Arakan Campaign 1942 – 43 The Arakan Campaign of 1942 – 1943 was the first tentative Allied attack into Burma , following the Japanese conquest of Burma earlier in 1942 . The British Army and British Indian Army were not ready for offensive actions in the difficult terrain they encountered , nor had the civil government , industry and transport infrastructure of Eastern India been organised to support the Army on the frontier with Burma . Japanese defenders occupying well - prepared positions repeatedly repulsed the British and Indian forces , who were then forced to retreat when the Japanese received reinforcements and counter - attacked . Prelude . Situation in 1942 . In May 1942 , the Allies retreated from Burma , accompanied by many refugees , mainly Indian and Anglo - Burmese . Although the Japanese halted their advance on the Chindwin River ( mainly because the heavy monsoon rains descended at this point and made the roads and tracks through the mountainous frontier between India and Burma impassable ) , the Allies ( in particular the British India Command ) feared that they would attack again after the monsoon ended . The Government of India and the state governments of the eastern provinces of Bengal , Bihar and Orissa faced widespread disorder and a growing famine which would eventually become the disastrous Bengal famine of 1943 . The British reorganised their command in eastern India . The headquarters of Eastern Army , under Lieutenant General Charles Broad , were at Ranchi in Bihar . This army command was originally a peacetime administrative headquarters for depots and units stationed in Eastern India . It unexpectedly found itself in control of a very large rear communications area , and the troops on the frontier with Burma , roles for which it had not prepared in peacetime . Its fighting formations were the IV Corps , commanded by Lieutenant General Noel Irwin , at Imphal in Manipur , and the newly formed XV Corps , commanded from 9 June 1942 by Lieutenant General William Slim , with its headquarters at Barrackpore , near Calcutta . XV Corps in turn commanded 14th Indian ( Light ) Division which was stationed around Chittagong and faced the Burmese coastal province of Arakan , and the 26th Indian Infantry Division in the Ganges Delta . The 14th ( Light ) Division had been raised at Quetta in Baluchistan and was originally intended to form part of the Allied forces in Iraq and Persia . It was fully formed and equipped but lacked training , particularly in jungle warfare . The 26th Division was still forming , and was engaged in training and in internal security duties . Allied plans . General Archibald Wavell , the Commander in Chief in India , was making plans to mount offensives into Burma even as Allied troops were retreating into India . On most parts of the front , roads and other lines of communications had to be improved or built from scratch before attacks could be considered , a task which would take at least a year , but on the Arakan front , distances were comparatively short and the necessary communications could theoretically be completed by the time the monsoon ended . In fact , the time required to improve the poor roads in the region delayed the start of the offensive until mid - December 1942 . In July , General Broad retired and Lieutenant General Irwin was appointed to command Eastern Army . He informed Lieutenant General Slim that the headquarters of Eastern Army and XV Corps were to exchange places for the offensive . Eastern Army HQ would move to Barrackpur and take direct command of the Arakan offensive , while XV Corps HQ moved to Ranchi to restore order in Bihar , and raise and train fresh divisions for later combat in Burma . The limited goal of the British advance in Arakan in 1942 and 1943 was Akyab Island . This held a port and all - weather airfield , which were prominent in Allied plans to recover Burma . Fighters and transport aircraft , operating at a radius of from Akyab , could cover most of Central Burma , and medium bombers operating from Akyab could range as far as Rangoon , the capital of Burma , distant . The island lay at the end of the Mayu Peninsula . This was marked by a narrow but precipitous and jungle - covered range of hills , the Mayu Range , which separated the narrow coastal plain from the fertile rice - growing valley of the Kalapanzin River , which became the Mayu River below the town of Buthidaung . The only permanently established route across the range was a disused railway track , converted into a road , which linked Buthidaung with the port of Maungdaw on the west coast of the peninsula . Wavell ' s plan to capture Akyab was codenamed Operation " Cannibal " . It was originally planned in September 1942 that Akyab would be taken by an amphibious assault launched by the British 29th Brigade , while the 14th Indian Division mounted a subsidiary advance down the Mayu peninsula . The amphibious part of the plan was dropped because 29th Brigade and the necessary landing craft could not be made available in time . Instead , it was planned that once 14th Division had reached Foul Point at the extreme southern end of the Mayu peninsula , it would improvise an attack by the British 6th Brigade across the narrow channel which separated Akyab Island from the peninsula . ( By late December , five motor launches , 72 landing craft and three paddle steamers were available . ) Battle . Advance begins . The 14th Indian Division , commanded by Major General Wilfrid Lewis Lloyd , began advancing south from Cox ' s Bazaar near the frontier between India and Burma , on 17 December 1942 . The Japanese defending the Arakan front were " Miyawaki Force " . This consisted of two battalions of the 213th Regiment ( part of the Japanese 33rd Division ) , a mountain artillery battalion and various supporting arms detachments , commanded by Colonel Kosuke Miyawaki . Although the forward unit ( the second battalion of the 213th Regiment , known as " Isagoda battalion " after its commander ) had spent fifty days digging defensive positions to cover the Maungdaw - Buthidaung road , they were ordered to pull back to join the main body of the force near the tip of the Mayu peninsula . Lloyd ' s division captured the road on 22 December . Advance stalls . At this point , Miyawaki was informed that another division , the Japanese 55th Division under Lieutenant General Takeshi Koga , less a regiment which was serving in western New Guinea , had been dispatched from Central Burma to Arakan . Miyawaki was ordered to move forward to Donbaik on the Mayu peninsula and Rathedaung on the east bank of the Mayu River , to secure positions from which this division could operate . On 28 December , the " Isagoda Battalion " occupied Rathedaung and forestalled the attempt by the 123rd Indian Infantry Brigade to capture the town . On 9 – 10 January , renewed attacks on Rathedaung were thrown back . While most of Miyawaki ' s remaining troops occupied Akyab , a single Japanese company occupied the narrow front between the sea and the foothills of the Mayu Range north of Donbaik , protected by a " chaung " ( a tidal creek ) with steep banks high . They constructed well - concealed and mutually supporting bunkers of timber and earth . Between 7 and 9 January 1943 , the 47th Indian Infantry Brigade attacked this line but were repulsed . The bunkers could not be penetrated by field artillery , and if British or Indian infantry reached the bunkers , the defenders could call down artillery and mortar fire on their own position . Wavell and Irwin visited Lloyd on 10 January . Lloyd asked for tanks to deal with the bunkers . Irwin in turn demanded a single troop of tanks from 50th Indian Tank Brigade , part of Slim ' s XV Corps at Ranchi . Both Slim and the brigade commander protested that a complete regiment ( of 50 or more tanks ) would be required , but they were overruled . On 1 February , 55th Indian Infantry Brigade , supported by only eight Valentine tank s , attacked the Donbaik position . Some of the tanks became stuck in ditches , while others were knocked out by Japanese shellfire ; the brigade ' s attack subsequently failed . A renewed attack by the Indian 123rd Brigade on Rathedaung two days later briefly gained some outlying positions , but the Brigade was forced to withdraw . The third battalion of the Japanese 213th Regiment had been sent to Arakan from Pakokku in Central Burma , where it had been in reserve , ahead of the 55th Division . During February , it cleared detachments of the British irregular V Force from the valley of the Kaladan River , where they had been threatening the Japanese lines of communication . V Force warned the British of the large numbers of Japanese approaching the battlefield . Last British attacks . Following their defeats at Donbaik , the Indian 47th and 55th Brigades had been moved east of the Mayu Range . In the first week of March , the third battalion of the Japanese 213th Regiment crossed the Mayu River and attacked Indian 55th Brigade , forcing it to retreat . This left the Indian 47th Brigade isolated north of Rathedaung . In spite of this growing threat to the left flank of 14th Division , General Irwin demanded that another attack be made on the Donbaik position , using the powerful and well - trained British 6th Brigade . On 10 March , Lieutenant General Slim had been ordered to report on the situation in Arakan , although it was not yet intended that XV Corps headquarters take charge of the front . Slim reported to Irwin that with so many brigades to command , 14th Indian Division was unable to control the front . Morale was low in some units , reflected in unnecessary panics . However , Irwin made no changes at this point . For the next assault on Donbaik , Lloyd planned to use the 71st Indian Brigade in a flanking move along the spine of the Mayu Range , but by this time , Irwin had lost confidence in Lloyd and his brigadiers , and laid down the plan of attack himself . He diverted the 71st Brigade to the Mayu Valley and ordered the British 6th Brigade , reinforced to a strength of six battalions , to make an attack on a narrow front . The Brigade attacked on 18 March . Some of the Japanese 55th Division had reinforced the defenders of Donbaik , and in spite of heavy artillery support the Brigade also was unable to deal with the bunkers and suffered 300 casualties . After this repulse , Wavell and Irwin ordered the ground already taken to be held . Japanese counter - attack . On 25 March , Lloyd ordered the isolated 47th Indian Brigade to fall back across the Mayu Range , despite Irwin ' s instructions to hold all ground until the monsoon . Irwin rescinded Lloyd ' s order and dismissed Lloyd on 29 March , taking command of the 14th Division in person until the headquarters of the Indian 26th Division , commanded by Major - General Cyril Lomax , could take over . On 3 April , while " Uno Force " ( the Japanese 143rd Regiment ) pressed northwards up the Mayu River valley , the main body of the Japanese 55th Division ( " Tanahashi Force " , consisting mainly of the 112th Regiment ) crossed the Mayu Range at a point where British officers had regarded the range as impassable and cut the coastal track behind the leading British troops . They captured the village of Indin , where they also overran the headquarters of British 6th Brigade and captured its commander , Brigadier Ronald Cavendish . Cavendish was killed shortly afterwards , probably by British artillery fire as the British guns opened fire on Indin to cover the troops withdrawing to the north . The 47th Indian Brigade was forced to retreat across the Mayu Range in small parties , abandoning all its equipment and ceasing to exist as a fighting force . Indian XV Corps headquarters under Lieutenant General Slim belatedly took charge of the Arakan front . Although the British 6th Brigade was still formidable in spite of its recent defeats , Slim was concerned that the other troops on the front were tired and demoralised . Nevertheless , he and Lomax anticipated that the Japanese would next try to capture the Maungdaw - Buthidaung road and planned to surround and destroy them . While the British 6th Brigade defended the coastal plain , eight British and Indian battalions were deployed to encircle the Japanese as they neared the road at a point where two tunnels carried it through the Mayu range . In late April , the Japanese attacked northwards , as Slim and Lomax had predicted . They met stiff resistance on the flanks and advanced instead in the centre . On 4 May as Slim prepared to order two Indian battalions to surround the Japanese , a British battalion defending a hill referred to as Point 551 gave way , allowing the Japanese to cut the Maungdaw - Buthidaung road . Counter - attacks failed and the British and Indian troops in Buthidaung and the Kalapanzin valley were cut off . As there was no other route for motor vehicles across the Mayu Range , they were forced to destroy their transport before retreating north up the valley . Irwin ordered Maungdaw at least to be held but Slim and Lomax decided that the port was not prepared for a siege and that Japanese artillery could dominate the Naf River on which the port stood , preventing reinforcements and supplies reaching it . They also feared that the exhausted troops which 26th Indian Division had inherited could not be relied upon to defend the port resolutely . On 11 May , the port was abandoned and XV Corps fell back to Cox ' s Bazaar in India , where the open rice - growing country gave the advantage to British artillery . The monsoon rains also descended at this point ( Arakan receives per annum ) , dissuading the Japanese from following up their successes . Aftermath . Irwin , Slim and other officers were frank about the chief cause of failure in the Arakan . The average British and Indian soldier was not properly trained for fighting in jungle , which together with repeated defeats adversely affected morale . This was exacerbated by poor administration in the rear areas in India . Drafts of reinforcements sent to replace casualties were found in some cases to have not even completed basic training . There were several contributing factors . At one point , 14th Indian Division HQ was controlling no less than nine infantry brigades ( instead of the usual three ) and a large line of communications area . It was not equipped to handle this enormous responsibility . The road used as supply routes were inadequate , and there were insufficient landing craft and small ships as an alternative . Lieutenant General Irwin attempted to dismiss Slim from command of XV Corps , but was himself relieved of command of Eastern Army , and returned to Britain on sick leave . His replacement at Eastern Army was General George Giffard , a very different character from the abrasive Irwin . Giffard concentrated on restoring the Army ' s morale and improving its state of health and training . The first Chindit raid under Brigadier Orde Wingate concluded about this time , and its successes were widely publicised to counter the depressing news from the Arakan . As part of a general shuffle of the senior appointments in the Allied , British and Indian armies about this time , Wavell became Viceroy of India and General Claude Auchinleck became Commander in Chief in India . The Indian Army establishment was reorganised to concentrate on fighting the Burma campaign , with success in the following two years .