ICHANG DEFENCES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 June 1943, Page 3

ICHANG DEFENCES

PENETRATED AT ONE POINT BY CHINESE ENEMY SUFFERS FURTHER HEAVY LOSSES. IN YANGTSE VALLEY FIGHTING. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 8.30 a.m.) CHUNGKING, June 5. The Chinese have recaptured Kungan, where over half the enemy forces were wiped out and the remainder were forced to retreat, states a Chungking communique. The Chinese have also recaptured an important point on the outer defences of Ichang and repulsed a Japanese thrust northwards from Suiiisien, 100 miles north-west of Hankow.

Despatches from the front report that the Japanese are abandoning large quantities of material, and that many troops, discarding their uniforms and attempting to escape disguised as Chinese, are being rounded up, in addition to enemy remnants trapped on the right bank of the Yangtse below Ichang. Some 4,000 Japanese, resisting near Tsingshih, north of Lake Tungting are reported to have been chopped up into small groups, which are surrounded and their fate is sealed. Chinese troops, dressed in civilian clothes infiltrated into Ichang, destroyed large quantities of supplies and started fires, which spread to warehouses, after which the city was shaken by explosions, causing utter disorder and confusion.