BURMA FRONT

Grey River Argus, 29 April 1944, Page 5

BURMA FRONT

Allied Progress LONDON, April 27. An Allied communique from South East Asia stated: On Wednesday there was sporadic fighting on the outskirts of Kohima. In the Imphal area our troops are in touch with small parties of Japanese, and west of Bishenpur, an attack on our positions was repulsed. Our operations against enemy points on strategic roads continue. The Arakan operations to clear the enemy from difficult country at the foothills of the Mayu Range are continuing successfully against determined resistance. An Indian regiment captured a position south of the tunnel area inflicting heavy casualties. The guns have opened up in the first , stage of.'the decisive battle for Kohima. which is important as the junction of the tracks linking India and Burma, states the British United Press correspondent at South-east Asia. Cohimand Headquarters. The garrison inside Kohima is within sight and range of the Japanese who have dug themselves in on one side while the road from Dimapur is under enemy observation and shellfire. though it has been kept free of enemy road-blocks since these were cleared earlier in the month. Long Allied columns have been traversing the road in the past few days, but the enemy has had difficulty in shelling, them as the -British batteries spot his artillery positions immediately they open fire. The Japanese hold a nearby village, but this, also, is under Allied observation and is already blazing from the shelling which opens up after any Japanese movement is seen.

Kohima stands on steep hills and before the Japanese fought a way in was the home of about 4500 Naga tribesmen. It had a bazaar, European bungalows, military hospitals and supply depots. Correspondent say that the 14th Army has taken another Japanese strongpoint on a hill on the northern fringe of the Imphal Plain. Heavy casualties were inflicted on the Japanese.

Round Kohima Allied patrols are striking but through the jungle to make contact with the enemy.' It is five weeks since the Japanese began their advance on Imphal and they are now regrouping for the next phase. In North Burma the Chinese occupied Manpin on the east side of the Mogaung Valley. Three of 11 enemy aircraft attempting to raid an airfield on the Assam border were probably destroyed and five others were damaged. Allied bombers attacked enemy installations and supply lines in the Mayu and Kaladan areas and in the vicinity of Mandalay Japanese positions on the Kohima-Tiddim Road were also attacked. Four Allied aircraft are missing. More Japanese prisoners have been captured by airborne Chindits, operating 200 miles inside the enemy half of northern Burma,, says a New Delhi message. One prisoner expressed himself thus: “We are fed up with the war and this operation. We are hungry, badly fed, and have been .(collected together anywhere and everywhere. We are thrust into the battle front short of food, . and suffering from malaria and dying.” Some of the latest batch of prisoners are older men and not so easily influenced by their superior. officers. The message adds: Their attitude indicates the Japanese soldier at any rate in this area is beginning to think for himself.

Mr Amery said that General Auchinleck as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in India was responsible for the defence of India and the- administration. training and discipline of the forces stationed in the India Command, but this Command did not include Burma, and since the formation of the South-east Asia Command the Commander-in-Chief in India had no responsibility for the operations on the Burma front. The> forces operating there were under the Supreme Allied Commander in Southeast Asia, Lord Mountbatten.