Battle of Elephant Point 1945
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 1 May 1945 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1945 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Location | Myanmar | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Operation Dracula | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 16.4500, 96.3200 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Elephant Point was an airborne operation at the mouth of the Rangoon River conducted by a composite Gurkha airborne battalion that took place on 1 May 1945. In March 1945, plans were made for an assault on Rangoon, the capital of Burma, as a stepping-stone on the way to recapturing Malaya and Singapore. Initial plans for the assault on the city had called for a purely land-based approach by British Fourteenth Army, but concerns about heavy Japanese resistance led to this being modified with the addition of a joint amphibious-airborne assault. This assault, led by 26th Indian Division, would sail up the Rangoon River, but before it could do so, the river would have to be cleared of Japanese and British mines. In order to achieve this, coastal defences along the river would have to be neutralized, including a battery at Elephant Point.
This task was given to the 44th Indian Airborne Division. However, as the division was in the middle of a reorganisation, a composite battalion was formed from two Gurkha parachute battalions. The battalion assembled and trained throughout April, and was then dropped near Elephant Point early in the morning of 1 May.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Elephant Point (revision 1380254903), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Yangon (1824) · 42 km
- Battle of Rangoon (1852) 1852 · 42 km
- Battle of Insein · 55 km
- Battle of Pegu 1942 · 73 km
- Battle of Sittang Bridge 1942 · 118 km
- Battle of Mepali Camp · 125 km
Browse more: battles in Myanmar · Asia · World War II era battles