Battle of Pokoku and Irrawaddy River operations
The Battle of Pakokku and Irrawaddy River operations were a series of battles fought between the British Indian Army and the Imperial Japanese Army and allied forces over the successful Allied Burma campaign on the China Burma India Theater during World War II. The battles and operations were instrumental in facilitating the eventual capture of Rangoon in summer 1945.
A Lee tank loaded onto a pontoon ferry by British troops before crossing the Irrawaddy River at Ngazun, 28 February 1945
Men of the Dorset Regiment crossing the Irrawaddy River
33rd Division (Imperial Japanese Army)
The 33rd Division was an infantry division of the Imperial Japanese Army. Its call sign was the Bow Division . The 33rd Division was raised in Utsunomiya, Tochigi prefecture, simultaneously with 32nd, 34th, 35th, 36th and 37th Divisions. Its headquarters were initially in Sendai. It was raised from conscripts largely from the northern KantÅ prefectures of Tochigi, Ibaraki and Gunma.
Soldiers of the 33rd division occupying the oilfields at Yenangyaung, 1942