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Elephant Company

the Inspiring Story of An Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II
Feb 20, 2015DorisWaggoner rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Much of this book is a six star, but the post WW II ending is a real let down. I suspect that's because it was a let down for Elephant Billy himself, which made me sad. He came to Burma an untried young WW I vet, knowing only that he loved animals, and allowed the elephants and their keepers, the uzis, to teach him. Several high points struck me, and I don't think they're spoilers, as the reviews reveal them. One is how immediately he attained rapport with the massive beasts. When he made severe mistakes in dealing with them, he learned. The other two are the evacuations from Burma during WW II that made him world famous. In 1942 he and the elephants took the women and children from the Teak Company over several mountain ranges, the Japanese on their heels, to the relative safety of India. The second, in 1944, when it seemed Japan might win the war, meant another evacuation, this time of sick Ghurka women and children. His compassion led them over impassible mountains, since the exhausted elephants couldn't handle the crowds of refugees now on the few roads. Food was minimal, medicine and maps nonexistent. They had to carve an "elephant stairway" when they came to a 275 ft. cliff, hoping the elephants would climb it. Not a person or elephant was lost. After getting them to safety and reuniting with his family, Williams went back to his elephants, working in Burma to haul and carry; finally he convinced Allied command to use them to build bridges, which helped win the war in Burma. He was mustered out of the service and retired to Cornwall, but nothing in life could ever be so exciting, and he missed his elephants. From here, the book falls apart too. Still well worth reading for the complexity of characters, human and animal.