ASSAM OFFENSIVE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 82, 6 April 1944, Page 5

ASSAM OFFENSIVE

STRATEGIC ROAD CUT

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) Rec. 10.45 a.m. LONDON, April 5. The Japanese forces now hold a 15----mile stretch of the strategic ImphalKohima road in Manipur (Assam). This is reported by the Associated Press New Delhi correspondent. The Japanese, he adds, are racing against time to establish the line between Imphal and Kohima before the monsoon, which is due in six weeks, interferes with operations

If they fail, their hopes of gaining control of the Bengal-Assam railway will be shattered. Japanese pressure is increasing along the whole Assam front.

The military correspondent of the "Daily Herald r> deals frankly with the difficulties and mistakes of the Allied Command on the Burma-India frontier. Reviewing the situation since the Japanese crossed into India, he makes the following points:—

Firstly, the Allied Command underestimated the strength of the Japanese: Secondly, the Allied forces were compelled to abandon an important base to which a road had been built. Thirdly, the Allied Command then disposed its, forces on the Imphal plain in expectation that the Japanese would fight there at a disadvantage, but the enemy avoided the trap.