BATTLE JOINED IN

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23260, 23 July 1945, Page 5

BATTLE JOINED IN

fiKbi 1U rz*JU. I FIGHT | Major Action Devekps ’ By Telegraph -N.Z. Pre.- Assn .-Copyright I ('(•"•) p.m.l LONDON. July 21. I The first big stard up, face j to face battle of the whole I war in Burma is opening out ! to-day with large-scale skii*- | mishing round Zaha railway station, 140 miles north of Rangoon, says a correspondent in Burma. Here the remainder of the Japanese army in this area have at last joined battle with the Allies. More than 3000 Japanese were last night observed concentrating in the jungie a few miles west of Pyu and Toungoo in the Rangoon-Mandalay corridor. This morning 209 launched frontal attacks on Indian imantry positions along the rail track at baa, three miles south of Pyu. . More th:. 11 7000 Japanese may within the next few days maize a desperate I dash for the far bank of the Sitlang River. This will be the signal lor the

first major action in Burma since the struggle for the approaches to Rangoon at the beginning of April when 3300 Japanese were killed. Battlefront news is flashed from the British and Indian headquarters strung along 40 miles of closed road. “Asthmatic Archie,” the Rangoon-Pyu supply train, has stopped running. The Tactical Air Force is operating a “cab rink” of fighters and fighter-bombers. Convoys of transport aircraft skimmed the treetops for four hours this morning, flying through a steady blanket of monsoon rain.' The whole country | is waterlogged and boggy. The Allies in this battle are operating defensively for the first time since they went on the offensive in this theatre of war, but they are sitting astride the main Japanese escape routes.

j Enemy Attempt To Break Out Heavy Engagements ill.O p.m.) COLOMBO. July 22. “Large groups of Japanese forces who have been concentrating at various points in Pegu Yomas arc now attempting to break out east across the Mandalay-Rangoon road toward the Sittang River, says the South-east Asia Command | communique. The main road to i the village of Pyu, 32 miles south * of Toungoo, is the centre of the j zone of activity. 1 “Our infantry supported by artillery, I tanks and armoured cars is heavily ! engaging the enemy. On the Lower I Sittang River the Japanese are still ! moving north into the area around the i village of Myitkyo, 29 miles northeast of Pegu. Gurkhas drove the JapI anese from a village 28 miles east-north-east of Pegu. The enemy withdrew to another village which the Gurkhas attacked and captured. “Liberators yesterday bombed warehouses at Smgora. in Southern Siam, causing heavy damage and fires. In | close support of cur ground forces Spitfires bombed and strafed enemy positions east nd west of the RangoonMandatay rall way.