THE MASTERSTOKE OF THE BURMA CAMPAIGN – THE THRUST FOR, AND CAPTURE OF, MEIKTILA.
The Burma campaign of 1941 to 1945 is often referred to as The Forgotten War. In 1942 the Japanese Army and Navy had swept all before it and overran the South-East Asian countries of the Philippines, French Indo-China, Malaya, Singapore, the Netherlands East Indies. By 1942, they were at eastern the frontiers of India.
The Fourteenth Army, composed of British, Indian, African and Nepalese troops had held the eastern frontier at the Imphal and in the Arakan, and by late 1944 was preparing an amphibious advance down the Arakan coast and a mechanised land offensive into the dry central plains of Burma. Key to the success of the campaign had been the gaining of air superiority by the Royal Air Force and US Army Air Force and the development of air supply as means of supporting the troops advancing through difficult and disease-ridden jungle terrain against a tenacious enemy.
General Slim, the commander of Fourteenth Army had as his main objective, to reach the capital of Burma, Rangoon, before the monsoon broke in mid-1945. His masterstroke was to send his armoured and infantry columns, supported by air, to capture the important command and supply centre of Meiktila. While Mandalay, the main northern city had considerable prestige value in its capture, the loss of Meiktila by the Japanese would inflict an irreversible damage to their ability to pursue organised offensive action. Slim’s columns, supported by the Air Forces, made their thrust for Meiktila in early 1945, with the town captured by early March.
With the Japanese elements cut off and able to attack the tenuous supply lines it was essential that the force in Meiktila could be resupplied from the only airfield located to the east of the town. With not enough troops to form a continuous defensive line the defence of Meiktila was provided by six boxes. It was at Meiktila East airfield that the RAF Regiment established D Box. The two runways could not be held at night, and the Japanese would move in under darkness and establish themselves on the airstrip. It was the job of the gunners of the RAF Regiment to go out each hot humid dusty morning and clear the airstrips of the enemy parties before the first supply, casualty evacuation and fighter aircraft could land.
