NOW A ROUT

Grey River Argus, 21 September 1944, Page 5

NOW A ROUT

JAP RETREAT IN BURMA (Rec. 12.45) KANDY, Sept. 20 Th e Associated Press correspondent reports: The Japanese retreat down the Tiddim Road has become a rout. Thrown into confusion by the speed with which the fourteenth Army troops forced a crossing of tne Manipur River, hundreds of Japanese are fleeing along the road behind a light screen of artillety. Large camps near river, are crowded with tired, half-starved survivors of the running fight, which had lasted one hundred miles along Tiddim Road, had to be hastily evacuated. Beyond Tongzang—the last village before reaching Tiddim. —fleeing Japanese are having to run a gauntlet of ambushes laid by long-range penetration forces, which have been behind the Japanese lines for many weeks. So serious have been the losses inflicted on the Japanese that they are compelled to use tanks to hold the road open.