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CBIVA Sound-off Fall 1994 Issue In the first two segments of this synopsis of the war in CBI fifty years ago, we have seen the Arakan battles end in stalemate as both the British and Japanese needed the troops elsewhere; we found the Japanese Fifteenth Army decimated by disease, hunger and battle casualties in retreat from their defeat at Imphal and Kohima. The Chindits had played out their hand in central and northern Burma, disrupting Japanese communication lines as they were invading India and assisting the Chinese in capturing Mogaung in northern Burma. They have now been withdrawn to India. In China, the Japanese have been extremely successful in driving back the Chinese armies in the path of Operation Ichi-Go. They are now in a posture to move on Kunming and Chungking, knock China out of the war and free hundreds of thousands of their troops for defense of the homeland. In Yunnan, the Y-Forces have taken Tengchung but are stymied at Lungling. North Burma Myltkyina fell August 3. The monsoon Is In full blast and NCAC must rest, re-equip and regroup. September and October are spent preparing for the next phase of the offensive. |
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| Chinese reinforcements, carrying their worldly goods on poles, slog up the monsoon-drenched Ledo Road in October 1944. In Burma, the rains started in May and ended in September. This photograph appears in China-Burma-India, the ninth volume of WORLD WAR II, published by TIME-LIFE BOOKS, INC. Property of Charles Serra |
| A new combat team is introduced into the plans. The 5332d Brigade (Prov.) was activated July 26. It consisted of a Chinese regiment, trained at Ramgarh in long-range penetration tactics, the 475th Infantry, which absorbed the survivors of Merrill's Marauders, and the 124th Cavalry, a Texas Nat'1 Guard unit. The brigade was augmented with the 612th and 613th Artillery Bns. (Pack) and six quartermaster mule troops. Stilwell now had five Chinese divisions (Dupuy and Dupuy say "3 good, 2 mediocre), the excellent British 36th Division and the Mars Task Force brigade. He was opposed by the Japanese Thirty-third Army, commanded by Lt. Gen. Masaki Honda, which consisted of three depleted divisions. The plans called for a surprise offensive, featured by sweeping envelopment in which three of the Chinese divisions and Mars Task Force would encircle the entire Japanese Thirty-third Army which would then be trapped between Stilwell's army and the Y-Force in Yunnan. The offensive began October 15 with the Chinese 38th and 30th Divisions advancing from Myitkyina toward Bhamo against the Thirty-third Army and the British 36th Division continuing down the Railroad Corridor to protect the NCAC right flank and rear. Stilwell's mass advanced southward from the Mogaung area to cross the Irra-waddy River near Schwegu, thence southeastward through the jungle with the objective of reaching the Burma Road near Lashio. Three days after the offensive got underway, October 18, Stilwell was relieved and command was assumed by Lt. Gen. Dan I. Sultan of both NCAC and the India-Burma Theater. This change in leadership will be discussed later while covering the same time period in China. Gen. Festing's British troops moved slowly but steadily down the railroad, despite intensifying Japanese resistance. By the end of the year, the 36th had seized the towns of Indaw and Katha and halted temporarily because of developments farther east. The Chinese 22nd Division began crossing the Irrawaddy November 6 as the spearhead of the enveloping hammer blow. The Chinese 38th Division was help up for a month by the stubborn and determined defense of Bhamo. The siege lasted from November 14 until December 15. When further resistance was impossible, 800 surviving Japanese fought their way out at night to rejoin the 56th Division In the mountains between Bhamo and Namkham. The 30th and 38th Chinese Divisions pushed slowly after them. Due to the successes of Ichi-Go in China (or should we say the Chinese failure to slow down the Japanese advances), Chiang Kai-shek decided to withdraw two divisions from Burma to throw into the path of the Japanese. Airfields were hastily constructed at the frontlines in the jungle region southeast of Irrawaddy bend from December 5th to the 10th and the 22nd and 14th Divisions were flown to Kunming. Gen. Sultan was therefore forced to modify Stilwell's plan of encircling the Japanese Thirty-third Army. The mission now became to open and secure the road that stretched east from Bhamo through Namkham toward the Burma Road. |
| Central Burma The British Fourteenth Army has pursued the Japanese Fifteenth Army as the latter retreated from India and now finds itself again to the edge of the Chindwin Valley. Fourteenth Army's Gen. Slim is now prepared for a broad-front crossing of the Chindwin, to take place in November. In a restructuring of command. Slim now finds himself subordinate to Lt. Gen. Sir Oliver Leese, commanding the newly-established headquarters of Allied Land Forces, Southeast Asia (ALFSEA). Under Leese, in addition to Slim, were Stilwell (later Sultan) and his NCAC and the British XV Corps in Arakan. Slim's opposition is General Hoyotaro Kimura who has replaced Kawabe in command of the Burma Area Army. He received reinforcements and devoted the summer to reorganization and, in particular, to the rehabilitation of the Fifteenth Army, now commanded by Gen. Shihachi Kata-mura and the battered 18th Division. By fall, Kimura's force of 250,000 men were reorganized into three armies: the Thirty-third (3 divisions), holding northeastern Burma; the Twenty-eighth (3 divisions under Lt. Gen. Seize Sakurai), responsible for the coast and the Arakan; the Fifteenth (4 divisions), holding the west along the Chindwin. Kimura's strategy was to permit the Allies to reach central Burma, where their logistical difficulties would become increasingly acute, while those of the Japanese would be simplified because they would be close to their supply bases. Kimura was confident his 10 divisions could smash the Allies advance, but he would avoid a finish fight until the British had been lured across the Irrawaddy, near Mandalay. The British crossed the Chindwin, led by the IV Corps, at Sittaung November 19. The XXXIII Corps followed soon afterward at Kalewa and Mawlaik. The Japanese fought delaying actions, but in accordance with plan did not attempt a firm defense. On December 14, the NCAC and Fourteenth Army linked up when patrols of the 19th Indian Division met those of Festing's 36th Division near Indaw. By the end of the year, the Fourteenth Army was approaching the Irravaddy on a broad front; the stage was set for a climactic struggle long foreseen by both Slim and Kimura. |
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| The 10th AF B-24s of the 7th Bombardment Group fly a successful mission against the jetty areas at Moulmein, second largest port in Burma. Supplies coming up the Burma-Siam railroad from Bangkok were ferried from Moulmein to Martaban. From there, went by rail to Rangoon and then north to Japanese forces on the various Burma fronts. These photographs were taken from the B-24s during the raid. USAF Photo and Caption; property of Charles Serra |
| Recall of Stilwell As Chinese resistance crumbled In the face of the Japanese East China drives, Stilwell vainly recommended to Chlang Kal-shek various measures to reconstitute an effective defense. The American government likewise became alarmed lest China collapse entirety. President Roosevelt then suggested on October 17 that Chiang Kai-shek grant full command authority over all Chinese forces to Stilwell. There Is much more regarding the relationship between these two than can be handled in a synopsis, but Chiang was not about to give this much power to Joe Stilwell and instead, insisted that he be recalled. Roosevelt had no choice and Stilwell was ordered back to the U.S. The theater was now divided into the India-Burma Theater and the China Theater with Lt. Gen. Dan Sultan commanding the former and Major Gen. Albert C. Wedemeyer the latter. Wedemeyer also became chief of staff to Chiang Kai-shek. |
| Gen. Wedemeyer's tact succeeded where Stilwell's bluntness had failed. He was able to persuade Chiang to transfer only the two divisions from Burma and permit the other three to remain. The troops from Burma, armed with superior weapons and training far superior to the provincial forces were given credit for stiffening the resistance to the Japanese armies. With the support from Chen-nault's Fourteenth Air Force, the Chinese, on December 10 counterattacked east of Kweiyang and stabilized the situation. Others have suggested that the Japanese had largely exhausted the limited supplies of fuel necessary to wage an offense. This, then, concludes the 1944 battles in China, Burma and India. The Allies have been successful In winning the major confrontations and are now poised for the coup de grace' in 1945. At the end of November 1944, the India-Burma Theater had 183,920 servicemen according to Romanus and Sunderland in "Time Runs Out in CBI." These consisted of 21,230 Theater troops; 60,223 SOS; 79,946 AAF and 22,521 ATC. The much smaller China Theater had 27,739 men consisting of 5,349 Theater troops; AAF, 17,723; ATC, 2,257 and SOS, 2.410. The XX Bomber Command numbers are not included in either Theater's totals. Another figure: "In October 1944, 35,131 tons were flown into China, four times the tonnage which entered China to support Stilwell In October 1943." This, and the prior two paragraphs came directly from "Time Runs Out in CBI" by Charles F. Romanus and Riley Sunderland. These numbers indicate that only one-eighth of the Americans in CBI were Involved in ground combat and the other seven-eighths got little coverage in this three-part synopsis. There is an important story, not included in detail here, of the 14th AF, the ATC, the 10th AF and 7th Bomb Group, the port battalions and railroad battalions which transformed a backward supply system into an effective adjunct to the Allies' war effort. Nothing is said of the OSS Det. 101 and the Kachin Rangers, without whom the Japanese defeat in northern Burma would have been much costly in Allied lives and much longer in execution. No mention of the engineers who built the Stilwell Road, the truck drivers who braved its perils, the pipe-liners, the railroad units and signal battalions who performed construction feats unparalleled in WW II. We pay tribute to the Americans omitted in the history of CBI-1944 herein printed, not by way of apology but in hope our readers will be stimulated to read more about the war in China, Burma and India in WW II. You and I may be the only people interested. |
| Sources The Encyclopedia of Military History - Dupuy and Dupuy Harper & Row, New York 1970. Command Magazine Jan-Feb 1994, PO Box 4017, San Luis Obispo, CA 93403. "When Tigers Fight" by L. Dean Webb (Above magazine) "Fighting Nature, Insects, Disease & Japanese - The Chindit War in Burma" by Manbahadur Rai (M. Gyi) (Above magazine) "Killer Bs in China - B-29s and Strategic Bombing from China" by Timothy J. Kutta (Above magazine) United States Army in World War II "China-Burma-India Theater." Three volumes - Charles F. Romanus and Riley Sunderland "Stilwell's Mission to China;" "Stilwell's Command Problems;" and "Time Runs Out in CBI." "Burma, the Longest War - 1941-1945" by Louis Alien. St. Martin's Press, New York. "India-Burma" CMH Pub 72-5 of The U.S. Army Campaigns of World War II Series. |
