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Not Many Men. It was never a battle of great numbers. The biggest body of British troops reported in the retreat from Rangoon was 1,000, and they had with them all the British mechanized equipment in Burma. The largest British force reported in action last week was 7,000. There were also a few thousand Indian troops, and two or three battalions of native Burmese riflemen, who were the exceptions to the Burmese natives' general indifference or hostility. The R.A.F had very little in the air at the start, practically nothing after a few weeks of combat. Because the Jap advance threatened the Burma Road to China, Chiang Kai-shek detailed his American Volunteer Group to Burma's air defense. The A.V.G. destroyed scores of Jap planes, but lost its own as well. By last week the A.V.G. was using any old crate at hand. Finally, the Japanese faced not more than three divisions of Chinese infantry, perhaps 40,000 men.
What Is Left? Southern Burma is gone. The oilfields around Yenangyaung are gone. The coast whence the Japs can move across the Bay of Bengal to India is largely gone. But the Allies still have something to fight for in Burma.
The mere existence of a fighting force in upper Burma is invaluable to the defense of India. If they have an active enemy in their rear, the Japanese cannot complacently advance on India.
Burma is a gateway to China's roads. If the Japs drive on to Mandalay—they were only 75 miles away early this week—and successfully entrench themselves in all northern Burma, they will have a new front on China's borders. But Jap conquest of Burma is mainly dangerous to the Chinese because of the great new land routes abuilding from India into China. The Japs choked off the Burma Road when they won Rangoon; if they win access to the northern roads, they might all but choke China.
Yet China might still not be altogether cut off. The U.S. is now equipping a great air-transport line, to fly war goods from India to China. The Japs were never able to ground China National Aviation Corp. by air attack. C.N.A.C.'s best pilots are helping to establish the India-China service, and they think that it can be maintained and steadily increased, unless the Japanese capture the bases at both ends.
What Next? Early May brings the rains to Burma. Southern Burma will be a green, cooled land for the invaders. Its rice paddies will be lakes, many of its roads will be bogs. But the best roads will still be usable, for bringing up supplies to the troops in the north. So will the Rangoon-Mandalay railroad; so will the rivers, except when they are flooded. In the north, where the fighting is headed, the monsoon will not halt combat. If the monsoon has any real military effect, it will be in the Bay of Bengal. In monsoon time the Bay and its air are stormy and perilous.