Japanese capture of Burma
Encyclopedia
The Burma Campaign
in the South-East Asian Theatre
of World War II took place over four years from 1942 to 1945. During the first year of the campaign, the Japanese
Army (with aid from Thai
forces and Burmese insurgents) drove British Commonwealth
and Chinese forces out of Burma, and occupied the country, forming a Burmese administration with little real authority.
. Under British rule, there had been substantial economic development but the majority Bamar
community was becoming increasingly restive. Among their concerns were the importation of Indian workers to provide a labour force for many of the new industries, and the erosion of traditional society in the countryside as land was used for plantations of export crops or became mortgaged to Indian moneylenders. Pressure for independence was growing. When Burma came under attack, the Bamar were unwilling to contribute to the defence of the British establishment, and many readily joined movements which aided the Japanese.
British plans for the defence of British Far Eastern possessions involved the construction of airfields linking Singapore
and Malaya
with India. These plans had not taken into account the fact that Britain was also at war with Germany, and when Japan entered the war, the forces needed to defend these possessions were not available. Burma had been regarded as a military "backwater", unlikely to be subjected to Japanese threat.
Lieutenant General Thomas Hutton, the commander of Burma Army with its headquarters in Rangoon
, had only the 17th Indian Infantry Division and 1st Burma Division
to defend the country, although help was expected from the Chinese Nationalist
government under Chiang Kai-shek
. During the war, the British Indian Army
expanded more than twelve-fold from its peacetime strength of 200,000 but in late 1941 this expansion meant that most units were undertrained and ill-equipped. In most cases, such training and equipment as the Indian units in Burma received was for operations in the Western Desert campaign or the North West Frontier
of India, rather than jungles. The battalions of the Burma Rifles
which formed most of the 1st Burma Division were originally raised as internal security troops only, from among minority communities in Burma such as the Karens
. They also had been rapidly expanded, with an influx of Bamar soldiers, and were short of equipment and consisted mainly of new recruits.
, but also minerals such as Cobalt
and large surpluses of rice), but also to protect the flank of their main attack against Malaya and Singapore and provide a buffer zone to protect the territories they intended to occupy.
An additional factor was the Burma Road
completed in 1938, which linked Lashio
at the end of a railway from the port of Rangoon with the Chinese province of Yunnan
. This newly-completed link was being used to move aid and munitions to the Chinese Nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-Shek which had been fighting the Japanese for several years. The Japanese naturally wished to cut this link.
The Japanese Fifteenth Army
, commanded by Lieutenant General Shojiro Iida
, was assigned the mission of occupying northern Thailand
, which had signed a treaty of friendship with Japan on 21 December 1941, and attacking the southern Burmese province of Tenasserim across the Tenasserim Hills
. The army consisted initially of the highly regarded 33rd Division
and the 55th Division, although both divisions were weakened for several weeks by detachments to other operations.
, almost the most southerly point of Burma, was expected and was not contested. The second attack was a small probing raid directed at a police station in southern Tenasserim, which was repulsed. The Japanese 143 Infantry Regiment (from 55th Division) then launched overland attacks on the airfields at Tavoy and Mergui
in Tenasserim. The airfields were difficult to defend and reinforce, but Burma Army HQ had been ordered to hold these outposts because of their importance to the defence of Malaya. The Japanese forced their way over the steep jungle-covered Tenasserim Range, and attacked Tavoy on 18 January. The defenders, the 3rd and 6th battalions of the Burma Rifles, were overwhelmed and forced to evacuate the town in disorder. Mergui was evacuated before it was attacked.
Rangoon was initially defended relatively successfully against Japanese air raids, by small RAF detachments reinforced by a squadron of the American Volunteer Group
, better known as the "Flying Tigers". The majority of the airfields were between Rangoon and the Axis advance and as the Japanese gained use of the airfields in Tenasserim, the amount of warning the Rangoon airfields could get of attack decreased, and they became more and more untenable.
On 22 January 1942, the main body of the Japanese 55th Division began the main attack westward from Rahaeng in Thailand across the Kawkareik
Pass. The 16th Indian Infantry Brigade of the 17th Indian Division guarding this approach retreated hastily westward. The Japanese division advanced to Moulmein at the mouth of the Salween River
which was garrisoned by the 2nd Burma Infantry Brigade
. The position was almost impossible to defend, and had the River Salween
, almost 1.5 miles (2.4 km) wide, behind it. The 2nd Burma Brigade was squeezed into a progressively tighter perimeter, and eventually retreated over river by ferry on 31 January after abandoning a large amount of supplies and equipment. Part of the force was left behind in Moulmein and had to swim the river.
in general disorder. The retreat was delayed by incidents such as a vehicle breaking through the bridge deck, air attacks (including, allegedly, accidental attacks by the RAF and AVG) and Japanese harassment. The delays allowed Japanese parties to infiltrate to the bridge itself, and the poorly organised defence of the bridge was in danger of collapsing. Fearing that the bridge would fall intact to the Japanese who would use it to advance on Rangoon, the divisional commander, Major-General "Jackie" Smyth, VC
, ordered it to be blown up on the morning of 23 February 1942, with most of the division stranded on the enemy-held side.
Many of the men of the 17th Division who were trapped on the Japanese-held side of the river made their way across to the west bank by swimming or on improvised rafts, but had to abandon almost all their equipment, including most of their small arms. This later led some to question the decision to blow the bridge, arguing that the river itself did not offer much of an obstacle to the Japanese, and that more harm than good was achieved, as it resulted in the stranding of two brigades and delayed the Japanese capture of Rangoon by ten days at most.
, the commander-in-chief of the ABDA Command
, nevertheless ordered Rangoon to be held. He was expecting substantial reinforcements from the Middle East
, including an Australian infantry division. On 28 February, he formally relieved Hutton (although Hutton had officially already been superseded in command by General Harold Alexander
), and on the following day he sacked Smyth, who was in any case very ill.
Although the Australian government refused to allow its troops to be committed to Burma, some British and Indian reinforcements, including the British 7th Armoured Brigade and the 63rd Indian Infantry Brigade
, landed in Rangoon. Alexander ordered counter-attacks against the Japanese at Pegu
, 40 miles (64.4 km) northeast of Rangoon, but soon realised that there was no hope of defending Rangoon. On 7 March, the Burma Army evacuated Rangoon after implementing a scorched earth
plan to deny the Japanese the use of its facilities. The port was destroyed and the oil terminal was blown up. As the Allies departed, the city was on fire.
The remnants of Burma Army faced encirclement as they retreated north from the city, but broke through the Taukkyan Roadblock
as the result of an error on the part of the local Japanese commander. Colonel Takanobu Sakuma, commanding the Japanese 214th Infantry Regiment, had been ordered to block the main road north from Rangoon to Prome
while the main body of the 33rd Division circled round the city to attack from the west. The retreating British and Indian troops were thrown back attempting to break through Sakuma's road block. Alexander ordered another attack but found the Japanese had gone. Not realising that the British were evacuating Rangoon, Sakuma had withdrawn the road block, as ordered, once the 33rd division had reached its intended positions. Had he not done so, the Japanese might have captured General Alexander and much of the rest of Burma Army.
After the fall of Rangoon, the Allies tried to make a stand in central Burma. It was hoped that the Chinese Expeditionary Force in Burma
, commanded by Luo Zhuoying and consisting of the Fifth Army (commanded by Du Yuming
) and the Sixth and Sixty-sixth Armies, could hold a front south of Mandalay
. The Chinese armies each had approximately the strength of a British division but comparatively little equipment. Meanwhile, the newly-created Burma Corps
which had been formed to relieve Burma Army headquarters of the day-to-day responsibility for operations and consisted of 1st Burma Division, 17th Indian Division and 7th Armoured Brigade, defended the Irrawaddy River valley. Supplies were not immediately a problem, as much war material (including material originally meant for shipment to China) had been evacuated from Rangoon, rice was plentiful and the oilfields in central Burma were still intact, but no proper land routes from India existed and only the recapture of Rangoon would allow the Allies to hold Burma indefinitely.
The Allies hoped that the Japanese advance would slow down; instead, it gained speed. The Japanese reinforced their two divisions in Burma with one transferred from Malaya
and another transferred from the Dutch East Indies
after the fall of Singapore
and Java
. They also brought in large numbers of captured British trucks and other vehicles, which allowed them to move supplies rapidly using southern Burma's road network, and also use Motorised infantry
columns, particularly against the Chinese forces. The Royal Air Force wing operating from Magwe
was crippled by the withdrawal of the radar and radio-intercept units to India and the Japanese soon gained supremacy in the air. Unopposed Japanese bomber fleets attacked almost every major town and city in the Allied-held part of Burma, causing widespread destruction and disorder. The Allies were also harassed by the rapidly expanding Burma Independence Army
, and were hampered by large numbers of refugees (mostly Indian civilians) and the progressive breakdown of the civil government in the areas they held. Many Bamar soldiers of the Burma Rifles also were deserting.
The commander of Burma Corps, Lieutenant General William Slim, tried to mount a counter-offensive on the western part of the front, but his troops were repeatedly outflanked and forced to fight their way out of encirclement. The Corps was gradually pushed northward towards Mandalay. The 1st Burma Division was cut off and trapped in the blazing oilfields at Yenangyaung, which the Allies themselves demolished to deny the facilities to the Japanese. Although the division was rescued by Chinese infantry and British tanks in the Battle of Yenangyaung
, it lost almost all its equipment and its cohesion.
On the eastern part of the front, in the Battle of Yunnan-Burma Road
, the Chinese 200th Division
held up the Japanese for a time around Toungoo
, but after its fall the road was open for motorised troops of the Japanese 56th Division
to shatter the Chinese Sixth Army to the east in the Karenni
States and advance northward through the Shan States
to capture Lashio
, outflanking the Allied defensive lines and cutting off the Chinese armies from Yunnan
. With the effective collapse of the entire defensive line, there was little choice left other than an overland retreat to India or to Yunnan.
The retreat was conducted in horrible circumstances. Starving refugees, disorganised stragglers, and the sick and wounded clogged the primitive roads and tracks leading to India. Burma Corps retreated to Manipur
in India. At one stage, Alexander proposed that the 7th Armoured Brigade and one infantry brigade were to accompany the Chinese armies into Yunnan, but he was persuaded that the armoured brigade would quickly become ineffective once it was cut off from India. Most of the Corps' remaining equipment could not be ferried across the Chindwin River
and was lost at Kalewa
, although the troops escaped a Japanese attempt to trap them at Shwegyin
east of the river. The Corps reached Imphal
in Manipur just before the monsoon
broke in May 1942. There, they found themselves living out in the open under the torrential monsoon rains in extremely unhealthy circumstances. The army and civil authorities in India were very slow to respond to the needs of the troops and civilian refugees. The ad hoc Burma Corps HQ was disbanded and IV Corps HQ, which had recently arrived in India, took over the front.
The British Civil Government of Burma fell back to Myitkyina
in Northern Burma, accompanied by many British, Anglo-Indian and Indian civilians. The Governor (Reginald Dorman-Smith
) and the most influential civilians were flown out from Myitkyina Airfield, together with some of the sick and injured. The majority of the refugees were forced to make their way from Myitkyina to India via the unhealthy Hukawng Valley
and the precipitous forested Patkai Range. Many died on the way, and when they reached India, there were several instances of the civil authorities allowing white and Eurasian civilians to continue while preventing Indians from proceeding, effectively condemning many to death. By contrast, many private individuals such as tea planters did their best to provide aid.
The Japanese advance had cut off many of the Chinese troops from China. Many of them also retreated via the Hukawng Valley route and subsisted largely by looting, further increasing the misery of the refugees. The Chinese 38th Division however, commanded by Sun Li-jen
, fought its way westward across the Chindwin, arriving in India substantially intact although with heavy casualties. The Chinese soldiers who had retreated into India were put under the command of the American General Joseph Stilwell
, who had also made his way to India on foot, and were concentrated in camps at Ramgarh in the upper Brahmaputra River
valley. After recuperating they were re-equipped and retrained by American instructors. The remaining Chinese troops tried to return to Yunnan
through remote mountainous forests and many died on the way.
The Japanese 18th and 56th Divisions pursued the Chinese into Yunnan, but were ordered to halt on the Salween River
on 26 April. The Japanese 33rd Division likewise halted on the Chindwin at the end of May, ending the campaign until the end of the monsoon rains. In the coastal Arakan
province, some of the Burma Independence Army reached Akyab Island
before the Japanese troops. However, they also instigated riots between the Buddhist and Moslem populations of the province. The Japanese advance ended just south of the Indian frontier, prompting the British military and civil authorities in and around Chittagong
to implement a premature "scorched earth" policy which contributed to the Bengal Famine of 1943
.
crossed the border into the Shan State
s on 10 May 1942. The boundary between the Japanese and Thai operations was generally the Salween. However, that area south of the Shan States known as Karenni States was specifically retained under Japanese control.
Three Thai infantry and one cavalry division, spearheaded by armoured reconnaissance groups and supported by the air force
, engaged the retreating Chinese 93rd Division. Kengtung, the main objective, was captured on 27 May. Renewed offensives in June and November drove the Chinese back into Yunnan.
Burma Campaign
The Burma Campaign in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II was fought primarily between British Commonwealth, Chinese and United States forces against the forces of the Empire of Japan, Thailand, and the Indian National Army. British Commonwealth land forces were drawn primarily from...
in the South-East Asian Theatre
South-East Asian theatre of World War II
The South-East Asian Theatre of World War II was the name given to the campaigns of the Pacific War in Burma , Ceylon, India, Thailand, Indochina, Malaya and Singapore. Conflict in the theatre began when the Empire of Japan invaded Thailand and Malaya from bases located in Indochina on December 8,...
of World War II took place over four years from 1942 to 1945. During the first year of the campaign, the Japanese
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
Army (with aid from Thai
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
forces and Burmese insurgents) drove British Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
and Chinese forces out of Burma, and occupied the country, forming a Burmese administration with little real authority.
Pre-war situation
Before the Second World War broke out, Burma was part of the British Empire, having been progressively occupied and annexed following three Anglo-Burmese Wars in the nineteenth century. Initially governed as part of British India, Burma was formed into a separate colony under the Government of India Act 1935Government of India Act 1935
The Government of India Act 1935 was originally passed in August 1935 , and is said to have been the longest Act of Parliament ever enacted by that time. Because of its length, the Act was retroactively split by the Government of India Act 1935 into two separate Acts:# The Government of India...
. Under British rule, there had been substantial economic development but the majority Bamar
Bamar
The Bamar are the dominant ethnic group of Burma , constituting approximately two-thirds of the population. The Bamar live primarily in the Irrawaddy basin, and speak the Burmese language, which is also the official language of Burma. Bamar customs and identity are closely intertwined with general...
community was becoming increasingly restive. Among their concerns were the importation of Indian workers to provide a labour force for many of the new industries, and the erosion of traditional society in the countryside as land was used for plantations of export crops or became mortgaged to Indian moneylenders. Pressure for independence was growing. When Burma came under attack, the Bamar were unwilling to contribute to the defence of the British establishment, and many readily joined movements which aided the Japanese.
British plans for the defence of British Far Eastern possessions involved the construction of airfields linking Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
and Malaya
British Malaya
British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the Island of Singapore that were brought under British control between the 18th and the 20th centuries...
with India. These plans had not taken into account the fact that Britain was also at war with Germany, and when Japan entered the war, the forces needed to defend these possessions were not available. Burma had been regarded as a military "backwater", unlikely to be subjected to Japanese threat.
Lieutenant General Thomas Hutton, the commander of Burma Army with its headquarters in Rangoon
Yangon
Yangon is a former capital of Burma and the capital of Yangon Region . Although the military government has officially relocated the capital to Naypyidaw since March 2006, Yangon, with a population of over four million, continues to be the country's largest city and the most important commercial...
, had only the 17th Indian Infantry Division and 1st Burma Division
Indian 39th Infantry Division
39th Indian Infantry Division was an infantry division of the Indian Army during World War II, which became a Training Division in 1943 after its recovery into India from Burma.-History:...
to defend the country, although help was expected from the Chinese Nationalist
Republic of China (1912–1949)
In 1911, after over two thousand years of imperial rule, a republic was established in China and the monarchy overthrown by a group of revolutionaries. The Qing Dynasty, having just experienced a century of instability, suffered from both internal rebellion and foreign imperialism...
government under Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
. During the war, the British Indian Army
British Indian Army
The British Indian Army, officially simply the Indian Army, was the principal army of the British Raj in India before the partition of India in 1947...
expanded more than twelve-fold from its peacetime strength of 200,000 but in late 1941 this expansion meant that most units were undertrained and ill-equipped. In most cases, such training and equipment as the Indian units in Burma received was for operations in the Western Desert campaign or the North West Frontier
North-West Frontier (military history)
The North-West Frontier was the most difficult area, from a military point of view, of the former British India in the Indian sub-continent. It remains the frontier of present-day Pakistan, extending from the Pamir Knot in the north to the Koh-i-Malik Siah in the west, and separating the...
of India, rather than jungles. The battalions of the Burma Rifles
Burma Rifles
The Burma Rifles were a regiment of the British Indian Army created in 1917. The regiment re-used the name of an unrelated earlier unit, the 10th Regiment Madras Infantry, which evolved into the 10th Princess Mary's Own Gurkha Rifles....
which formed most of the 1st Burma Division were originally raised as internal security troops only, from among minority communities in Burma such as the Karens
Karen people
The Karen or Kayin people , are a Sino-Tibetan language speaking ethnic group which resides primarily in southern and southeastern Burma . The Karen make up approximately 7 percent of the total Burmese population of approximately 50 million people...
. They also had been rapidly expanded, with an influx of Bamar soldiers, and were short of equipment and consisted mainly of new recruits.
Japanese plans
Japan entered the war primarily to obtain raw materials, especially oil, from European (particularly Dutch) possessions in South East Asia which were weakly defended because of the war in Europe. Their plans involved an attack on Burma partly because of Burma's own natural resources (which included some oil from fields around YenangyaungYenangyaung
Yenangyaung is a city in Magway Division, Myanmar, on the Irrawaddy River.-History:For centuries, the dominant industry in the area has been petroleum. It began as an indigenous oil industry, with hand-dug wells, and from 1755 onwards, early British soldier-diplomats began to note its existence...
, but also minerals such as Cobalt
Cobalt
Cobalt is a chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. It is found naturally only in chemically combined form. The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal....
and large surpluses of rice), but also to protect the flank of their main attack against Malaya and Singapore and provide a buffer zone to protect the territories they intended to occupy.
An additional factor was the Burma Road
Burma Road
The Burma Road is a road linking Burma with the southwest of China. Its terminals are Kunming, Yunnan, and Lashio, Burma. When it was built, Burma was a British colony.The road is long and runs through rough mountain country...
completed in 1938, which linked Lashio
Lashio
Lashio is the largest town in northern Shan State, Myanmar, about northeast of Mandalay. It is situated on a low mountain spur overlooking the valley of the Nam Yao river. The population grew from around 5000 in 1960 to 88,590 in 1983. It is currently estimated at around 130,000.Lashio is the...
at the end of a railway from the port of Rangoon with the Chinese province of Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
. This newly-completed link was being used to move aid and munitions to the Chinese Nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-Shek which had been fighting the Japanese for several years. The Japanese naturally wished to cut this link.
The Japanese Fifteenth Army
Fifteenth Army (Japan)
The was an army of the Imperial Japanese Army during the World War II.-History:The Japanese 15th Army was formed on November 9. 1941 as a component of the Southern Expeditionary Army Group for the specific task of invading the British colony of Burma....
, commanded by Lieutenant General Shojiro Iida
Shojiro Iida
- Notes :...
, was assigned the mission of occupying northern Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, which had signed a treaty of friendship with Japan on 21 December 1941, and attacking the southern Burmese province of Tenasserim across the Tenasserim Hills
Tenasserim Hills
Tenasserim Hills or Tenasserim Range is the geographical name of a mountain chain in Southeast Asia. Despite their relatively scant altitude these mountains form an effective barrier between Thailand and Burma in their northern and central region, extending to the Kra Isthmus into the Malay...
. The army consisted initially of the highly regarded 33rd Division
33rd Division (Imperial Japanese Army)
was an infantry division in the Imperial Japanese Army. Its call sign was the .-History:The 33rd Division was raised in Utsunomiya, Tochigi prefecture, but its headquarters was in Sendai. It was raised from conscripts largely from the northern Kantō prefecturers of Tochigi, Ibaraki and Gunma...
and the 55th Division, although both divisions were weakened for several weeks by detachments to other operations.
Japanese capture of Rangoon
The first Japanese attack in mid-January 1942 against Victoria PointKawthaung
Kawthaung is in the southernmost part of Myanmar, located in Tanintharyi Region. During British rule in Burma between 1824 and 1948, it was known as Victoria Point.- History :...
, almost the most southerly point of Burma, was expected and was not contested. The second attack was a small probing raid directed at a police station in southern Tenasserim, which was repulsed. The Japanese 143 Infantry Regiment (from 55th Division) then launched overland attacks on the airfields at Tavoy and Mergui
Mergui
Myeik is a city in Tanintharyi Division in Myanmar , located in the extreme south of the country on the coast of an island on the Andaman Sea. the estimated population was over 209,000. The area inland from the city is a major smuggling corridor into Thailand.-History:Myeik was the southernmost...
in Tenasserim. The airfields were difficult to defend and reinforce, but Burma Army HQ had been ordered to hold these outposts because of their importance to the defence of Malaya. The Japanese forced their way over the steep jungle-covered Tenasserim Range, and attacked Tavoy on 18 January. The defenders, the 3rd and 6th battalions of the Burma Rifles, were overwhelmed and forced to evacuate the town in disorder. Mergui was evacuated before it was attacked.
Rangoon was initially defended relatively successfully against Japanese air raids, by small RAF detachments reinforced by a squadron of the American Volunteer Group
American Volunteer Group
The American Volunteer Groups were volunteer air units organized by the United States government to aid the Nationalist government of China against Japan in the Second Sino-Japanese War...
, better known as the "Flying Tigers". The majority of the airfields were between Rangoon and the Axis advance and as the Japanese gained use of the airfields in Tenasserim, the amount of warning the Rangoon airfields could get of attack decreased, and they became more and more untenable.
On 22 January 1942, the main body of the Japanese 55th Division began the main attack westward from Rahaeng in Thailand across the Kawkareik
Kawkareik
Kawkareik is a town in the Kayin State of south Burma. It is the capital of Kawkareik District. The Kawkareik Pass across the Tenasserim Hills is named after this town....
Pass. The 16th Indian Infantry Brigade of the 17th Indian Division guarding this approach retreated hastily westward. The Japanese division advanced to Moulmein at the mouth of the Salween River
Salween River
The Salween is a river, about long, that flows from the Tibetan Plateau into the Andaman Sea in Southeast Asia. It drains a narrow and mountainous watershed of that extends into the countries China, Burma and Thailand. Steep canyon walls line the swift, powerful and undammed Salween, one of the...
which was garrisoned by the 2nd Burma Infantry Brigade
2nd Burma Infantry Brigade
The 2nd Burma Infantry Brigade was an Infantry formation of the Burma Army during World War II. It was formed in July 1941. The Brigade was then disbanded in June 1942, and reformed in October 1942, to command battalions of the newly formed Burma Regiment. It was disbanded once again in November 1943...
. The position was almost impossible to defend, and had the River Salween
Salween River
The Salween is a river, about long, that flows from the Tibetan Plateau into the Andaman Sea in Southeast Asia. It drains a narrow and mountainous watershed of that extends into the countries China, Burma and Thailand. Steep canyon walls line the swift, powerful and undammed Salween, one of the...
, almost 1.5 miles (2.4 km) wide, behind it. The 2nd Burma Brigade was squeezed into a progressively tighter perimeter, and eventually retreated over river by ferry on 31 January after abandoning a large amount of supplies and equipment. Part of the force was left behind in Moulmein and had to swim the river.
The Sittang Bridge
The 17th Indian Division fell back northward. They attempted to hold the Bilin River and other fallback lines as they did so, but had too few troops to avoid being continually outflanked. The division eventually retreated toward the bridge over the Sittang RiverSittang River
The Sittaung is a river in south central Myanmar in Bago Division. The Pegu Range separates its basin from that of the Irrawaddy. The river originates at the edge of the Shan Plateau southeast of Mandalay, and flows southward to the Gulf of Martaban...
in general disorder. The retreat was delayed by incidents such as a vehicle breaking through the bridge deck, air attacks (including, allegedly, accidental attacks by the RAF and AVG) and Japanese harassment. The delays allowed Japanese parties to infiltrate to the bridge itself, and the poorly organised defence of the bridge was in danger of collapsing. Fearing that the bridge would fall intact to the Japanese who would use it to advance on Rangoon, the divisional commander, Major-General "Jackie" Smyth, VC
John George Smyth
Brigadier Sir John George Smyth, 1st Baronet, VC MC PC was a British Indian Army officer and Conservative Member of Parliament. Although a recipient of the Victoria Cross, his army career ended in controversy....
, ordered it to be blown up on the morning of 23 February 1942, with most of the division stranded on the enemy-held side.
Many of the men of the 17th Division who were trapped on the Japanese-held side of the river made their way across to the west bank by swimming or on improvised rafts, but had to abandon almost all their equipment, including most of their small arms. This later led some to question the decision to blow the bridge, arguing that the river itself did not offer much of an obstacle to the Japanese, and that more harm than good was achieved, as it resulted in the stranding of two brigades and delayed the Japanese capture of Rangoon by ten days at most.
The fall of Rangoon
Though the Sittang River was in theory a strong defensive position, the disaster at the bridge left the Allied forces too weak to hold it. Field Marshal Archibald WavellArchibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell
Field Marshal Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell GCB, GCSI, GCIE, CMG, MC, PC was a British field marshal and the commander of British Army forces in the Middle East during the Second World War. He led British forces to victory over the Italians, only to be defeated by the German army...
, the commander-in-chief of the ABDA Command
American-British-Dutch-Australian Command
The American-British-Dutch-Australian Command, or ABDACOM, was a short-lived, supreme command for all Allied forces in South East Asia, in early 1942, during the Pacific War in World War II...
, nevertheless ordered Rangoon to be held. He was expecting substantial reinforcements from the Middle East
Middle East Theatre of World War II
The Middle East Theatre of World War II is defined largely by reference to the British Middle East Command, which controlled Allied forces in both Southwest Asia and eastern North Africa...
, including an Australian infantry division. On 28 February, he formally relieved Hutton (although Hutton had officially already been superseded in command by General Harold Alexander
Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis
Field Marshal Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis was a British military commander and field marshal of Anglo-Irish descent who served with distinction in both world wars and, afterwards, as Governor General of Canada, the 17th since Canadian...
), and on the following day he sacked Smyth, who was in any case very ill.
Although the Australian government refused to allow its troops to be committed to Burma, some British and Indian reinforcements, including the British 7th Armoured Brigade and the 63rd Indian Infantry Brigade
63rd Indian Infantry Brigade
The 63rd Indian Infantry Brigade was an Infantry formation of the Indian Army during World War II. It was formed in January 1942, at Jhansi in India and assigned to the 23rd Indian Infantry Division...
, landed in Rangoon. Alexander ordered counter-attacks against the Japanese at Pegu
Battle of Pegu
The Battle of Pegu was an engagement in the Burma campaign in the Second World War. Fought between 3 March and 7 March 1942, it concerned the defence of Rangoon in Burma...
, 40 miles (64.4 km) northeast of Rangoon, but soon realised that there was no hope of defending Rangoon. On 7 March, the Burma Army evacuated Rangoon after implementing a scorched earth
Scorched earth
A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area...
plan to deny the Japanese the use of its facilities. The port was destroyed and the oil terminal was blown up. As the Allies departed, the city was on fire.
The remnants of Burma Army faced encirclement as they retreated north from the city, but broke through the Taukkyan Roadblock
Taukkyan Roadblock
The Taukkyan Roadblock was an engagement in the Burma campaign in World War II. It was an attempt to clear a roadblock held by elements of the Japanese 33rd Division, which was preventing the evacuation of the main force of the Burma Army from Rangoon...
as the result of an error on the part of the local Japanese commander. Colonel Takanobu Sakuma, commanding the Japanese 214th Infantry Regiment, had been ordered to block the main road north from Rangoon to Prome
Pyay
Pyay is a town in the Bago Division in Burma. It has an estimated population of 123,800 . Pyay is positioned on the Ayeyarwady River and is northwest of Yangon....
while the main body of the 33rd Division circled round the city to attack from the west. The retreating British and Indian troops were thrown back attempting to break through Sakuma's road block. Alexander ordered another attack but found the Japanese had gone. Not realising that the British were evacuating Rangoon, Sakuma had withdrawn the road block, as ordered, once the 33rd division had reached its intended positions. Had he not done so, the Japanese might have captured General Alexander and much of the rest of Burma Army.
Japanese advance to the Indian frontier
Chinese Expeditionary Force in Burma
1st Route Expeditionary Forces - Lo Cho-ying [1]* Commander – US Army Lieut.-General JW Stilwell [4]* Chief of the Chinese General Staff Mission to Burma - Lieut.-General Lin Wei[4]...
, commanded by Luo Zhuoying and consisting of the Fifth Army (commanded by Du Yuming
Du Yuming
Du Yuming was a Kuomintang field commander active in the Sino-Japanese War theatre of World War II and in the Chinese Civil War from 1945 to 1949....
) and the Sixth and Sixty-sixth Armies, could hold a front south of Mandalay
Mandalay
Mandalay is the second-largest city and the last royal capital of Burma. Located north of Yangon on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, the city has a population of one million, and is the capital of Mandalay Region ....
. The Chinese armies each had approximately the strength of a British division but comparatively little equipment. Meanwhile, the newly-created Burma Corps
Burma Corps
The Burma Corps was an Army Corps of the Indian Army during World War II.It was formed in Prome, Burma in March 1942, it took part in the Burma Campaign and was disbanded on arrival in India in May 1942.-Formation:*1st Burma Infantry Division...
which had been formed to relieve Burma Army headquarters of the day-to-day responsibility for operations and consisted of 1st Burma Division, 17th Indian Division and 7th Armoured Brigade, defended the Irrawaddy River valley. Supplies were not immediately a problem, as much war material (including material originally meant for shipment to China) had been evacuated from Rangoon, rice was plentiful and the oilfields in central Burma were still intact, but no proper land routes from India existed and only the recapture of Rangoon would allow the Allies to hold Burma indefinitely.
The Allies hoped that the Japanese advance would slow down; instead, it gained speed. The Japanese reinforced their two divisions in Burma with one transferred from Malaya
British Malaya
British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the Island of Singapore that were brought under British control between the 18th and the 20th centuries...
and another transferred from the Dutch East Indies
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
after the fall of Singapore
Battle of Singapore
The Battle of Singapore was fought in the South-East Asian theatre of the Second World War when the Empire of Japan invaded the Allied stronghold of Singapore. Singapore was the major British military base in Southeast Asia and nicknamed the "Gibraltar of the East"...
and Java
Battle of Java (1942)
The Battle of Java was a battle of the Pacific theatre of World War II. It occurred on the island of Java from 28 February-12 March 1942. It involved forces from the Empire of Japan, which invaded on 28 February 1942, and Allied personnel...
. They also brought in large numbers of captured British trucks and other vehicles, which allowed them to move supplies rapidly using southern Burma's road network, and also use Motorised infantry
Motorised infantry
In NATO and most other western countries, motorised infantry is infantry which is transported by trucks or other motor vehicles. It is distinguished from mechanized infantry, which is carried in armoured personnel carriers, infantry combat vehicles, or infantry fighting vehicles...
columns, particularly against the Chinese forces. The Royal Air Force wing operating from Magwe
Magwe, Burma
Magwe is the capital city of Magway Region of Burma , and home to Magway Airport.Magway is situated on the bank of AyeYarWaddy River...
was crippled by the withdrawal of the radar and radio-intercept units to India and the Japanese soon gained supremacy in the air. Unopposed Japanese bomber fleets attacked almost every major town and city in the Allied-held part of Burma, causing widespread destruction and disorder. The Allies were also harassed by the rapidly expanding Burma Independence Army
Burma National Army
The Burma National Army served as the armed forces of the Burmese government created by the Japanese during World War II and fought in the Burma Campaign...
, and were hampered by large numbers of refugees (mostly Indian civilians) and the progressive breakdown of the civil government in the areas they held. Many Bamar soldiers of the Burma Rifles also were deserting.
The commander of Burma Corps, Lieutenant General William Slim, tried to mount a counter-offensive on the western part of the front, but his troops were repeatedly outflanked and forced to fight their way out of encirclement. The Corps was gradually pushed northward towards Mandalay. The 1st Burma Division was cut off and trapped in the blazing oilfields at Yenangyaung, which the Allies themselves demolished to deny the facilities to the Japanese. Although the division was rescued by Chinese infantry and British tanks in the Battle of Yenangyaung
Battle of Yenangyaung
The Battle of Yenangyaung was fought in Burma, now Myanmar, during the Burma Campaign in World War II. The battle of Yenaungyaung was fought in the vicinity of Yenangyaung and its oil fields.-Background:...
, it lost almost all its equipment and its cohesion.
On the eastern part of the front, in the Battle of Yunnan-Burma Road
Battle of Yunnan-Burma Road
Battle of Yunnan-Burma Road was the name of the Chinese intervention to aid their British allies in the 1942 Burma Campaign. Its forces were composed of the Fifth, Sixth and Sixty-sixth Army under the command of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in Burma, commanded by Lt. General Joseph Stilwell, Lt...
, the Chinese 200th Division
200th Division (National Revolutionary Army)
The 200th Division was the first mechanised division in the National Revolutionary Army. It was created in 1938 by General Du Yuming, who was also its first commander...
held up the Japanese for a time around Toungoo
Battle of Toungoo
Battle of Toungoo, was one of the key battles in the Battle of Yunnan-Burma Road in the Burma Campaign of World War II and Second Sino-Japanese War.- Prelude :...
, but after its fall the road was open for motorised troops of the Japanese 56th Division
56th Division (Imperial Japanese Army)
IJA Fifty Sixth Division was an infantry division in the Imperial Japanese Army. It was also known as Ryuheidan meaning "Dragon Division".-History:The 56th Division participated in the Invasion of Burma during the Burma Campaign...
to shatter the Chinese Sixth Army to the east in the Karenni
Karenni
Red Karen also known as Karenni, is a subgroup of the Karen people, a Sino-Tibetan people living mostly in Kayah State of Burma....
States and advance northward through the Shan States
Shan States
The Shan States were the princely states that ruled large areas of today's Burma , Yunnan Province in China, Laos and Thailand from the late 13th century until mid-20th century...
to capture Lashio
Lashio
Lashio is the largest town in northern Shan State, Myanmar, about northeast of Mandalay. It is situated on a low mountain spur overlooking the valley of the Nam Yao river. The population grew from around 5000 in 1960 to 88,590 in 1983. It is currently estimated at around 130,000.Lashio is the...
, outflanking the Allied defensive lines and cutting off the Chinese armies from Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
. With the effective collapse of the entire defensive line, there was little choice left other than an overland retreat to India or to Yunnan.
The Allied retreat
Manipur
Manipur is a state in northeastern India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. Manipur is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west; it also borders Burma to the east. It covers an area of...
in India. At one stage, Alexander proposed that the 7th Armoured Brigade and one infantry brigade were to accompany the Chinese armies into Yunnan, but he was persuaded that the armoured brigade would quickly become ineffective once it was cut off from India. Most of the Corps' remaining equipment could not be ferried across the Chindwin River
Chindwin River
The Chindwin River is a river in Burma , and the largest tributary of the country's chief river the Ayeyarwady . It flows entirely within Burma and is known as Ning-thi to the Manipuris.-Source:...
and was lost at Kalewa
Kalewa
Tahan is a town at the confluence of the Chindwin River and the Myittha River in Kale District, Sagaing Division of northwestern Burma...
, although the troops escaped a Japanese attempt to trap them at Shwegyin
Shwegyin
Shwegyin is a village in Kalewa Township, Kale District, in the Sagaing Region of western Burma.-External links:*...
east of the river. The Corps reached Imphal
Imphal
Imphal is the capital of the Indian state of Manipur.In the heart of the town and surrounded by a moat, are ruins of the old Palace of Kangla. Kangla Fort used to be the home of the Assam Rifles, a paramilitary force and on November 2004 it was handed over to state of Manipur by Prime minister Dr....
in Manipur just before the monsoon
Monsoon
Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...
broke in May 1942. There, they found themselves living out in the open under the torrential monsoon rains in extremely unhealthy circumstances. The army and civil authorities in India were very slow to respond to the needs of the troops and civilian refugees. The ad hoc Burma Corps HQ was disbanded and IV Corps HQ, which had recently arrived in India, took over the front.
The British Civil Government of Burma fell back to Myitkyina
Myitkyina
Myitkyina is the capital city of Kachin State in Myanmar , located from Yangon, and from Mandalay. In Burmese it means "near the big river", and in fact "Myitkyina" lies on the west bank of the Ayeyarwady River, just below from Myit-son of its two headstreams...
in Northern Burma, accompanied by many British, Anglo-Indian and Indian civilians. The Governor (Reginald Dorman-Smith
Reginald Dorman-Smith
Colonel Sir Reginald Hugh Dorman-Smith GBE was a British diplomat, soldier and politician.-In politics:Dorman-Smith started his career with a strong interest in agriculture, becoming President of the National Farmers Union at the age of 32, and then later Minister of Agriculture...
) and the most influential civilians were flown out from Myitkyina Airfield, together with some of the sick and injured. The majority of the refugees were forced to make their way from Myitkyina to India via the unhealthy Hukawng Valley
Hukawng Valley
The Hukawng Valley is an isolated valley in Burma, roughly in area. It is located in Tanaing Township in the Myitkyina District of Kachin State in the northernmost part of the country.-Rivers:...
and the precipitous forested Patkai Range. Many died on the way, and when they reached India, there were several instances of the civil authorities allowing white and Eurasian civilians to continue while preventing Indians from proceeding, effectively condemning many to death. By contrast, many private individuals such as tea planters did their best to provide aid.
The Japanese advance had cut off many of the Chinese troops from China. Many of them also retreated via the Hukawng Valley route and subsisted largely by looting, further increasing the misery of the refugees. The Chinese 38th Division however, commanded by Sun Li-jen
Sun Li-jen
Sun Li-jen was a Kuomintang General, best known for his leadership in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. His achievements earned him the laudatory nickname "Rommel of the East". His New 1st Army was reputed as the "1st [Best] Army under heaven" and credited with defeating...
, fought its way westward across the Chindwin, arriving in India substantially intact although with heavy casualties. The Chinese soldiers who had retreated into India were put under the command of the American General Joseph Stilwell
Joseph Stilwell
General Joseph Warren Stilwell was a United States Army four-star General known for service in the China Burma India Theater. His caustic personality was reflected in the nickname "Vinegar Joe"...
, who had also made his way to India on foot, and were concentrated in camps at Ramgarh in the upper Brahmaputra River
Brahmaputra River
The Brahmaputra , also called Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, is a trans-boundary river and one of the major rivers of Asia. It is the only Indian river that is attributed the masculine gender and thus referred to as a in Indo-Aryan languages and languages with Indo-Aryan influence...
valley. After recuperating they were re-equipped and retrained by American instructors. The remaining Chinese troops tried to return to Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
through remote mountainous forests and many died on the way.
The Japanese 18th and 56th Divisions pursued the Chinese into Yunnan, but were ordered to halt on the Salween River
Salween River
The Salween is a river, about long, that flows from the Tibetan Plateau into the Andaman Sea in Southeast Asia. It drains a narrow and mountainous watershed of that extends into the countries China, Burma and Thailand. Steep canyon walls line the swift, powerful and undammed Salween, one of the...
on 26 April. The Japanese 33rd Division likewise halted on the Chindwin at the end of May, ending the campaign until the end of the monsoon rains. In the coastal Arakan
Rakhine State
Rakhine State is a Burmese state. Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State in the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady Region in the east, the Bay of Bengal to the west, and the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh to the northwest. It is located approximately between...
province, some of the Burma Independence Army reached Akyab Island
Sittwe
-Economy:In February 2007, India announced a plan to develop the port, which would enable ocean access from Indian Northeastern states, so called "Seven sisters", like Mizoram, via the Kaladan River....
before the Japanese troops. However, they also instigated riots between the Buddhist and Moslem populations of the province. The Japanese advance ended just south of the Indian frontier, prompting the British military and civil authorities in and around Chittagong
Chittagong
Chittagong ) is a city in southeastern Bangladesh and the capital of an eponymous district and division. Built on the banks of the Karnaphuli River, the city is home to Bangladesh's busiest seaport and has a population of over 4.5 million, making it the second largest city in the country.A trading...
to implement a premature "scorched earth" policy which contributed to the Bengal Famine of 1943
Bengal famine of 1943
The Bengal famine of 1943 struck the Bengal. Province of pre-partition India. Estimates are that between 1.5 and 4 million people died of starvation, malnutrition and disease, out of Bengal’s 60.3 million population, half of them dying from disease after food became available in December 1943 As...
.
Thai army enters Burma
In accordance with the Thai military alliance with Japan that was signed on 21 December 1941, the leading elements of the Thai Phayap ArmyPhayap Army
Phayap Army was the Thai force that invaded the Shan States on May 10, 1942, during the Burma Campaign of World War II.- Orbat of Phayap Army 1942 :...
crossed the border into the Shan State
Shan State
Shan State is a state of Burma . Shan State borders China to the north, Laos to the east, and Thailand to the south, and five administrative divisions of Burma in the west. Largest of the 14 administrative divisions by land area, Shan State covers 155,800 km², almost a quarter of the total...
s on 10 May 1942. The boundary between the Japanese and Thai operations was generally the Salween. However, that area south of the Shan States known as Karenni States was specifically retained under Japanese control.
Three Thai infantry and one cavalry division, spearheaded by armoured reconnaissance groups and supported by the air force
Royal Thai Air Force
The Royal Thai Air Force or RTAF is the air force of the Kingdom of Thailand. Since its establishment in 1913, as one of the earliest air forces of Asia, the Royal Thai Air Force had engaged in many major and minor battles. During the Vietnam war era, the air force has been developed with USAF-aid...
, engaged the retreating Chinese 93rd Division. Kengtung, the main objective, was captured on 27 May. Renewed offensives in June and November drove the Chinese back into Yunnan.
Further reading
- Carew, Tim. The Longest Retreat
- Calvert, MikeMike CalvertJames Michael Calvert DSO and Bar was a British soldier involved in special operations in World War II. The degree to which he led very risky attacks in person led to his becoming widely known as "Mad Mike". Calvert was court-martialled and dismissed from the Army in 1952...
. Fighting Mad - Dillon, Terence. Rangoon to Kohima
- Fujino, Hideo. Singapore and Burma
- Grant, Ian Lyall & Tamayama, Kazuo Burma 1942: The Japanese Invasion
- Iida, ShojiroShojiro Iida- Notes :...
From the Battlefields - Ikuhiko Hata Road to the Pacific War
- Hodsun, J.L. War in the Sun
- Latimer, Jon. Burma: The Forgotten War
- Moser, Don and editors of Time-Life Books World War II: China-Burma-India,1978, Library of Congress no 77-93742
- Ochi, Harumi. Struggle in Burma
- Reynolds, E. Bruce. Thailand and Japan's Southern Advance
- Sadayoshi Shigematsu Fighting Around Burma
- Smyth, John Before the Dawn
- Sugita, Saiichi. Burma Operations
- Young, Edward M. Aerial Nationalism: A History of Aviation in Thailand
External links
- Burma Star Association "Operations in Eastern Theatre, Based on India from March 1942 to 31 December 1942", official despatch by Field MarshalField MarshalField Marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.-Etymology:The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses , from the time of the early Frankish kings.-Usage and hierarchical...
The Viscount Wavell - Sino-Japanese Air War 1937–45, see 1941 and 1942
- Burma Campaign, Orbat for 1942 campaign, Japan, Commonwealth, Chinese, USA
- A Forgotten Invasion: Thailand in Shan State, 1941–45
- Thailand's Northern Campaign in the Shan States 1942–45
- Siam Goes to War
- Phayap Army
