Capital of Burma, Rangoon (96.17E 16.77N) was the port through which all Lend-Lease supplies were shipped to China. It was also a major oil port, with a refinery and storage tanks for oil produced in the Irrawady Valley. The Irrawady Delta was ideal for rice production, and Burma was the third largest exporter of rice in the world prior to the Pacific War.
When war broke out, Rangood was protected by a battalion each of British regulars and Burmese native troops. The city came under air attack starting on 23 December 1941. It was evacuated by the British and occupied by the Japanese 33rd Division on 7 March 1942.
Following its conquest, Japan imported up to 560,000 tons of rice per year from Rangoon before the submarine blockade cut off shipments.
Following the fall of Mandalay
on 20 March
1945, Slim found himself in
a race to reach Rangoon and end the Burma
campaign before the monsoon
arrived. This required his forces to race
past any strong pockets of resistance and rely on resupply by air. This
was a
risky strategy, but it worked. Although the monsoon hit when the
British troops were still 50 miles north of Rangoon, at Pegu, a British amphibious force landed
on 2 May to find the Japanese had evacuated the city.
The final advance on Rangoon was preceded by Operation
CHARACTER, on 18 April 1945, in which a substantial commando force was inserted behind
the Japanese lines to gather intelligence
and disrupt the Japanese lines of communication. The operation was
highly successful, killing an
estimated 10,000 Japanese troops at the cost of sixty British commandos.
Climate Information:
Elevation 18'
Temperatures: Jan 89/65, Apr 97/76, Jul 85/76, Oct 88/76, record 106/68
Rainfall: Jan 0.3/0.1, Apr 2/2.0, Jul 26/22.9, Oct 10/7.1 == 103.0" per annum
References
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2010 by Kent G. Budge. Index