CUT BY JAPANESE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 November 1943, Page 3

CUT BY JAPANESE

RICE=BOWL HIGHWAY ROUTE IN CENTRAL CHINA. BUT ENEMY CHECKED IN DRIVE ON CHANG-TEH. — (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) CHUNGKING, November 24. .. The Japanese have captured Tao Yuan, 16 miles south of Cheng-teh, in central China. The capture of Tao Yuan cuts the vital rice bowl highway route from Hunan Province to Szechwan. All Japanese efforts to take Chang-teh have so far been successfully resisted, and further Japanese attempts to by-pass the city have been checked. Chinese forces counter-attacking at different points round Hankow, in central China, penetrated a Japanese strongpoint east of Hankow and also reached the outskirts of the highway town of Tsaochin, 60 miles north-west of Hankow.

BATTLE FOR CHANGTEH

FIVE THOUSAND JAPANESE WIPED OUT (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.35 a.m.) CHUNGKING, November 25. Five thousand Japanese were wiped out in the battle for Changteh, says an official Chinese announcement. President Chiang Kai-shek has issued an order eulogising Changteh’s defenders. ( --The Chinese have again charged the Japanese attacking Changteh with using poison gas. General Stilwell’s communique states that American medium bombers, supporting the Chinese ground forces near Tungting Lake, destroyed a number of landing barges and inflicted casualties on Japanese cavalry and infantry. Bombers raided Yochow, where ammnunition dumps and storage dumps were set on fire.