CHINESE TROOPS TAKE MYITKYINA JUNCTION
KANDY, CEYLON - After beating off a Japanese counter-attack, General Stilwell's Chinese troops on the
western outskirts of Myitkyina have advanced to the junction of the railway and the road leading from the airstrip, says
today's communiqué from S.E.A.C. Other units have effectively blocked the road between the airfield and Myitkyina proper.
South of Myitkyina other Chinese troops repulsed enemy attack near Zigyun Ferry. Chindits continued to exert pressure
south of the Mogaung, and during the past 48 hours have killed more than 100 Japs.
East of the Mogaung Valley the Chinese 38th Division made considerable headway, and the Chinese 22nd
Division took six enemy positions along the Hwelon River and further to the west.
Both these units are making a drive
to join with Stilwell before Myitkyina and close the nutcracker on the Japanese.
South and southwest of Kohima our troops improved their positions on the ridges overlooking the town by
occupying further enemy strongpoints. Our artillery was successfully engaging enemy parties moving in the hills.
In the air U.S.A.A.F. and R.A.F. fighters and fighter-bombers of the Third Tactical Air Force, Eastern
Air Command, attacked military objectives on the Tiddim Road blasting a portion of the road itself and tying up the
enemy communication line. Enemy positions in Kohima, Imphal, Ukhrul and Somra area were being attacked successfully.
Camps and store in the neighborhood of Fort White were strafed.
Fighting a desperate delaying action in a hope that the monsoons will hamper the Allied attack against
them, the Japanese in their North Burma-China frontier pocket are 'trading space for
time,' New York Times
correspondent Tillman Durdin reports.
The exhausted and hungry ranks in this pocket, decimated by heavy casualties, are faced on almost every
side by hostile forces. In the west the twin-forces of British-led Gurkhas and Chinese-American forces attack them, in
the south, the British airborne forces sit astride their communication lines, and on the east flank along the Salween
River they are confronted by the Chinese.
The remnants of two divisions in addition to auxiliary units in this pocket are in a desperate position.
Blocked in the south by the airborne troops and blanketed from above by the ceaseless activity of the
Allied air forces
the problem of supply and reinforcement is a major difficulty, and they have been outnumbered by the Allies.
|
|