SMASHED & BEATEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 January 1942, Page 4

SMASHED & BEATEN

JAPANESE MASSED AIR RAIDS ON RANGOON TWENTY ENEMY PLANES SHOT DOWN BRITISH & AMERICAN FIGHTERS IN ACTION. THREAT TO THE BURMA ROAD. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright ) (Received This Day, 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, January 23. It is officially announced in Rangoon that British and American air force planes smashed Japanese mass air raids by over fifty Japanese planes on the Rangoon area today and shot down twenty Japanese machines. The Associated Press of America correspondent at Rangoon says the Japanese continue to infiltrate the frontier area east of Moulmein. A concentration' of forces, including elephants, in Thailand, on the Slaween River east of Papun, has been observed. The country west of Papun is flat and alluvial, eliminating the possibility of surprise tactics, but offering no topographical obstacles to a drive to cut the Burma Road.

MALAYAN FIGHTING

ORDERLY AUSTRALIAN RETIREMENT. , POSITION OF SOME TROOPS CRITICAL. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright! (Received This Day, 1.0 p.m.) SINGAPORE, January 23. “The withdrawal of our' troops south of the Segemat River was necessitated by the strong Japanese pressure being maintained in the Muar sector, which meant a threat to these forward troops of being cut off,” says the official Australian war correspondent'. “The withdrawal was accomplished in stages, with successive bodies of men falling back through each other. Two bridges over the river were destroyed. The Australian infantry and artillery who fought the initial action in the Muar sector are still holding the enemy, but their position has become somewhat serious, owing to Japanese infiltration past them, with the subsequent blocking of the road leading back.”