An academic history written entirely from secondary sources. The British in Burma, under the Indian 17th Division, were unable to halt the Japanese 33rd and 55th Divisions at the frontier. The 17th Division fell back, but, at a critical period, not fast enough; the Japanese got to the Sittang River faster. The British destroyed the rail bridge over the Sittang wth most of the division on the wrong side. Its personnel crossed the river with only the clothes on their backs, or the surrendered. Slim later told General Smith, the 17th's commander, "Jackie, you dropped your Field-Marshal's baton into the Sittang river." Following the disaster on the Sittang, the British retreated out of Rangoon to the northward, fighting a delaying action againt the Japanese but ultimately retiring over the border of Indian Assam just as the monsoon season began. Eventually, under Slim, they retook Rangoon just as the monsoon began again, but their hold on the country was forever broken. ( )