The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-12-13
(Ss2;I;3 SIE('sX X2)
Biennio Report of the Chief of Staff Of the U 5. Army j943 10 1945, to the Secretary of Wor n

with native labor weakened by disease, heat, and famine. Despite
 these handicaps, they established
 records exceeding those of every
 other military port in the world for quick unloading and turn
 around of our ships. At the same
 time, the capacity of the tiny Bengal-Assam Railroad was more
 than doubled by American rail-
 way battalionS which refused to
 let the disease and heat of the Steaming Brahmaputra Valley dis sipate their energies as they have
 weakened white men and brown
 for centuries. During 1943 and
 1944 the flow of United States
 arms and materiel through Cal
 cutta and up the valley had be- come great enough to support not only the Herculean job of build
 ing the Ledo Road and destroy in the Japanese forces in its path, but to increase steadily the ca pacity of the Himalayan air route and the flow of arms to the under nourished armies of China.
 In the latter stages of the Burma campaign, American troops of the MARS force, a brigade of two regiments which succeeded the GALAHAD force, were flown to China together with two of the
 Chinese divisions that has been fighting in Burma.
 In January 1945, Hump cargo had been increased to the amaz- ing rate of 46,000 tons a month. This vital and hazardous traffic stands as one of the great logiSti-
 cal accomplishments of the war against Japan. It alone made pos sible the indispensable support which General Chennault,s Four tenth Air Force was able to give the Chinese armies and the at- tacks by China-Based superfort- resses on Japan's home islands. In June of this year when the Marianas bases had been suffi- ciently developed, the China based B-29s were sent to the Pacific where they could be more easily supplied.
 Reverse in China
 In May 1914, however, the Jap- anese had launched a strong drive southward from Tung Ting Lake in Human Province. In the late summer they began a comple- mentary drive west from Canton. These salents joined near the American air base at Kweilin severing unoccupied China, and overran seven of the principal bases from which the Fourteenth Air Force had been throwing it's weight against shipping in the China Sea. In April 1945, the Japanese drove out of Paoching against our important air base at Chihkiang. Supported by the Fourteenth Air Force, Chinese troops slowed, stopped, then threw back this Japanese column with heavy losses. The offensives in China were the most serious the Japanese were able to mount in l944 and 1945.
 By the spring of this year the impact of the smashing attack across the Pacific islands had been felt deep in Asia. Fearing for the safety of their homeland, the Jap anese had begun to withdraw large forces from South and Gen. tral China. Behind them Chinese troops were applying every pres sure their present strength would permit. Under General Wede- meyer, American officers in in- ,reasing numbers were helping speed the retraining and reequip- ping of Chinese soldiers who had been fighting the Japanese for eight long years. The War De- partment made available to him TWO of the Army commanders who lad helped defeat the German Wehrmacht, General Truscott of | he Fifth Army in Italy and Gen. ,ral Simpson of the Ninth Army. At the same time the Air Forces | n China were reorganized, the | 10th Air Force from India was | moved into China and both the 10th and 14th were placed under he general direction of General 5tratemeyer. While this reorgani- ,ation was in progress, General Jhennault, who had commanded | he original American Volunteer Group of Flying Tigers" and then ,ecan1e the first commander of he l4th Air Force, asked to be