CAMPAIGN IN BURMA

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 May 1942, Page 5

CAMPAIGN IN BURMA

NEW ATTACK ON BRITISH REINFORCEMENTS FROM INDIA LONDON, May 13. Heavy, fighting is reported in the various sectors of the Burma front. In the Chinese sector the Japanese are moving along the Burma Road from Lungling, which is 50 miles over the frontier. In the west of Burma the British forces under General Sir Harold Alexander are meeting a new Japanese thrust only 50 miles from the Indian border. It is officially stated that the British forces in Burma have now been withdrawn to positions northward of Yeu.

It is officially stated that the British forces in Burma have now been withdrawn to positions northward of Yeu. The Calcutta correspondent of the “Daily Mail” says fresh troops have crossed the frontier from India to Burma to cover General Alexander’s withdrawal. The two forces have already made contact. The new force will also act as the spearhead of the defence of India. Although the Japanese are close to the border of India, they still have a long and hard road before them before they reach what is evidently their objective, a town in the Manapur Hills, 170 miles to the north. They will have to travel over rough mountain roads.

HEROIC RETREAT.

CASUALTIES APPALLING

LONDON, May 12.

The British forces in Burma never totalled 30,000, with one tank brigade equipped with light 12-ton American tanks as sole armoured support. This is revealed by the military correspondent of the “Daily Express,” who says the truth about Burma can now be told. Probably over half our troops—British, Indian, and Burmese —had been killed and many wounded. Large quantities of six and four-wheeled vehicles, field guns, and anti-aircraft guns have been lost. The Chinese sent originally to aid General Alexander did not exceed 6000 to 8000. They were ill-equipped but fought with the utmost gallantry. The Calcutta correspondent of the Associated Press of America, in a delayed dispatch, tells the story of the British Army’s retreat in Burma, which is described as the toughest evacuation of the war. Haggard, weary riflemen of half a dozen onetime crack British battalions, armoured car crews, and wiry Sepoys are approaching within a score of miles of the mountainous Assam frontier, where the Japanese can and must be held at bay. They are footslogging through dust, oozy flooded paths, and dank teak forests, and swimming muddy streams. These dwindling columns of dirt-caked troops are fighting for their very lives—fighting on and on as they have been doing since January against an enemy more numerous and more skilled in jungle warfare, and continually reinforced by land, air and sea. What nas happened in Burma constitutes a military tragedy for the United Nations as bitter in a way as Singapore, the Netherlands East Indies, and the Philippines, and perhaps as avoidable. For the pitiably small handful of Imperial soldiers who have lost Lower Burma and the few understrength Chinese divisions, there can be nothing but praise. They were ordered to do the impossible. Their casualties were appalling. For hundreds of miles it was a case of fight, withdraw, and fight again. The fall of Rangoon doomed Burma. The British ranks knew that as well as their officers, but they kept on fighting. Surrender is not in their vocabulary.

AKYAB ’DROME BOMBED. LONDON, May 13. In Burma bombers of the Royal Air Force made a high-level attack early this morning on the Japaneseoccupied aerodrome at Akyab, on the north-west coast. A New Delhi communique says that heavy bombs fell on grounded aircraft, destroying two and damaging one. CHINESE ACTIVITIES. (Recd. 11.0 a.m.) CHUNGKING, May 13. A military spokesman in Chungking said that while the deepest Japanese penetration into the Yunnan Province was a point 12 miles north-west of Lungling, the Chinese counter-offen-sive had since driven the Japanese back 30 miles. Explaining the strategic situation, the spokesman said the Chinese were attacking Lashio and thereby attempting to cut off the entire Japanese column in the Salween valley, while the Japanese are attempting to encircle and pocket the entire Chinese force between Mandalay and Myitkyina. The Minister for Information, Wang Shin-chiew, said the Chinese in Burma and Yunnan were pressing the Japanese relentlessly without giving pause for consolidation. He emphasised the importance of sufficient air support for achieving the objective. A communique states: Chinese units are attacking Japanese supply lines in northern Burma, and are disrupting the enemy’s communications, between Mandalay, Lashio, Bhamo, and Myitkyina northward. The communique referring to the situation along the Burma road said there was no change in the Yunnan front, but added that the Japanese on the Mekong river, after reaching Kawngluk, were now attacking Mongko. Another Japanese column is attacking Miamongpalai. The Associated Press says, the meaning of the foregoing is not clear. Mekong forms part of the Burma-Indo-China border, but there have been no reports of fighting in that area recently. If the Japanese have reached upper Meking in the Yunnan province, they are much deeper in Chinese territory than previously reported. Available maps do not show the towns named in the communique. JAPANESE DESTROY BRIDGE. (Recd. Noon). NEW YORK, May 13. The Tokio radio claims that Chinese units remaining in Burma were isolated when the Japanese destroyed a bridge over the Salween River.