Qualla: Battle of Pakokku and Irrawaddy River Operations

Battle of Pakokku and Irrawaddy River Operations: Introduction

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Irrawaddy River in central Burma is 2,000 yards wide in its middle stretches, threaded with shifting sandbars that make any crossing treacherous. In February 1945, General William Slim needed to get an army across it. The Japanese had been shattered at Kohima and Imphal the previous year -- fifty thousand dead -- but they still held the far bank, and a direct opposed crossing would have been a bloodbath. What Slim devised instead was one of the war's great deceptions: a feint in the north to draw Japanese attention toward Mandalay, while the real blow fell in the south, at a town called Pakokku, where Gurkha riflemen would fight their way to the river's edge and open the door to victory in Burma.

Battle of Pakokku and Irrawaddy River Operations: Three Hundred Miles Through the Monsoon

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The plan required the 7th Indian Infantry Division to move nearly 300 miles south through the Gangaw Valley, seize a bridgehead at Pakokku, and then strike southeast toward Meiktila -- the railway junction whose capture would sever Japanese supply lines across central Burma. The ...

Battle of Pakokku and Irrawaddy River Operations: The Fight for Kahnla

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On February 5, 1945, three companies of 4/5 GR moved to encircle the village of Kahnla on the Irrawaddy's southern bank. Japanese defenders held strong positions there and had been shelling the approaching troops. Captain Fisher, Major I.M. Brown, and the commanding officer, Lieu...

Battle of Pakokku and Irrawaddy River Operations: Crossing Under Fire

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

With Pakokku secured, the river crossing began on February 14. The 7th Division pushed across on a wide front at Nyaung-U, just north of the ancient capital of Pagan with its thousands of Buddhist temples. A secondary crossing was attempted at Pagan itself. Both were initially di...

Battle of Pakokku and Irrawaddy River Operations: The Road to Rangoon

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

By February 20, the bulk of Allied forces were across the Irrawaddy and driving toward Meiktila, exactly as Slim had planned. The capture of Pakokku opened the way for the 17th Indian Infantry Division to push through, and the seizure of Meiktila cut the Japanese army in central ...

Battle of Pakokku and Irrawaddy River Operations: The End of an Army

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

While these actions played out along the Irrawaddy, the Battle of Mandalay had been decided. The Japanese army in Burma, except for forces east of the Sittang River, had ceased to exist as an organized fighting force. Rangoon fell on May 2, 1945, bringing General Slim's campaign ...