived under an oppressive Japanese occupation while Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, President Franklin Roosevelt, General Joseph Stilwell, and Major General Claire Chennault bickered over what to do next. Finally, in May 1944, the Chinese Expeditionary Force, with the help of American supplies and advisors and supported from above by the legendary 14th Air Force, crossed the Salween to take back what they had lost. Firsthand accounts from the Chinese and American soldiers and airmen that fought there vividly illustrate the carnage of battle and the ultimate triumph of liberation as they braved famine, sword, and fire to defeat the Japanese.