Yunnan-Burma Road in WW2 – Part 1: British betrayal of the Chinese Expeditionary Force

Yunnan-Burma Road in WW2 – Parts 1: British betrayal of the Chinese Expeditionary Force

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvIaI3LBRXc

IN THE BEGINNING, THE ALLIES WERE BADLY  DEFEATED BY THE INVADING JAPANESE FORCES. THE JAPANESE HAD NO RESPECT FOR THE BRITISH WHO WON’T FIGHT BUT WOULD RATHER RUN. THE BRITISH PLAYED TRICKS ON THE ALLIES AND LET THE CHINESE BE ENCIRCLED IN TOUNGOO. THEY LEFT SECRETLY WITHOUT INFORMING THE CHINESE.

OTHER SOURCES SAID THE ALLIES’ MILITARY COURT CASHIERED THE BRITISH COMMANDER. HE ESCAPED THE SENTENCE OF DEATH BY FIRING SQUAD, THOUGH. THE BRITISH HAD TO PAY GENERALISSMO CHIANG KAI SHEK REPARATIONS WITH A NUMBER OF FRIGATES.

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” As the Japanese closed in on Rangoon, Chinese forces were marching to the aid of the British. However, the Chinese were seriously under strength; the 6th Army consisted mainly of untrained raw recruits. And there was only one mechanized infantry division, which belonged to the 5th Army.

Dai Anlan, commander of the 200th Division, decided to make the city of Toungoo the main defensive position for the Chinese forces. If the city were to fall, the flank of the Allied defensive line in Burma would be exposed, and the way would be opened for a Japanese advance into Central Burma. However, General Dai, with only foot soldiers at his command, found himself having to face a Japanese assault from land and air. The Battle of Toungoo lasted for twelve days. It was one of the key battles in the Yunnan-Burma Road campaign of World War II. The Japanese sacrificed over five thousand men for the sake of capturing an empty city….. http://english.cntv.cn/program/journe…

The United States did not want to see China withdrawing from the war due to the severance of the Yunnan-Burma Highway, neither did it want to let the Japanese invade Burma, and thereafter lead its troops into India and unite with the German troops. However, the U.S. troops in Burma at the time numbered less than a thousand, and the British had only three divisions there. The number was apparently not enough to hold back the invading Japanese forces; hence, the U.S. Government hoped that China would send out troops to help the British defend Burma.

Unfortunately, the British had no desire whatsoever to invite the Chinese army to join them in Burma. Burma is a British colony, and the British was sure that once they have invited the Chinese troops into Burma to take part in the battle, the United States would gradually provide arms to the Chinese. The narrow perception of the British made the West lost an excellent opportunity in the Burma defense plan that led to the latter downfall of Burma….. http://lov.vac.gov.tw/OverSeas/eng/Co…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_o… http://wapedia.mobi/en/Battle_of_Yunn…

With the loss of Rangoon, the Army in Burma was now isolated from its main base in India and dependent for supplies on the stocks so carefully built up by General Hutton in the Mandalay area. The Allies knew the duration of their control of central and upper Burma would be determined only by the size of the force committed against them….. The Rangoon Garrison, 17th Indian Division and 7th Armoured Brigade completed a successful withdrawal northwards to the Tharawaddy area. Here, the British took advantage of the pause in Japanese operations to rest and reorganise. In the Sittang valley, 1st Burma Division was covering the arrival of the Chinese in this sector. The Chinese were unwilling to move further south than Toungoo, obliging Alexander to order the withdrawal of British forces in the Irrawaddy valley to the Prome area so as to better align the defence. 1st Burma Division was to move to the Prome area as soon as the Chinese were in position at Toungoo…. http://www.rothwell.force9.co.uk/burm…

Rangoon was a grave. The roads of southern Burma were alive with miserable Indian thousands, in flight both from the Japanese and from long-knived Burmese nationalists….. The white men also were in flight from southern Burma. Some stayed in Rangoon, to shoot Burmese looters and hold to the

last, until the Japs finally entered this week, the remnants of that golden city…. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/art…

TOKYO — Asia paused on Sunday to remember Japan’s surrender to the allied forces which ended World War II 65 years ago, as the Japanese prime minister apologized for wreaking suffering on the region and the South Korean president said Tokyo’s remorse was a step in the right direction. From Nanjing — the site of a 1937 massacre by Japanese troops — to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, which has drawn outrage from Asia for honoring Class A war criminals, people prayed for the millions who died in war and expressed hopes for peace.

The reckoning with history has taken special meaning this year as it comes amid a global effort to realize a world without nuclear weapons, a resolve backed by President Barack Obama. But there were reminders of lingering tensions. In Seoul, President Lee Myung-bak, dressed in traditional robes, led a ceremony celebrating the liberation of the Korean peninsula from Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule with the Aug. 15 surrender. He also urged North Korea to abandon military provocations and make a “courageous change” toward peace…. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/a…“