Siege of Myitkyina

• 1. Introduction

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  The siege of Myitkyina began with a boast. General Joseph Stilwell predicted the coming battle for this town in Burma would be a feat which will live in military history. What made a jungle outpost worth that kind of promise? Why would a mixed force of Chinese soldiers, American raiders, and British jungle fighters spend months fighting for it? Stilwell got his battle, but not the quick one he expected. Rain, disease, and stubborn resistance turned a planned quick march into a siege that dragged on for months. It ended in a way that surprised even the men who fought it.

• 2. A Race For The Airstrip

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  Joseph Stilwell planned a rapid march on Myitkyina, aiming to seize the airstrip just outside town before the Japanese could reinforce it. In the China-Burma-India Theater, jungle terrain made roads nearly impossible, so an airfield meant reliable supplies and air support for the fighting ahead.

  Wei Lihuang, commanding the Chinese Expeditionary Force, played a central role in striking the Imperial Japanese Army during the campaign. Under him, Sun Li-Jen was the New 1st Army's second commander, one of the best units in the Chinese National Revolutionary Army.

  The New 1st Army had recently swapped equipment that had left troops poorly outfitted for combat. Soldiers traded old, unsuitable caps for US-supplied M1 helmets and set aside their bolt-action Type Zhongzheng rifles for newer American and British weapons. The Chinese Expeditionary Force also gained artillery and air support from the US and British for the first time. That gave them a real advantage against Japanese forces around Myitkyina, who were by then malnourished and low on morale.

  The Americans and British stayed mostly in a supporting role during the fighting. They still fielded active combat units of their own, including the famed Merrill's Marauders. Those Marauders would soon fight alongside the Chinese as the siege for Myitkyina got underway.

• 3. Storming The Airfield

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  On the 15th of March, Stilwell ordered the Chinese 22nd Division to advance against bridges the Japanese held outside Myitkyina. Two months of fighting followed before Myitkyina finally came within reach. The rainy season arrived during that stretch, and the rain did not let up until the 17th of May.

  That evening at 10:00 p.m., the Chinese Expeditionary Force struck the Japanese airstrip at Myitkyina alongside the US Army's Merrill's Marauders, backed by artillery. Eight Japanese planes were destroyed as the fighting quickly escalated.

  The Japanese, caught off guard and unsure where their attackers were, poured gasoline across the airfield to try to disable it. They then pulled back into Myitkyina itself, hoping to fight the Chinese and Americans on ground that favored them. The Chinese and American forces overran the airfield largely intact.

  US Army Air Forces and Royal Air Force C-47 Skytrain transports then ferried the Chinese 89th Regiment of the 30th Division into the fight. Those reinforcements supplemented CEF and Marauder units already exhausted from the fighting, still weeks away from the coming fight for Mogaung to the west.

• 4. The Long Stalemate

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  Throughout June, the fighting around Myitkyina settled into a stalemate that neither side could break. That stalemate ended when British Chindits under Mike Calvert captured Mogaung later in the month. The fall of Mogaung marked the beginning of the end for the Japanese garrison at Myitkyina.

  With their supply lines cut, the two local Japanese commanders at Myitkyina began arguing over how to carry out their defense orders. Stilwell wanted the Chindits to join his forces at Myitkyina, but disease and combat had worn their numbers down too far.

  Instead, Stilwell's reinforcements came from Francis Festing's 36th Division, whose elements began arriving at the Myitkyina airfield from the 15th of July. On learning that the Japanese garrison was weakening, Stilwell sent Festing's division not into Myitkyina itself but toward the Railway Corridor. That route advanced from Mogaung to Indaw on the right flank of the Northern Combat Area Command.

  On the 26th of July, the American 3rd Battalion of the Marauders captured the northern airfield at Myitkyina. That gain left Japanese resistance noticeably weaker over the following week, setting the stage for the Japanese command's next decision at the start of August.

• 5. A General's Last Order

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  On the 3rd of August, General Genzo Mizukami ordered Myitkyina abandoned. He then took his own life, in literal compliance with orders to defend Myitkyina to the death. As he did, Chinese and American forces moved through the city and its surrounding area, clearing out the remaining Japanese troops. The order closed the fight for Myitkyina, but the human toll was only beginning to be counted.

• 6. The Cost And The Road

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  The fighting at Myitkyina hit the Chinese Expeditionary Force especially hard, worn down by hard combat, short supplies, difficult terrain, and disease. Its casualties ran so high that the force effectively stopped functioning as a fighting unit and was disbanded afterward.

  Taking Myitkyina and its airfield, long delayed, finally allowed the Allies to open the Ledo Road, linking up with the old Burma Road into China.

  Among all the battles fought during the Chinese intervention in the Burma campaign, the casualties suffered at Myitkyina were the highest of any of them. Those losses fell on named formations like Zheng Dongguo's New 1st Army within Wei Lihuang's Chinese Expeditionary Force. Those same formations would carry the fight forward into the rest of the Burma campaign.