Operation Dracula was the code name given to the airborne and amphibious operation carried out by British and Indian forces to attack and capture Rangoon during the Burma Campaign in World War II, between April and May, 1945.

Meanwhile, an Allied reconnaissance aircraft flying over the city of Rangoon saw no sign of the Japanese, and also noticed a message painted on the roof of the jail by released British prisoners of war. It read, "Japs gone." The crew of the plane landed on Mingaladon Airfield, but crashed. They walked to the jail, where they found 1,000 former prisoners of war who informed them of the Japanese evacuation. The air crew then went to the docks, commandeered a sampan and sailed down the river to meet the landing craft. The next day, the 26th Division started to occupy the city without opposition.

The Battle of Imphal was a Second World War battle which was fought between British-Indian forces and the Japanese Army near the city of Imphal, in North-East India, from March 7 to July 18, 1944. In order to invade India, a force of 120,000 Japanese troops attempted to annihilate the British forces at Imphal. But the Japanese were defeated and driven back into Burma, suffering more than 80,000 casualties. The Battle of Imphal was the turning point of the Burma Campaign in the South-East Asian Theater of war. It to be the biggest Japanese defeat of the war as it signalled the beginning of the Allied reconquest of Burma.

When the Japanese attacked and invaded Burma, the city of Imphal became very important from a military point of view as the British had built up a strong military force there, not only to prevent a Japanese invasion of India, but from which to launch a large-scale offensive to drive the Japanese out of Burma.

Under the command of General Mutaguchi, the Japanese began their assault on the British positions deployed on the Indian-Burma border on March 7, 1944. On March 12, after five days of fierce fighting, various British units were authorized to retreat to the Imphal Plain to force the Japanese to fight at the end of long and difficult lines of communication. It took 20 days for the British to withdraw to the plain.

Between March 19 and March 29, the 5th Indian Division was flown in along with artillery guns, jeeps and mules. By the time this division arrived, the Japanese were only 30 miles from Imphal. The tenacious fight put up by the British 50th Parachute Brigade, stationed on a small hill at Sangshak, delayed the Japanese advance on Imphal from the northwest, inflicting heavy casualties on the Japanese. This altered the Japanese schedule, which had to be reprogramed. The 50th Parachute Brigade had given General Scoones an extra time to further strenghten the defences at Imphal.

On March 29, the Japanese blocked the Imphal-Kohima road, laying siege to Imphal. Although the British-Indian troops were completely surrounded by the enemy forces, they were constantly supplied by planes, which delivered around 14,000,000 pounds of rations, 1,000,000 gallons of petrol, and 12,000,000 pounds of ammunition during the siege.

Although the Japanese took a hill at Nungshigum on April 6, the British forces retook the hill on April 13 after fierce fighting. Despite fierce attacks launched by the enemy against the Allied troops, morale among the Japanese had begun to wane due to heavy casualties. Heavy fighting also broke out to the southeast of Imphal where the Japanese came up against Ghurkhas and Indian troops of the 20th Division.

Heavy fighting also took place to the south of Imphal along the road to Tiddim. The forces under Scoones command had to get used to dry rations, which was very debilitating for the British. But the Japanese were in a far worse physical state. As the they closed in on Imphal, they became weaker and fewer in number as they were mown down by British machine gun fire. As the Battle of Imphal raged on, the Japanese became unable to take the city.

When the Japanese were defeated at Kohima, the British forces based there were sent south to attack the Japanese effectively from their rear. On June 22 Allied troops formally at Kohima reached men from the 5th Indian Division at a point called Milestone 107 along the Imphal-Kohima road, twenty miles north of Imphal. It signalled the end of the siege. The vicious fighting went on until July 18, when the Japanese High Command decided to retreat to the River Chindwin on the Burma side of the Indian-Burma border. The Japanese had suffered 80,000 casualties while the British had sustained 17,000 men killed and wounded.

Operation Thursday was the code name for the aerial invasion phase of the Burma campaign, during World War II. The Chindits were given the task of helping the American Marauders to push the Ledo Road through northern Burma to link up with the Burma Road and re-establish an overland supply route to China, by mounting a long range penetration operation behind the Japanese opposing his forces on the Northern Front. A force of 10,000 men, 1,000 mules, equipment and supplies were flown into clearings in the heart of Burma behind enemy lines. Three sites had been selected for the initial landing grounds and were given the code names Piccadilly, Broadway and Chowringhee, named after famous roads in London, New York and Calcutta. These landing sites had been chosen in inaccessible areas to avoid contact with Japanese ground troops and all sorties had to be flown at night to avoid Japanese planes.

The eighty-three Dakotas used in Operation Thursday were provided by RAF Squadrons Nos. 31, 62, 117, and 194, USAAF Troop Carrier Squadrons 27th, 315th and 1st Air Commando. Wingate now had 3 brigades in Burma and all enemy attacks had been repulsed. Operation Thursday was successfully over and Churchill sent Wingate a telegram congratulating him and the Chindits on the outstanding success of Operation Thursday. This was the largest Allied airborne operation ever conducted until the forces under Eisenhower landed in France.

The Marauders were a World War II American special force which operated in Burma, in South-East Asia. The Marauders was a regiment-sized unit organized as a long range penetration force which fought in the Burma Campaign. Their highly trained men penetrated deep behind enemy lines and attacked the Japanese forces from within, carrying out acts of sabotage. The Marauders were created by the Operations Division of the War Department in September 1943. The new unit official name was 5307th Composite Unit, which was put under the command of Brigadier General Frank Merrill. Hence, American war correspondents dubbed the unit Merrill’s Marauders. The 5307th Composite Unit’s code name was "Galahad."

In their final mission, the Marauders suffered 272 killed, 955 wounded, and 980 evacuated for illness and disease; some men later died from cerebral malaria, amoebic dysentery, and/or scrub typhus. Somewhat ironically, Marauders evacuated from the front lines were given jungle hammocks with protective sandfly netting and rain covers in which to sleep, equipment which might have prevented various diseases and illnesses had they been issued earlier in the campaign. The casualties included General Merrill himself, who had suffered a second-heart attack before going down with malaria. He was replaced by his second-in-command, Colonel Charles N. Hunter, who later prepared a scathing report on General Stilwell’s medical evacuation policies, eventually prompting an Army Inspector General investigation and congressional hearings. By the time the town of Myitkyina was taken, only about 200 surviving members of the original Marauders were present. A week after Myitkyina fell, on August 10, 1944, the Marauders were disbanded. Of the 2,750 to enter Burma, 130 combat-effective officers and men survived the vicious war in the jungle, and only 2 had never been hospitalized with wounds or major illness.

Operation Longcloth was a World War II military operation carried out by the Chindits from February 8 to April 28, 1943, in the Japanese-held territory of Burma, Southeast Asia. It was the first raid launched by the Chindits after they had been organized and trained by Orde Charles Wingate. Although the original intent had been to use the Chindits as a part of a larger offensive, the objective of Operation Longcloth was to prove that it was possible to infiltrate and operate in difficult jungle terrain deep in enemy-infested territory and to destroy sections of the Japanese-control railway tracks, inflict casualties to the enemy and then return.

The Chindits began their march into Burma from Imphal on February 8, 1943. After they crossed the Chindwin River, they faced the first Japanese troops on February 15. Two columns advanced to the south, receiving their air supply drops in broad daylight. At the beginning the Japanese believed they were small groups gathering intelligence. But after a number of engagements with Japanese outposts and patrols and the demolition of railway bridges, the Japanese realized the force was of brigade strength. The Japanese had been caught by surprise, not knowing the intention of the Chindits and how they were supplied. Three Japanese regiments were sent to the area to find and destroy the British.

An airdrop attempt was interrupted and aborted on March 13 as the column waiting for the supplies to be dropped encountered a Japanese position near the drop zone. The Japanese had now found out that the Chindits were being supplied by air and the troops searching for the British supply lines were brought back to intensify the hunt for the Chindits. Now they were deep in enemy territory, but instead of returning to their home base, they marched eastward, attacking Japanese targets.

Finally, on March 24, Orde Wingate ordered the Chindits to return. In order to ease their march back, unnecessary equipment was dumped and most of the mules were turned loose. By now the British and Indian troops were exhausted, sick, and running out of food as they faced a dangerous journey back home pursued by the Japanese. On the way back many were ambushed and captured by the enemy.
 
After the three-months mission, the majority of the surviving Chindits had crossed the Chindwin river, having marched between 750-1000 miles. From the 3,000 soldiers that had begun Operation Longcloth, a third of them had been killed, died of disease, or taken prisoner. Only 2,182 men returned home by the end of April, 1943.