VOL. II          NO. 28          REG. NO. L5015                  DELHI, THURSDAY                          MARCH 23, 1944

CHINESE CAPTURE JAMBU BUM PASS

ALL WERE HEROES IN HUKAWNG VALLEY
FIGHTING SERGEANTS' ACTS TYPICAL OF MERRILL'S MARAUDERS
SGTS. OLIVER AND PUNG

  NORTHERN BURMA - They were all heroes, the Yanks under Brig. Gen. Frank Merrill who joined forces with the 22nd and 38th Chinese Divisions in annihilating 4,000 Japanese trapped in the broad, heart-shaped Hukawng Valley.
  Sgts. Andrew Pung, of Malden, Mass., and Louis Oliver, of Princeton, N.J., are representative of Merrill's Marauders who swept around the Jap right flank, clamped a tight pincers around the enemy at Walawbum and killed 800 striving desperately to escape through them down the road winding south to the Mogaung Valley.
  Pung's feat evidenced considerable courage. This veteran of the Southwest Pacific climbed up a tree to a perch 50 feet off the ground and kept his unit posted on Jap activity via walkie-talkie. Upon seeing the Japs advance, he alerted the Yanks, then waited until the foe was 50 yards away before he gave the fire order. The Japs ran into a sheet of gunfire, broke and ran, leaving 200 dead behind. During the battle, Pung's canteen was shot off his hip, his radio knocked out of his hand by a shell burst. Although admittedly shaky, he managed to get out of the tree.
  Oliver, described as the best shot in his outfit by Capt. Clarence (Ossie) Bruce, was embarrassed. He fired 27 rounds during the battle and got only nine Japs confirmed with "Betsy," his beloved rifle. "I must have gotten nervous," he apologized.




DARING ANGLO-U.S. LANDING
HUKAWNG VALLEY CLEARED OF JAPS;
TANKS GO AGAIN INTO ACTION


  NORTHERN BURMA - Already badly mauled, the Japanese in Northern Burma this week received two more solid body blows. While the first of these was anticipated - the capture of Jambu Bum Pass by Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell's forward-pressing American-trained Chinese infantry and tanks - the second apparently came as a complete surprise.
  The unexpected blow was an audacious Anglo-American air-ground operation that resulted in placing British troops across the main Japanese line of communications in North Burma, with the remnants of the enemy forces fleeing southward, sandwiched neatly in the middle between Stilwell's Chinese and Brig. Gen. Frank Merrill's Marauders.

MADE PROMISE GOOD

  The Chinese gave Stilwell Jambu Bum on his 61st birthday and made good Uncle Joe's promise nine days previous that "the entire Hukawng will soon be ours." With an estimated 4,000 Japs dead behind them in the Hukawng, the Chinese are now moving into the tip of the finger-shaped Mogaung Valley, next major objective.
  Reports are that the battle for Jambu Bum was fierce. But when a Chinese outflanking movement threatened them, the enemy got the hell out of there. The frontal attack was all uphill and made over roads and trails turned by rains into a mass of knee-deep mud.

TANKS IN ACTION

  The same tanks under Col. Rothwell H. Brown, which broke the back of Jap resistance between Maingkwan and Walawbum, again proved valuable, over-running and taking several tough enemy strongpoints. Likewise, artillery, mortars and American fighters and bomber planes slugged away in support of the mud-sloughing Chinese infantry.
  Examination of the battle area later indicated that Jap positions were hastily prepared. Jambu Bum offered an ideal defensive sector and the enemy was expected to make a stronger stand, but they moved out after three counter-attacks, leaving the area thoughtfully strewn with booby traps and captured British land mines.
  At lates reports, the Chinese are now proceeding down the northern slopes of the Mogaung Valley against only token resistance. The Allies have excellent artillery observation positions now that they are moving down-hill. They are three miles south of the highest point on the pass over Jambu Bum.
  Maj. Gen. Liao Yao-hsiang of the Chinese 22nd Division expressed the belief that the Japanese would make a strong stand at Kamaing in hopes of preventing the Allies from reaching Mogaung on the Burma Railway before the monsoon opens May 1. "They know," explained Liao, "that if Mogaung falls, Myitkyina cannot be held." Myitkyina, the Japs' strongest point in Northern Burma is about 30 miles east of Mogaung and a logical route of a land supply line linking India and China.
 Click here to enlarge
CLICK ON MAP FOR ENLARGED VIEW

  Just as Americans and Chinese won success through co-operation in the Hukawng Valley, so did American and English forces combine to execute deftly the daring landing in the Japanese rear at an area east of the Upper Irrawaddy River, 200 miles south of Stilwell's forces.
  When the news was broken, the penetration force had been established for 12 days and today had been there 16 days.
  The spearhead of the invasion was a combination of glider-borne British troops and American Engineers. They were towed over the 7,000-foot spine of the Chin Hills during moonlight by specially-trained air commando units. The landing was made at jungle sites previously selected by photo reconnaissance. Working at night while British infantry fanned out to protect them, the U.S. Engineers cleared landing strips in under 12 hours.
  Next evening, USAAF and RAF troop-carrying C-47's and Dakotas, which had been poised at Indian airfields, flew in the first of the main body of troops. Complete surprise was effected as the result of brilliant combined planning. Our forces - every man, animal (mules) and weapons - were transported by air. They were established eight days before Jap aircraft discovered the landing strips in the heart of their own territory. Zeros attacked, but RAF Spitfires knocked down three and ground fire accounted for a fourth.
  The airborne troops have already waged one action at a yet unidentified position, driven the Japs out and inflicted heavy casualties.
  The Japs must now guess what plan of action the British troops intend to follow, It could be one with selected objectives or the force could be a mobile outfit prepared to stage hit-and-run attacks. Whatever the strategy, the Jap High Command is no doubt in a quandry today.
  The first troop-carriers were personally led by American Brig. Gen. William D. Old, chief of the Troop Carrier Command, piloting a Dakota loaded with British. Shortly after, British Air Marshal Sir John Baldwin, Commander of the Third Tactical Air Force, followed in another wave. Other planes landed in clock-like precision.
BLOOD PLASMA IN ACTION IN HUKAWNG
One of the vital factors in the saving of Chinese and American lives in the Hukawng Valley campaign was the introduction of blood plasma for the wounded.

  In charge of the air operations was Col. Philip Cochran, known for his dangerous exploits in North Africa. He is a figure of fiction, thinly disguised as "Flip Corkin," hero of Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates.
  As his pilots rested beside their twin-engined planes waiting for sunset, Cochran said dramatically, "Anything you boys have done in the past can be forgotten. Tonight you are going to find your souls. Tonight you are going to take these troops in and put them in just right. If there is any trouble with the first few gliders, a red flare will be fired. But the man who has that flare has just told me it's in a mighty deep pocket and will take a lot of finding. In other words, those boys are going to do a tough job and we are going to do all of our bit to help."
  Jap planes were pinned to their airfields for the four days preceeding the landings and 63 were destroyed, chiefly by American fighters. Two days after the troops were on the ground, the Tactical Air Force struck a sharp blow at Heho, destroying 17 more of the enemy's planes either on the ground or in the air.




BRITISH TAKE SUMPRABUM

  BRITISH BURMA FRONT - Following last week's major success in capturing Buthidaung, the British this weeek continued their mopping-up operations in the Arakan by capturing the strong enemy jungle fortress of Razabil and clearing the enemy out of all but a couple of miles of the Maungdaw-Buthidaung road.
  In addition to engaging in fierce and successful hand-to-hand fighting with the enemy in the Buthidaung-Maungdaw tunnel area, the British also landed a force of Commandos 12 to 15 miles behind the enemy lines, capturing six villages in less than 12 hours and posing a permanent threat to the enemy's lines of communication.
  Elsewhere on the Burma front, hard fighting took place between British and Japanese elements in the Chin Hills east and northeast of Tiddim, and in the Kabaw Valley area, where the Japanese have mounted an offensive believed to be designed to take pressure off other points and threaten Allied lines of communication.
  In the Fort Hertz area, the British this week scored a noteworthy victory in the capture of Sumbrabum, an important Japanese resistance center of the area.





HEAP CUTE INJUN MAID
This is another picture published strictly for its new value. The Roundup merely desires to show Indians in CBI-land what Indians in the United States look like. It's mere coincidence, of course, that Miss Marjorie Tallchief has - ah - curves in the most appreciated places.
14th A.F. THROWS MIGHT AT YANGTZE

  14TH A.F. HQ. - Fighter-bombers of the 14th Air Force again this week threw their might along the Yangtze River, near Pailouchs, where they strafed store houses and shipping. On the river, they sank one large sailboat and damaged a 300-foot transport. Six Japanese fighters, east of Kiukaing, intercepted the returning planes. One Nip interceptor was destroyed.
  Liberators, on a sea sweep off the Southeast China coast, were attacked by a Jap flying boat, which was destroyed. Lightnings, on an alert over a friendly air base, intercepted and shot down one enemy twin-engined fighter.
  Mitchells, in the meantime, flew down the coast of French Indo-China, bombing the sawmills and lumber yards at Ben Thuy. From these missions, two aircraft are missing.



HARDIN TAKES HOAG'S PLACE AS ATC CHIEF

  Brig. Gen. Thomas O. Hardin this week took over command of the India-China Wing of the Air Transport Command, succeeding Brig. Gen. Earl S. Hoag, who is en route to Washington on an important undisclosed assignment.
  Hardin, a Texan and long-time figure in domestic and military aviation in the United States, returned recently to CBI-land after a brief leave in the U.S., during which he received his promotion. Ge,. Hap Arnold personally pinned on his star. As a colonel, Hardin commanded the Wing's eastern sector, which operates the planes carrying military freight over The Hump.
  During Hoag's period of service with the India-China Wing, the greatest growth in personnel and tonnage deleivered to China were achieved. Before Hoag left, he was presented the Air Medal by Maj. Gen. George E. Stratemeyer, commander of the Allied Eastern Air Command and of all United States Army Air Forces in Burma.




LORD LOUIS ISSUES ORDER OF THE DAY

  In an Order of the Day issued this week, Lord Louis Mountbatten sent the following note to Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell's Hukawng Valley Headauarters, praising the work his American and Chinese troops have done:
  "To the American and Chinese forces on the Ledo front:
  "Your rapid advance down the Hukawng Valley and your successes in a series of encounters with the enemy are gaining you much honor and renown.
  "You are facing a formidable enemy in difficult country, but you are outfighting and out-manuevering him and you have recently gained and outstanding victory in the Maingkwan-Walawbum area against one of the enemy's toughest, most seasoned divisions. What is more, you are pressing on, supported in strength and supplied by your colleagues in the air, secure in the knowledge that you can and will succeed.
  "You who fight on the Ledo Front, pushing forward the Ledo Road, are playing a magnificent part in assuring our joint victory. During my recent visit I have seen for myself the courage and the spirit you display under the gallant leadership of Gen. Stilwell, and I shall remember with pride the days that I spent with you."
  (Signed: Lord Louis Mountbatten)



ALLIED CBI CHIEFS CONFER
In a jungle setting in the Northern Burma combat zone, the leading Allied chieftains of the Theater recently held a pow-wow. Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten and Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell discussed continuance of the successful action launched against the Japanese.
Warning
BY BOMB GROUP TO JAPANESE

  EASTERN AIR COMMAND - A warning to the Japs "that if they want to keep their shipping they'll have to keep it out of range of our big bombers," was given by Lt. Col. William Delahy, C.O. of the Seventh Bombardment Group, after his men made life very wet for Nip sailors this month.
  The Seventh made a series of raids on enemy shipping south of Bangkok, with one large freighter sunk, four probably sunk and at least two damaged. This bombing mission required a round trip flight of more than 2,400 miles.

IN AIR 17 HOURS

  A flight led by Capt. David N. Kellogg took part in what is believed to be the longest combat air mission of the war. They were in the air more than 17 hours while bombing oil tanks and making a reconnaissance of the area.
  The B-24's swept in over the target at less than 300 feet. They ran into a mass of Jap shipping, and just missed the masts of several vessels. But not wishing to give away their positions, the bombers swept on to their targets, oil tanks on a neighboring island.

FREIGHTER SUNK

  The following night another bomber flight went after the ships. About 75 miles west of Bangkok they made the attack. The plane piloted by lt. Irving Kuehnast with Lt. Wilbur Darby as bombardier blew a freighter apart with a hit amidships then went on to blow up a large oil tank ashore.
  Bombardier Lt. Ernest Benshimol, in a ship piloted by Lt. Donald M. Young, dropped his bombs in the stern of a large freighter, then scored near misses on a tanker.




'VIC', 'MABEL' AND FRIEND

AMBASSADORS OF GOOD WILL
TRAVEL FROM INDIA TO U.S.


  Two unique animal ambassadors of good will from India arrived in the United States the other day, 15,000 miles and 60 days of rough ocean-going after embarking for that almost legendary land. This event was then followed by a transcontinental choo-choo ride to the lush green fields of Waynesburg, Green County, Pa.
  To your left, chums, is the pair of ambassadors - "Vic" and "Mabel," hirsute Himalayan bears whose pictures appeared in the Roundup when they were cuddly cubs.
  Conductor of their tour to Shangri La was G.I. Dennis J. Loughman, their boss, who returned to the U.S. after a tour of duty in the land of the sacred cow, dhobie itch and wrong-way traffic. A third migrant who accompanied Loughman was "Fritz," a pooch of undetermined blood lines. The trio was weel known on the streets of a West Indian port.
  Rumors have it that hard-hearted immigration authorities melted when Loughman pointed out the V-for-Victory insignia on the bears' broad chests.



Colorful Indian Now Bodyguard For CBI Leader

  By F. R. MORAES   Times Of India Correspondent

  HUKAWNG VALLEY - Prominent among Lt. Joseph W. Stilwell's personal bodyguards is a young Indian with a most romantic career. The first time I met Stilwell I noticed a lean, athlectic-looking Indian, with a tommy gun under his arm, a rifle slung over his shoulder, his bandolier bristling with bullets, and a pistol stuck in a holster, hovering around the general. Thirty-year-old Dara Singh was born in Malaya and has crowded more adventure in his young life than most men I know.
  At 27, he became a colonel in the Chinese Army. He speaks Chinese fluently, having mastered not only Mandarin but several other dialects as well, including Fukien and Cantonese. His lingual facility intrigues the Chinese who crowd in chattering groups around him. He also speaks excellent English, Malayan and Hindustani.

LOVE OF ADVENTURE

  Singh'e father, Mota Singh, who came from Ferozepure, Punjab, was a pensioner from the Indian Army who settled in Malay as a tin mines contractor many years ago. Young Dara, after finishing school, went in for automobile engineering and later started business as a motor car dealer. But the love for adventure was strong in him, and in 1939, when 4,000 Chinese from Malaya volunteered for service in China, Singh saw adventure backoning. he went along with them. "I was the only Indian in the party," he told me, "but then I knew Chinese."
  Soon he found himself busy on the Burma Road as an official of the Southwest Transportation Company, later known as the China-Burma Transport Administration. After a spell in Lashio, Sing moved to Rangoon where the Japanese invasion caught him. With the Chinese forces he retreated northward, and, at Maymyo, met Stilwell for the first time. Dara then moved with the Chinese to Kunming.

ON SALWEEN FRONT

  "I was on the Salween Front for a short time," he said, "but the longing to see my Motherland was strong. I'd never been to India and when the offer came to join the Chinese Training Center in India, I couldn't resist it." Dara has never been to Ferozepore, but he hopes to go there some day. At the Chinese Training Camp he organized physical training and athletics for the recruits. In malaya, Dara played for Peral State in the inter-Malayan rugby tournament. He's good at soccer and also boxes. "Then," he said, "I was asked if I'd like to act as Stilwell's personal bodyguard and go back to Burma. Of course, I said I would."
  Dara worships Stilwell. "To me," he said, "he's the grandest man I've known. I'd follow hime to the end of the earth."




LAND-ANCHORED GOB CONVERTS G.I.'S
Strange, New World For Sergeants in China

  By T/Sgt. R. A. KELLEY and Sgt. F. S. ANTISH

  CHINA - With the strains of Anchors Aweigh and a vision of Lt. (jg) Mickey Mihalko on the poop deck shouting "Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead," we write a story today that is as strange as life itself.
  This is a sad, sad tale of two loyal G.I.'s being slowly but inevitably converted into navy-blue, with no holds barred.
  We often look back upon thos halycon days when life was simple, when we hung pin-ups on walls instead of
CORPORAL GEE-EYE   By Nolan "FASTEST RADIO TEAM WE HAVE, SIR."
bulkheads and spat on the floor instead of the deck. Little did we think, when we joined Uncle Sam's Army (with the aid of the local draft board), that things would ever turn out like this.
  The largest body of water within miles of this isolated station is a rice paddy about the size of a bathtub. Nevertheless, we awaken each morning, or sooner if the dogs are barking with a curt query from this Navy lieutenant asking scathingly whether "the anchor is draggin'."
  We two loyal G.I.'s avidly "sweat out" all communiques from the Navy High Command as being very favorable and pray that victories are fast and furious. Otherwise the morale of our pint-sized "Admiral" goes down and we wind up swabbing the galley deck. No true sailor in the fleet can swing a swab better than we two ersatz gobs, who can throw out a snappier aye, aye, sir, than any sea-going bluejacket.
  Mihalko is no taller than a hick-town fire-plug. He was a former member of the AVG and decided that China is as good a place as any to sweat out this war. He recently made a trip home and bought his first uniform. After donning his "zoot suit" for the first time, we were flooded by inquiries from our Chinese friends, "Is the Greyhound Bus Line going to run a subsidiary out here?"
  One of us hails from Brooklyn, where this training should come in handy wherever a bold venture is made against the Navy stronghold on Sand Street. The other, who comes from Texas, should know what to do if a battleship ever runs astray on the Sabine River, which, naturally, is to get the hell out of there.
  All is not lost, however. We still nurse the fervent hope that some day we'll be back where floors are floors, walls are walls and a sailor is something you hide your girlfriend from.



Woes Of Muleskinning Related By One Who Knows . . . Now

  By FRANK HEWLETT  United Press Correspondent

  WITH AMERICAN FORCES, NORTHERN BURMA - When it comes to swearing, even Marines are a bunch of pantywaists compared to the muleskinners in Brig. Gen. Frank Merrill's outfit. And as one who's suffered the trials and tribulations of guiding a mule along the twisting, narrow jungle trails with frequent river fords, I can sympathize with them fully. This correspondent wants it clearly understood he was framed into becoming a muleskinner, but must confess that the two days during which he was nursemaid to a jackass were crowded with excitement, grief and belly laughs.
  The general, in a big-hearted mood, informed Yank's red-headed Dave Richardson and myself that he would provide a mule to carry our typewriters and also Signal Corps photographers' cameras during the operation behind the Jap lines. However, it wasn't until contact was lost with the outside world that we learned we must take care of the mule ourselves.

NO REST FOR WEARY

  An Infantryman, after hours of brisk marching, could flop and relax fully during a 10-minute break, but not so with a muleskinner. He must adjust the load and let the animal pull him along while grazing, or cut a handful of bamboo leaves to satisfy the restless animal. But the muleskinners' worst grief results when the column is stopped and orders are issued to disperse the animals off the trail, because the mules hate being alone and become a problem when out of sight of other mules - especially a bell mare.
  I shudder to think of the extent of my grief if it hadn't been for help supplied to me by carefree, good-natured, tobacco-chewing muleskinners. But the one way to get a muleskinner sore is to criticize his mule. It's okay to cuss your own mule, but just as in the case of relatives, you don't belittle other people's mules in front of them.
  Without fail, if you stop a soldier who is soundly cussing his animal and ask what's wrong with the mule, he will reply, "Nothing, sir. Why this is the best damned mule in the Army." Hence the muleskinner should be a good swearer, because he gets ample practice swearing by and at his mule.
  The first day I led "Photo Joe" (so named by a Signal Corps photographer, Pvt. Fred L. Andrews of Salem, Ore.) I couldn't understand the muleskinners' language, because "Joe" was causing no trouble and I was overjoyed that my 40-pound pack was resting for a day on the mule's instead of my aching back. I told this to Cpl. George Drugotch, of Edwardsville, Pa., who was following me, lead "Grandpa," and Drugotch said, "Mark my words. Before the end of the day, you'll be cussing more than anyone."

TROUBLE STARTS

  Drugotch was correct, because soon, on a hill, the mule stepped on my heel and then later caused further grief during a waist-deep river crossing, and finally found me cussing like a veteran. I would have been lost a dozen times if Pfc. Andy Slimp, of Elreno, Okla., who id a former New Guinea Infantryman, hadn't suggested that everyone put luminous moss on the tale of his mule. When again came my turn to lead "Joe," we marched only five miles in the morning and then were ordered to unpack the animals until the following day.
  However, early in the afternoon, the japs started shelling. While my pals stayed in the foxholes, I was required to go forth with the muleskinners to disperse the animals, bring them back and prepare to move. "Joe" had broken the rope in fright, so I tried to lead hime to the pack saddle with the use of only a halter. Everytime a shell burst nearby, "Joe" would lunge and drag me off the trail into bamboo thickets. Then fate took a hand for me. I stumbled over someone else's lost rope, which made it possible for me to get Joe to his saddle and get out of that unhealthy area, where five mules were killed by artillery that night.
  While most of the muleskinners are veterans, there is a smattering of city youth in the ranks who are learning the art fast, such as the soldier who, when asked the extent of his experience with mules, said, "Well, until I was drafted, the only mules I'd ever seen were pulling ice wagons in Chicago."
  Merrill's mules, which are from Missouri and Texas, are the largest ever seen in this country and tower like giants alongside the british mules and the Chinese pack ponies. Although they have already marched 250 miles, many of them are gaining weight in the jungles. They receive 12 pounds daily of a special mix, which even includes salt. The mixture is prepared in India from where planes take off and later dump the animals' food along with soldiers' supplies.




Chinese General Awarded Medal
Sun Li-jen


  NORTHERN BURMA - Maj. Gen. Sun Li-jen, commander of the Chinese 38th Division was decorated this week by Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell with the American Legion of Merit for "exceptionally meritorious service during the Burma operations in 1942." The award was made at Sun Li-jen's upper Hukawng Valley headquarters.
  The citation read: "Under most trying conditions, Sun displayed high qualities of leadership when the 1st Burma Division of the british Forces at Yenanyaugn was extricated by the 38th Division's attack and saved from annihilation. Gen. Sun Li-jen held his unit together at all times during the retreat and brought it, ready for combat, into India. His example of courage and leadership reflects great credit to Allied arms."
  Educated at Virginia Military Insitute, Sun Li-jen has also received the british Empire Decoration for brilliant work during the Burma withdrawal.




All In The Family
THREE SETS OF BROTHERS ON LEDO ROAD

  LEDO ROAD - Three sets of brothers are helping push the Ledo Road forward right in the face of Tojo's men. They hail from New Jersey, Ohio and California.
  The Brozovic brothers, Francis and edward, both corporals, hail from Westvill Grove, N.J. Francis came over as a replacement. When officers of ed's unit heard of his arrival, they put in for, and obtained him for the same unit. The boys now sleep side by side.
  From Bloomingsberg, O., came Albert and Howard Runnel. Both are T/5's and have been here the longest of any of the brother teams.
  To complete the fraternal relationship are Alex and Thomas Garcia of Los Angeles, calif. They are Privates.
  The Runnels and Garcias have been together since their inductions. However, if took the Brozovic's nearly two years to be reunited.
  The Runnels were bakers in civilian life. Now they bake and cook for their company.
  The Garcias were stock clerks. Now they put culverts in the new road.
  The brozovics were asteel and construction workers. Edward runs a caterpillar tractor and Francis is on demolition work.
  So it can be safely said that the Ledo Road "is getting in a family way."




YANK INFANTRY IN ACTION IN BURMA
Battle-wise American Infantrymen move forward past dead bodies of Japs, who tried unsuccessfully to ambush them in the jungles of the Hukawng Valley.

SINGAPORE CAPTORS ANNIHILATED
BOB BRYANT'S CAMERA TELLS STORY

The group of pictures, however graphic, falls short of delivering the full impact of the savage, bloody fighting that took place in the jungled Hukawng Valley before 4,000 Japs, trapped in the American-Chinese mousetrap, were annihilated. The most revealing camera lens cannot reproduce the chattering of a tommy gun chewing up an attacking enemy, the sharp, acrid smell of battle, the tense, watchful courage of soldiers advancing into possible ambush, the scream of enemy or friend stopped short by bullet thud, or the sobering finality of death. Yet, inadequate as they are, these pictures are capable of suggesting what happened in the Hukawng Valley and what will happen again before the Japanese are driven from Burma. Previous to the coming of Merrill's Marauders, combat by Americans in the China-Burma-India Theater was confined to sky duels by the Air Force, spectacular and dramatic, equally as courageous. Yet it is the Infantry Queens of Battle, that must finally drive the enemy from his entrenched positions. Ad it is heartwarming that American doughboys, many of them battle-wise, jungle-wise veterans, have been thrown into action against the Japs and - as these pictures prove - have sent them reeling back in rout. These Japanese, lying grotesquely dead in pitiful heaps, are the same soldiers who once strode triumphantly through the streets of Singapore. (Photos by Bob Bryant, International News Photos)

These troops are resting for the first time in four days and nights of savage combat. They stop to eat a noon meal in a deserted Kachin village.
His helmet and identification tags, perched upon a bamboo cross, mark the final resting place of an American soldier.





ANOTHER LONGEVITY CLAIM

  LEDO ROAD - Possible CBI runner-up to M/Sgt. Jimmie Powers for longevity honors in the Army is M/Sgt. Hannan Porter, who is construction foreman for a Negro Engineering unit on the Ledo Road.
  While Powers has 33 years coming up, Porter looks forward to his 30th year of service. He has 21 months overseas service to his credit. He served in the pershing expedition in Mexico, the Philippines and the European Theater of Operations.




Two-Man Task Force Kills Elephant
BEAST ON RAMPAGE IN INDIAN VILLAGE

  ASSAM - This story began when an excited Indian dashed into a U.S. Army headquarters with a frantic, yet hopeful look on his brown face. Would the Sahibs please help? A wild elephant, in the fashion of a bull in a China shop, was making a shambles of his village.
  Two of CBI's sterling tech sergeants, Harold Fairman, of Erie, Pa., and William Leach, of Penn Yan, N.Y., took up the challenge and volunteered as a two-man task force to wipe out this menace to the threatened hamlet.
  Girding themselves with M-1's, they started a 17-mile trek to the combat zone in one of the local puddle-jumpers, accompanied by the village taxidermist, who smelled a lucrative stuffing job.
  Perhaps their ardor was somewhat cooled when Fairman and Leach surveyed the scene of destruction following in the wake of the four-footed blitz. Several houses were already badly battered. And on the edge of the village, a gigantic bull elephant was preparing to resume the job he had started.
  cautiously, the two intrepid tech sergeants climbed a tree. But the tempestuous tusker chose to ignore them and started in another direction. So Fairman and Leach hit the ground and advanced.
  At a range of 100 yards, they opened fire. Each had a full clip in his Garand. The first shot that hit Rollo produced a frightening reaction. Instead of rolling over and playing dead like a nice elephant, he charged toward the Army's finest with purposeful speed.
  Then the M-1's started chattering like the teeth of the two Frank Bucks and Rollo, more resembling a sieve than an elephant, stumbled, rolled over and co-operatively died.
  Explanation of why Rollo went beserk is a human story. It was the mating season, and he had been roaming the woods, trumpeting in search of a Mrs. Rollo. No soap. So he simply went wild, roaring about the innocent village in a tantrum, sticking his trunk through windows and smashing furniture, upsetting everything that got in his way and making himself thoroughly objectionable.




'LITTLE PEOPLE' OF CHINA HELP 14TH A.F. AIRMEN

  CHINA - This is a story of the "little people" of China.
  It all began when a Mitchell bomber of the Chinese-American Composite Wing ran out of gas on the way to its home base.
  The pilot, Lt. Guy H. Williams, made a quick calculation in the darkening China skies, and set out for an emergency field. When he landed he was calmly greeted by the Chinese stationmaster, who, after taking the crew to sleeping quarters in the station house, invited them to a nearby city for dinner.
  When they arrived they found the table set and the meal ready. After they had dined, the inhabitants of the city, who had never seen a Chinese-American crew before, were permitted to file in and view the fliers.
  That night it rained. When the fliers arose in the morning it was to find the bomber mired in the mud. The stationmaster procured several hundred coolies, who tied ropes to the plane and towed it to higher ground.
  The pilot still couldn't see how the plane could take off. So he asked the stationmaster for boards to put under the wheels. The stationmaster said none was available. But he called a conference among the Chinese and then told the pilot that the boards would be brought.
  The boards duly arrived on the backs of the Chinese. It developed that they had gone to their homes and removed their doors, which they proceeded to put under the plane.
  The pilot gave orders to take off. Another of the small incidents by the people of China had enabled an American plane to take the air again for future use against the common enemy, Nippon.




The C.B.I. Roundup is a weekly newspaper published by and for the men of the United States Army Forces in China, Burma, and India, from news and pictures supplied by staff members, soldier correspondents, the United Press, and the Army News Service. The Roundup is published Friday of each week and is printed by The Statesman in New Delhi, India. Editorial matter should be sent directly to Lt. Floyd Walter, Rear Echelon Hq., U.S.A.F., C.B.I., New Delhi, and should arrive not later than Monday in order to make that week's issue. Pictures must arrive by Sunday and must be negatives or enlargements. Stories should contain full name and organization of sender.











MARCH  23,  1944    

Original issue from the collection of C.B.I. Roundup Correpondent Al Sager, shared by CBI veteran Dave Dale.

Copyright © 2006 Carl Warren Weidenburner. All rights reserved.






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