DEEPER THRUSTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 March 1942, Page 3

DEEPER THRUSTS

MADE BY THE JAPANESE IN BURMA Chinese Fighting Hard in Toungoo Area ANOTHER SAVAGE ATTACK ON CORREGIDOR FORTRESS BEATEN OFF GENERAL MACARTHUR PLEDGES FIGHT TO DEATH LONDON, March 26. In Burma the Japanese are thrusting deeper up the valleys of the Sittang and Irrawaddy rivers. One large enemy force is thirty miles south of Prome and a similar force is active on the railway between Rangoon and Prome. The Japanese are employing three divisions and 150 planes in their thrust towards Mandalay. Single enemy parachutists are being dropped, presumably to organise local traitors. The Japanese have by-passed Toungoo and taken a town 12 miles to the north. The enemy may be even further than that, as a New Delhi message says Chinese forces have inflicted heavy losses on Japanese and Siamese troops between Toungoo and a place 20 miles to the north. Throughout the day strong Japanese forces attacked Toungoo from all sides. The Chinese defenders have thrown them back time after time. Fighting has now been going on for 36 hours and the Japanese have failed to penetrate the outer line of the Chinese defences. The position in the Toungoo area is summed up as serious but not critical. Two Chinese columns have advanced into Siam from the Shan States. In the House of Commons, Mr Eden stated that the small British garrison was withdrawn from the Andaman Islands on March 4. Corregidor fortress, in Manila Bay, has had another savage battering from 64 Japanese heavy bombers. These attacked for six hours, but did only slight damage to military targets. Four of the enemy planes were shot down. In Canberra today, General MacArthur said: ‘'We’ll win or we’ll die—that is pledged by all the mighty resources and all the blood of my countrymen.” Earlier General MacArthur had attended a meeting of the Australian War Council.