Question 2 of 20: Select the best answer for the question.
2. What was the purpose of the scorched earth tactic that the British used ag
Japanese in the Bengal province?
A. Burning the ground to make it hot and harder to walk on
B. Placing landmines in random places to explode when the enemy stepped
C. Burning the ground to make tracks impossible to follow
D. Destroying food supplies so that they would not fall into the hands of ene
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D

Explanation:

This is a military tactic used to destroy anything that might be useful to the enemy.

D. Destroying food supplies so that they would not fall into the hands of enemy troops

Explanation:

The Colonial Experience in World War II

World War II had tragic consequences not only for the European states but also for their colonies. The war destroyed existing trade networks and disrupted regular commercial activities. These disruptions caused widespread famine in colonized countries. For example, the Japanese took rice for their military from colonial Vietnam, and consequently, as many as two million people died of starvation. One of the worst famines occurred in the Bengal Province of India, where the Japanese were fighting the British. To slow down the Japanese, the British used a scorched earth strategy, meaning that the British deliberately burned Bengali villagers' food supplies so that the enemy troops could not use them. That strategy, combined with a particularly destructive cyclone that swept through the region in 1942, was responsible for the deaths of more than three million people. Colonized people trapped in the middle between empires at war found themselves in similar conditions throughout World War II.