LARGELY A POSE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 March 1942, Page 3

LARGELY A POSE

FANATICISM OF JAPANESE SOLDIER GENERAL BENNETT'S VIEW. OPPORTUNITY FOR OFFENSIVE MISSED. (By Telegraph'—Press Association—Copyright) SYDNEY, March 26. “The fanaticism of the Japanese soldier is largely a pose,” MajorGeneral Gordon Bennett told the Legacy Club today. “Captured Japanese asked to be shot as their capture was a stigma in the eyes of the Emperor,,” he added, “but I don’t know what would have happened if we had taken them at their word. They forgot all about the stigma when our troops attacked with the bayonet. They just turned and fled. The Japanese haven’t the moral courage to take it on themselves. They became panicky at the noise and din of our heavy artillery and trench mortars.” General Bennett added that if the Australians had taken the offensive at the beginning the Japanese would have been driven into the sea. Their success to date was undoubtedly due to their tactics. Even so, the Japanese soldier was well trained and tireless and continually on the move. His physique and endurance were above the average.

CHINESE SURVEY POSITION IN UPPER BURMA. (Received This Day, 9.30 a.m.) CHUNGKING, March 26. A Chinese Army spokesman said the arrival of 150 Japanese planes on the Upper Burma front from Rangoon on March 21 was the prelude to an enemy offensive in major force up the railway from Pyu a day later. The spokesman confirmed that 1.000 Japanese troops in the United Nations line had reached a point north of Toungoo, probably cutting the railway to Mandalay. The spokesman described the situation as “not optimistic but not

serious either.” Estimating the Japanese strength in Burma at three divisions, he said one division was operating along the Rangoon-Mandalay railway, another along the RangoonProme railway westward, and a third was in reserve.