BITTER BATTLES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 276, 22 November 1943, Page 5

BITTER BATTLES

FIGHTING IN CHINA JAPANESE USING WAVES OF PLANES

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) Recci. 11 p.m. Chungking, Nov. 21. The Chinese High Command announced that, in the bitterest fighting in the past, five years 4000 of 18,000 attacking Japanese were killed in continuing battle in which the enemyseized Tzali, 90 miles south of Ichang. The Japanes-e are using waves of planes. General Stilwell’s communique reports that fighter planes continued to support the Chinese ground forces in th? Tungting and Salween areas, simultaneously attacking two villages which were set on fire. The jiircraft also intercepted Japanese, cavalry crossing a river near Chlhsien and killing 60 men.

CHINA’S “RICE BOWL”

JAPANESE REINFORCED

Recd. 6 p.m. Chungking, Nov. 19. “The Japanese forces in China’s central ‘rice bowl’ between the Yangtse River and Tungting Lake have been increased from 60,000 to 80,000, enabling the Japanese to cross the Li River in considerable strength,” stated an army sp<W<esman, Major General Theng. He confirmed the loss of Lihsien, which formerly was called Lichow, in the Sunan Province. The Japanese westward " thrust through the hills was checked after they had reached Yuyanktang, 40 miles south-west of Ichang. This drive appeared to be directed against Changteh.

In the western Yunnan Province the Chinese recaptured all ferry crossings in a 45-mile section of the Salween River north of the Burma Road.

SOUTH-EAST ASIA

MOUNTBATTEN TAKES OVER Reed. 6 p.m. London, Nov. 19. Lord Louis Mountbatten takes over the supremo command in South-east Asia to-day. in his first communique he reports a week of vigorous air offensives and American bombers and fighters kept up a steady drive against Japanese airfields, supply dumps, road, rail, and river craft. Particular attention was paid to the railways of central Burma, above and below Mandalay. American heavy bombers attacked a target half-way to Rangoon, while Wellingtons and Liberators went for airfields.

Other formations attacked railways running north from Mandalay to wards the Chinese frontier. The R.A.F. attacked Japanese targets on the Arakan front and raided enemy nositions in the Chin hills, east of the Indian frontier.