IMPORTANT GAINS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 August 1942, Page 3

IMPORTANT GAINS

MADE BY CHINESE FORCES IN EASTERN PROVINCES. TRANSFER OF JAPANESE TROOPS TO MANCHURIA. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, August 23. The Chinese have recaptured Kwangsin, on the Chekiang-Kiangsi railway, according to a message from Chungking. The recapture by the Chinese of Wenchow, some 200 miles farther west, was announced two days ago. A Chungking communique yesterday announced that the Chinese had gained more ground and developed their offensive in eastern Chekiang and Kiangsi, the “bomb Tokio provinces.” The remnants of the Japanese forces retreating from Wenchow had been intercepted north-west of the port and had suffered heavy casualties. Ten Japanese supply craft have been sunk in the Fu River. The Central Chinese news agency said that by the recapture of the key towns of Kweiki and Shangjao, the Chinese had won back their hold on tne large eastern Kiangsi section of the bitterly-contested Kiangsi-Cheki-ang railway. Tire Chinese also recaptured Kwangfeng, which the Japanese had developed into one of the most powerful strongholds in Kiangsi. The threat of a Japanese overland invasion of Fukien has thus been eliminated. In a later dispatch, the Central News Agency says the Chinese have recaptured Yushan and Yingtun, thus widening the hold on the middle section of the Chekiang-Kiangsi railway, while large fires which are raging at Kiangshan indicate that the Japanese are preparing to abandon the city. The Associated Press of America says that even Chinese quarters are surprised at the mililary successes of the Chinese forces, but they are not inclined to attribute the gains solely to the prowess of Chinese arms, because private reports indicate that many Japanese troops are being withdrawn from Chekiang and Kiangsi and the south and are being sent to Manchuria. x FURTHER PROGRESS 140 MILES OF COASTAL RAILWAY. NOW UNDER CHINESE CONTROL. (Received This Day, 10.25 a.m.) CHUNGKING, August 23. A communique reports further Chinese gains in the Kiangsi Province, where the Japanese have | been dislodged from another forty miles of railroad, of which the Chinese now control 140 miles. The Chinese at present are storming Qukan and Tengchiapu, 50 miles from Nanchang, while the Japanese are retreating towards Nanchang. In the Chekiang Province the Chinese are attacking Changshang, a potential Allied base within bombing range of Tokio.