Draw in Burma

History was repeating itself in the sawtooth mountains and jungled valleys of the Arakan where the Burma-India border touches the Bay of Bengal.

A year ago the British failed to take the strategic Akyab port and air base because they had not mastered Jap jungle tactics and turned them against the enemy. The 1944 campaign also seemed destined to be a bust unless Admiral the Lord Louis Mountbatten can draw to a full house before the monsoons begin in May.

The campaign had begun hopefully. British and Indian troops captured Maungdaw, close by the Burma-India border. Patrols moved south, following the west side of the Mayu ridge. Other British columns swung east toward Buthidaung to protect the left flank.

In the narrow mountain passes dug-in Japs threw back tank, infantry and artillery attacks. Others burrowed through jungle and mountain areas considered, impassable in any kind of weather, trapped the 7th Indian Division by severing its communication lines. At week's end, the 7th Division was still encircled; but the Japs were slowly falling back under a flanking threat from West African troops who had wormed eastward.

Reconquest When? The renewed Battle of Burma was still only small-scale attrition; probably not more than 4,000 Japs were engaged. Neither side was heady with success and both were beginning to feel the supply pinch.

The stalemate underlined three facts:

1) India's ports, transport facilities and depots have not been expanded sufficiently to mount serious offensive operations;

2) Asia is still a grade-B battlefront, must wait until Hitler is liquidated; 3) jungle tactics have not yet been mastered in the Southeast'Asia Theater.

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