BATTLE OF RIVERS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 122, 5 March 1942, Page 6

BATTLE OF RIVERS.

MOST IMPORTANT STAGE. BRITISH STAND ON SITTANG. LONDON, March 4. The position on the Burma front is reported to be unchanged, with only skirmishes on the west side of the Sittang river. “The battle of the Salween, Bilin, and Sittang rivers reached a most important stage,” reports the Mandalay correspondent of “The Times.” The British are holding strong positions on the west hank of the Sittang river, lmt our forces are again handicapped by inadequate air support to fight divebombers and by lack of communications.

“Nevertheless a. most determined resistance is being put up, and the Japanese have suffered heavy casualties. When the order for tile withdrawal across the Sittang came, a railway bridge behind the Imperial troops had already been blown up, and they had to swim. Dive-bombers swooped on them. Many non-swimmers were drowned. Some officers and men remained cm. the west bank and fought the enemy to the death.”

Japanese air losses in. the last week, about 100 bombers and fighters, arc re - ported to have diminished the enemy’s raids.

According to the Paris radio, five Chinese divisions are concentrated, between Mandalay and Lasiiio for the protection of the Burma Road. The Japanese have not yet made contact with the Chinese in the north of Burma. British troops are reported to be moving against small Japanese forces which cut the Burma Road north of Pegu, 10Q miles from Rangoon. Reuter’s correspondent in Mandalay says: “I motored many miles along the Burma Road, but did not meet a single convoy going into China. Wrecked lorries littered the roadside. Others, which presumably were defective, had been abandoned after being set on fire. There are, however, other roads to China.”