THE BURMA FRONT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25915, 6 August 1945, Page 5

THE BURMA FRONT

LOWER SITTANG FIGHTING OVER 10,000 JAPANESE KILLED (Rec. 9 p.m.) COLOMBO. Aug. 5. The South-east Asia Command communique says that a Sunderland flying boat on armed reconnaissance in the Gulf of Siam, between Singora and Chumphon, damaged two enemy coasters, two schooners, and 10 other vessels.

Our patrols in Burma, operating in the Lower Sittang, continued to meet determined resistance in the area east of Abya, 22 miles north-east of Pegu on the Pegu-Martaban railway. After four attempts our troops cleared the enemy from positions on the railway line, but the Japanese were encountered in strength and supported by artillery in the southern half of a village two miles east of Abya. Further resistance was met by our troops operating in the flooded area six miles north of Nyaunglebin, where large numbers of enemy dead were seen floating down the Sittang River. More than 10,000 Japanese have now been killed or captured in the Sittang River battle in Burma, and their casualties are still mounting as British and Indian troops fighting waist-deep in water, continue to pick them off in the paddy fields and chaungs. Active patrolling continued elsewhere on the lower Sittang, where parties of enemy were seen digging in. Further north, on the west bank of the river, Indian troops engaged a party of 50 enemy soldiers occupied in building rafts. Maintaining its ceaseless am attacks, the R.A.F. recently attacked a concentration of 2500 Japanese with good results.