The battle takes its name from the "administration area" of the Indian Army's 7th Division, which became a makeshift, rectangular defensive position for Major-General Frank Messervy and his staff after their divisional headquarters was overrun on 7 February.

The island possessed an important airfield, from which the Japanese Army Air Force had raided Calcutta and other Indian cities, and which also featured prominently in Allied plans to recapture Burma.

The 5th Indian Infantry Division (Major-General Harold Briggs), which had fought in East Africa and the Western Desert, attacked down the coastal plain.

While they reduced Japanese positions south of the port (the village of Razabil and a hill known from its shape as the "Tortoise"), the corps prepared to take the next major objective.

This was part of the Mayu Range where two disused railway tunnels provided a route through the hills linking Maungdaw to the towns of Buthidaung and Letwedet in the Kalapanzin Valley.

The Japanese were confident that they could repeat their success of the previous year in a local counter-attack, and perhaps even advance on Chittagong, the port on which XV Corps relied for supplies.

Beginning on 5 February, Sakurai Force infiltrated the front lines of the 7th Indian Division, which was widely dispersed and moved north undetected on the small town of Taung Bazaar.

Here they crossed the Kalapanzin River and swung west and south, and on the early morning of the 6 February they attacked the HQ of 7th Division at Luang Cheng a few miles to the south-west of Taung.

There was heavy close fighting, but 7th Division's signallers and clerks eventually had to destroy their documents and equipment and split up into small parties and retreat to the Admin Box.

)[9] The Motor Transport, with 22 radio sets, had already been sent to the Administrative Area which was being turned into a defensive box, and the HQ Defence battalion sent to intercept Japanese to the north Sakurai's force then followed up towards Sinzweya and the rear of 7th Division.

A Japanese battalion (I/213 Regiment, known as Kubo Force from its commander), crossed the Mayu Range at a seemingly impossible place, to set ambushes on the coastal road by which the 5th Indian Division was supplied.

The Japanese still holding Razabil and the railway tunnels area (Doi Force) launched a subsidiary attack to link up with Sakurai, and made smaller raids and diversions, while unexpectedly large numbers of Japanese fighter aircraft flew from Akyab to contest the skies over the battlefield.

The next obvious objective for the Japanese was the administrative area at Sinzweya, defended by headquarters and line of communication troops, with 25 Light AA / Anti Tank Regiment, RA.

The Main Dressing Station, a field hospital in tents, was on a low hillock on the edge of the jungle between a southwards heading chaung and the pass.

[13] From 11 February RAF and USAAF Douglas Dakota transport aircraft parachute-dropped rations and ammunition to the troops, including the defenders of the Admin Box.

[16] The first air-drop missions met opposition from Japanese fighters and some transport aircraft were forced to turn back but three squadrons of Supermarine Spitfires, operating from new airfields around Chittagong, gained air superiority over the battlefield.

In terms of morale also, the fact that British and Indian soldiers had held and defeated a major Japanese attack for the first time was widely broadcast.

At the Japanese surrender meetings in Rangoon on 11 September 1945,[26] Major General Ichida read a statement which identified two unforeseen and vital factors which had put the Japanese at a "disastrous disadvantage":[citation needed] (a) Allied air supply, which permitted ground forces in Burma to consolidate their positions without being forced to retreat and thus rendered the enemy's infiltration and encircling tactics abortive.

On 6 April, troops from the 26th Division captured a vital hill, named Point 551, which dominated the area and where the Japanese had won an important victory just under a year earlier.

The lightly armed 1st battalion of the Indian National Army's 1st Guerrilla Regiment had been directed to participate in the Japanese diversionary attack.

The battalion subsequently marched up the Kaladan river and progressed slowly but successfully against Commonwealth African units before crossing the Burma-India border to occupy Mowdok, near Chittagong.