WAR COMMENTARY

Franklin Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 45, 22 April 1942, Page 3

WAR COMMENTARY

ALLIED AIR OFFENSIVE RAID ON JAPAN THE BATTLES IN BURMA ON THE ROAD TO MANDALAY There is evidence in the last day or so of the growing strength of the Allied Air Forces- The attacks by Australian and American bombers on Koepang and Rabaul, the destructive raid by 14 American outsize bombers on the Phillipines and the 11.A.F. sweeps into German occupied territories, are most encouraging and suggest that the spring air offensive has begun. On top of this comes a broadcast from Tokio, which admits an air raid on the capital and other large cities of Japan, but so far there is no confirmation from Allied sources. This In itself may not mean much, as the Americans, by whom it must be assumed the raid was carried out, in the oase of a combined raid on the Japanese mandated islands in the Pacific some time ago, said nothing about it for some days after the operation. It is uncertain whether the attack on Tokio, Yokohama and Kobe was delivered from an aircraft carrier, or from long-distance shore-based planes. The Japanese would like to know. They are guessing and it is good policy to keep them guessing. All that matters to us is that Japan was raided and the Nipponese tasted some of the medicine their own war lords administered to Pearl Harbour and other Allied centres. It is to be hoped that the Allies will give the Japs some more reminders that we can give it after having taken it. Lull in Europe. In Europe just now there is a comparative lull while both sides are marshalling their strength for the great struggle that must come in a few weeks’ time when the Russian front begins to dry up. In the meantime the spring thaw has turned the terrain into a vast quagmire unfit for major military operations. The Germans are scouring Europe for more men and material for their much-heralded spring offensive. Bulgaria seems at last to have been roped in, contrary to the wish of the people, and Laval's re-en-try into the Vichy Cabinet can hardly be regarded as a change for the better.

Meanwhile in the East the major battle is in Burma, where mixed forces of British, Indian and Chinese troops, inferior in numbers and air strength, .are striving to hold the Japanese halfway on the road to Mandalay and about 25 miles from the Irrawaddy oilfields. It is a somewhat tragic commentary on the short-sightednesss of the High Command in India over a long term of years that while the approaches to India from the North-West Frontier — have been prepared for defence against attack in a most elaborate and thorough manner, little or nothing seems to have been done with the North-East Frontier, from which direction apparently it was never expected that any attack would come. There are neither roads nor railways from India into Burma in spite of the fact that for generations up to 1937 Burma was included in the Indian Empire. Allies Handicapped. The net result is that the Allied army in Burma is more difficult fo reinforce and supply from India, only a few hundred miles away, than the Japanese army in Burma is from Japan as many thousand miles distant Not only has Japan command of the sea route to Burma through the port of Rangoon, but the land communications are easier by road and rail between Indo-China, Thailand, and Burma than between India and Burma. Geographically, Burma is a part of the great Indo-China block rather than of the Indian Peninsula. Thailand itself flanks Burma to a distance north of Toungoo, while (formerly French) Indo-China touches the Shan States of Burma. Hence while the Japanese army in southern Burma advances up the Sittang Valley on the railway to Mandalay and up the Irrawaddy Valley 'towards the oilTTelds, along parallel lines less than 100 miles apart, there are also Japanese forces in northern Thailand and western IndoChina ready to come in on the flank when the opportunity arrives.. It is not a pleasant military position for the Allies in Burma. Race Against Time. The purpose of the Japanese in the present battle seems to be to drive a wedge between the Anglo-Indian forces in the Irawaddy Valley guarding the approaches to the oilfields, and the Chinese army on the Burma Road (here the railway to Mandalay) in the Sittang Valley, north of Toungoo. The enemy is superior in numbers and air power, though something appears -to have been done to improve the balance in the air, and, moreover, the population is of more assistance to the enemy than to the defenders. The Japanese campaign in Burma is a race against time. The dry season in India and Burma is drawing to a close. In five or six weeks the monsoon will arrive from the south-west, and Burma -will be deluged with rain, affecting military operations like the thaw in Russia. Soothe Japanese are driving for Mandalay to beat the monsoon. Similarly the Allies are striving with all the labour they can command to improve communications overland between India and Burma and between India and China. Progress on these vast works, which will take months to complete, will also be affected by the rainy season. An additional spur to the Japanese Is the growing strength of Australia as an Allied base threatening their southern conquests in the East Indies. The -whole .problem is again one of com•m *■» n TP -t Vi n A _ TA ~ _

■ern conquests in the Bast Indies. The -whole .problem is again one of communications. If the Allies in the Far East can gain time to place theirs in good working order by land and sea, they will be in a position to turn the tables on Japan.