FAILURE IN BURMA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 May 1943, Page 4

FAILURE IN BURMA

MIGHT HAVE BEEN AVERTED

ACCORDING TO BRITISH CORRESPONDENT. FORCE INADEQUATE IN NUMBERS & TRAINING. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.35 p.m.) LONDON, May 11. “Nothing can be gained by trying to explain the British reverse in Arakan as other than a failure,” says the “Daily Telegraph’s” Calcutta correspondent. The Indian Associated Press, surveying the position; calls it “a damp squib.” The Japanese are now almost back where they were before the British offensive of last December. A consoling feature is that the failure is on only a small scale, and undoubtedly will be redeemed triumphantly when we have sufficient men, planes and ships for a real offensive. The failure can be ascribed basically to causes outside the India Command’s control. We could make a successful seaborne assault against Akyab if available shipping had not been needed for the African campaign. The Japanese could not have counter-attack-ed strongly enough to push us back as they have now dene if we had held i Akyab. Secondary causes of the reverse must bo sought, partly in officers’ errors of judgment and partly m the inefficient training of troops for Arakan conditions. Some of the local commanders at the outset under-esti-mated, not so much the numerical strength of the Japanese as their fighting qualities. The “Telegraph” correspondent adds: “I was convinced on occasions during my first visit to Arakan in the New Year that the employment of a few additional companies would have given us complete success in the limited objectives then sought. Difficulties of supply doubtless are the reason why we did not use additional troops, but there was also an unfounded confidence among officers on the spot that they had sufficient men for the job. They realised their mistake too late, when even the bringing,in of a fresh brigade could not compensate for the shortage of a few hundred men a couple of months previously. High officers admit frankly that the men needed a considerably longer period of training. Many were lacking in any previous experience of jungle warfare. The Japanese facing them were not only fully trained in jungle fighting, but were also seasoned in the Burma campaign. Our troops, man for man, were at a disadvantage. The Rome radio states that the Japanese, after taking Buthidaung, captured a great number of prisoners and a large quantity of booty. It adds that the capture of Maungdaw, which is being attacked from the rear, is only a question of a few days and that the threat to India's east door is becoming more and more serious.