KOHIMA FRONT

Evening Star, Issue 25169, 8 May 1944, Page 3

KOHIMA FRONT

JAPS. SHORT OF FOOD AND SHELLS

STICKING LIKE LIMPETS TO POSITIONS NEW YORK, May 6. The plight of Japanese troops north of Manipur is getting increasingly difficult, says the correspondent of the ' New York Times ' on the Kohima front, Mr Tillman Durdin. Japanese foraging parties are daily ranging wider through the- Naga Hills, seeking villages with untouched stocks of rice. They seized pigs, chickens, goats, and even dogs over a wide area. One captured Japanese document referred lyrically to a meal made of stewedjrats.. Japanese guns are seldom used, because they lack ammunition, .but, in spite of their desperate position, the .Japanese show no signs of weakening. They still possess sufficient small arms and ammunition. They have dug underground rabbit warrens in lofty ranges, to which they are sticking like limpets. Their positions are often impregnable to., artillery fire, and they are able to exact heavy .casualties from any ground force attempting to storm them.