MOVING RAPIDLY TO END

Evening Star, Issue 25470, 28 April 1945, Page 8

MOVING RAPIDLY TO END

THE WAR IN BURMA DWINDLING JAPANESE ARMY (Ree. noon.) BOMBAY, April 27. The war in Burma is coming rapidly to an end —more rapidly than even the British eommanders expected, says the Australian Associated Press special correspondent in Burma. Since the break-out from Meiktila, fourteenth Army troops have been moving down the Maudalay-Rangoon railway at high speed, killing as many Japanese as 1,000 daily. Although this is a small number by European standards it has made such a hole in Ocneral Knmurn's Burma army that he would be justified if he decided to withdraw into Thailand and Indochina. The Japanese general, thanks to British armoured columns and skilled air support, now commands an army without transport. . The southerly advance has been aided by two related factors, both springing lrom the operations of the Fifteenth Corps in Arakan. The fighting in this coastal belt,, which culminated in the capture of Taungup. drew off Japanese who otherwise would have worried the right flank of, the advancing .troops. It also cleared the way for sea supply to Akyab and the Ramree Islands.