ON BURMA BORDER

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 210, 2 June 1944, Page 5

ON BURMA BORDER

Indians Repel Fierce Japanese Assault (British Official Wireless.* RUGBY, May 31. Fierce fighting is reported on the borders of curing through to the Imphal plain along the only all-weather Tammu Road, which is commanded by a twinpeaked hill held by a battalion of the Rajputana Rifles. This hill was subjected to heavy artillery bombardment throughout last Saturday, pud at midnight the Japanese attacked with a numerical superiority of four to one. The Japanese gained the first peak, but the battle-tried Indians counterattacked, stopped any further penetration, and at dawn, following a barrage by British gunners, the Rajputana Rifles went in with the bayonet, and, fighting with unbeatable ferocity, retook and held the top peak. The attacking Japanese met a stonewall defence in which clerks, watercarriers, cooks and sweepers formed a chain to bring ammunition up to the defenders of the recaptured peak. The enemy attack was stopped when a battalion of-the 10th Gurkhas, coming in from the flank, scaled an almost vertical cliff and charged. The hill was so thickly covered with Japanese dead that the Indians found difficulty in avoiding treading on the corpses. They had prevented yet another Japanese attempt to break through to the hard-pressed enemy companies on the Tiddim Road and in the BlshenpurKohima 'areas. Support by Chindits. Chinese-American pressure on Myitkyina continues, says a South-east Asia communique. Uhindits are supporting the drive on Myitkyina and the operations in t.ie Mogaung Valley by attacking enemy communications. .Allied planes have carried out extensive sweeps in the Manipur, Kabaw, Kaladan, and Arakan areas. Only one plane is missing. The monsoon, which has now broken, may have the effect of isolating large bodies of Japanese by cutting their tenuous lines of communication along rough tracks on the Naga and Sompa Hills, writes an observer with the 14th Army. In that case they may decide to stay and tight it out to the last man, which would be in keeping with the Japanese tradition. though that tradition is not always so closely followed these days. Three things are certain, First. the Japanese have lost nearly OOtltl dead in the ground fighting alone, and have still failed utterly in their attempts Io capture Imphal. Secondly, whatever the enemy may decide to do, we are not going to be idle because of the rains. Thirdly, the aircraft which brought us out. supplies are still bringing them. Even today, a day of wild storms and beating rain, big Dakotas have kept on roaring in and out ns though the mountains and monsoons did not exist. It is a cheering sight, for mon on the ground, who are already fortified against the weather by the news of our recent successes on various sectors of the front.