CHINESE REPORT MORE GAINS

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23965, 4 June 1943, Page 5

CHINESE REPORT MORE GAINS

Towns Retaken On Yangtse Front PROGRESS NEAR ICHANG (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) CRec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, June 3. The Chinese are reported to be making good progress in their counter-offensive in Central China. They claim to have cot the highway leading back to Hankow from the Japanese forward base at Ichang. “The Chinese counter-offensive has made further smashing gains. All the Japanese remnants surrounded in the sector of the Hupeh Province front south of the Yangtse river have been wiped out,” says the Associated Press of America. “The Chinese are now attacking Changyang, 12 miles south of Ichang, while a number of points north-east of Ichang and three towns' north of Lichow, in northern Hunan Province, have been recaptured.” A Chinese spokesman revealed that the Japanese offensive in Central China had cost them more than 30,000 casualties in the last fortnight. He added; “The Chinese continue to inflict staggering tosses on the trapped enemy remnants in the middle Yangtse valley. A further 5000 Japanese were killed in May in unsuccessful attacks against guerrillas in the south of Shantung Province.” An earlier message said that the Japanese drive towards Chungking had been broken. The Chinese were continuing their advance on the Yangtse front, and the main body was pressing eastwards to threaten the

main Japanese base? at Ichang, 350 miles east of Chungking. Changyang is reported by the Chinese to be completely surrounded, and a number of places in its neighbourhood have been captured. The official Japanese version is that Japanese troops in the Yangtse area have withdrawn after accomplishing their objective. “Chinese bombers escorted by fighters attacked Japanese supply routes in the Yangtse valley near Ichang yesterday morning, as the enemy continued to retreat in the south of Hupeh Province,” says an official announcement from Chungking. “Tons of bombs were rained on enemy communications with telling effect. No fighter opposition was encountered. “Chinese fighters again earned out offensive patrols over the Yangtse yesterday afternoon without sighting enemy aeroplanes. All the Chinese operations were conducted without loss.”