2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment in Burma 1944-45


CHAPTER 5

THE ROAD TO MANDALAY

We remained in Shwepyi until the 6th March, very grateful for its welcome shade and good clean water supply. The period through which we had just passed had been made more difficult by the shortage of water. None was available in the dry bamboo jungle in which fighting had taken place. The Jap had oiled most of the wells in the villages through which we had passed. In consequence, every drop of water for both personnel and animals had to be brought up in water carts, of which there were none in the Battalion and only a very limited number at Bde., owing to the light scale of transport in the Division, or else in jeep trailers. Being only surface water drawn off paddy fields some miles back, it was far from clean, but in the rapidly increasing heat we were grateful enough to drink it. There was certainly none left for washing.

While we were in Shwepyi the Baluch and the 1/6 Gurkhas fought the last action of any size before the Jap resistance crumpled up and the pursuit down the Mandalay road was begun. They had a stiff fight for the large hill feature, which dominates the road about a mile beyond Shwepyi. As this was a very strong natural position, however, the resistance might have been much more prolonged than it was. However, the advance of the other two Bdes. on the right flank across the more open country bordering the river had been spectacular, and there is no doubt the Japs were taken by surprise. Finding themselves in danger of being cut off, their troops in the Shwepyi area began to retreat, and when the Battalion began to. advance down the road on the 6th the expected opposition did not materialise. The enemy were evidently falling back in some confusion. Large dumps of stores were found lying by the side of the road, bullocks used for drawing transport were left dying of thirst and exhaustion, the dead were unburied, and a few Japs even were willing to give themselves up, being unable to keep up with their retreating column.

Our advance, therefore, on the 6th and 7th was rapid, and except for a jeep being blown up by a mine there was little in the way of incident. Capt. Lord was in this jeep. He had only recently returned after being away sick, and taken over H.Q. Company. He suffered serious injury to his ears and was rendered completely deaf, so that he had to be evacuated next day. We passed through Pinle-In, and, swinging South, spent the night at a small village called Shanywa, about a mile East of the Irrawaddy. “A” and “D” Companies did not halt, but pushed on during the night under the Second-in-Command to occupy the Marble Quarries, only to find them already held by a unit of another Bde. On the 7th we swung back on to our original axis of advance, and re-joined the road at Thabyetha, where it crosses a river of some size, the Magyi Chaung. This roughly marks the beginning of the flat, open and cultivated plain of Mandalay, intersected by irrigation canals and dotted with large villages.

The Bn. continued down the road to a point about two miles North of the town of Madaya, terminus of two roads from Mandalay and also a branch of the railway. This town had already been captured by 98 Bde. A force known as Stiletto, consisting chiefly of troops of the 1 15 Punjabis in jeeps, was already only about 4 miles from Mandalay itself, 15 miles or so farther on, at the village of Kabaing, and it was intended that we should push on through the 2 R. Berks of 98 Bde. and assist it, but owing to the road being mined, and for other reasons, this plan did not materialise. We were not sorry, as the last few days had involved hard marching and we were all pretty tired. As it was, the Bn. set off again at 0100 hrs. and marched through Madaya and out into open country that lies East of the main Madaya-Mandalay road. A long and tiring day’s march followed, in which we moved steadily South. There seemed to be some doubt as to what we should be required to do. Eventually about 1500 hrs. we received orders to block two parallel roads running North-East from Mandalay (one of them the second but more roundabout route from Mandalay to Madaya), which it was considered might be being used as escape routes by the Japs. A patrol (under Lieut. Ward “B” Coy.) was sent to investigate a large hill feature called Payangokto Taung, which overlooked both these roads, and found it occupied. The Bn. got into position astride the two roads, with “C” Coy. at Dahattaw and the rest of the Bn. just North of the village of Linnwegyaung. It seemed, however, that we were 24 hours too late. Local Burmans said that the previous night 800 enemy vehicles had passed South down these roads. Even allowing for vast exaggeration, had we been in position then, the bag must have been a good one.

Meanwhile the other two Bns. of the Bde., with Bde. H.Q., had moved farther South in the face of opposition, to the area of Kyaukthanbat, about 3 miles N.E. of Mandalay Hill. 98 Bde. were starting the battle for Mandalay Hill itself, and 62 Bde. had been sent off on an entirely pack transport basis to occupy the hill station of Maymyo 30 miles away to the East. This they did without much opposition, and laid an ambush on the Maymyo-Mandalay road a few miles out of Maymyo, which later took a heavy toll of a Jap M.T. column, which drove into it unawares.

The Bn. spent some days in the vicinity of Payangokto Taung. It was evident that there were still a number of the enemy trying to break South from the area to the N.E. of Mandalay, and others immediately East and N.E. of the city itself. A platoon of “A” Coy. attempted to get to the top of Pyangokto Taung on the night of the 9th, but failed in the face of opposition, although the following morning the whole Coy. occupied the feature, finding the enemy gone. During the night of the 9th, “C” Coy.’s perimeter near Dahattaw was rushed, one man being killed and two wounded. The same night two platoons of “D” Coy., under Capt. Ellis, had a certain amount of excitement in their position North of the Bn. at Boywa.

On the 12th March the Bn. moved South to join Bde. H.Q. at Patheingale, 4/10 Baluch having moved farther South to occupy an important feature four miles East of Mandalay called Yangindaung. 1/6 Gurkhas had been loaned to 98 Bde. for the attack on Mandalay itself.
The following day we moved again, and with Bde. H.Q. took up the position occupied the previous day by the Baluch, they having gone still farther South to Kyaukmiywa, an important cross-roads on one of the escape routes to the South-East of the city.

 

GO TO CHAPTER SIX

Back to Burma Intro Page
CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO HOME PAGE