Evening star., 1942-03-14
BY w. S. MUNDY.
Foreign CORRESPONDENT of The Star anc

BY w. S. MUNDY.
Foreign Correspondent of The Star and
MANA.
MANDALAY, Burma, March 10
(By Wireless, Delayed AT 2 pm.
Monday, with the Japanese closing
in rapidly, a score Of demolition ex-
perts in Rangoon pressed buttons
| and blew oil ref1neries, port installa-
tions, munitions dumps, the power
station and other essential plants
sky high with a roar which shook
Burma's empty capital and sent
flocks OF mournful crows swirling
away in startled flight from the de-
serted streets.
The same thousand weary men
who had fought their way for three
days back through the new ring of
Japs already thrown around them
were in the town. Bombed and
machine gunned from above. shot
| at from each side of the road and
with strongly held road blocks bar
ring the path, they inflicted and
suffered heavy casualties as they
battled onward mile after mile in
retreat as epic as Greece and Crete
| and as pathetic as Dunkirk. When
it ended a large proportion of the
British forces in lower Burma, in
cluding all the armored units, Sue
ceSSfully had withdrawn to new posi-
tions in central Burma.
AS I drove from Rangoon to join
! the trek along the Burma road
feeder, which now is securely in the
hands Of the Japs. black clouds hung
like pail over the abandoned city
and hundreds of fires were darting
long tongues Of fame into the gath
ering darkness. Twenty-seven miles
north of the city the Japs were
waiting Pushing swiftly from the
Pegu area, they had crossed IS miles
of hilly country through Tandawgi
to the Prone road, arming disloyal
Burmese of the notorious Dacoit dis
trict Of Tharrawaddy as they came
Snipers Wound Many. .
The flash of tracer bullets and
! grenades and the stutter of tommy
guns gave the first warning of their
barricade of teak logs and over
turned lorries. An anti-tank gun
pointed directly down the road,
mortars were mounted on either side
and an estimated 1000 Japs armed
! with tommy guns and rifles we're
hiding in the woods where they
could not be seen. From their shell
ter they pelted hail of lead at the
British advance party.
A few miles back the long column
of tanks and other vehicles came to
standstill and pulled into the
shadows as the full moon lifted itself
above the treetops Truck load
after truck load Of Gloucesters, each
man grim beneath his steel helmet
as he gripped his tommy gun, sped
past us. 1t was their job, in the
moonlight now almost as bright as
day. to clear the roadsides of Jap
and Burmese sharpshooters and
prepare the way for the tanks to
break through the barricade.
All night we crouched by the tanks
or sprawled in bitches, for even
here there was no safety from the
snipers, and 7 saw man after man
carried back, most Of them with
head wounds, the price OF a moment
of forgetfulness in silhouetting
| themselves in the moonlight.
At dawn the Gloucesters came
back. In the woods they had fought
a fierce tommy-gun battle, making
their way from tree to tree, pressing
on always toward the road block.
AS the first streaks of dawn burned
through the morning mist patrols
found that the JapS had withdrawn
from the barricade, taking their guns
with them. They had not gone very
far. Bullets that pinged across the
road at every sign of movement was
evidence Of that.
The senior officers held hurried
roadside conference and decided
that the tanks alone should make
a run for it." The tank crews, red
eyed, unshaven and tattered,
climbed back into their vehicles.
The "soft-skins" or unarmored We
hicles were to stay behind until the
road had been cleared. The colonel
knew that T. E. A. Healy, an AUS
tralian representing London news
papers, and myself were anxious to
get our stories to the nearest tele-
graph office as quickly as possible.
That office was at Mandalay, soc
miles to the north, and he came to
us as we sat in our tiny jeep, which
we had wedged between two tanks
for shelter. He said he could put
one of us in a tank.
You'll have to toss for it." he
said. 1.-THE loser can come along in
a jeep If he wants to risk 1t and II
you are hit we'll stop and pick you
up"
We both decided to ride in the
jeep. In a moment we were speed
ing down the road with the clatter-
ing convoy, one tank in front of us
and another close behind. Bren
guns on the tanks poured an un-
ceasing stream of bullets into the
jungle fringing each side Of the road
Bullets came back at us. We knew
there would be eight miles Of this
before we reached open country
where the paddy fields on either side
of the road provided no shelter for
snipers. But there was to be even
worse thin this. We had rattleo