WAR IN BURMA

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 42, 19 February 1942, Page 8

WAR IN BURMA

SITUATION GRAVE

[VAGUE INDICATION OF FRONT

(By, Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) r. (Rec. 11.30 a.m.) .

RANGOON, February 18

A communique says that the British frottt is now "somewhere between the Sittang and the Salween Rivers."

Heavy fighting is raging and the • gravity of the situation is hourly t growing more manifest.

INDIAN AIR FORCE ACTIVE

A Rangoon communique states that Royal Indian Air Force fighter planes were in action over Burma for the first time when British patrols southwest of the Bilin line clashed with Japanese moving rapidly to new attack positions. The new Burma front is described-as a series of strong points rather than a continuous line, enabling the defenders to draw the invaders into the open where they cannot use infiltration tactics, and British artillery can be used more effectively. BIG ATTACK AT CHIENGMAI. The biggest force of bombers used in any operation since the raid on Bangkok in January took part in the Chiengmai raid yesterday, plastering the target area with explosives and incendiary bombs and hitting runways and dispersed Japanese fighters and bombers. All our aircraft returned undamaged. The, American volunteer group is still .operating with the fighters defending Rangoon. The exodus of the population of Rangoon continues. The' roads to the north are carrying processions of vehicles jammed with natives. Five thousand Indians are still encamped in one area of Rangoon, hoping somehow for a passage to India. Another two thousand are crowding the vast gardens of the ramshackle Chuitsong Palace, awaiting transport.