BURMA AND ANDAMANS

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 September 1944, Page 6

BURMA AND ANDAMANS

JAP SHIPPING LOSSES.

KANDY, Sept. 12. Ranging ovex* hundreds of square miles of the Andaman Sea, R.A.F. Beaufighters in the week-end, at T tacked and left burning and beached 14 Japanese merchant ships and three escort vessels, reports the Associated Press correspondent. It was the greatest defeat yet inflicted on Japanese merchant marine in Indo-Bur-mese waters. Twenty-one attacks were made, mostly with rocket projectiles and cannon shells, and the battle was fought as far south as Rangoon, off the Tenasserim Coast, and around Kalegauk Island, a Japanese shipping haven, a few miles from the mainland. The Beaufighters had to travel great distances to round up the scattered ships, which were carrying supplies to Burma, but all returned safely. The biggest bag numerically, and the culmination of the attacks, followed the location of a shipping hideout on the south coast of Kalegauk Island, where two waves of aircraft swept over seven ships lying at anchor. When the force left, six cargo ships and • a gunboat were beached and all were burning. PROGRESS ON LAND. KANDY, Sept. 12. Fourteenth Army troops gained the crest of a Japanese held ridge in the Mayu Range, south-west of Buthidaung, and have repulsed an enemy counter-attack, says a South-east Asia communique. On Tiddim Road our troops have occupied the village of Mualkawi, 118 miles from Imphal. JAP. GAIN~IN CHINA (Rec. noon) CHUNGKING, September 12. The Chinese High -Command admits that the Japanese have captured Wenchoe. The Associated Press points out that the enemy now holds fully two-thirds of Hekiang Province. The Japanese drive from Kirxhwa to Wenchow is believed to be intended as a defensive measure against a possible landing on the China coast, JAPANESE CASUALTIES CHUNGKING, September 11. Virtually the entire garrison of 200 died in the three months siege of Snugshan, the fall of which opened the Burma Road as far as Lungling, says an announcement From General Stilwell’s headquarters. Only nine prisoners were taken at Sungshan. _

The Japanese are _ pouring reinforcements into Lungling and Tengchung. American fighters intercepted 10, Japanese planes at Tengchung yesterday, destroying five. Court-martialled and convicted of neglect of duty, two Chinese battalion commanders were executed at Tunhwo. They had fled from Lishui, when the Japanese attacked, although their regimental commander remained and was killed.

RUGBY, September 11. In the battle of Yunnan, 21,000 enemy troops were wiped out, while 6000 Allied troops were lost, says a Chungking message.