Rodney W. Anderson

“A detail-thick biography of a military leader, Shadows in the Burmese Jungle covers successful guerrilla campaigns during World War II.”
—Foreword Clarion Reviews

"I am thrilled to have read another story of incredible bravery behind the lines in Burma. I knew of Lt. Col. 'Red' Maddox from my own research of Special Operations in Burma during the Second World War, and it has long been my view that here was a man whose war needed to be shared. Maddox was a truly remarkable warrior, as his son-in-law has so valuably illustrated for us. Having spent most of the time between February 1943 and July 1945 behind the lines, Maddox deserves to be remembered as an exceptional Special Forces operator from whom those now serving their country even now could take important pointers. Seconded from the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) to the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS), Maddox supported the advance into Burma in later 1944 and the first half of 1945, providing important intelligence, targets for the Allied air forces, and taking the Japanese on in numerous offensive guerrilla operations. His personal bravery and endurance throughout is something to be marvelled at, but his leadership and management of his forces also made a meaningful contribution to the Allied victory in Burma as Rodney Anderson shows us using both his research accumulated over many years and precious family papers. Shadows in the Burmese Jungle is a very welcomed addition to our Second World War Burma bookshelves, helping to ensure that the war in Burma continues to make steady progress into our collective memory and commemoration"
- Dr. Richard Duckett, Historian and Author of "The SOE in Burma"

"We have long had the outlines of the operations of two clandestine organizations in northern Burma, one British and the other American. But in neither case have we had on-the-ground accounts of the lived-experience of their pioneers, their early risk takers. Now there are two new biographies which reveal the field craft and decision-making of successful leaders, one of Patrick Maddox (OSS) by Rodney Anderson, and the other Edgar Peacock (SOE) by Richard Duckett.

Canadian military historian Rodney Anderson has tracked down the private papers and photos related to Patrick Maddox’s guerrilla career in a brand new and somewhat experimental US Office of Strategic Services. In Shadows in the Burmese Jungle he tracks Maddox’s two month walk from northern Burma to Yunnan, flight back to Calcutta, and appointment to the OSS, one of the first to a non-American. With knowledge of electronics and explosives, familiar with northern Burma, Maddox was a multi-lingual ‘natural’ for advanced training. He soon jumped with his group into the railway corridor south of Myitkyina in early 1943, in order to blow up bridges and rails. Almost immediately he heard that the next OSS group jumped into the same area, but they were not heard from again.

The senior OSS officer Carl Eiffler decided that Maddox and others should, instead, be formed into small groups and proceed south from Putao on foot to ambush and harass, and receive air-dropped supplies quite like the SOE groups were doing. Skillfully quoting Maddox’s field diary, Anderson tracks how painfully slow their movements had to be silent and immobile in daylight, active and aggressive all night. Because supply drops were sporadic, they often went hungry and lived off the land. But it shows how guerrillas learned to bargain and trade, and to make friends and avoid capture.

It is in late 1944 that Maddox, now code named “Red”, was given increasingly large leadership roles. First on the western side of the Irrawaddy River, then in early 1945 on the eastern side of that might river. As the end of the European war became more predictable, more resources were available even to irregular units like Maddox’s. Not an American, Maddox nonetheless reached a senior officer level, as Lieutenant Col with the OSS Kachin Rangers by July 1944. The three guerrilla battalions under his command accounted for the death of 2,000 Japanese soldiers in four months combat. Their own losses, while not trivial, were not comparable to those of the Japanese. When the OSS disbanded their Kachin Rangers units, Maddox was quickly assigned to a War Crimes Investigation Unit in which he verified the execution of wounded Allied soldiers by the Japanese Army (a war crime).

To a Burma guerrilla nut like me, this new book is a treasure gratefully received because it contains details which other books have not done. Plus it sets Red Maddox in his pre-war lineage context (born in Rangoon in unusual circumstances, schooled in Rangoon, working as a house servant as a teenager, attracted to mining, etc.). Being an historian himself, Rodney Anderson realized the unique value of the Maddox diaries and papers: he knew they should be mined in detail. The photos alone are priceless, since there are many of generals but few of fighters at the working level. Relying on it, I can correlate and verify details in the operations of the OSS, which is one of the purposes of history, and thus purposes of historians."
Professor Robert Anderson, Professor Emeritus - Simon Fraser University