THE FORGOTTEN CAMPAIGN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 62, 14 March 1944, Page 4

THE FORGOTTEN CAMPAIGN

much was expected of the campaign in Burma during the northern winter, and relatively so little was heard about it that it almost slipped out of memory, forgotten amid the welter of greater news from the livelier battle zones. It burst into greater activity a week ago, but that was obviously only a flash in the pan- The monsoon season starts next month, and the 200 or so inches of rain which will fall between the first onset and the end in October will be sufficient to put a period to any hope of decisive activity in the jungle. In the previous dry season a very limited campaign in the Arakan area was waged, without any gains of permanent value. With the appointment of Lord Louis Mountbatten as operational director of the land and sea forces for the current campaign a much more intensive land and sea attack was generally anticipated, especially as it was officially stated that a million men were gathered on the Burmese frontier. The expected assault was not launched, and now, with only a month to go, it is too late to begin and to sustain a major campaign.

American experts, according to a message received yesterday, suggest that nothing important will happen until the autumn, and that is the natural deduction from the weather and the history of earlier fighting in the area. There will be much patrol and skirmish work, but except in the coastal belt it is likely to be very restricted while the mud and floods continue. Next dry season, when more transport will be available and more warships to protect it, when the flank created by the Andaman Islands has been cleared, we may expect that the command will stage an effective attack. It is probable that when it does come the power behind tit will be enormous. It will come from land, sea and air in a series of operations which may extend from Akyab through the Java arc to New Guinea, with the greatest emphasis on the Burmese mainland. The landward operations will not be limited, as they have been sd far, to the Mayu Peninsula, but will include drives up the Irawaddy and Salwein Ptivers and a junction with the American and Chinese veterans in the north. The recent operations from Maungdaw to Buthidaw have given Lord Mountbatten's land forces invaluable experience of jungle fighting and of the enemy's methods of attack. They have shown that the Japanese strategy can be successfully countered, and that, in infiltrating tactics and close fighting, we can outwit and outfight the invader.

The Japanese have not been idle, and they have built up good motor roads through Indo-China and Siam to Burma, they have accumulated vast stocks of war material, and in spite of shipping losses they have steadily reinforced their armies. They have a large strategic air reserve near the Siamese border, and thus when the invading lines are lengthened the enemy will not easily be beaten back. But in spite of the number of Quislings in high places whom they had suborned in Burma before the invasion the Japanese are steadily earning the hatred of the Burmese. They were very suave at first, but the natural brutality of the race has gradually corroded the assumption of gentleness, and the natives are becoming more and more enraged at their repressive methods and at the manner in which food supplies are commandeered and treasures looted. They are realising now the difference between British and Japanese control, and they dislike their new masters more and more every day. They showed their preference very clearly when Brigadier Wingate's raiders were roaming for three hundred miles behind the Japanese lines. The natives guided and fed them and helped them in every way, both to attack and to escape from the Japanese, and threats and reprisals only made them the more bitter and determined. It is evident, therefore, that when the attack begins it will get much local support. The seizure of Arakan and the Andamans is an essential prelude. The one has been well started, and that the other can be accomplished has been shown by the American task force attacks in the Pacific. We may hear of it at any time now, and will know that the consolidation of the effort for the Burmese campaign is well in hand.