HAVOC IN MANDALAY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 April 1942, Page 4

HAVOC IN MANDALAY

AS RESULT OF JAPANESE RAID SQUARE MILE OF CITY DESTROYED. LARGE NUMBER OF CIVILIAN VICTIMS. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 1.15 p.m.) LONDON, April 9. A despatch from Mandalay describes the havoc caused there by Japanese raids on Good Friday. The despatch says a square mile cf buildings in the heart of Mandalay was destroyed by blast and fire as ?. result of raids by two waves of planes, which were entirely unopposed. They dropped bombs from a high altitude. The total raiding time was ohly twenty minutes, but a strong southerly wind quickly whipped up fires which engulfed the target from all sides. Unofficial estimates of the numbers of civilian dead are substantial. Scores escaped the high explosives to perish in the flames after the raid. The Chinese quarter is littered with the bodies of men, women and children. Numerous hospitals and shrines were reduced to ruins. Firemen tried to keep the flames in check, but they were beaten by the temporary failure of the water supply. Eventually engineers blew up buildings and succeeded in limiting the holocaust and preventing the total destruction of Mandalay. The Japanese are preparing for a thrust from Siam, with the object of cutting off the Burma Road between Lashio and Mandalay, says Reuter’s correspondent. The Japanese 18th Division is concentrated to the northwest of Chengmai. A Chungking message reports that Japanese reinforcements are arriving at Rangoon and that the Japanese are bombing airfields in the Chekiang Province to prevent their use for bombing operations against Japan.