Pounding Japanese assault forces threatened the Allied main Pacific base on Java and the Burma Road to China Thursday.
The battle of Burma blazed along a 300-mile front. Japanese shock troops forced crossings of the Biliu River, but the British contended their defenses were holding against heavy assault--45 miles from the Rangoon-Lashio Railway, the last practicable Allied route into China.
The threat to Java became more acute as the Japanese, against stubborn resistance, poured more men and planes into southern Sumatra and crushed the last Dutch resistance at Macassar, on Colobes Island just northeast of Java. The Nipponese also resumed bombing assaults on Soerabaja, Allied naval base on Java, and on Bali and Timor, east of Java.
The raid on Soerabaja--the third major assault on this vital base--cost the Nipponese five bombers out of 21 sent over.
Read more in News
Eat, Drink and be Careful
