THE STRUGGLE FOR BURMA
SEELY, Lt. Comdr. C. S.
The Struggle For Burma By LT. COMDR. C. S. SEELY IN BURMA, and southeastern Asia generally, good fighting weather is about to end. Rain and heat will make impossible any but small scale operations...
...For should we take eastern Burma we will secure Rangoon, an excellent base from which a campaign against Siam and French Indo-China can be launched...
...Considering the entire situation in the Orient, I think we are making about as much progress as is possible with the limited forces at our disposal there...
...The opinions and assertions expressed above are the private ones of the writer and are not to be construed as official or reflecting the views of the Navy Department or the naval service at large...
...However, until next November there can hardly be any objection to island-hopping as long as it is not too costly in lives, for we can fight at sea Summer or Winter, while from Burma we can only fight during the relatively short and cool period between October and May...
...That is, if we can drive through Burma to French Indo-China—a difficult, but not impossible, job—the Japanese may have to evacuate Singapore, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo without a chance to put up a fight...
...About all we can do in that area until then is to establish supply bases and train troops for a big push next Winter...
...The Japanese must be expected to hold, at almost any cost, practically all of Burma which lies north of the Malayan peninsula and east of the Burma Road...
...The Japanese naturally will try to break up Allied troop concentrations, supply bases, supply lines, and cause all other possible trouble for us in Burma during the approaching lull...
...They must do this, for it imperative that they delay our advance there just as long as possible...
...Of the two main routes toward the "beachhead" on the East China coast, which we must establish before we can get anywhere in our war against Japan, the island-hopping route or the overland from Burma route, I believe the latter is preferable...
...That area is considerably more important to them than are all (7,091 to be exact) of the Philippine Islands, for a good example...
...Rain and heat will make impossible any but small scale operations there until late next Fall...
...When and if this occurs, Singapore, and in fact all Japanese positions in the South, will face grave danger of being cut off...
Vol. 8 • April 1944 • No. 15
