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Harsh Terrain
Burma is a large country with a great range of topographical
contrasts. Bordered by India, China and Thailand it is criss-crossed
by jungle covered mountain ranges and divided by four of Asia's
largest rivers, the Irrawaddy, the Chindwin, the Sittang and the
Salween. Its coastline consists of vast tracts of mangrove swamp
and deltas at the mouth of each of the rivers. There is also a
dry plain in the centre of the country. The tropical monsoon between
May and October greatly affects communications, turning many of
the country's primitive roads into quagmires. Such a climate also
produces potentially dangerous wildlife and the threat of disease
and infection. To many of those who fought in Burma the harsh
climate and terrain often presented as great a threat as the enemy.
The Japanese Advance
In January 1942 the Japanese Army crossed the river Salween to
invade Burma. Already victorious in the fighting in China, Hong
Kong and the Philippines, the Japanese faced weak opposition from
the British and Empire troops defending the vast Burmese frontier.
The defenders consisted of only two under-strength regular British
battalions, two Indian Army infantry brigades and local Burmese
forces. There was no RAF presence and the naval contingent consisted
of a few coastal and river craft. Using already proven tactics
of infiltration and mobility, the Japanese advanced rapidly, trapping
two Indian brigades in a bridgehead on the east bank of the River
Sittang after the bridge across the river had been prematurely
blown. As the Japanese advance gained momentum, British reinforcements
began to arrive but couldn't prevent the fall of Rangoon and Mandalay.
British and Empire forces under Generals Alexander and Slim began
the long and tortuous withdrawal to India. In what was to become
the longest fighting withdrawal in the history of the British
Army, the retreating troops faced problems of sickness and disease,
impenetrable jungle, poor roads and constant harassment from the
Japanese Air Force. They shared the retreat with thousands of
civilian refugees fleeing northwards to India to escape the threat
of Japanese brutality. The last exhausted stragglers finally crossed
the last mountain range into India at Imphal in May 1942.
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The Japanese - Unbeatable Jungle Soldiers?
Almost as the last British and Indian forces left Burmese soil,
plans were being organised for limited operations to recapture
the Arakan coastal plain. Plans on even such a limited scale raised
huge questions of supply and maintaining communications. Mules
soon became the preferred method of transporting supplies in difficult
terrain. As fresh British troops arrived in India, training programmes
were initiated to acclimatise them to jungle fighting. Massive
supply depots were established and construction of a series of
all-weather roads was begun. The Indian 14th Division began it's
cautious advance into the Arakan in September 1942 and immediately
faced problems with the terrain and strong Japanese resistance.
The Japanese proved as formidable in defence as they had in attack
and many British and Empire troops began to think of the Japanese
as unbeatable jungle soldiers. The campaign in the Arakan fizzled
out after a series of setbacks and retreats early in 1943.
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The Chindits
A second campaign, later that year also failed to achieve its
objectives. At the time Brigadier Orde Wingate began to propose
a long range penetration force to operate behind Japanese lines.
The force soon became known as the Chindits and the first Chindit
Expedition, Operation Longcloth, was launched in February 1943.
The operation suffered high casualties mainly from sickness, and
much of the damage done to Japanese rail communications was rapidly
repaired. The importance of the operation lay in its proving the
British troops could fight on equal terms with the Japanese in
the Jungle.
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Operation U-Go
In March 1944 the Japanese Army launched Operation U-Go, an attack
on India intended to seize British supplies in Assam, inspire
a rising by the Indian populace against British rule and to take
pressure away from the US advances in the Western Pacific. As
with their 1942 campaign, the Japanese would rely on mobility,
infiltration and captured supplies to maintain the momentum of
the attack. A month earlier the Japanese had launched Operation
Ha-Go which was intended to support U-Go by drawing British attention
away from the Imphal area where the brunt of the U-Go attacks
would take place. As the Japanese 55th Division attacked northwards
in the Arakan, British forces employed new defensive techniques
to counter the Japanese infiltration tactics. Forming defensive
boxes, supplied by air, they held out against determined Japanese
assaults until the Japanese were forced to withdraw, short of
supplies. Fighting was very fierce in the Admin Box and around
the Ngakyedauk Pass where British troops fought off a series of
determined Japanese attacks. These tactics were again employed
on a larger scale when Imphal and Kohima were surrounded during
Operation U-Go. One British battalion, the 4th Bn Royal West Kents,
and some additional garrison troops at Kohima held out against
the Japanese 31st Division until relieved ten days later by the
British 2nd Division. In the fighting they held off over twenty-five
full scale infantry attacks, suffering very heavy casualties with
over 200 men killed. At Imphal a larger perimeter was established,
with British troops defending the surrounding heights. The fighting
continued at Kohima and Imphal until the Japanese withdrew with
heavy casualties due to the nature of the fighting, lack of supplies
and sickness.
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The Second Chindit Expedition
As Japanese forces were engaged in operations to invade India,
the Second Chindit Expedition, Operation Thursday, was launched
inside Burma. Establishing airfields and strongholds behind Japanese
lines, the Chindit columns harassed the Japanese 18th Division
and their supply lines, to relieve pressure on General Stilwell's
joint US & Chinese Forces. The operations was marred by the
death of Orde Wingate in an air crash during its early stages,
after which the Chindits were placed under the command of Stilwell
and used in the unsuitable role of infantry soldiers.
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Resurgence of the 14th Army
The start of the monsoon in May 1944 did not herald the end of
the campaigning season as had previously been the case. General
Bill Slim's 14th Army continued the advance against the retreating
Japanese towards the River Chindwin. As British, Indian and West
African troops advanced southwards they came across evidence of
the shortage of rations and sickness amongst Japanese troops.
In the Kabaw Valley, troops would often find the skeletal remains
of groups of Japanese lying on the track or rudimentary huts.
By the end of 1944, the Allies were ready to advance onto the
central plains of Burma. Employing new tactics, using a combination
of tanks and infantry, long columns advanced southwards, destroying
Japanese piecemeal resistance. The problem of long supply columns
was solved by air drops and air support began to be used more
frequently. Amphibious landings started to taken place on the
Arakan coast and bridgeheads established over the Chindwin and
Irrawaddy rivers. Mandalay was captured on 20th March 1945 by
19th Indian Division after Japanese forces were thrown into confusion
by Slim's brilliant divisionary attack at Meiktila. Two months
later Rangoon fell and Japanese troops retreated to the River
Sittang. The war in the Far East finally ended with the dropping
of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
in August 1945.
The 14th Army by 1945 was a truly multinational
force with divisions drawn from Great Britain, India and West
Africa and small contingents from other countries within the Empire.
The campaign in Burma had been fought against a determined enemy
over difficult and dangerous terrain, by troops a long way from
home.
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