Conflict: World War II
Combatants: British vs. Japanese
Location: Burma
Outcome: Japanese victory
In January of 1942, the Japanese Fifteenth Army invaded British-held Burma from Thailand. The Japanese, commanded by Lieutenant General Shojiro Iida, began advancing westward across Burma with some heavy air support and a few groups of indigenous revolutionaries. These forced the outnumbered British, Burmese, and Indian defenders to retreat first across the Salween River (January 30th-31st) and then across the Sittang (February 18th).
British commander Lieutenant General Thomas Hutton's troops were engaged in retreating across the sole Sittang bridge when Japanese troops executed an envelopment by fording the river. Hutton's troops were forced to immediately destroy the bridge, stranding nearly half of the British and allied troops. Most of the troops succeeded in fording the river but had to abandon all heavy equipment.
Points of Interest:
Burmese Aung San led a group of revolutionaries called the "Thirty Comrades" who engaged in sabotage behind British lines and instigated local uprisings.
General Iida would be captured by the Soviets in Manchuria in 1945. He was not released from imprisonment until 1950.
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Sources:
Dupuy, Trevor N., Johnson, Curt, & Bongard, David L. (1992). The Harper's Encyclopedia of Military Biography. New York: Castle Books (HarperCollins).
Dupuy, R. Ernest & Dupuy, Trevor N. (1993). The Harper's Encyclopedia of Military History. New York: HarperCollins.
Eggenberger, David (1985). An Encyclopedia of Battles: Accounts of Over 1,560 Battles from 1479 B.C. to the Present. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.