The Battle of Yenangyaung () was fought in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

, now

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

, during the Burma Campaign in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The battle of Yenaungyaung was fought in the vicinity of

Yenangyaung Yenangyaung ( my, ရေနံချောင်း; literally "stream of oil") is a city in the Magway Region of central Myanmar, located on the Irrawaddy River and 363 miles from Yangon. Until 1974, it remained the capital city of both Minbu Div ...

and its oil fields.

Background

After the Japanese captured Rangoon in March 1942, the Allies regrouped in Central Burma. The newly formed

Burma Corps The Burma Corps ('Burcorps') was an Army Corps of the Indian Army during the Second World War. It was formed in Prome, Burma, on 19 March 1942, took part in the retreat through Burma, and was disbanded on arrival in India in May 1942. History Bu ...

, commanded by Lieutenant General

William Slim William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

and consisting of British, Indian and locally raised Burmese troops, attempted to defend the

Irrawaddy River The Irrawaddy River ( Ayeyarwady River; , , from Indic ''revatī'', meaning "abounding in riches") is a river that flows from north to south through Myanmar (Burma). It is the country's largest river and most important commercial waterway. Origi ...

valley, while the

Chinese Expeditionary Force (in Burma) The Chinese Expeditionary Force () was an expeditionary unit of China's National Revolutionary Army that was dispatched to Burma and India in support of the Allied efforts against the Imperial Japanese Army during the Japanese invasion and oc ...

defended the

Sittaung River The Sittaung River ( my, စစ်တောင်းမြစ် ; formerly, the Sittang or Sittounghttps://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/UNGEGN/docs/8th-uncsgn-docs/inf/8th_UNCSGN_econf.94_INF.75.pdf ) is a river in south central Myanmar in Bago ...

valley to the east. After the Japanese captured Singapore and the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

, they were able to use divisions released by these successes and captured trucks to reinforce their army in Burma and launch attacks into Central Burma. One of the Japanese objectives in the Irrawaddy River valley was the

oil fields. The battle for the oil fields started on 10 April and continued for a week. The Japanese attacked 1st Burma Division on the Allied right and

48th Indian Infantry Brigade The 48th Infantry Brigade, was raised as the 48 Indian Infantry Brigade, in October 1941, at Secunderabad, India. After an initial tenure with 19th Indian Infantry Division, it was transferred to the 17th Indian Infantry Division. In Worl ...

at Kokkogwa at night in a storm and were repulsed with heavy casualties. On the next day, 2nd Royal Tank Regiment (2nd RTR) was in action near Magwe at Thadodan and Alebo. From 13 to 17 April, the British fell back under attacks by the Japanese. On several occasions Japanese roadblocks split the Burma Frontier Force (an internal security force acting as infantry),

1st Burma Division First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

, the British

7th Armoured Brigade 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion, mythology, s ...

HQ and 2nd RTR into three forces. On 15 April, Lieutenant General Slim gave orders for the oil fields and refinery to be demolished. The situation became so critical that General

Harold Alexander Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, (10 December 1891 – 16 June 1969) was a senior British Army officer who served with distinction in both the First and the Second World War and, afterwards, as Governor Ge ...

, commanding the Burma Army, asked Lieutenant General

Joseph Stilwell Joseph Warren "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell (March 19, 1883 – October 12, 1946) was a United States Army general who served in the China Burma India Theater during World War II. An early American popular hero of the war for leading a column walking ...

, the American commander of the

China Burma India Theater China Burma India Theater (CBI) was the United States military designation during World War II for the China and Southeast Asian or India–Burma (IBT) theaters. Operational command of Allied forces (including U.S. forces) in the CBI was officia ...

and Chief of Staff to

Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...

, to move the Chinese 38th Division immediately into the Yenaungyaung area.

Battle

On 16 April, almost 7,000 British soldiers, and 500 prisoners and civilians were encircled by an equal number of Japanese soldiers from the IJA 33rd Division at Yenangyaung and its oil field. The 33rd Division was able to advance between Slim's 17 Division at Taungdwingyi and the 1st Burma division south of Yenangyaung. Fearing that his BurCorps may become trapped, Slim called upon

Sun Li-jen Sun Li-jen (; December 8, 1900November 19, 1990) was a Chinese Nationalist (KMT) general, a graduate of Virginia Military Institute, best known for his leadership in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. His military achie ...

's Chinese 38th Division for help. General Sun requested to lead his entire division to the rescue of 1st Burma Division, but General

Lo Cho-ying Luo Zhuoying (; 19 March 1896 – 6 November 1961) was a Republic of China General (二級上將). He was active during the Second Sino-Japanese War and was later the Governor of Guangdong. Military career *1937 Commander in Chief 15th Army Grou ...

, commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in Burma, refused. On 17 April, General Sun instead led his 113th Regiment with only 1,121 men, of which only 800 were combat personnel, in the mission. Because the Chinese had no artillery or tanks, Lieutenant General Slim assigned the 7th Armoured Brigade, commanded by

Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. In ...

John Anstice Brigadier John Henry Anstice DSO & Bar (25 October 1897 – 10 February 1970) was a British Army officer who commanded numerous brigades during World War II. Military career Anstice was commissioned into the Royal Tank Corps on 7 April 1916 an ...

, to General Sun. The brigade consisted of two regiments (battalions) of

M3 Stuart The M3 Stuart/Light Tank M3, was an American light tank of World War II. An improved version of the tank entered service as the M5 in 1942 to be supplied to British and other Commonwealth forces under lend-lease prior to the entry of the U.S. ...

light tanks and a battery of 25-pounder guns. For the next three days the Chinese attacked southwards. The temperatures reached as high as and a pall of smoke from the demolished oil wells and refineries hung over the battlefield. Meanwhile, 1st Burma Division fought its way to and across the Pin Chaung river where they met with the relief column on 19 April. On the next day, the Chinese force attacked south toward Yenaungyaung and Pin Chaung. The attack caused the Japanese to suffer heavy casualties, but the Allied forces were too weak to hold the oil fields and had to retreat to the north.Slim, p.83

Results

For the British, according to Allen, "Deprived of a supply port at Rangoon, then of its source of fuel at Yenangyaung, the question was no longer whether to retreat, but where to?"

Notes

Sources

* Hsu Long-hsuen and Chang Ming-kai, ''History of The Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945)'', 2nd Ed., 1971. Translated by Wen Ha-hsiung, Chung Wu Publishing; 33, 140th Lane, Tung-hwa Street, Taipei, Taiwan Republic of China. Pg. 377 *

External links

*
Topographic map of Yenangyaung

Postcard "Battle of Yenangyaung"
* https://web.archive.org/web/20080306041004/http://www.science.uwaterloo.ca/~cchieh/sun/honor.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Yenangyaung, Battle Of Military history of Burma during World War II World War II operations and battles of the Southeast Asia Theatre 1942 in Burma Conflicts in 1942