Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY MARCH 26, 1942. THE BURMA FRONT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 99, 26 March 1942, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY MARCH 26, 1942. THE BURMA FRONT.

Thkre are numerous indications that the campaign on the Burma front, and with it all the implications involving the safety of India, will be working up to full-scale operations within a very short time. General Alexander, the British Commander in Burma, recently revealed "that new tactics and a new course of strategy have been evolved to deal with the Japanese thrust in this area, and how big reinforcements of air strength are being built up. Already the Royal Air Force and the American Volunteer Group have to their credit numerous highly successful attacks against, the enemy, the latest being the destruction of a large number of planes on the aerodrome at Mingaladon. in South Burma, and an intensification of these blows can be expected. It is indeed essential to check enemy exploitation of airfields which fall into Japanese hands as they advance northwestward. Chinese forces are today enpraged alongside the British in the northern sector of the fighting, which is now centred in two thrusts, in the vicinity of Toungoo, west of the Sittang River, on the Mandalay road, and in the Irawaddy River region. Conjecture has arisen as to enemy strategy over the value of a continuous drive westward toward the Indian border and the alternative of a stronger push to the north, with Mandalay and the cutting of the link with China as the objective. If he deems his strength sufficient he may essay both for some time yet. Mandalav, the old capital of Burma, lies about 300 miles north of the enemy's present general line across the Irawaddy Delta, and over some very difficult country, withal the railway runs through it and goes for about another 250 miles further than Mandalay. From the geographical viewpoint, it can be said that the enemy has penetrated no more than the south-eastern fringe _ of Burma, though this fringe is important because it includes Rangoon. Moulmein, and Bassein, the main ocean gateways of Burma and the entrance to Free China further north.

Reports of ao enemy landing at Akyab, on the Bay of Bengal, have not been confirmed, but such a move would not be unexpected, and . probably would be designed with the threefold object of giving the Japanese a point of operation nearer India, menacing one of the new routes of supply to China, and enabling the development of a pincers attack northeastward from Akyab. Again, it would not be sufficient for the enemy to isolate Burma; he could not, military experts claim, pursue his offensive - westward while considerable Allied forces remain on his northern flank, with the danger of: even greater strength coming in reinforcements from China. There is in addition the rich oilfield southwest of Mandalay to be considered as a prize—of great value to. the defenders as well as the attackers. Hence it may be expected that

the drive northward toward Mandalay, along the river valleys of the Irrawaddy and Sittang, will be intensified. Reports of heavy fighting and the landing of additional Japanese troops in South China indicate an attempt by the enemy to lessen the flow of Chinese reinforcements toward North Burma and perhaps at the same time strike the Chinese and British troops from a new flank if the enemy can penetrate far enough in this sector of China. Big land engagements in the Burma theatre seem imminent.