BATTLE OF ASIA: Stars for Stilwell

In the monsoon-drenched jungles of Burma, an eleven-week campaign was ended and a new star pasted to the record of leathery Lieut. General Joseph W. Stilwell. His weary Chinese troops wrenched the last stubborn defender from the railhead village of Myitkyina. Thus fell the last Japanese stronghold in north Burma. Now Stilwell had only to hold off the Japs and bulldoze through 70 miles of jungle and mountain to complete his project for 1944—to reopen a road from India supply bases to China (see map).

Red Lights, Green Troops. On May 17 Stilwell’s top assistant, Brigadier General Frank Merrill, with Chinese and a few American veterans, completed a 20-day march over mountains and through jungles. They pounced on the Myitkyina airstrip, two miles south of the town, held it while gliders and transport planes piled in with a division of fresh Chinese troops. Unfortunately, they were too fresh.

Still unused to battle, the Chinese advanced through Myitkyina then were driven out. Their retreat ended short of the airfield, but it gave the Japanese time to burrow for a long, costly struggle.

In last week’s final assault, most of Merrill’s Marauders were missing from Stilwell’s American spearhead (see ARMY & NAVY). His assault force was three Chinese divisions and a few U.S. combat engineers. In preparation for the attack, Chinese dug trenches through Japanese machine-gun fields, and Americans flew in a five-ton 155-mm. howitzer—the biggest gun ever used in the battle. When the assault burst out, the jig was up.

From the East. Myitkyina was the easternmost end of the road to China. Already from Yunnan province another road was being freed to complete the route. Chinese forces who held that stretch had crossed the Salween River and last week were fighting for the road town of Tengyueh. With crude ladders they scaled the ancient walls built in Marco Polo’s day, turned modern flamethrowers on the Japanese defenders. At week’s end they had occupied the inner defenses. Between Tengyueh and Myitkyina there were no Japs at all.

For old “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell the capture of Myitkyina was his second star in a week. Few days before Myitkyina fell, President Roosevelt nominated the 61-year-old veteran to be a full general. When the Senate confirms it, Stilwell will join a rank held by only five other Americans in active service.*

* George C. Marshall, Henry H. Arnold, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, Malin D. Craig.