The Jungle of Death: Stephen Brookes

This story is taken from the book Incredible Journeys But together by Readers Digest.  Stephen was eleven years old when he lived with his family in Burma, which was a part of India at the time.  The Japanese invaded Burma, and swept through the country so quickly everyone was taken by suprise, and many were left refugees.  The Japanese planes flying overhead were the first Stephen had ever seen.  His family was slow in leaving, not believing the disaster, and so had to leave quickly.  The headed north, away from the Japanese, into China.  In China they were held up, and finally were released to travel cross the country on foot to India.  They had to travel through 250 miles of jungle known as the Hukawng Valey.  50,000 refugees would try the same trip, only 25,000 would survive the ordeal, thee others would die in the jungle.  This included Stephen's father. 
This trip resulted in the break up of the family.  Stephen remained in India, and eventually traveled to England.  His mother, who was Burmese, returned to Burma after the war with his sister and brother. 

Documentary Review: Victory at Sea: The Road to Mandalay

This film was originally produced by NBC News, and first presented in 1953.  It has more recently been released by the History Channel.  
This is a film about the allied effort to build a road through the jungle, going around the Japanese occupation of Burma, Siam, Southeast Asia; to eventually reach China, and get needed supplies to these people before they would be compelled to surrender to the Japanese.  Mandalay is a large city in Burma.  There were people from all over the world taking part in this effort, Australia, U.S., England, New Zealand, Burma, China, Africa, India.  This was a worldwide effort to rescue this people, and turn the tide of the war.  This movie starts with sea resupply, but this resupply had to land in India.  The were still hundreds of miles from where the supplies needed to arrive, through jungle and over the Himalayas.  The first step was to retake enough territory from the Japanese for the building of the rode.  This was then followed by engineers and road builders.  However they did not only build a road, but also a pipeline to supply needed oil.  On several occasions they quote from a Rudyard Kipling poem, "
"Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay!" http://whilhelmsthoughts.blogspot.com/2014/05/poetry-i-like-rudyard-kipling-mandalay.html