Thông tin tài liệu
Burma campaign (1941–1942) BURMA Britain governed Burma as part of its larger empire in India, but never persuaded the Burmese to accept direct rule from London From 1931 to 1933, Burmese peasants actively resisted British rule and especially British land policy In 1937 Burma was administratively separated from India It was invaded and occupied by the Japanese Army during the Burma campaign of 1941–1942 Some Burmese, led by Aung San, fought alongside the Japanese early in the war A collaborationist government led by Ba Maw was rewarded with a territorially truncated and politically false “independence” in 1943, and formally declared war on the Western Allies Heavy fighting accompanied the disastrous Japanese Imphal offensive in 1944 Three Japanese armies failed to keep British, Indian, and Chinese troops from advancing northward in 1944–1945 The Western Allies were supported by 13 battalions of Burmese troops drawn exclusively from the Chin, Kachin, and Karen ethnic minorities, serving under British officers with 14th Army In March 1945, Aung San and the Burma National Army switched sides upon seeing that Japan would surely lose the war and realizing that some new deal would have to be made with the victorious British The last 30,000 men of Japanese 28th Army made a desperate attempt to break out of Burma in July 1945 They sought to reach and cross the Sittang, fighting past the end of the war elsewhere They failed at terrible cost: only 1,400 weak survivors were taken prisoner out of 30,000 who made the final trek British losses were under 100 men The British reoccupied Burma at the end of the war, but the return was tentative As Burma sank into civil war, London negotiated a reasonably graceful departure It acceded to formal independence in 1948 See also Admin Box; Arakan campaign; biological weapons; Burma Road; Burma-Siam railway; Ichi-Goˉ; Ledo Road; X Force BURMA CAMPAIGN (1941–1942) The Japanese assault on Burma was first assayed on December 14, 1941, along with attacks on Pearl Harbor, Malaya, Hong Kong, and the Philippines The main aims of the invasion of Burma were to cut off supplies to the Guomindang in southern China, buffer the conquest of Malaya, and threaten and tie down British forces in India Japanese 15th Army was led by General Shojiro Iida Opposing the Japanese was a single Indian Army division of 12,000 men and an even less well-trained or properly armed Burmese division of 15,000 A Japanese assault on Indian troops along the Sittang wiped out most defenders by February 23, 1942 The key moment came when a panicked British commander blew a major bridge, thereby stranding most of his Indian troops on the wrong side of the river General Archibald Wavell, commander in chief of the hastily organized ABDA Command, ordered Rangoon defended at all cost The city fell on March 8, with a British motorized column escaping when the Japanese uncharacteristically failed to complete their attack with sufficient speed or aggression The Britain retreat was protected by fighters of the American Volunteer Group, the famed “Flying Tigers.” A British armored brigade arrived in-country, but an Australian division never made it in time Guomindang troops were seconded to the British front from China under their American commander, General Joseph Stilwell Japanese troops overmatched all these forces in morale and training, superior commanders, and 199
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