Operation Dracula - Allied Plans

Allied Plans

In July, 1944, the Allied South East Asia Command began making definite plans for the reconquest of Burma. The Battle of Imphal was still being fought but it was clear that the Japanese would be forced to retreat with heavy casualties.

One of the strategic options examined by South East Asia Command was an amphibious assault on Rangoon. This originally had the working name, Plan Z. (Plan X referred to the recapture of northern Burma only by the American-led Northern Combat Area Command with the limited objective of completing the Ledo Road linking China and India; Plan Y referred to an Allied offensive into Central Burma by the British Fourteenth Army.)

Plan Z, which was to be developed into Operation Dracula, had several advantages. The loss of Rangoon would be even more disastrous for the Japanese in 1945 than it had been for the British in 1942. Not only was it the principal seaport by which the Japanese in Burma received supplies and reinforcements, but it lay very close to their other lines of communication with Thailand and Malaya. An advance by Allied forces north or east from Rangoon of only 40 miles (64 km) to Pegu or across the Sittang River would cut the Burma Railway, the only viable overland link for the Japanese with their forces in these countries. If Rangoon fell, the Japanese would therefore be compelled to withdraw from almost all of Burma, abandoning much of their equipment.

The Allied planners decided, however, that to mount an amphibious assault on the scale required would need resources (landing craft, escorting warships, engineering equipment) which would not be available until the campaign in Europe was concluded. (At the time, the Battle of Normandy was being fought, with its outcome still in doubt in some quarters). Operation Dracula was therefore postponed, and Plan Y (now codenamed Operation Capital) was adopted instead.

When landing craft and other amphibious resources became available late in 1944, they were first used in operations in the Burmese coastal province of Arakan, capturing Akyab Island, with its important airfield, and Ramree Island where other airfields were constructed, allowing the British Fourteenth Army to be supplied by transport aircraft as it advanced into Central Burma. It was then intended that the landing craft be used to capture islands off the Thai Kra Isthmus, as stepping stones for an ultimate attack on Singapore.