A Victory in Burma
A welcome success has been won by the 14th Army on the Arakan front in Burma. Here the Japanese, laying their plans with great skill, started an offensive early in February designed to destroy the two advanced British divisions, the 7th and the 5th, and open the road to India. At first the enemy was entitled to think all was going according to plan. By an encircling movement they succeeded in cutting the Ngakyedauk Pass, thus isolating the 7th Division on the cast of the mountain range from the rest of the British Army. The 5th Division on the west of the pass appeared to be confined within another separate sector by the cutting of their own com- munications to the north. The situation was retrieved by the gallantry of the forces, British and Indian alike, who stood and fought the enemy, and by a brilliant aerial operation in which British and American transport aircraft conveyed and dropped sup- plies for the isolated division east of the pass. The attackers in their turn became the attacked. The passes were regained, and the
Japanese, fighting desperately as always, were destroyed in large numbers, and the remainder put to flight. Some 4,500 are estimated to have been killed or wounded. This is the first considerable land battle which the British have won against the Japanese. It will be helpful in restoring British military prestige in India.
