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The Battle of Hill 170 was a battle between the British 3rd Commando Brigade and the Japanese 54th Division during the Second World War. The battle was fought in January 1945, as part of the Burma Campaign. The 3rd Commando Brigade were given the task of assaulting the Arakan Peninsula at Myebon. Here they were to take and hold the dominant features of the southern Chin Hills. If they could achieve this, they would cut off the supply and escape routes of the Japanese to Rangoon and secure the bridgehead. The battle for Hill 170 was the climax of the Arakan operations, and its outcome broke the spirit of the Japanese 54th Division. Had the commandos' positions fallen, this would have endangered all the Allied units that had landed on the Myebon Peninsula. After the battle, the commander of the XV Indian Corps—Lieutenant General Sir Philip Christison—stated in a special order of the day to the 3rd Commando Brigade, "The Battle of Kangaw had been the decisive battle of the whole Arakan campaign and that it was won was very largely due to your magnificent defence of Hill 170."〔 ==Background== In late December 1944, XV Indian Corps—commanded by Lieutenant General Christison—went on the offensive, and on 29 December the 3rd Commando Brigade—then commanded by Brigadier Campbell Hardy—carried out an unopposed landing on the island of Akyab.〔Saunders, p.310〕 Following this reconnaissance, operations were undertaken around the Myebon Peninsula and on the surrounding islands. During one of these patrols, a group of commandos from No. 5 Commando had a brief contact with a Japanese force during which they killed four Japanese without suffering loss themselves. On 12 January 1945, the commando brigade carried out a landing on the peninsula. Coming ashore in the second wave behind No. 42 (Royal Marine) Commando, No. 5 Commando carried the advance inland until they came under machine gun fire from a hill that had been named 'Rose' by the planning staff.〔 The following morning, after air support was called in and tanks from the 19th Lancers were brought up, No. 5 Commando launched an attack on the position. In the end, the attack was successful and as a result of the defenders deciding to fight to the death, no prisoners were taken.〔 For the next couple of days, No. 5 Commando carried out patrols throughout the peninsula as the enemy were cleared from the area, before they were withdrawn to the beachhead for a couple of days' rest. After this, the brigade captured the village of Kantha as a preliminary move on Kangaw,〔Saunders, p.312〕 across a number of waterways on the mainland, where Christison had decided that he wanted to cut the Japanese line of withdrawal. The terrain was difficult with no roads, and consisting of mangrove swamps and rice paddies that prevented tanks or artillery coming ashore initially. The whole area was dominated by a small wooded ridge known as Hill 170.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Hill 170」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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