“I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about the Burma Campaign. Won by the so-called “Forgotten” Fourteenth Army, the campaign is widely considered to have been fought in one of the most brutal and trying theatres of war.

“Ask my peers today, however, and for most [the Second World War] ends with victory in Europe. Ask school pupils to point to Burma, or Myanmar as it is known today, on a map, and most would struggle.”

So writes Hannah Watson, author of The Jungle War, an historical adventure novel for 9- to 16-year-olds based around the events of the Burma Campaign in World War Two. Hannah goes on to write:

“This hole in the public consciousness is for very understandable reasons. The scale of the war in Europe and the Middle East, its proximity to home and Churchill’s Germany-first focus when defending the Allied cause all build a case. […] It follows that the sacrifices of the war in the East rarely occupy the public imagination today, as they rarely did in the post-war years. And that is if people know of them at all.”

Hannah’s book The Jungle War aims to rectify this hole in the public consciousness. The book follows the adventures of young Jim Chance, who travels first to India and then into the jungles of Burma. He is enlisted as a Chindit in the British Indian Army, and along with Thaman, a Gurkha soldier, they enter a war like no other.

“I felt along with the book’s British and Gurkha characters the desperation at being left on the wrong side of the Sittang Bridge as it blew, pondered with Bill Slim how the Indian Army might regroup to defend Burma, and marvelled at the strange magnetism of Orde Wingate, mastermind behind the much-debated Operation Longcloth. The story was as good as any a young person might find on bookshop shelves – better, even, because the terror, the turmoil and the sacrifice were all real.”

In the Second World War, over 137,000 Gurkha soldiers served within the British Indian Army and nine Victoria Crosses were awarded to Gurkha units during the Burma Campaign. The Jungle War attempts to tell part of their story, and the stories of many other men from across the globe that were swept up in the tide of war.

The publication of The Jungle War was supported by Sampan. In June 2024, at Chalke History Festival, Sampan’s Managing Director sat down with Hannah to speak more about this book and why she felt compelled to write it.

The Jungle War is the story of the Burma Campaign told for young adventurous. We say it’s for the age group of 9 to 16, but really, it’s an incredible story for people of all ages. It tells part of the story of the Second World War that often gets overlooked.

I think people of a certain generation might remember the Forgotten Army and the fact that there was this incredible story and this incredible victory that happened over in the East that quickly got forgotten about or was never known about by people back home. That army is in danger of being forgotten all over again by the next generation. Even people of my generation – I’m in my early 30s and didn’t know the story at all. The Jungle War aims to rectify that by telling the real history wrapped up into a really engaging story of a young officer who gets swept up in the fight and the Gurkha soldiers that he meets and the incredible allyship between them that leads to victory.

Tell us more about this young officer.

The character of Jim Chance is fictional, but he is based on some incredible memoirs such as James Lunt’s A Hell of a Licking and Patrick Davis’ A Child at Arms. It’s a true story in the sense that there were young men who were at school when the war began but were then drafted as Emergency Commissioned Officers.

The Jungle War starts when Jim is at school playing a game of rugby. There is a war on but at this stage, it’s not really personal for him. He’s not engaged with what it means to be at war. His mother arrives at the side of the rugby pitch and tells him that his house has been bombed in the Blitz and he cannot go home. So, they send him somewhere where they think he will be safe. They send him to Calcutta to be with his dad. The events unfold from there. He ends up fighting this incredibly treacherous campaign in Burma – a war that he didn’t expect to fight.

The men that were fighting in Burma as officers tended to be younger on average than officers fighting in other theatres of the war. Jim represents the very young men that were asked to very quickly become adults: to step up, to take leadership. You see the wonderful relationship he is able to build with the Gurkha soldiers. He really has to work to earn their respect and trust. It’s a bond that grows over the course of the story.

Tell us about Thaman, the main Gurkha soldier in the story.

He again is a fictional character but one that hopefully is a representation of lots of Gurkha soldiers. He is named after a real man who won a Military Cross for bravery. All of the Gurkha soldiers are named after real soldiers. (And you can learn about their stories at The Gurkha Museum, who published the book.) Thaman is 10 years older than Jim. He is more experienced, he is an halvidar [a sergeant in the Indian Army] and Jim, who is an officer, has to come in and lead him having never been at war before. Thaman provides the maturity that Jim has to step up into as the book progresses.

There are some really exciting moments in the book with Jim and Thaman, that kids will hopefully love. There is a tiger attack; the men have to swim the Sittang River after the bridge is bombed; they both get wrapped up in Operation Longcloth as Chindits. There is lots of excitement with both those two characters.

Another interesting character is Ralph. Tell us more about him.

The book is set in a really interesting point in Britain’s history, especially in regard to its empire. There is so much to unpack for kids who may not know about Britain’s relationship to Burma at that point – or its relationship to India. So, Ralph is a really useful character. He is Anglo-Burmese. His dad is a teak-wallah, his mum is from the Shan people. He represents those families that would have lived in places like Maymyo, those old colonial towns of Burma. As an Anglo-Burmese, Ralph gets drafted to Jim’s regiment as an interpreter and is able to help them navigate all of the different ethnic groups in Burma. As well as that swirl of different political views, and different views on independence.

As a colonising force, Britain had a difficult relationship with Burma. But then the Japanese come in and they do not have the best interests of the Burmese people at heart either.

How did the idea for this book come about?

The idea began with a lady named Mary-Rose Cooney. Speaking to her grandson, Mary-Rose realised that he didn’t know any of the history of the war. She had inherited the history because her grandfather was in the Indian Army and had actually been part of the founding of Maymyo. I think it was in realising that the Forgotten Army was in danger of being forgotten again, that she approached first the Gurkha Welfare Trust [GWT] and then The Gurkha Museum with the idea for the book. I come from a background in children’s publishing and was very fortunate to be commissioned to write it with their support. For me it has been an amazing adventure to uncover the characters and all of the amazing history and the drama of the Burma Campaign. The devastation of it too. I hope people reading it will get swept up in the history as well.

The GWT is one of the supporters of the book and proceeds from the sales are going back to support the GWT as well as the Kohima Educational Trust. We are also wonderfully supported by Sampan Travel! It is so exciting to have people that are passionate about this area of history and who want to make it known get behind the project.

Tell us about the process of researching for and writing the book.

It was really exciting. Quite intimidating! Along with a lot of people my age, I learnt about the Second World War at school, but it was really about Hitler’s rise to power and the war in Europe. For me, and for a lot of people, we are aware of VE [Victory in Europe] Day but not so much about VJ [Victory over Japan] Day. For most people the war ends with the end of fighting in Europe.

I had a vague idea of the story but it was in reading some of the incredible memoirs that I realised what a fascinating topic it is: the political context of Britain’s relationship with that part of the world, and Britain’s relationship with the Gurkhas in particular. In writing about the Gurkhas I wanted to do them justice. So, it was a great relief to have The Gurkha Museum there to fact-check and support from the historical angle. It was wonderful for me to be welcomed into that world. To meet people like [Gurkha veteran and author] J.P. Cross. To have him read the book as someone who lived through the events is quite incredible. He was one of those 18-year-olds fighting in the Burma Campaign. With his son Buddhiman Gurung he wrote a book called Gurkhas at War in which they interview Gurkha veterans, travelling to really remote parts of Nepal and recording their experiences. That book I leant on quite a bit to try and understand what Gurkhas themselves were thinking and feeling about their role in the war. It was great to be able to send the book to J.P. and have him read it and provide me with some really interesting anecdotes. Also some Gurkhali phrases and some poems of lament that make it into the book and helped me do justice to that part of the story.

Why do you think it is important for this book to be written?

I suppose we can become complacent. If we are lucky to have lived in peaceful times you can come to feel that war is very far away. But actually characters like Jim also did not expect to be sucked up in a global conflict. I think having a lens to talk about war with children is important. We have war in Europe again, and the Middle East, and of course all over the world there are conflicts going on. War is a reality. War is devastating. It’s really important to have those conversations. We celebrated the D-Day anniversary recently. Eighty years is a lifetime, but it’s not all that long ago in the grand scheme of things. We never want to stray too far from what has gone before: trying to learn from mistakes and be prepared for what might be around the corner, and not be caught off guard as so many people were when the Second World War broke out.

The book is aimed at 9- to 16-year-olds and Jim is 17 at the beginning of the book. So, the children that are reading this book are very nearly his age. I find it shocking when I am going around the Commonwealth War Graves on Sampan’s WWII tours in both India and Burma and seeing how young so many of those soldiers were. And, of course, with war continuing in Myanmar, it remains horrifying to see how young those fighting still are.

I was talking to my mum about the book and she said that she almost couldn’t bring herself to read it, thinking about my brother who is thirty now but she was thinking about him as a sixth-former. They were so young! We can’t take for granted the freedoms that they won for us. The book talks about how everyone who fought was brave. They were thrown into this situation and had to muddle through the best they could. There are some people for whom war brings out the best of their abilities and their bravery, and their stamina to keep going on and being resilient … but I think everyone who fights must be brave in some shape or form.

What sort of response have you received from the book?

It’s been really touching for me to hear from people whose father or grandfather fought in the war. Often these men never spoke about it so these readers are uncovering the history for the first time, a generation or two later. It is interesting to hear people say: “this is my father’s story” or “this is my grandfather’s story”.

I had a lovely review from History with Jackson. And it has been wonderful to have Hari Budha Magar get behind the book as a patron and write the foreword. It was hugely important to have someone like Hari, who is a Gurkha veteran, who knows what it is to be brave, be able to share his perspective and his family connection to the war. His wife’s grandfather, Naik Jasbir Pun, fought and was captured by the Japanese, but survived. As a soldier he is very aware of that legacy.

And then finally to have J.P. Cross and Buddhiman Gurung read and provide their thoughts was … well it was terrifying to give the book to someone who was actually there! But J.P. had some wonderful words to say about the book. Extremely generous, and extremely kind. It has been wonderful to have people be so positive.

Yes, J.P. Cross described the book as ‘painstakingly researched, compelling reading, a historian’s dream’. A brilliant review!

The Jungle War ends in 1943, just after the conclusion of the Chindits’ Operation Longcloth. The Burma Campaign continued until 1945. So, what’s next … ?

 The history is not yet fully told. We have some key battles to come in Kohima and in Imphal. The book ends with hope with [General] Bill Slim having come in, re-training the army and saying, Come on, we can go back in … There is so much more to write about but we didn’t want to rush through the history. So yes, there might be a sequel …

You can purchase The Jungle War here. Find out more about the book here. You can follow The Jungle War on Instagram and on X. The Jungle War is published by The Gurkha Museum. The Jungle War was supported by Sampan Travel and sales of the book contribute towards the good work of the Gurkha Welfare Trust and the Kohima Educational Trust.

This conversation with Hannah has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Find out more about Sampan’s Beyond the Chindwin WWII journey through Burma here.