Elephant Company

Elephant Company by Vicki Constantine Croke

J.H. “Elephant Bill” Williams, born in 1897, was a veteran of both World Wars. Before WWII started, he had taken a job in the jungles of Burma working with captive elephants moving teak wood out of the jungle.

This is a story of the incredible relationship he developed with the Burmese elephants. Once he started working with them, he realized how intelligent these elephants were and how mistreated they were in the teak industry. He developed an elephant school that had a more humane way of teaching the elephants how to work.

As WWII developed and moved into the jungles of Burma, Elephant Bill was able to use his skills and experience with the Burmese elephants to keep them out of the hands of the Japanese and then use these incredible animals to  help the allies defeat the Japanese in the jungles of Burma.

The book was a little slow in the beginning, but it was quite fascinating to learn about the elephants and how smart these animals really are.