



Battle of Meiktila-Mandalay

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseIn Nov and Dec 1944, William Slim's British 14th Army secured two bridgeheads across the Chindwin River in Burma. Slim imagined that the Japanese would expect the Anglo-Indian troops to march for the historic city of Mandalay next, thus he devised a plan to attack Meiktila instead. Located 150 kilometers to the south, Meiktila represented a main stop on the supply route for food and ammunition for Japanese troops in central and northern Burma, thus by capturing Meiktila, Slim believed that he would be able to isolate the entire northern Burma with ease for a quick victory. To hide the fact that he wished to capture Meiktila before Mandalay, a number of deceptions were planned, including the transfer of several units from the Indian 4th Corps (the unit charged to take Meiktila) to the Indian 33rd Corps to make the Japanese think that the 4th Corps was not on the move further to the south, the use of irregular troops in front of the 4th Corps because the British had usually only used irregulars in Japanese rear areas rather than main battlegrounds prior to this time, and the establishment of a fake 4th Corps headquarters complete with a signals staff to transmit dummy radio traffic. By mid-Jan 1945, Anglo-Indian troops had reached the region where the Chindwin River joined the Irrawady River. As the Indian 33rd Corps feinted toward Mandalay, the Indian 4th Corps began its secret march in the Gangaw Valley along the Myittha River toward Meiktila on 19 Jan with Indian 7th Division at the spearhead. The Japanese mounted counterattacks almost nightly against the entire Allied front, not realizing Meiktila was the main objective and not able to make significant advances against any of the Anglo-Indian offensives. On 23 Feb 1945, the British 2nd Division crossed the Irrawady RIver 10 miles west of Mandalay. Allied air superiority during this phase of the campaign in Burma played a decisive role, knocking out field guns and the few remaining Japanese tanks. The few Japanese aircraft remaining in the region could offer only little resistance.

ww2dbaseOn 29 Feb 1945, the attack on the Meiktila region began by the troops of Major General David Cowan's Indian 17th Division, quickly taking the airfield 20 miles west at Thabutkon. The Indian 99th Brigade and fuel supplies were called in by air immediately. Meiktila was defended for the most part by men of the 168th Regiment of the Japanese 49th Division, with additional manpower from various support units such as communications personnel; the Japanese totaled about 4,000. On 1 Mar, Meiktila itself came under attack, and Cowan soon realized that the Japanese were well-entrenched in the city; snipers, mutually-reinforcing bunkers, machine gun nests, and anti-tank gun positions were practically everywhere. After hard fighting, Anglo-Indian troops captured the city by 3 Mar, and by 5 Mar all Japanese resistance in the region were eliminated. The Allies captured 47 Japanese prisoners; a majority of the remainder were killed or committed suicide.

ww2dbaseThe Japanese were not ready to give up on Meiktila, however. The Japanese 18th and 49th Divisions, along with composite units, mounted an attack at a strength of 12,000 men. The 15,000-strong Indian 17th Division first attempted to attack out of the newly occupied town to clear out Japanese concentrations, but soon was pressured to fall back. The first attack on Meiktila by the Japanese failed with heavy losses, however. Lieutenant General Eitaro Naka changed his strategy on 13 Mar by attacking the airfields nearby to deprive the defending forces of their supplies. By 15 Mar, aircraft landing had to done so under fire. Cowan called off the supply runs on 18 Mar. Toward the end of Mar 1945, with the attacking Japanese units not in good communications with each other, the siege of Meiktila gradually fell apart.

ww2dbaseElsewhere, British and Indian troops reached Mandalay Hill on 7 Mar 1945. With Meiktila already captured by the Allies, Mandalay would wither without adequate supplies, but Slim wanted a victory at this historically important city. Major General Seiei Yamamoto, the defending general at Mandalay, was as determined to hold the city for its propaganda value as much as Slim wanted to take it. On 8 Mar, 4/4th Gurkha Rifles of Indian 19th Division began to advance on Mandalay Hill, which was not bombarded due to the presence of many templates and pagodas. Fighting from subterranean tunnels, the Japanese held on for several days before falling back. The city itself was next. At Fort Dufferin, the thick walls held up against Allied artillery shelling and aerial bombardment, and the deep moat thwarted the attacking infantry. As the casualty numbers mounted, British generals drew up a commando raid through the sewers to penetrate the fortress defenses, but the plan would not be executed as the Japanese unexpectedly surrendered Fort Dufferin, thus Mandalay, on 20 Mar.

ww2dbaseThe defeat of the Japanese forces at Meiktila and Mandalay was decisive, with the Japanese suffering heavy casualties and losing valuable heavy equipment necessary to carry on the war. Politically, the defeat also dealt the Japanese great damage. The fall of Mandalay, a cultural center of Burma, turned Burmese national opinion against the Japanese, while losing the river and road network north of Meiktila meant that the Japanese forces in northern Burma were now effectively cut off from the sources of supply generally flowing in from the Rangoon area. The number of attacks by Burmese guerilla on Japanese troops surged after the Battle of Meiktila-Mandalay. Shortly, even the Burmese regulars of the Japanese-sponsored puppet republic would turn their guns on the Japanese.

ww2dbaseSources:

Frank McLynn, The Burma Campaign

Wikipedia



Last Major Update: Oct 2006

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