Evening star., 1942-05-02
Loshio FuIIs

oItS
The Japanese capture of Lashio
ranks in Importance with the taking
of Singapore, despite less dramatic
circumstances and the much smaller
forces involved. For this remote
railhead was the transshipment
point for all land-borne supplies
reaching China from the outer
world. NorthWard from LaShio the
famed Burma road winds it's tortuous
way into the Yunnan Mountains
toward distant Chungking Over
that vital highway has streamed a
constant procession of laden trucks,
with a reverse current of Chinese
veterans bent on saving Burma from
the japanese invaders. Now, Lashio
and its heaps of precious stores are
flaming ruin. A spearhead of
japanese tanks and motorized in
fantry, covered by an umbrella of
planes, smashed the dogged Chinese
defense, while some thirty miles to
the westward another japanese
spearhead broke the railway at
Hsipaw, thus insuring the isolation
of the main Chinese and British
forces further south around Man
dalay from their normal line of
communications. This Anglo Chi
nese army is reported in full retreat
up the Irrawaddy Valley to Bahmo,
whence a side road hits the Burma
road at the Chinese frontier, some
seventy miles north of Lashio.
However, it is doubtful whether
the retiring Chinese can reach their
border ahead of the japanese by so
circuitous route. If they fail to
do this, their alternative would be
to join the British imperials in their
withdrawal up the Irrawaddy Valley,
which runs northward some 400 miles
between the towering mountains of
Yunnan on the east and of Assam,
the borderland of India, on the west.
The valley comes to a dead end be-
fore the forbidding mountain wall
beyond which lies Tibet. Yet even
its upper reaches have strategic
value, since 1t Is close to the new
supply route which British and Chi
nese engineers are striving franti-
caly to build as an alternative link
to the Burma road. Chungking
bravely announces that communica-
tionS between China and India have
already been established But that
can hardly refer to the new highway,
since previous dispatches admitted
it was far from completion More
likely it means stepping up of air
transportation from Calcutta to
Chungking, which has functioned
| for some time.
1t was exactly three calendar
months from the time the japanese,
operating from Thailand, took the
border Burmese city of Moulmein,
until they stormed Lashio and closed
the Burma road. The japanese war
machine rolled rather slowly until
the fall Of Singapore, in mid
February. simultaneously freed Jap
anese land forces and opened the
Bay of Bengal to their navy. There
after, the japanese high command
/ poured in reinforcements and pressed
forward with ruthless energy. The
/ port city of Rangoon fell on March
g. and from this base tWo-fold Jap
anese drive advanced up the parallel
Sittang and Irrawaddy Valleys The
/ British and Chinese resisted des-
perately, but wore themselves down
in the process. When they were
fully engaged, the Japanese un-
| leashed another drive from Upper
! Thailand, threatening the Anglo
Chinese flank and rear. This opera
ton was extremely successful. Con-
sisting largely of light tanks and
! motorized infantry, it literally tore
up the valleys of the Shan country,
| which run north and south, thereby
serving as highways to Lashio and
the Chinese border In four days
the drive went nearly ITO miles,
brushing aside Chinese resistance
with little trouble. 1t was an
extraordinary performance, which
apparently took the defense by sur
prise, though the Chinese forces in
Burma were too weak to have pro-
vided more than a screen of resist
ance in any event.
Thus the japanese high command
has chalked up another major vic
tory, thanks to overwhelming and
well-co-ordinated strength. The de-
tenders were brave and we'll led.
But the odds were TOO great. They
could not accomplish the impossible