Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Forgotten Ally

Subtitle: China's World War II, 1937 - 1945

Author: Rana Mitter

Narrator: Simon Vance

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-10-13

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 191 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

The epic, untold story of China's devastating eight-year war of resistance against Japan.

For decades, a major piece of World War II history has gone virtually unwritten. The war began in China two full years before Hitler invaded Poland, and China eventually became the fourth great ally, partner to the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain. Yet its drama of invasion, resistance, slaughter, and political intrigue remains little known in the West.

Rana Mitter focuses his gripping narrative on three towering leaders: Chiang Kai-shek, the politically gifted but tragically flawed head of China's Nationalist government; Mao Zedong, the Communists' fiery ideological stalwart, seen here at the beginning of his epochal career; and the lesser-known Wang Jingwei, who collaborated with the Japanese to form a puppet state in occupied China. Drawing on Chinese archives that have only been unsealed in the past 10 years, he brings to vivid new life such characters as Chiang's American chief of staff, the unforgettable "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, and such horrific events as the Rape of Nanking and the bombing of China's wartime capital, Chongqing. Throughout, Forgotten Ally shows how the Chinese people played an essential role in the wider war effort, at great political and personal sacrifice.

Forgotten Ally rewrites the entire history of World War II, yet it also offers surprising insights into contemporary China. No 20th-century event was as crucial in shaping China's worldview, and no one can understand China, and its relationship with America today, without this definitive work.

Members Reviews:

The ill fated chang kai-shek

As I believe that I am the first person to write a review on this fast moving account of the china's war of resistance I feel that it is necessary to proclaim how valuable this book is for the WWII buff. Most people are aware of the fact that China was involved in the war but they are not aware to what extent. China in fact was the first theater of WWII and experienced some of the first and most brutal communal war crimes of the war. This book is some what biased towards the Nationalist point of view and that of Chang Kai-Shek in particular. However it explains the communist point of view as well. After reading-listening to this book I came away with a feeling that the communists let the Nationalist camp bare the brunt of all the fighting while waiting for the war to end. Having saved its forces for the upcoming civil war the Communists were better poised to fight then the badly beat National forces. Thus leading to the current communist government in Bejing. As you might be able to tell I was left with a bad taste with the actions of the communist forces durring the battle for Chinas fight for survival.