BURMA CAMPAIGN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25717, 13 December 1944, Page 5

BURMA CAMPAIGN

BRITISH OFFENSIVE

ADVANCE ON CHINDWIN FRONT

(Rec. 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 12. A Burma‘communique states that on the Chindwin front East African troops advancing down the Kalewa-Yeu road are now within 500 yards of Shwegyin. Hill positions five miles east of Kalewa have been evacuated by the enemy after heavy and accurate air attacks. In the northern combat area British troops of the 36th Division consolidated their positions in the Indaw sector yesterday and patrolled further east in the Katha sector. “Thirty Australian air officers have arrived for a tour of the Burma battle areas, thereby directing attention to the future role of Australia in the eastern war,” says The Times war correspondent. Mr lan Morrison, who is' now at Imphal. “The Australian Army, in terms of fighting potential, consists of three famous divisions —the Sixth, the Seventh, and the Ninth —plus certain militia divisions which have been, transferred to the A.1.F.,” says Mr Morrison. “The three original A.I.F. divisions are probably the world’s best jungle fighters; certainly none is better. Australian troops have not been committed for the best part of a year, and there must exist in Australia now a first-line expeditionary force. It will be interesting to see how and where this is used. It can hardly be doubted that General MacArthur would like the Philippines to be reconquered exclusively by the Americans.

“Equally from the Empire’s point of view,” Mr Morrison adds, “ nothmg could be better than that British and Australian troops should fight together again, whether the British go and join the Australians or the Australians come to Burma. The prime aim of Australia must be to revenge the loss of the Eighth Division in Malaya, and Britain’s should be to repay the Australians for the magnificent spontaneous contribution they made to the war in the west.”