STIRRING STORY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25625, 28 August 1944, Page 6

STIRRING STORY

SOUTH-EAST ASIA CAMPAIGN A LOGISTICAL NIGHTMARE LONDON, Aug. 25. The full stirring story of South-east Asia Command’s campaign which hurled back the Japanese from India was told by Lord Louis Mountbatten at a press conference in London. Lord Louis, who flew to London for consultations, has now returned to his command.

After commenting that events in South-east Asia were crowded out by the news of events in Europe, Lord Louis pointed out that the Burma front alone extended 700 miles and was second only in length to the Russian front. The Japanese forces in Burma had been more than doubled since the formation of South-east Asia Command. Japanese were fighting on interior lines of communications, while the Allies were fighting on the most difficult lines of communications in the world. “The communications are built for tea gardens and not for total war,’’ he said. “There is no scope for the deployment of armour or for greater encircling movements. You move along the axis of your supply line, building a road behind you. Assam is a logistical nightmare. Landing Craft Withdrawn

“In view of my original association with Combined Operations many people, myself included, jumped to the conclusion that large-scale amphibious operations in South-east Asia would immediately be the order of the day, but it now need be no secret that all the. landing ships and craft originally allotted to the command had to be withdrawn for more urgent operations in the west. The order to us was to carry on with what we had left. I am groud to report to you that the order as been carried out in the last seven arduous months in a manner reflecting credit on all the forces of' the United Nations engaged.” Lord Louis said that there was one thing that could be done when the order was given to carry on. That was to drive out the Japanese from the north-east comer of Burma to improve communications for supplies to China and enable General Chennault to continue effective operations with the Fourteenth United States Air Force in China. The Fourteenth Army’s tasks were: First, the cutting of the communications of the veteran Japanese Eighteenth Division, which was facing the Ledo front; and, secondly, the engaging of the greatest number of other Japanese divisions in Burma.

Allied air operations had practically swept the Japanese Air Force from the Burma skies, Lord Louis went on. They had destroyed in the air or on the ground 387 enemy aircraft and had probably destroyed a further 92, and damaged 330. The greatly depleted Japanese Air Force now rarely ventured out either for attack or defence.

Supplies by Air

Supplies by air had been tremendous and since May the air forces had carried just oh 70,000 tons and 93,000 men, including 25,500 casualties. In addition, there had been a great air supply to China. Lord Louis paid a tribute to the flyers who, _ during the monsoon, met the worst flying weather in the world, and, with the jungle beneath them, could not think of forced landings. , , At sea, too, the Allies had not been idle, and the signal success of naval actions against Japanese-held islands . showed that the naval balance of power was steadily being redressed in Southeast Asia. The Japanese Navy was now as afraid to accept action in the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal as it was in the Pacific. Lord Louis said that the Burma campaign this .year had resulted in the killing of no fewer than 50,000 Japanese. Allied casualties were 10,000 killed, 3000 missing, and 27,000 wounded. ■ Disclosing that the mosquito had caused 250,000 cases of sickness m Burma since the beginning of the year —mostly malaria and dysentery—-he added that advanced treatment centres had been particularly effective in reducing the ravages. Over 90 per cent, of the patients were reported fit after three weeks. The Japanese had suffered from the pest more than had the Allied troops. Never, however, had medical science been put to so severe a test in war. A Kandy message states that over 10,000 square miles of North Burma have been recaptured, according to an; Associated Press correspondent. Allied equipment taken by the Japanese in the 1942 retreat is being recaptured and used by the Allies. It includes automobiles, motor boat engines, and anti-tank guns. .