CHINESE ADVANCE GOING WELL

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 197, 18 May 1944, Page 5

CHINESE ADVANCE GOING WELL

Numerical Superiority BATTLES ON BURMA FRONTS

(By Telegraph.—Press Amsn.—Copyright.)

LONDON, May 16.

On the borders of Burma and China the new Chinese offensive on the Salween front is reported to be developing well. The Chinese have numerical superiority and continuous air support. Fighting their way through many obstacles in rugged mountainous country, they nave advanced several miles at many parts of the 100-mlle front. North of the Burma road they have forced one of the mountain passes, and south of the road they have captured a much-bombed forward base.

In north Burma, Chinese and American troops are making steady progress down the Maungdaw Valley, and on the IndoBurmese border the battle of Kohima Ridge, the first pitched battle on this front, has ended with the last Japanese being driven from their last positions. Chinese troops up in Honau, south of the Yellow River, are more than holding their own on the Peking-Hankow railway. In Loyang, the fighting west of the city has become more furious, and the hard-pressed Chinese defenders have destroyed 20 Japanese tanks. In this area the Chinese since May 12 have fiercely engaged the enemy, who is supported by more than 200 tanks on a line extending from south ; west of Sinan to north-east of lyang. The Chinese have intercepted and checked another Japanese column advancing from Ichwan to a point south of lyang, and also intercepted the Japanese west of Mienchih. The Chinese have recaptured Chumatien.

A communique from General Stilwell says that American bombers attacked Japanese artillery posts bombarding Loyang from the south. Concentrations of tanks, armoured cars, infantry, and cavalry were also tombed. American fighters shot down four Japanese- planes and damaged one. In a sweep over the Yangtze four supply ships were destroyed. Hard Battle for .Ridge.

Ou the Assam front the British dominate the entire Kohima area as the result of the capture of Kohima Ridge after 40 days of fierce fighting, says Reuter’s correspondent. The victory was won in the first pitched battle on the Indo-Burma front. A high-ranking officer described the battle as the bloodiest of the Burma campaign. The enemy has lost more than 3000 dead and the battlefield is strewn with bodies making an exact count almost impossible. Our casualties were not light, including a high proportion of officers. The battle developed into the grim, laborious process of blasting out from their bunkers the starving Japanese, who were fighting like hunted animals. Tanks went in, hammering against the bunkers with armour-piercing shells. The only Japanese concentrations left anywhere near Kohima are one to the north-west, guarding the line against our columns advancing from the north, aud another at Maosang, 20 miles south of Kohima. Tokio radio claimed that the Japanese had occupied two fortified positions near Bishenpur, thus surrounding the 10,000 troops stationed there. It added that the fighting had reached a climax of violence, and the fall of the town was expected in a few days.