Tank Tracks to Rangoon (35 page)

14 17 Division breaks the enemy front at Pyawbwe

‘Claudcol’, commanded by Brigadier C. E. Pert, consisted of two squadrons (A and C) of Probyn’s Horse, two 16th Light Cavalry armoured car squadrons, 6/7th Rajputs, a company 4/4th Bombay Grenadiers, a self-propelled gun battery and some engineers, moved off from the old harbour area west of Meiktila on 4th April. Next day it attacked the village of Yindaw.

Yindaw was a tough nut to crack, being surrounded by a high
bund and a ditch full of water, both being tank obstacles, and was strongly held by the enemy. Two air-strikes and artillery preparation failed to soften the position, so that when the Rajputs put in an attack near the northern bund, they were met by devastating fire from bunkers, and lost heavily. The tanks were unable to get into the village to assist their comrades, and had to confine themselves to firing air-burst HE into the village trees, or shooting over the bund where this was possible. After an hour, little progress had been made, two of the Rajput company commanders were down, and the attack was called off.

The next day ‘Claudcol’ by-passed Yindaw, and on 8th April Yanaung was captured, after an advance made difficult by the demolition of bridges by the Japanese, who also harassed the sappers whilst they were working on diversions, until driven off by the tanks. The Japanese resisted vigorously amongst the blazing ruins, but Probyn’s and the Rajputs were all over them, and the survivors were driven into 16th Cavalry’s cut-off line. A body count of 230 was made, and three 47-mm anti-tank guns destroyed.

During the night, the sappers were working on a road block and laying mines for flank protection when a rattle of tracks and blazing headlights announced the arrival of a tank from the south. Thinking it was a stray from Probyn’s, the sappers ran out to prevent it running into the minefield, shouting at the commander to halt. Although he was Japanese, their meaning was sufficiently clear, and he agreed that the idea was a good one, spinning his vehicle round and disappearing whence he had come, after firing one round which disappeared into the darkness. There was much laughter in the leaguer at the sappers’ expense.

The following day ‘Claudcol’ fought its way through the Ywadan group of villages, and reached the main road south of Pyawbwe, cutting it. During the day’s fighting, the enemy troops encountered had seemed to come from semi-trained units, and had not fought as tenaciously as usual.

‘Claudcol’s’ arrival came as a complete surprise to the enemy, who continued to use the road as though it was still their own property.

Again the tanks went into harbour, with our shadows, the Rajputs, some miles south of the town, on some high ground close to the road, and once more the enemy seemed to be unaware of our arrival, for we had visitors soon after dark, just as we were sitting down to a meal. This time it was a convoy of eleven lorries with
lights burning, so that we had plenty of warning, on their way to Pyawbwe.

We waited until they were abreast of us, and then opened fire at about 100 yards’ range. The first lorry escaped, as we had no one on the road and no mines down, but the second caught fire and the two following it. Two more were abandoned, but the remainder were far enough behind to be able to turn round and get away. An infantry patrol went out to pick up what it could, but found only a few corpses. As the tracer from the tanks had ruled its straight bright lines across to the road and then leapt at odd angles up into the sky, shouts and cries of alarm could be heard in spite of the noise of the Brownings, and we supposed that the lorries had carried reinforcements for Pyawbwe; but on the other hand we now had traffic in the other direction.

We were sitting down again at our interrupted meal when we heard the distinctive whine of Japanese tanks coming south from Pyawbwe. It turned out to be the last few tanks of the Japanese Tenth (sic) Tank Regiment, withdrawing during the night. We ran to the line of tanks nearest the road and climbed on to their backs as the crews scrambled for their places. Bahadur Singh jumped up with me, and seeing the gunner’s place still empty, took it himself. He was the best game-shot in the regiment, and had knocked over his first tiger long ago in his teens. He was used to shooting at night, but not at tanks.

As the leading tank came round a bend in the road and saw the line of smouldering lorries ahead, it stopped for a moment to consider. Then, as if deciding that this must be the result of an air attack on transport, a sight that they must have been well used to, it drove on. As it came opposite us I leant forward and touched Bahadur Singh’s shoulder. A dagger of flames shot from the barrel of his gun, the enemy tank glowed redly, and immediately with a great belch of flame blew up.

At the sight of the explosion ahead of it the second tank turned right-handed and came bucketing up towards us, then seeing for the first time a great wall of Shermans in front of it, the driver pulled it sharply to the right and drove down the line of tanks and only a few yards from them, while the gunners struggled to depress their guns, for it had a low silhouette, in order to destroy it. As it ran the gauntlet of the Une of guns, the lowering muzzles, lit by the blaze on the road, looked as if they were saluting its last moments, and the long flashes reached out over it as it passed, as if they were firing a
feu de joie.
If it had stayed so close to the tanks it might have escaped by its nearness, but it cut back to the road, was hit, caught fire, and upset.

A third tank on the road withdrew at such a pace that it overshot the bend at a high bridge and crashed into a dry stream bed, where it landed upside down.
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On the morning of the 10th ‘Claudcol’ began moving north
up the road to Pyawbwe. At the Thitson Chaung, C Squadron found the bridge blown, but forced crossings to the east and west, destroying three enemy tanks which contested the passage. The Japanese used their tanks simply as pill boxes, ‘and when attacked made no effort whatever to manoeuvre in any direction’. Beyond the chaung, Probyn’s advanced with A Squadron to the west of the road, and C to the east, and destroyed a column of thirty-nine lorries and staff cars. As they drew nearer the town, shooting up numerous dumps which lined the road, sounds of battle from the west indicated the progress of the regiment’s B Squadron with 63 Brigade, whilst to the north and north-east the Deccan’s guns could be heard supporting 48 and 99 Brigades. Pyawbwe was being crushed in a mailed fist.

During their advance southwards, the Deccan had fought a number of engagements, failing at Yewe on 4th April, but succeeding the following day. Yindan was still in enemy hands, but was by-passed to the east, a route being found by 16th Light Cavalry. At Sadaung, a village which lay astride the main road, the armoured car patrols were repulsed, and a formal attack was mounted, two squadrons, A and B, supporting our infantry battalion. Brigadier Sheodan Singh describes its progress.

B Squadron and a company of infantry came up against enemy resistance in the village. Our infantry suffered some casualties, and somehow could not be rallied to continue the attack. The tanks were poised to go in, and the commanding officer was urging some speedy action. The regiment had deployed in the afternoon and only a little daylight remained.

Acting in command of two troops which the squadron commander had given me, I ordered the tanks into the village deployed in line, firing their machine guns on the move. On seeing the tanks with their close-escort infantry advancing, the assaulting company took fresh heart and followed. The enemy was so overwhelmed and shocked by our weight of fire and boldness of action that they left their trendies in large numbers and started retreating. When the tanks debauched from the village we saw large numbers of Japanese running in different directions across the open paddy fields. They were killed almost to a man. We had practised such tactics during training for fighting in enclosed areas, and termed them ‘Blitz’ tactics, which came in very handy on occasions.

Sheodan Singh goes on to describe the fight for Pyawbwe itself.

The town was well organized for defence, and the enemy meant
to hold us here. The Royal Deccan Horse operated frontally and from the eastern flank, mainly against their defences in the waterworks area, which had been well fortified and was well protected by mines and anti-tank guns. B Squadron operated on the left, in support of infantry, with the waterworks as its immediate objective.

The enemy had covering parties well dug in, forward of the main defences in sandy undulating ground. As the terrain was open, enemy automatic fire was very effective against infantry, who started losing men rapidly. The tanks’ fire appeared to be ineffective, as the trenches were located on the reverse slopes.

I therefore took a calculated risk and ordered my tanks over the crest and onto the enemy trenches. Other tank troops did likewise, our infantry taking full advantage and finishing off the enemy with their bayonets. Thereafter progress was fairly good, and the enemy was rolled back to the waterworks, which was cleared the next day.

The fall of Pyawbwe was an unmitigated disaster for the Japanese. The town was to have been the pivot of their stop line, and had been prepared for a defence comparable to that of Myitkina.
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It fell for two reasons.

First, the Japanese had not imagined that 14th Army was capable of the rapid reorganization which had taken place after the Meiktila–Mandalay battles, and were not fully prepared for the attack when it came. Secondly, the speed and dash of the tanks, whether in the direct attack from the north, or more particularly in ‘Claudcol’s’ turning operation to the west and south, again had them off balance before serious fighting for the town began.
†

After Pyawbwe, 4 Corps streamed through the gap and the Japanese had nothing to throw in their path which could stop the avalanche of armour and the infantry divisions which rolled steadily down the railway corridor towards Rangoon. It must have given Field Marshal Slim great pleasure to write, shortly after the end of the war in Burma, ‘If the Tokyo radio had announced “Our forces are pursuing the enemy rapidly in the direction of Rangoon”, it would have been nearer the truth than usual.’

However, some 300 miles of road separated Pyawbwe from Rangoon, and with the monsoon looming, there was no time to be lost. Even as the final shots were being fired around Pyawbwe, 5th Indian Division was moving through the town, going into the lead with Toungoo as its objective.

Acting as 5th Division’s armoured spearhead was 116 Regiment RAC, which had had a few days to rest and refit at Meiktila following its numerous actions with 7th Division, plus B Squadron 7th Light Cavalry and A Squadron 16th Light Cavalry, which merged into two composite squadrons to provide the best combination of speed, mobility and firepower that light tanks and armoured cars could produce.

During the advance, one of these light squadrons was always well out in front, its task being to brush aside minor opposition, move as rapidly as possible, and seize and hold vital bridges before the enemy had time to blow them.

Some way behind came the advance guard, consisting of two Sherman squadrons, an infantry battalion, riding partly on the tanks and partly in lorries, a battery of self-propelled guns, and a troop of engineers, usually equipped with Valentine bridge-layers.

Behind the advance guard travelled Brigadier Pert’s brigade HQ, including an air liaison unit, the reserve Sherman squadron, the remainder of the SP gun regiment and sapper squadron, and administrative troops, protected by a Bombay Grenadier company and the second composite light armoured squadron, whose troops were frequently despatched to the flanks to screen villages or positions on either side of the road.

Some way behind again would come the infantry division’s own advance guard, and then the division itself.

On 11th April, the reconnaissance squadron and advance
guard roared through Yamethin unopposed,
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and went into leaguer in the area of Inzin. Yamethin had also been patrolled by ‘Claudcol’ two days earlier, prior to its attack on Pyawbwe, and had been reported clear, so appeared to present no problems.

However, after the advance guard had passed, the Japanese filtered back into the town, determined to succeed where they had failed at Pyawbwe. They cut the road north of the town, and in a heavy exchange of fire killed C Squadron’s fitters, this squadron being held in reserve for the moment. The advance guard was now isolated, and spent an uneasy night amidst many alarms and some indiscriminate firing.

The following morning, the Japanese air force put in an unexpected appearance, four fighters shooting up the column and causing casualties. The town was attacked by C Squadron and 7th York and Lancaster Regiment from the north and by half of A Squadron plus two platoons of infantry, sent back from the advance guard, from the south. Neither attack was successful, as they were mounted in bad tank country, and the Japanese suicide squads were able to close with the tanks and place picric acid charges on the engine decks of two vehicles, destroying them. Lt Holt’s hull gunner, Tpr Lomas, won a Military Medal assisting wounded from the blazing wreck.