BURMA FIGHTING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25561, 14 June 1944, Page 6

BURMA FIGHTING

PRESSURE ON KAMAING TOWN UNDER ARTILLERY FIRE (Rec. 10 p.m.) COLOMBO, June 13. British pressure on Kamaing is increasing, and the town is now under fire following the capture of a village two miles to the north-east, says the Associated Press representative at South-east Asia headquarters. We hold the village of Tekrima, east of Kohima, but the Japanese hold a position immediately to the south-east, several hundred yards away, and it is believed there is still a small number of Japanese in the Kohima area. Hard fighting is still going on in the 8000 and 9000-feet hills forming a steep ridge west of the Manipur road. Further south, on the Tiddim road, numerous actions are in progress. These may be classified as continuous “smash and grab ” raids by both sides. They proved extremely expensive in the total for the Japanese Thirty-third Division. Japanese casualties m Burma last month numbered 7800 dead, not including those killed by General Stilvvell’s Chinese and American forces and by air attacks. The total losses under the same headings since January were 21.650. The total for May was made up as' follows:—Arakan 1220, Imphal 3300, Kohima 2100, North Burma, by Chindits, 11180. The only instances where air casualties were included were cases where we h d close air support during attacks, and subsequently gained such ground soon afterwards by which we were unable to differentiate when counting the victims. An indication of the most recent toll of Japanese is provided in the Kamaing area, in which the Chinese in one day’s fighting killed 310 Japanese, 200 of whom were caught by a skilful encircling operation.