The XIVth Army was the largest British army in World War II and the most ethnically diverse, being made up of a wide variety of British, Indian and African troops. Spearheading the XIVth Army's advance through the Burma jungles were the Chindits, British and Gurkha air commandos who landed behind Japanese lines in gliders for some of the most daring operations of the Second World War.Robin Painter was an officer in the Royal Signals, an especially important branch of service in a jungle campaign spread over a vast territory. Painter's graphic personal memoir covers both his experiences during the Chindit operations and his role during the desperate defense of Imphal, where a small British force stopped a full-scale Japanese invasion of India.