The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-05-25
Burma

Du1 llIU
Continued From Page One)
worst was the japanese air SUI
periority.
They used to send over 40 to
so planes daily and we couldn't
retaliate because we didn't even
have an anti-aircraft gun" he
said.
Concerning Japanese atroci-
ties, Stilwell said they went
through with all their customary
savagery."
Prisoners from the 18th In
dian division were said to have
been tied in houses which were
burned. An escaped prisoner,
Stilwell said, confirmed another
story that the japanese held
bayonet practise on British cap
tives until the prisoners were
dead.
The Chinese soldier is a
damned good soldier when prop
erly led" Stillwell asserted.
There are a hell of a lot of
troops in China and l think lot
can be done with them"
BOLSTER TIGERS
He said the Flying Tigers of
the American volunteer group,
still in China, would be strength
ened considerably in men and
equipment and indicted into the
u. S. air force July 4 as a regu-
lar pursuit group.
AS for India, Stilwell thinks
rains coming soon will hamper
any Japanese try at an overland
thrust, not only because Of diff
ficulties in transport but also
because Of malaria and other
diseases.
In his view, the rains should
halt the enemy on land until the
dry season in November.
Stilwell looked remarkably fit
after his 20-day trek which was
made in closely guarded secrecy.
While he still was deep in Bur
ma, it was announced that he
had reached a position of safe
ty" and the japanese apparent
ly concluded that he had escaped
them.
Planes were of little help.
This correspondent flew in an
army plane looking for him over
Northern Burma - mission
which could not be divulged
then - but we could not find
his party. Once a British plane
dropped food but every can of
milk and half the tins of beef
burst.
An Indian civil servant, on
pony back, found the party,
however, while it still was some
days from the India border. He
gave its weary members much
needed food anC also turned over
some ponies to nurses and 9TH
. erS who were near exhaustion.
Nineteen Burmese nurses were
in the group of 104, which in
cluded Americans, BritonS, Bur
mese, Chinese, Indians and
| Anglo-Indians.
A Rogue elephant - always
a VIGOROUSLY bad actor - gave
the travellers a scare. But just
when rifles and tommy guns
were ready to blaze away, the
animal claimed down and walked
off.
Head hunters were no prob
/ lem at all.
I NATIVES FRIENDLY
/ Whenever we met a new
/ tribe an aide related, "a boy
would come out with red
blanket, a chicken and a mug of
beer. We'd accept the chicken,
down the beer and everything
would be 0. X"
The first part of the journey,
on a course roughly from Wan
/ tho TO Indaw, was by truck,
/ jeep, boat and raft. Eventually
the group reached Homalin, on
I the Chindwin River, took trail
west to Imphal and there caught
a dinky trolley train TO Dinjan,
on the India frontier.
Altogether, several hundred
miles were covered 1t meant
frightened belts, sleeping on the
ground and fighting off dis
ease.
Despite every preCaution,
there we're a few cases of ma
laria and some heat exhaustion.
1t was a tribute TO medical au-
thoritieS that every one got
through.
Much of the territory is mark
cd on the map, "unsurveycd and
unadminiStered." Even flying
over it, this correspondent saw
enough of its wildness to realize
the perils and hardships Still
well battlcd 20 get out
But you would never guess he
had been through such an adj
venture. He minimized it all as
he sat talking with newspaper
men after having stepped from
his plane here i'm an old-fash-
toned campaign hat, khaki trou-
sers and shirt without the three
r4,r- he - entitled IN Nunar