Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954), Sunday 7 January 1945, page 3

Have To Move Fast To Catch

I
Akyab Japs
(Burma), Sat.: A knoll on the mainland facing
AKYAB
j
Akyab Mond, 4 miles away, the Corps Commander, with
naval «nd air colleagues, watched a full-scale invasion
force storm a tenantfess beach. Warships steamed back
and forth-in absolute silence. Everything was there but
the enemy.
News had been brought 2 nights before that there were
I
12000 Japanese defending the island. Now there was not

We drove into a city of thc day, and will swell the army still
dead, cables the Associated Press remaining in Bonna.
man. It was as though a plague
had smitten the 38,000 inhabi-
Airfield!
tants. '"We will have- to move fast to
True many of the main build- catch them UP. They have left us
ings such as the Court House and an excellent airfield which will
the steamer wharf sheds bad been be
soon in we. At present it is
Unroofed and battered by our covered with old obstructions and
bombing, but a large proportion some very live mines.
of the town was intact-deserted "With Akyab's liberation is
and overgrown. unlocked the river system of
Western Burma and the problem
Bungalows of supplying our southward
is largely solved.
mov-

Smart bungalows peeped ing troops

through the creepers and tropical
growth. Fading signboards ex-
posed the fact that here was still
the office of the Burma and Ben-
gal S.N. Co., while a tarnished
plat« several doors up the street
advertised that Dr. Hoy had once

practised there.
Steel clock tower, slightly fire
damaged about its 4 faces, gave
4 different versions of the time.
B.C. Church was Intact except
for its windows.
At the steamer wharf an over-
grown notice read: "Exit saloon
passengers."
Akyab must have been a pleas-
ant spot in peacetime. Now, it
j
looks like a long neglected gar- '

den. _
.

Pagodas
.
From its hills rise its nu-
low
merous padogas,but the oddest
thing ls the absence, except for.
some well prepared positions
south, of the town, of any indi-
cation of Japanese occupation.
"It
almost, prompts me to
think," "he ados "that" deliberately
or not they, managed to preserve
a gigantic bluff for a long time.
"Militarily one fact obtrudes.
We have occupied Afcyab hat
have not killed any Japs. Its gar-
rison has lived to fight another
day, and will swell the army still

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