''Defeat into Victory'' is an account of the retaking of

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

by Allied forces during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

by the British

Field Marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...

William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim Field Marshal William Joseph Slim, 1st Viscount Slim, (6 August 1891 – 14 December 1970), usually known as Bill Slim, was a British military commander and the 13th Governor-General of Australia. Slim saw active service in both the First an ...

, and published in the UK by Cassell in 1956. It was published in the United States as ''Defeat into Victory: Battling Japan in Burma and India, 1942–1945'' by David McKay of New York in 1961. Slim was the commander of the British 14th Army, which, in concert with American and Chinese forces, defeated the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

during the Burma Campaign. ''Defeat into Victory'' is widely regarded as a classic

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...

of high command.

Structure

In the original 1956 edition, Slim divided his work chronologically into six "books" entitled: *Defeat *Forging the Weapon *The Weapon is Tested *The Tide Turns *The Decisive Battle *Victory This structure, examining the Allied victory in terms of the resurrection of the British and Indian Armies' fighting prowess, has proved influential in the historiography of the Burma campaign. The 1961 edition condensed the content of the original publication into one book, but followed the same structure.

Critical and popular reception

''Defeat into Victory'' received positive reviews on its publications, being praised for its insight and the quality of writing. In a review in ''

Military Affairs ''The Journal of Military History'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the military history of all times and places. It is the official journal of the Society for Military History. The journal was established in 1937 and the ed ...

'', Frank Trager describes it as "extraordinary" and making "a most valuable contribution to our understanding", and thought it instructive in the light of contemporary American involvement in Vietnam. Louis Morton, writing in ''

The Journal of Modern History ''The Journal of Modern History'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering European intellectual, political, and cultural history, published by the University of Chicago Press. Established in 1929, the journal covers events from appro ...

'', considered it a work of "wisdom, modesty, grace, and deep understanding", and "an outstanding example of the best of British military memoirs". In ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', the writer

John Masters Lieutenant Colonel John Masters, DSO, OBE (26 October 1914 – 7 May 1983) was a British novelist and regular officer of the Indian Army. In World War II, he served with the Chindits behind enemy lines in Burma, and became the GSO1 (chief st ...

called it "a dramatic story with one principal character and several hundred subordinate characters", and said that it showed that Field Marshal Slim was "an expert soldier and an expert writer." ''Defeat into Victory'' was also a considerable commercial success, with the first edition of 20,000 selling out almost immediately, being quickly followed by a second run. The book has been reissued several times since.Lewin, Ronald (1999) ''Slim: The Standardbearer'' (Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions) pp. 294

References

* {{reflist Burma in World War II 1956 non-fiction books Cassell (publisher) books