CHANGSHA VICTORY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 January 1942, Page 4

CHANGSHA VICTORY

THIRTY THOUSAND JAPANESE FACING ANNIHILATION. ACCORDING TO CHINESE GENERAL. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.40 a.m.) CHUNGKING, January 8. General Ysudh Yueh, at a victory celebration, said 30,000 Japanese are still encircled thirty miles north-east of Changsha and are facing certain annihilation. General Hsuey Yueh said the Japanese counted originally 120,000 men against 80,000. The Chinese victory was merely “one of our manoeuvres carried out in complete accordance with a premeditated plan.” The Japanese were defeated because they were completely outwitted. General Yueh declared that the Japanese used gas bombs. The Chungking newspaper “Takung Pac,” commenting on the Japanese declaration that they were withdrawing from Changsha after accomplishing their objectives, said this was a familiar terminology. “The Japanese,” it added, “are retiring to their bases, in much thinned columns, as corpses, literally littering the plains between the Liuyang and Laotao rivers, grimly testify.” RELIEVING FORCE INTERCEPTED BY CHINESE. AIR SQUADRON BOMBING JAPANESE. (Received This Day, Noon.) CHUNGKING, January 8. An Army spokesman declared that Chinese forces intercepted and engaged several thousand Japanese troops north of the Milo River. These troops were rushed south from Yochow, in an attempt to relieve the encircled forces near Changsha, which were being attacked from all sides on the battlefield between the Milo and Laotao Rivers, east of the Canton-Hankow railway. A full Chinese air squadron has joined in the battle in the Northern Hunan Province, heavily bombing the Japanese troops. The Japanese have withdrawn all their troops from Northern Indo-China, near the Chinese frontier and are substituting French and native troops.