Evening star., 1942-04-17
Burmu Front

Sensational happenings elsewhere
should not distract attention from
the campaign in Burma. Everything
| indicates that the Japanese high
command regards this as their chief
immediate objective. Chungking
dispatches tell of big new Japanese
troop concentrations landed at Ran
COON and massing in Thailand for a
large-scale flank attack. Those
Japanese reinforcements are esti-
mated by the Chinese military intel
ligence TO aggregate at least $1,000.
Added to the japanese forces already
in Burma, this presumably gives the
invaders dangerous preponderance
OF man power, with air superiority
already attained. That Is an omi-
nous combination, suggesting a su-
preme effort to crush Anglo-C Chinese
resistance beneath impossible odds,
similar to that which broke Ameri-
can-Filipino resistance on Bataan.
The two-pronged japanese often
sive northward from Rangoon con-
tinueS to drive the British Imperials
up the Irrawaddy River and the
Chinese up the parallel Sittang River
valley. The defenders are now more
than halfway to their Joint base at
Mandalay, the capital of Upper
Burma, already devastated by Japa-
nese air bombings. As they retreat
northward, their joint fianks lose
the protection of the Pegu Yoma
mountain ridge, which deScends to
rolling jungle-clad hills. Through
these, Japanese light troops aided
by Burmese guerillas are inf1ltrating.
The southern edge of the Irrawaddy
oil fields is already in japanese
hands, and the main field will prob
ably soon fall, as the British do not
seem TO be able to do more than
fight delaying actions. Chungking
complains that the British retire
ment is so fast that it exposes the
Chinese connecting flank. But the
British ImperialS on the Irrawaddy
have the harder job, since they are
operating on broader front in open
country. Yet, whatever the reason,
the result is no less unfortunate.
While the Anglo Chinese forces in
Central Burma are thus under heavy
pressure, their joint rear may soon be
threatened by the new japanese
drive from Thailand. Ever since
Japan occupied that buffer state,
four months ago, Japanese forces
have been maSSing at Chiengmai, a
railhead not far from the Burmese
border where it juts eastward through
the Shan country. This is a wild
and mountainous region, but the
japanese have been busy building
roads through the jungle, and now
seem able to deliver an attack on a
broad front. That attack, if sue
ceSSful, would cut of the main Anglo
Chinese forces from their line of
communication with China at Lashio,
the Burmese terminus of the high
way to Chungking, over which all
troops from China must come. The
Chinese have strong defending forces
in the Shan region, but lack of air
/ power may be as great a handicap
| here as it IS further south.
Along the entire Burmese front
the situation thus is becoming crit
| ical in the extreme. Chungking
rightly stresses the Importance of
| Burma to the United Nations. 1t
says that Toxic has three vital OBJ
lectiveS in its present drive: oil,
India and the isolation of China.
Those are ample reasons why Japan
is driving ahead with all possible
speed, The stakes warrant sacrifices
! on large scale. And Japan SEEM
ingly is prepared to pay the price.