BURMA REGAINED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25924, 16 August 1945, Page 4

BURMA REGAINED

A Difficult Campaign For several months subsequent to the expulsion of the British and Chinese forces from Burma in May, 1942, Allied activity against the enemy in this zone of the war was confined largely to air attacks, which were themselves limited in scope during the rainy season from May to October, when ground operations were practically impossible. In the early months of 1943, however, Allied actionagainst the invader took a more positive turn. British and Indian mobile units, under the command of Brigadier Wingate, entered Burma by various secret routes and operated behind the enemy lines from February to May. Prominent among their activities were attacks against the Mandalay-Myitkina railway, which they cut at 75 points,.and perhaps even more valuable was the information and experience they gained, which was to prove of the greatest use when the time came for a large-scale offensive. Air attacks on Burmese targets were also-increased in strength during 1943, when bombers' of the United States Army Air Force carried out attacks on Lashio, the terminus of the Burma road, Mandalay, and important installations such as railway viaducts, bridges, oil wells and refineries. After the 1943 rainy season, however, the enemy suspected that *4ie Allies planned a major attack from Assam, in India, and rushed troops into Burma to meet the expected onslaught. On November 30 Rangoon was bombed by heavy units fx-om India, and by the middle of Januax-y, 1944, the Allied offensive was under way in North, Central, and Southern Burma.

The. first major victory, over the Japanese forces in Burma was gained by the Allies in February, when a large force was l-outed in the Ai-akan ai-ea, the scene of an unsuccessful small offensive by the British a year earlier. Just before the monsoon season the Japanese embarked on a counter-offensive in Northern Burma, and by April 3 had penetrated into the Imphal Plain, in Assam, their objective being the terminus of the Ledo i-oad, thi-ough which supplies had been streaming into China. The drive was held, however, and by the sixteenth of the month the Japanese had been driven from the Imphal Plain, and 10 days later were back at the border.

During May, 194*, the Allied offensive gathered weight, and June 26 saw the capture of Magaung, on the MandalayMyitkina railway, which constituted an important step towards the recovery of North Burma. On August 4 Myitkina itself was taken by the Allies, and by August 20, when land operations were brought to a halt by the rains, all Japanese troops had been driven from Indian territory. The resumption of the offensive towards the end of the year resulted in further gains being made, and on January 5, 1945, the west coast port of Akyab was occupied by British and Indian troops. Driving down the Burma road from the north, the Chinese captured the town of Wanting, and on January 27 the islands of Ramree and Cheduba, off the Arakan coast, were seized by the Allies. Pagan, 96 miles south-west of Mandalay, was captured by the Fourteenth Army on February 26, and the Japanese Irrawaddy defence line was broken, resulting in the entry of Indian troops into Mandalay on March 7 and the fall of the city on March 19. The drive to the south progressed rapidly, and by May 3, after a paratroop landing south of the city the previous? day, Rangoon was entered by the victorious Allied forces This was regarded as the virtual end of the Burma campaign, but strong forces of Japanese were still in the country, anc on August 3 a battle was fought on the Sittang River, which resulted in the slaughter of 10,000 of the enemy.