The Japanese had scored a decisive success here in early 1943, striking at the flanks and rear of badly trained and exhausted Allied units.

Twenty-Eighth army used the monsoon to construct the An track across the hills between Central Burma and Arakan, making it easier to supply their troops there.

The retreating troops were intercepted by Allied forces which had landed from the sea on the Myebon peninsula, and suffered heavy casualties.

Although the 28th Army subsequently held the An track and the pass linking the port of Taungup to Prome on the Irrawaddy, a regiment was destroyed on Ramree Island (14 January – 22 February 1945).

They were eventually trapped in the Pegu Yomas, a range of low, forested hills between the Irrawaddy and the Sittang River, reduced to approximately 20,000 men.