The Evening Star TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1943. THE BURMA FRONT.

Evening Star, Issue 24424, 9 February 1943, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1943. THE BURMA FRONT.

Thk' latest impact of the air war in the Far blast lias fallen upon Rangoon. This important city has previously been on the visiting list of the Royal Air Force's India-based planes, but the particularly heavy load of bombs just dropped on its military targets indicates a possible sharpening of the British offensive against the Japanese throughout Burma.- Not much news of the land fighting in Burma has come through in recent weeks, however, and, in view of the fact that the monsoon season is due again in May, time is get-' ting short for a major attack along the whole line. It would be logical to assume that General Wavell's interim strategy is to persist with the pressure in the southern coastal regions with the object of advancing on much-bombed Akyab and using its aerodrome as a protective tighter base ■ in the event of a subsequent seaborne assault on Rangoon, One of the lessons learned in Papua was that the task of driving the Japanese back through heavy jungle country is too difficult ancl costly an operation to be attempted in earnest until adequate bases for dominating aif attacks have been established. There caii be little doubt that the enemy will light hard in the effort to save Akyab from the threat of the recent British advances. The present keypoint in the approach to Akyab appears to be Rather daund, on the western bank of the Mayu River, on which the Japanese are reported to be using fleets of' launches capable of moving troops rapidly oil broad tidal streams. This j s Btill"another of those difficulties the Allies will have to overcome with aid from growing air strength and tvater-borne expeditions.

China's Chungking authorities and General Stillwell, the American commander of the Chinese forces in Yunnan Province, are keen to see an offeni sive launched in North Burma with the object of driving on Lashio and regaining control of the Burma Road. Rt" [ cent messages suggest that the Chinese armies fighting gallantly against the invaders are badly iir need of a continuous supply of modern arms and equipment of all kinds, including heavy material that cannot be.carried by air transport. The importance of he'lpinjr China will not be lost on General Wavell, and we may be sure that no obstacle will be too severe for the British,: working in conjunction with the Yunnan army./to overcome when the time; is considered propitious for a general offensive. In many ways the situation in Burma runs parallel in .significance with that in Tunisia. When the Axis forces have been finally cleared out of North Africa it is generally expected that the softest part of occupied Europe's southern coast will be the oiijeotivc of smashing Allied attacks and the way laid open for delivering further direct, and heavy blows at the troublemaking Reich. Similarly,. when the Japanese have been driven out of Burma and the Allies have thoroughly arnle'd China's legions, concurrently. iyitli the establishment of bomb-Japan air bases, we shall be entitled to-visualise a phase of the war heralding the downfall of the aggressors in the Far East. A big naval victory in the Pacific, which, despite the " jittery " speculation of sonie commentators, can still eventuate from the operations in Solomons waters, would expose the islands of Nippon to attacks from the south which no amount of stubborn jungle fighting could stave off. ~-•