4/3/45. A Chinese infantryman (foreground) watches elephants carrying supplies along the Stilwell road for Chinese troops battling the Japanese in Burma. Following the liberation of Mandalay by British and Indian troops on March 20, 1945, Chinese forces northeast of this principal base in central Burma, completed clearing the Lashio-Hsipaw section of the road between Lashio and Mandalay. The loss of Mandalay by the Japanese was a crushing defeat in their battle to maintain supply centers on the Asiatic continent.