BURMA FRONT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 March 1943, Page 4

BURMA FRONT

VISITED BY MARSHAL WAVELL ADJUSTMENT OF BRITISH POSITIONS. ADVANCE WEST OF MAYU RIVER. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, March 21. The chief of the’ India-Burma command, Marshal Wavell, visited the Arakan front yesterday in order to survey the situation resulting from the latest changes on the fronts. A British United Press correspondent with our 'forces in western Burma says that following upon the evacuation of Thaungdara by the British east of the Maku River, the majority of British troops have successfully withdrawn to Taungmeew, 16 miles north of Rathedaung. The British troops on the western side of the Mayu River are strengthening their positions, after making an advance to within a mile of Dombaik, supported by a barrage from ships of the Royal Indian Navy and by the R.A.F. The British bypassed several Japanese strategic points in order to advance to Dombaik. The Japanese dug themselves in in the jungles and along the Bay of Bengal, and till the enemy pockets in the rear of our lines are rooted out our position cannot be considered to have improved. The Berlin radio reported that the Japanese captured the village of Pienna, on the Burma-China frontier. The radio said the capture frustrates Allied attempts to establish a line of communication to China after the loss of the Burma Road.