LIUCHOW BATTLE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 153, 30 June 1945, Page 5

LIUCHOW BATTLE

Chinese Capture Main Airfield Of City RAILWAY LINE RETAKEN Rec. 2 p.m. CHUNGKING, June 29. A Chinese spokesman announced that the Chinese captured the main airfield at Liuchow and also the city's southern railway station. The spokesman said that Liuchow had been burning since June 23 and the city's core was destroyed. The Chinese, after a month of bloody fighting, have encircled blazing Liuchow, the capture of which is reported to be imminent. As the assault troops battled through the western and northeastern suburbs, the Chinese to the north reached within nine miles of Kweilin, while others recaptured the key road centres of Lungnan and Tingnan, in ICwantung and Kiangsi Provinces, the border area 140 miles north-east of Canton.

A Chinese spokesman said that the coastal strip abandoned by the Japanese now extends 300 miles from Foochow to the Ningai area, only 33 miles from Ningpo.

The Chinese had regained virtually the whole of the KweichowKwangsi railway, which was the first they had recovered since the outbreak of the war in July, 1937. However, the line needed rebuilding. 'The spokesman added that the Chinese were 10 miles from Kweilin.