BURMA CONFLICT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 April 1942, Page 3

BURMA CONFLICT

NEW POSITIONS TAKEN UP BY BRITISH TROOPS SOME FURTHER ENEMY PROGRESS. AGAINST CHINESE RESISTANCE. LONDON, April 27. In Burma the situalion is changing rapidly. British forces which have been fighting in the oilfield area have now taken up anol her line to the north-west, nearer the Sittang, Valley.

A Chungking communique states that Taung-gyi remains in Chinese hands. Fighting is still going on in the hills to the cast and north of the city. There is very heavy fighting on the Salween front, where three Japanese columns are advancing. The enemy drive is directed against the railway line running east to the terminus of the Burma Road.

MEN & SUPPLIES CHINA GIVING ADDITIONAL AID. MANDALAY BADLY DAMAGED BY BOMBS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, April 27. The Chungking correspondent of the Associated Press of America says that China and Britain are reported to have reached an understanding for closer military collaboration, under which an unlimited number of Chinese troops may be sent to Burma, with the extent of the Chinese aid depending on the exigencies of the situation. In the meantime the Chinese have already begun supplying their own troops, relieving the British of this task. Mandalay—the Coventry of the East —lies prostrate and inert and peopled by ghosts, says a correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain. Once a thriving city with 150,000 inhabitants, it is now practically deserted. The Japanese have twice viciously bombed the most thickly populated quarter, leaving a huge area in the centre of the city a desolate shambles. The Japanese bombs so far have not harmed King Thibaw’s exotic gilded palace, and its treasures and the surrounding sacred pagodas are intact, but the Japanese have now bombed almost every important Allied occupied town in Burma. They usually sweep over at a great height and bomb the crowded bazaar areas with the object of spreading panic. Most houses in Burma are built of wood and are an easy prey for the Japanese raiders.

Experts put out of action the valuable Mawchi tin mines, 20 miles east of Toungoo, before the Japanese captured them. It is considered that these mines, which produced two-thirds of the British Empire’s total output of wolfram, will be useless for at least 18 months.

AIR VICTORIES SCORED BY AMERICAN GROUP. CHINESE GRIP ON TAUNG-GYI STRENGTHENED. (Received This Day, 9.45 a.m.) CHUNGKING, April 27. An Associated Press of America correspondent at Chinese headquarters in Burma has reported that Flying Tigers of the American Volunteer Group shot down five Japanese planes last Saturday, near Loilem, without loss to themselves. The United Press agent states that General Stillwell’s Chinese forces have recaptured the entire Taung-gyi sector.

ENEMY THRUSTS THE THREAT TO MANDALAY. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.50 a.m.) RUGBY, April 27. The following communique has been received from the Burma Irrawaddy front: “Our forces are now occupying the general line of Kya KpadaungMeiktila.” Reports indicate that the enemy thrust towards the Northern Shan States has reached half-way up the road from Liolem to Haipaw. In the air enemy aircraft are active over the towns and roads in our rear. Haipaw is 75 miles south-east of Mandalay.