JUNGLE WARFARE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 11, 14 January 1943, Page 5

JUNGLE WARFARE

Burmese Guerillas Train With British Troops N.Z. Press Association. —Copyright Rec. 2 p.m. LONDON, Jan. 13. Burmese guerillas are silently traversing forest trails, penetrating jungles and testing the Japanese strength, says the British United Press correspondent with the British forces in Burma. Some of the British troops have advanced as far as the Chindwin River, which the Japanese are using as a supply route for their forces in the most northerly part of the country. The Burmese guerillas work like the Chinese, Russian and Yugoslav irregulars, with tough Red Indian methods. The guerillas include many men from the hill tribes on the India-Burma border. They marched scores of miles to volunteer, because the Japanese tore down their villages and molested their people. The British give each a gUn and 30/ a month in "pay and organise small groups, which they send back to Japanese-held territory, where parties each comprising half a dozen men live on the country and sleep when and where they can. Thus, when the big push comes, Officers and men who are now learning the ways of the jungle will have many tribal peoples at their side and will be able to count on effective help from the Khamti Hills, the Patkai Mountains and the Naga Hills, in the extreme north, through the Chin Hills to Lushai and Arakan Hills in the south. The British are preparing all along the border to beat the Japanese at their own game of jungle j warfare.