CHINESE PRESSING ON

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 147, 18 December 1943, Page 7

CHINESE PRESSING ON

CHUNGKING, December 16.

[ Aided by the ■ almost continuous of Major-General Chennault's air force, Chinese troops in the rice bowl area west of Tungting Lake are pressing forward in an attempt to surround the Japanese remnants retreating from Changteh, says the Associated Press. Several Japanese detachments are already trapped near Lihsien, and a Chinese communique states that their annihilation is merely ia matter of time. It also said that severe fighting developed in the suburbs of Ansiang and Nanshiang, two lakeside towns which the Chinese are striving to recapture. If they succeed in taking Ansiang, Nanshiang, and Li-hsien, the Chinese need close only a 40-mile gap to encircle all the Japanese troops south of the Lin River. The United States Air Force is so busy supporting the Chinese that General Stilwell issued three separate communiques today, says the correspondent. , The latest reports are that American fighters dive-bombed and machinegunned Yochow airfield, destroying three bombers on the ground and damaging three others. A formation of American bombers ranging over the Gulf of Tonking sank a tug and probably sank a schooner.