BURMA FRONT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 64, 18 March 1943, Page 1

BURMA FRONT

VITAL ALLIED LINK RECONQUEST DIFFICULT The news that, following weeks of intensive air raids. British torces have marched into Western Burma may indicate the first steps in the fulfilment of General Wavells promise that the country would be wrested from the Japanese. With Burma once again under the control of the United Nations, the Japanese hold on the neighbouring countries would be precarious, the famous 726-mile-long Burma Road would be re-opened, and the Chinese would be free to complete the BurmaYunnan railway under construction at the time of the invasion. From Burma, moreover, the Allied forces would be able to launch offensives against Siam and French IndoChina by way of the Kawkareik Pass and down Southern Burma into Malaya. As a prelude to any major general counter-offensive in the Far East, the conquest of Burma is essential. A Formidable Task. Apart from geographical difficulties, ‘ the United Nations will be confronted with the enemy's defensive preparations in view of the country's key position on the Far Eastern war map. When the Japanese launched their attack on Burma from Siam they had only to cross the comparatively easy Dawna Hills through the Kawkareik Pass before they reached open country. The Salween and Sittang rivers A-ere the only formidable barriers they had to contend with. An overland invasion from India, though possible, will be a far harder task. Burma is a difficult country, with two-thirds of her frontiers formed by a series of mountain barriers, a factor largely responsible for her entire lack of road communications with India. <

At present the whole of Burma, except possibly tiro Kabak Valley, which borders on Manipur, is in Japanese occupation. It was across tortuous mountain tracks that the Allied forces withdrew into India last May.

Now, as a preliminary to an Allied concentration in those border regions, existing roads have been improved and new ones built across the mountain ranges which stretch from Tibet to the sea at the Bay of Bengal. Geographical Barriers.

The Arakan coast forms the eastern arm of the Bay of Bengal. Akyab, the provincial capital, has an excellent harbour, a seaplane base and several military airfields. It is only 65 miles from the fndian frontier and within a radius of only 400 miles of Calcutta.

From a geographical point of view this maritime province is the most easily accessible part of Burma to the Allies. Control of it, however, would not give them the mastery of Burma. Arakan is shut off from the interior Dy the Arakan Yoma mountain range, and the chief means of comumnication with the interior is by sea, though to reach the heart of the country it may be possible to make use of the poor road across the Arakan Yoma mountains, linking Taungup on the coast with Padaung on the Irrawaddy.

Future military moves in this war zone will obviously be dependent on the war's developments elsewhere. But two things are clear: Burma is a vital link in Allied war strategy in the Far East, and the main aim of the Japanese is to entrench themselves behind Burma's geographical barriers and defensive works.—Burmese correspondent in London Daily Telegraph.