BITTER FIGHTING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 114, 16 May 1941, Page 9

BITTER FIGHTING

JAPANESE OFFENSIVE

Chinese Admit Withdrawals In Some Sectors United Tress Association. —Copyright. Rec. 2 p.m. SHANGHAI, May 15. Fierce fighting is reported to be in progress in several parts of China, according to the Domei news agency. Japanese forces in Shansi, it is claimed, annihilated the Chinese 7th, 12th and 34th Divisions in the course of an encircling movement, which trapped 200,000 Chinese.

A Chungking communique admits that the Japanese in Kwangtung Province recaptured Tungkiang, a river town on the Waichow. Other Japanese forces are reported to have entered Fasyuen, the first major town north of Canton, but were driven out quickly. There has been severe fighting in the past three days in the vicinity of Chuki, in Chekiang, Central Hupeh and Southern Shansi provinces.

The Domei news agency correspondent on the Honan front says that as the culmination of long enmity, Chinese Communist troops suddenly attacked the Chungking Central 40 th Army in the vicinity of Linhsien, on the Honan-Shansi border. He said fighting is at present very bitter.