写真 Pictures of Ramou/ Songshan Today 現在の拉孟・松山戦場

I just returned from a five-week climbing trip in the Himalayas. I took about three days to fly from Kuming to Baoshan and then hired a car and went looking for adventure. I visited the Huitong Bridge 恵通橋 and followed as closely as I could the Burma Road up to Ramou. I then approached on foot to by-pass most of the (deserted) tourist monuments to approach from all sides of the mountain about 100 metres from the summit. I saw what most do not see, the many remnants of the Chinese saps made to assault the Japanese positions. The furious nature of battle is very much evident…. still after 75 years.

While many parts of the Burma Road have been obliterated in the name of development, the sections near the bridge are still visible with their original cuttings beside the Salween (Nujiang River 怒江) River. The eastern side of the river has the original road traversing up and and over the ridge. It has been abandoned in favour of the newer roads in the valley.

The Huitong Bridge is no longer used and in spite of the memorial, appears to have few visitors. I was there for the better part of two hours and only had three stray, and rather friendly dogs to keep me company. There is a new bridge downriver and a major new bridge being constructed just up river. This latter monstrosity will cleave the jungle-filled valley and leave a rather nasty scar on the landscape.

Rod Szasz,  0ctober 30, 2017

 

 

 

Japanese Battle Map… need to translate this some time

Japanese mortar position

Chinese sap leading to main ridge

Pill box on bridge. Post war addition

Huitong Bridge today. Gate broken, security camera broken and no one around …. at all…

Songshan memorial

Japanese positions in defile behind Matsuyama

Huitong Bridge

American Volunteers Memorial

Main ridge position

Memorial to Nationalist Troops

First position I found after walking away from the trail. Japanese main position behind ridge on Songshan

Burma Road original cutting

X-Force Memorial

Chinese sap

Huitong Bridge memorial. Deteriorating and no one around.

Main memorial

Original Songshan memorial. Was dismantled during the cultural revolution.

Original memorial board

Main Japanese trench behind ridge. Very narrow but very deep, even with the amount of degradation and sloughing off of earth into the trench it is still deep.

Chinese sap. Note the pine posts and the bamboo struts. This covers an exposed part of the approach

KMT Memorial

Chinese sap under Japanese positions. This one collapsed and soldier remain entombed. Hence the lock.

X-Force Memorial

Songshan/Matsuyama from positions on the Burma Road south of the main Japanese position

X-Force Memorial

KMT Memorial. There are American Troop representations behind this group as well.

Beer and fried goat cheese!

Japanese defence diagram

KMIT Memorial

Main Japanese position just behind the ridge.

Main Songshan Memorial

General Stilwell statue. Doesn’t look like him… but good nonetheless.