5332 (P) Long Range Penetration Group (Central Burma) 01/29/45-15-07-45

Overall, during OSS Detachment 101’s tenure in Burma, its forces eliminated over 5000 Japanese troops, assisted in rescuing over 300 downed Allied airmen, derailed 9 trains, blew up 56 bridges, destroyed 252 vehicles, and eliminated numerous dumps and other enemy installations. For Detachment 101’s superb performance, it was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation. However, it played only a minor supporting role in the final but decisive battle between the British 14-A and the bulk of the Japanese Burma Area Army. The battle for Burma entered its final stage on April 9, when the 14-A launched a two-pronged drive south down the Irrawaddy River, and the Sittang River, which flows parallel to the Irrawaddy about one hundred miles to the east. Led by armored columns that punched through thin crusts of resistance and bypassed more strongly held areas, the swift advance was convincing evidence that the enemy had spent himself in the Mandalay Meiktila area and was incapable of defending lower Burma. Allied tanks, trucks, and guns poured south along the highway to Rangoon, covering 124 miles in a week. In the valley of the Irrawaddy River, strong resistance near Prome, about 150 miles north of Rangoon, temporarily delayed the advance as the enemy battled desperately to hold open an escape route for its troops west of the river. The evacuation of Rangoon had already begun, and by the end of April, no appreciable enemy force remained in that city.

On May 2, within a few hours after paratroopers had been dropped, amphibious forces of the British 15th Corps landed at the mouth of the Rangoon River. Meeting only a small enemy rearguard, the troops proceeded up the river to Rangoon on the following day. On May 6, the 15th Corps linked up with advanced elements of the 14-A twenty miles north of the city. Heavy rains, precursors of the monsoon, flooded streams and retarded the remainder of Gen Slim’s forces advancing down the Irrawaddy corridor. Nearly another two weeks passed before the bulk of the 14-A could join with the 15th Corps, northwest of Rangoon. By then, Japanese forces in Burma were split into three groups: one division from the 28-A still remained west of the Irrawaddy; the rest of the 28-A was in the hills between the Irrawaddy and Sittang Rivers; and a third group, composed of remnants of the 15-A and the 33-A, was generally east of the Sittang River. The remaining months of the war saw repeated and violent attacks by the Japanese in the two pockets west of the Sittang to open an escape route to the east. The arrival of the monsoon in Burma and the desperate attempts of the surrounding Japanese forces to break through the British cordons prevented any large-scale British advance east of the Sittang. By June 18, the Japanese pockets had shrunk, and by August, the Japanese 28-A had ceased to exist. During the fifteen-month period of the Japanese Imphal campaign and the Allied counteroffensive, 97.000 dead enemies had been counted. The fighting on the main front in Burma ended when Japan surrendered to the Allies in August. But for several weeks afterward, isolated groups of the enemy, unaware of the cessation of hostilities, continued to give battle. The formal capitulation of all Japanese armed forces in southeastern Asia, including those in Burma, finally took place at Singapore on September 12, 1945.