FIERCE BATTLE IN BURMA

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22203, 21 February 1942, Page 5

FIERCE BATTLE IN BURMA

BOTH SIDES SUFFER HEAVILY Chinese Forces Entering Thailand By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (10 p.m.) WASHINGTON. Feb. 19. The Chungking correspondent of the United Press says the Government spokesman disclosed that the port of Rangoon had been mined and abandoned as an entry for lend and lease material for China. He added: “This does not mean that the Burma battle is lost. On the contrary, the Chinese are preparing large scale measures to relieve the hard pressed British forces in the Rangoon area.” A Chungking message says that Chinese troops are moving into Thailand step by step in order to bring Allied co-operation into effect, said the Chinese spokesman. He added that he did not know whether the British Command had ordered a general invasion of Thailand or whether a large scale offensive was beginning. A Rangoon communique states: “British troops drove the Japanese forces that were trying to cross the Bilin into the river. Violent fighting, with heavy casualties on both sides, raged along the front about 50 miles east of the Rangoon railway.” The United Press says that militarists estimate that 100,000 Chinese troops are proceeding to Burma, while the Chinese Intelligence Service has received reports that 30,000 mechanised Japanese who recently landed at Haiphong are expected to proceed to the Chingmai area, in north-west Thailand, while others remain at Tonkin, anticipating a Chinese invasion of Indo-China.

Other reports indicate that two Japanese divisions have already been transferred from Malaya to Burma. Responsible militarists expect that the battle will be fought in the north and central areas rather than in the Rangoon area, though this does not mean that Rangoon and Kunming will no longer be defended. The north and central sectors are believed to be guarded by crack Chinese troops, and also to be well supplied with American lend and lease material, besides pursuit planes and bombers with pilots recently arrived from the Middle East. Stand at Sittnag River The Imperial defenders are battling desperately to hold the Japanese at the Bilin as a second major front has developed to the north-east, on the Thailand border. The Japanese on the Bilin front are hammering toward Kyaik, which is 25 miles from Pegu, on the Rangoon-Mandalay railway. It is officially admitted that small enemy units crossed the Bilin river on the Imperial left flank, but counterattacks were launched in an attempt to restore the situation. The battle of Bilin was fought over dry paddy lands, forcing the Japanese for the first time to leave the jungles. The united nations' front now extends from the Gulf of Martaban, 250 miles due north and possibly 250 miles beyond that north-eastward. Heavy reinforcements are believed to be moving into positions behind the Allied IJnes, Indicating that a desperate stand will be made at the Sittnag river. Threat to Rangoon A very serious view is taken by “The Times” of the Japanese thrust to Burma following the fall of Singapore, and the consequent danger to the “Burma Road,” along which supplies are passed to sustain the armies of Marshal Chiang Kai-shek in their heroic struggle. Pointing out that the Japanese have not only been able to force a way through obstacles in the north prematurely described in some quarters as impenetrable, but also have sidetracked them by pperations in the south, “The Times” continues: “There can be no shadow of doubt that the threat to Rangoon has become vital and urgent. And the loss of Rangoon would mean in the first place the cutting of the only means of communication by which bulk supplies can be transported to hard-pressed China, and in the second the acquisition by Japan of a potential base of operations against shipping in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. The threat to Rangoon is a threat also to all southern Burma and that, in its turn, a threat at least in the air to the teeming population of the Lower Ganges. It would be worse than folly to under-rate the seriousness of this situation. Forces from India and China have been moving up to the front in increasing numbers. If it is possible to provide them, their bases and their sea and land communications with adequate air support, the enemy may yet find the task he has tackled one of great difficulty. The time has come to put aside any notion that the Japanese Army is an opponent of the second order. Good and well-equipped troops will always be required to defeat it even when it is encountered on equal terms, and it is by no means certain that it does not now possess advantages almost as great as those which it enjoyed in the Malayan campaign. Above all its fanaticism must be'fought down by iron resolution.” According to a Colombo message, Sir Andrew Caldecott, Governor of Ceylon, warned the State Council that the time had come for Ceylon to clear the decks for action. He revealed that Indian troops had recently arrived to reinforce the garrison and added: “The eyes of the world are on us. Ceylon has suddenly . become a bastion not merely a backline redoubt.”