FAR EAST FIGHTING

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 December 1944, Page 2

FAR EAST FIGHTING

PROGRESS IN BURMA KANDY, Dec. 24. The latest progress in Burma is in Arakan and north-west of Mandalay. British troops are leaving behind Maungdaw and Buthedaung as they advance again on the coastal sector towards the port of Akyab. They occupied Donbaik, on the Arakan coast while West African troops occupied a feature 12 miles south-east of Ruthedaung. In the Kalewa bridgehead area our advance continues on the axis of the Yeu road. Most of last week’s successes on different sectors of the Burma front have been achieved against little more than stubborn, rearguard resistance, but the road to Mandalay is still far from open. That centre of Burma still lies 115 air miles ahead of the forward Allied positions on the three sectors—the Chindwin Valley, the Myitkyina railway, and the Chinese sector east of the Irrawaddy. It is much more than 115 miles by the ways the troops will have to go. “Fourth Corps Troops,” says a South-east Asia Command communique, “have occupied Kawlin, on the Myitkyina-Mandalay railway, eight miles south of Wuntho. On the Chindwin front our leading troops are .17 miles east of Shwegyin, on the Shewegyn-Yeu road. On the 15th Indian Corps front naval craft heavily shelled Ra'thedaung on the east bank of the Mayu River. Air activity has continued against widespread targets.”