Pacific Front Theater is topic for April 20 talk

Robert Charles, an Army veteran who served during the China-Burma-India Campaign in World War II, will be the featured speaker for the Monday, April 20, meeting of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Military Historians.

The meeting will be at the Rose-Harms American Legion Hall, 1540 13th Ave., Grafton.

Charles, a native of New York State, will provide an eyewitness account of his Army training, transport by sea to India — then a British colony — and traveling with a convoy to the Northern India duty station, where he and several Army companies had the daunting task of supplying the beleaguered Chinese allies via the Ledo Road, railroad and over the Himalayan peaks.

The Japanese goal was to press on to India through Burma where British and American units fought and stopped them. Charles will discuss, among others, General Joe Stillwell, General Frank D. Merrill of the famed Merrill’s Marauders and British General Slim, all from the lesser-known wider Pacific Front Theater.

The $25 admission includes a buffet dinner and presentation, although a limited number of seats for the program only are available for $10.

Doors open at 5:15 p.m., with the dinner slated for 6:30 p.m.

Registrations are required by 11 p.m. Thursday, April 16, and may be made by calling Ken Grigas at (262) 284-1090 or emailing rsvp@mkemh.org.