Back to Burma

Two U.S. pilots winging over the head-hunter-inhabited Naga Hills on a routine patrol flight toward Burma were the first to spot the Japanese attack force heading into India. A few Jap planes were drawn into battle, but most of them roared on toward the Assam terminus of the aerial Burma Road.

Soon lean, tall, Red Cross Worker Robert Porter, breakfasting in an army mess, heard a noise he had learned to heed in China. He called: "Those are the Japanese." Unbelieving officers scrambled from the mess hall for a look, agreed with Porter only when one officer exclaimed: "They must be Japanese. We haven't got that many bombers."

A moment later the bombs were falling. Low-swooping Zeros spattered bullets into grounded U.S. fighter planes and transports. Lieut. Joe Walker was barely off the ground when Zeros attacked, forced him to hedgehop across tea plantations to escape into the mountains. Another P-40 pilot, unable to take off, sat in his cockpit until a Zero set his plane afire and forced him to run for it. Two American Negro workers mounted a machine gun without cover on a runway, blazed away furiously at the zooming Zeros.

When the smoke cleared, ten or more U.S. fighter craft and several cargo planes had been destroyed on the ground. The Japs had attacked on schedule as the rain-laden monsoon blew itself out. Next day United Nations planes struck back, raiding Jap bases in Burma.

Whose Offensive? His assurance increased speculation on the possibility of a United Nations offensive. Britain's Commander in Chief for India, General Sir Archibald Wavell, was back in New Delhi from the Burma border. In Assam he had talked to officers who trekked, singly or in pairs, into Occupied Burma and brought out news that the Burmese were hungry, restless and unhappier under the Japs than they ever were under the British.

Since May the monsoon had been India's best shield against the Japs. With that protection gone until another May, the question was whether enemy raids foretold a major Jap offensive. Out to explore possibilities went U.S. Brigadier General Clayton L. Bissell, chief of the 10th Air Force command, which embraces India, Burma and part of China. After a lengthy air tour General Bissell said that he had found no indication that the Japanese "are momentarily able to take on any large offensive."

Lieut. General Joseph W. ("Uncle Joe") Stilwell turned up in New Delhi to talk with General Wavell. Retaking Burma and reopening a real supply line to China would be a vital project for General Stilwell and his U.S. airmen in China.

Now or Then? New Delhi correspondents were allowed to cable that U.S. ground forces had completed a network of airdromes and supply points in India and Assam. London broke the news that the battleships Warspite, Royal Sovereign and Resolution and the aircraft carrier Illustrious were in the Indian Ocean.

All this added to hopes of an Allied offensive.

Not yet, said the New York Times's Herbert L. Matthews in New Delhi. The monsoons were ending, but the jungle trails would be bogged for weeks. Allied forces still needed preparation, training and reinforcement. Cabled Correspondent Matthews: "Burma is going to be retaken, because it has to be retaken if the United Nations hope to win the war in the Far East. Since the rains start up again next May, it is reasonable to hope that something will be done before then. . . ."

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