FALL OF LASHIO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 May 1942, Page 3

FALL OF LASHIO

TERMINUS OF BURMA TOWN TAKEN BY JAPANESE MASS ASSAULT. IN SPITE OF FIERCE DEFENCE BY CHINESE. LONON, April 30. With the capture by the Japanese of Lashio, the vital town at the terminus of the Burma Road and of the railway from Mandalay, the situation in Burma becomes graver than ever. The announcement of the capture of Lashio was made in a. Chungking communique, which stated that the enemy, under cover of a violent artillery and air barrage, launched a mass offensive against the towns of New and Old Lashio on Wednesday.

Tanks, armoured cars and planes took part in the operations, and the Chinese were outnumbered. The Chinese forces defended fiercely but on Wednesday afternoon both towns fell into enemy hands. The battle resulted in heavy casualties on both sides. Fighting is continuing in the vicinity of the town. In the course of the battle the Chinese destroyed 12 tanks. Earlier in the day, a Chinese military spokesman said that if the enemy captured Lashio they would find little of any value to them. Big fires have been burning in the town and supplies for China had either been moved or probably destroyed. Whatever happened the Chinese would not leave Burma, but would continue to resist alongside the Allied forces.

A New Delhi communique reports only minor fighting on .the Sittang and Irrawaddy fronts. In London it is thought that General Alexander’s forces south and east of the Irrawaddy are not in a position of any .great danger. CAMPAIGN GOES ILL ENEMY FORCE IN BURMA. WEATHER MAY NOT AFFECT OPERATIONS. LONDON, April 30. “The Times” says that the campaign has gone ill for the Allies since the beginning, but that the last 10 days have brought about a change very much for the worse. According to Chungking sources, “The Times” states, the enemy is now employing in Burma five infantry divisions with armoured forces. “It seems unduly pessimistic to suppose he will find time before the rains to complete the conquest of Burma,” the newspaper adds. A message from New Delhi declares that the monsoon is due to break in the middle of May, and it cannot be expected greatly to affect the land operations in Burma, because the fighting has reached the fringe of the dry zone. The monsoon may temporarily dislocate the Japanese supply lines, but it is most likely to interfere with the air operations. QUICK ACTION NEEDED AGAINST JAPAN. CHINESE GENERAL’S VIEW. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) WASHINGTON, April 30. General Hsuing Shih-fei, the chief of the Chinese military mission to Washington, told a Press conference that it was lack of co-ordination among the Allies which had enabled Japan, after four years of exhausting war against China, to win notable victories in the south-west Pacific, while a co-ordinated Axis strategy was apparently designed to join up the Nazis and Japanese, via the Persian Gulf.

The Allies, he said, could not formulate a common strategy till Japan took the initiative, but now the Japanese must not be allowed to exploit their conquests. The recently-acquired inexhaustible supplies of rubber, oil, sugar and rice would make Japan almost impregnable if the war in the Pacific was prolonged, and therefore the Japanese must not be given a breathing spell for further conquests. The general said there were at present 29J Japanese divisions in China, each of 18,000 to 25,000 men. He also stated the opinion that war between Russia and Japan was inevitable, but it could not be predicted when it would begin. LINES OF RETREAT CONJECTURE IN LONDON. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day., 10.36 a.m.) RUGBY, April 30. The only definite news from British sources about Burma is of an engagement a few miles south of Meiktila two or three days ago, when over a hundred of the enemy were killed. It is pointed out that if the road from Mandalay to Lashio is cut, as it probably now is, the Allies may have to retreat on two separate lines. One would be along the route from Mandalay into India, along which supplies are sent into Burma. The other would be into China from Lashio. There is a third alternative in a metre-gauge railway running north from Mandalay to Kawlin and Myitkyima. It is not thought that the Japanese break-through to Lashio was facilitated by the recent transfer of Chinese troops from-the east to the west end of the front to help the British. Those troops had presumably come direct from China and had been sent to the most threatened part of the front, which was then on the Irrawaddy.