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Battle of Elephant Point
The Battle of Elephant Point was an airborne operation conducted by a composite Gurkha airborne battalion that took place on 1 May 1945. In March 1945, plans were made for an assault on Rangoon, the capital of Burma, as a stepping-stone on the way to recapturing Malaya and Singapore. Initial plans for the assault on the city had called for a purely land-based approach by British Fourteenth Army, but concerns about heavy Japanese resistance led to this being modified with the addition of a joint amphibious-airborne assault. This assault, led by 26th Indian Division, would sail up the Rangoon River, but before it could do so, the river would have to be cleared of Japanese and British mines. In order to achieve this, coastal defences along the river would have to be neutralized, including a battery at Elephant Point.
This task was given to 44th Indian Airborne Division, but the division was in the middle of a reorganization, and as such a composite battalion was formed from two Gurkha parachute battalions. The battalion assembled and then trained throughout April, and then early in the morning of 1 May was dropped near Elephant Point. As it advanced towards the battery one of the battalion's companies was attacked by American bombers, causing a number of casualties. Despite this, and torrential rain, the battalion successfully assaulted Elephant Point and neutralized the battery there after a fierce firefight. It remained around Elephant Point until 2 May, when 26th Indian Division conducted its amphibious assault and secured Rangoon.
==Background==
(詳細はbattles of Meiktila and Mandalay were drawing to a close, a conference was held at Monywa in Burma, attended by senior Allied military figures including Admiral Lord Mountbatten, the commander in chief of the Allied South East Asia Command, and General William Slim, commander of Fourteenth Army. The object of the conference was to discuss future Allied strategy in South East Asia in the aftermath of Meiktila and Mandalay, including the reconquest of Burma and the retaking of Malaya and then Singapore. In order to secure these objectives however, Rangoon, the capital of Burma, would have to be captured before the onset of the monsoon rains, which would impede any Allied advance over land; the Allied Chiefs of Staff worked on the assumption that this would occur before June.〔Allen, p. 459〕 After Rangoon had fallen, a force of between four and five divisions would be landed in Western Malaya in an operation code-named Zipper, which would itself be followed by Mailfist, the capture of Singapore.〔Allen, p. 460〕
To accommodate all of these goals, Mountbatten insisted that Rangoon be taken by May.〔 Slim had initially planned to take the city in a pincer movement, with XXXIII Corps advancing towards the city down the east bank of the Irrawaddy river via Hlegu, and IV Corps taking a shorter route along the Sittang River valley to the east. Slim believed that the Japanese had insufficient forces to block both thrusts, and one of the corps would therefore be able to capture Rangoon.〔 However, Mountbatten was unsure that a purely overland advance would be successful, and that a joint airborne-amphibious assault would therefore be the better option. Slim and others, such as Slim's superior, General Oliver Leese (commander of Allied Land Forces, South East Asia), initially opposed such an operation, fearing that it would divert vital resources from Fourteenth Army. By the time of the meeting at Monywa, however, Slim had come around to Mountbatten's way of thinking, fearing that a purely overland advance would meet fierce Japanese resistance, as it had at Meiktila, and be delayed at the end of an overextended supply line. As such, a combined airborne and amphibious assault would be ideal as Fourteenth Army neared Rangoon, Slim arguing that it would be "a hammering at the back door while I burst in at the front."〔Allen, p. 461〕 On 2 April orders were issued for the operation to go ahead, with the proviso that Rangoon be in Allied hands by 5 May at the latest.〔Latimer, pp. 407–409〕
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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