Burma's Secret Jungle War

From DocuWiki

1 General Information
2 Cover
3 Information
4 Screenshots
5 Technical Specs
6 Links

[edit] General Information

Travel, War Documentary hosted by Joe Simpson and Ed Stafford, published by BBC in 2016 - English narration

[edit] Cover

[edit] Information

Joe Simpson travels to Myanmar to retrace the steps of his father, who served with the Chindits, the special forces who fought a guerilla war behind Japanese lines in WWII. Accompanied by explorer Ed Stafford, the first man to walk the length of the Amazon, and using the secret diary his father wrote, Joe experiences the challenging jungle conditions which made this one of the toughest campaigns of the war.

In the first episode, Joe crosses a river in a homemade bamboo raft, gets lost in the dense jungle terrain and has to put his 30-year-old dream put on hold to avoid the renewed hostilities triggered by the first free elections in the country since 1990.

Halfway through the jungle trek, the first free elections since 1990 trigger unrest and force Joe to divert to Bhamo, a small town in the north east of what is now called Myanmar. Joe can see the hills and ridges where his father trekked, but is not allowed to go there. Three days later, Joe and Ed Stafford, his jungle guide, are allowed to restart their journey, walking up a river crossed by the Chindits and travelling to villages and battlefields where the Allied special forces engaged the Japanese in fierce fighting. He meets villagers who still remember the Chindits, sees the spot where his father's commanding officer was beheaded in a battle and emerges with a deeper respect for what Lt Ian Simpson experienced.