BURMA DEFENDERS LACK AIR UMBRELLA

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 83, 9 April 1942, Page 7

BURMA DEFENDERS LACK AIR UMBRELLA

TROOPS SUFFER Delaying Actions Against Advancing Japanese U.P.A. and Britis-ti Wireless. Rec. 1.30 p.m. LONDON, April 8. A Burma communique states that j no reports have been received of j any change in the situation on the . Irrawaddy front. A town in north-: ern Burma was bombed earlv this ! morning. Details are not yet to i hand, but as far as is known there | was no damage to military property. I and no casualties resulted to mili-; tary personnel. j Press dispatches from the front make clear how much the British j forces are suffering in their despe-1 rate resistance through the absence i of air support. Fighting without respite against overwhelming superiority they are performing welinigh incredible feats of valour and heroism. Their tactics, which are being faithfully carried out, are to delay the enemy as much as possible, to inflict as much loss as possible and to get back before they are surrounded. It is only in the air that the Japanese are having it all their own way on this particular front. Threat to Oilfields The situation in Burma looks serious, for unless air reinforcements arrive very soon Lieutenant-General Sir H. Alexander may be forced to abandon the oilfields and fall back on Mandalay, the military spokesman at Chungking states. Units of the regular United States Air Force have joined the volunteers defending Mandalay. The Scripps Howard Press commentator, in a radio message to New York from Chungking, says that even the American volunteer group is now suffering from a shortage of aeroplanes. This situation must be overcome in the next few weeks if Burma is to be held. Two strong columns of Japanese in lorries, supported by tanks, are racing northward toward the Burmese oilfields and already have reached the outer fringe of the oil-bearing area. The Daily Herald's correspondent in Burma says: "If the large air reinforcements promised weeks ago bv the spokesman at New Delhi are not here swiftly the consequences will be woeful. If our forces are given air support now they can win this battle. While we wait, caravans of homeless people continue to move from the blitzed towns, adding to the large moving population and the problem of the roads. "The Japanese onslaught is in the air. Defeat that, and I am satisfied ' that the military position can be turned to our advantage and the battle for Burma won." Confirming previous Press dispatches, Major-General Lewis Brereton reported in a delayed message that seven American Flying Fortresses carried out a successful raid on the harbour at Rangoon last Friday, dropping several tons of bombs, damaging the docks and port facilities and starting three large fires. Light anti-aircraft fire was encountered, but none of the planes was hit.