AKYAB OCCUPIED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25736, 6 January 1945, Page 5

AKYAB OCCUPIED

THIRD PORT OF BURMA AMPHIBIOUS OPERATION (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 5. United Kingdom and Indian troops of the 15th Corps have occupied Akyab, the third largest port in Burma. The Japanese had fled the day before the Allied entry into the town. British forces went ashore in an amphibious operation which was covered by a naval force of cruisers and destroyers, while units of the 25th Indian Division were ferried across the four miles of sea from Foul Point at the tip of the Mayer Peninsula. Other forces landed in fishing boats from an island at the mouth of the Mayer River. Although there were no Japanese on the island on which Akyab stands, the landing forces encountered many booby traps. The Japanese tried to take the civilian population of Akyab with them, but the people threatened to use weapons hidden by British troops when they evacuated the port early in the Burma campaign, While the Japanese are likely to fight a strong rearguard action for every yard of the road to Mandalay, everincreasing Allied superiority must inevitably continue to drive them back steadily unless they make more of their suicide stands, says the Associated Press correspondent. Even a suicide stand, however, can mean only a temporary' hold-up of the Allied advance.

The Japanese are doing everything they can to delay the Fourteenth Army advance as long as possible. As well as using artillery, they have been leaving delayed-action bombs behind them.

The Fourteenth Army is now busy clearing obstacles from the airfield at Ye-U. This airfield will be a great help in easing supply problems. A South-east Asia Command communique states that Allied heavy bombers yesterday damaged tracks, locomotives and rolling stock on the Bangkok-Moulmein railway. Fighters made a strong attack on enemy troop concentrations in Northern Burma.

Our bridgehead in the Kabo weir area has been enlarged in face of enemy opposition. Our troops captured positions immediately north of Kanbulu and other positions eight miles to the east. In the northern combat area Chinese troops advanced more than a mile down the Namhkan road.