THRUSTING NORTH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 April 1942, Page 3

THRUSTING NORTH

JAPANESE IN BURMA EFFORT TO CUT ROAD TO CHINA BEFORE RAINY SEASON OPENS. BITTER FIGHTING ON ALL FRONTS. LONDON, April 28. Tn the mountain country of north-east Burma the Japanese are making a desperate effort to cut the Burma Road before the rainy season opens. A Chinese spokesman stated that the Madalay-Lashio railway'was dangerously threatened. Lashio itself (the terminus of the Burma Road) has been heavily bombed.

The Chinese are heavily contesting the Japanese surge to the north through the valleys of the Shan States. In the Irrawaddy Valley, British forces are holding a front of 65 miles, some seventy miles from Mandalay. Behind this front lie some of Burma’s most important oilfields. An. agency message states that both sides have suffered heavy losses on this battlefront.

NEW MENACE IN THE EASTERN AREA. ATTACK ON CHINESE LEFT FLANK. LONDON, April 28. In the defence of Burma a new menace is being faced in the eastern area. A Japanese mechanised column with a spearhead of .tanks and dive-bombers has made a lightning dash round the left flank of General Stilwell’s Chinese Expeditionary Force and reached a point only 60 miles from the Burma Road. This may mean that the immediate objective of the Japanese is the town of Hsipaw, bn the railway line 30 miles south-west of Lashio The view is expressed in Chungking that a battle for this Burma Road key town may be fought even before a battle for Mandalay.

OUTLOOK SERIOUS FORMIDABLE ENEMY ATTACK. USE OF MECHANISED FORCES. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.10 a.m.) RUGBY, April 28. The Allied position in Burma, as outlined in the latest communique, has clearly deteriorated. The Japanese drive up the road which runs northwards from Loilem into the Mandalay-Lashio Road is a serious threat to the Chinese and British forces. It is not known in what strength the Japanese are advancing in this area nor how strong are the forces which the Chinese can bring to bear against them. It has probably taken the Japanese some time to organise their rear, since their capture of Rangoon, which was heavily scorched by the withdrawing British troops, but it now seems as though the necessary reorganisation has been completed and mechanised equipment, sufficient supplies and reinforcements have been brought up and that the Japanese now find themselves in a position to attack in strength. The sudden, and fast break through, up the road from Loilem. may in fact be the first manifestation of this. However, though it is known that this Japanese force has reached a position half-way up the road from Loilem to the Mandalay-Lashio Road, and though the possibility of cutting this vital line of communication cannot be excluded, the Japanese probably have some sixty miles to go before reaching their goal. Nevertheless the position for the Chinese and Allied forces at and west of Taungyi, which it is believed, is still in our hands, is indisputably serious.