JAP ESCAPE GAP

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 76, 31 March 1945, Page 6

JAP ESCAPE GAP

STRUGGLE IN BURMA

Enemy Disorganisation Has Increased N.Z.P.A. and British Wireless Eec. 2.30 p.m. LONDON. March 30. Japanese disorganisation in Central Burma has increased, but-local resistance in certain areas is stubborn, says the latest Burma communique. The enemy is holding Taungtha Hill, 12 miles south-east of,Myingyan. The approaches to Kyaunkse, 25 miles south of Mandalay, are being defended from the west and north. The Japanese are here holding open an escape gap for their forces south-west of Mandalay. In the Meiktila area the enemy continues to use small numbers of tanks in night attacks on our positions. •-•- ■ Fourteenth Army armoured columns inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy, and guns were captured, in sweeps in the Meiktila area, says: a South-east Asia Allied Headquarters report. The Chinese Fiftieth Division, meeting only, slight resistance, captured two villages near a road junction 15 miles south-east of Hsipaw. British Thirty-sixth Divi-; sion troops are approaching Kyauk-. me, 67 miles, north-east of Maymyo. Four Allied aircraft are missing from widespread operations.- .;.

Astride Enemy Roads The British Fourteenth Army now holds about a" quarter of the Central Burma plain. From Mandalay the, country we have-liberated stretches' to the west below the-Irrawaddy in; a broad band about .15 .miles deep/ To the south and east, we/hold vital; key points blocking any. Japanese atteir«Jt to escape toward • Rangoon or into the hills toward the east. One of these key points is Meiktila, which the Japanese have been attacking fiercely. The Chinese First Army has captured Mongyai, 53 miles south-east of Lashio, against light resistance. Leading elements of the British Thirty-sixth Division were, yesterday. • less than 20 miles from Kysiikma, on :the Hsipaw-Mymyo road. Repeated attacks on one of our positions m r Arakan, 68 miles south-east of Akyab, were repulsed. - Super Fortresses from India bombed - Japanese oil- stores -on Bukum Island, off Singapore, to-day, The returning crews reported tanks crumbling and ablaze in a sea cov- ■ ered with burning oil. All the planes returned safely. Air opposition and flak were meagre.