Allied victory Axis Japan Second Sino-Japanese War Taishō period Shōwa period Asia-Pacific Mediterranean and Middle East Other campaigns Coups The Burma campaign in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II was fought primarily by British Commonwealth, Chinese and United States forces[3] against the forces of Imperial Japan, who were assisted by the Burmese National Army, the Indian National Army, and to some degree by Thailand.

In the coastal province of Arakan, Allied amphibious landings secured vital offshore islands and inflicted heavy casualties, although the Japanese maintained some positions until the end of the campaign.

In a final operation just before the end of the war, Japanese forces which had been isolated in Southern Burma attempted to escape across the Sittang River, suffering heavy casualties.

Under this, Fourteenth Army (supported by 221 Group RAF) would make the major offensive into Central Burma, where the terrain and road network favoured the British and Indian armoured and motorised formations.

Kimura was primarily a logistician who had previously been Vice-Minister of War and it was hoped that he could use the natural and industrial resources of Burma to make his army self-sufficient.

They formed the Anti-Fascist Organisation and intended turning against the Japanese at some stage but Thakin Soe dissuaded Aung San from openly rebelling until Allied forces had established permanent footholds in Burma.

[9] The Japanese Twenty-eighth Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Shozo Sakurai, defended the coastal Arakan region and the lower Irrawaddy valley.

The island held a port and an important airfield which the Allies planned to use as a base from which to deliver supplies by air to the troops in Central Burma.

The 25th Indian Division advanced on Foul Point and Rathedaung at the end of the Mayu Peninsula, being supplied by landing craft over beaches to avoid the risk of Japanese attacks against their lines of communication.

The two African divisions converged on Myohaung near the mouth of the Kaladan River, cutting the supply lines of the Japanese troops in the Mayu Peninsula.

Although Thirty-third Army had been forced to relinquish most of the reinforcements it had received the previous year, the operations of the NCAC were limited from late 1944 onwards as many of its troops were withdrawn by air to face Japanese attacks in China.

In Operation Grubworm, the Chinese 14th and 22nd divisions were flown via Myitkyina to defend the airfields around Kunming, vital to the airlift of aid to China, nicknamed The Hump.

The Chinese New Sixth Army, commanded by Liao Yaoxiang and consisting of the 50th Division, infiltrated through the difficult terrain between these two wings to threaten the Japanese lines of communication.

The first truck convoy from India arrived in Kunming on 4 February[15] but by this point in the war the value of the Ledo road was uncertain, as it would not now affect the military situation in China.

To the annoyance of the British and Americans, Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek ordered Sultan to halt his advance at Lashio, which was captured on 7 March.

The British Fourteenth Army under Lieutenant General William Slim made the main Allied thrust, codenamed Operation Capital, into central Burma.

The mechanised 17th Indian Division and the armoured brigade could move rapidly and unhindered in this open terrain, apparently taking the staffs at the various Japanese headquarters by surprise with this blitzkrieg manoeuvre.

The fall of Mandalay also precipitated the change of sides by the Burma National Army and open rebellion against the Japanese by other underground movements belonging to the Anti-Fascist Organisation.

[17] In the last week of March, Aung San, commander-in-chief of the Burma National Army, appeared in public in Burmese native dress instead of Japanese uniform.

[19] Though the Allied force had advanced successfully into central Burma, it was vital to capture the port of Rangoon before the monsoon rains began.

The temporarily upgraded overland routes from India would disintegrate under heavy rain, which would also curtail flying and reduce the amount of supplies which could be delivered by air.

The 17th Indian Division and 255th Armoured Brigade began the IV Corps advance on 6 April by striking from all sides at the delaying position held by the remnants of the Japanese Thirty-third Army at Pyawbwe, while a flanking column (nicknamed "Claudcol") of tanks and mechanised infantry cut the main road behind them and attacked their rear.

They were ordered to move to Toungoo to block the road to Rangoon but a general uprising by Karen guerrillas who had been organised and equipped by Force 136 delayed them long enough for the 5th Indian Division to reach the town first on 23 April.

In the original conception of the plan to re-take Burma, it had been intended that the XV Indian Corps would make an amphibious assault codenamed Operation Dracula on Rangoon long before Fourteenth Army reached the capital, in order to ease supply problems.

Lack of resources meant that Dracula was postponed and the operation was subsequently dropped in favour of a planned assault on Phuket Island off the Kra Isthmus.

Slim feared that the Japanese would defend Rangoon to the last man through the monsoon, which would put the Fourteenth Army in a disastrous supply situation.

Kimura's own HQ and the establishments of Ba Maw and Subhas Bose left by land, covered by the action of 105 Mixed Brigade at Pegu and proceeded to Moulmein.

On 1 May, a Gurkha parachute battalion was dropped on Elephant Point and cleared Japanese coastal defence batteries at the mouth of the Rangoon River.

The British had captured the Japanese plans from an officer killed making a final reconnaissance,[24] and had placed ambushes or artillery concentrations on the routes they were to use.

Fourteenth Army and XV Corps HQs had returned to India to plan the next stage of the campaign to re-take Southeast Asia.