Deployed along a vast semi-circular front, stretching from Wuhu, in the south, to Lanfeng, in the north, Japanese troops were yesterday re-Ported to be awaiting orders to start a drive on Hankow, The shortest distance between this are and the seat of the Nationalist Government was estimated at 320 kims.
Consolidating their line of attack, Japanese columns on Sunday and Monday occupied a series of strongholds on the Lunghai Railway and on a strategically important highway stretching north-westward from Mengcheng.
On the extreme right wings of the Japanese line, a column which Occupied Kweiteh on Sunday was yesterday rapidly nearing the Lanfeng area, where another Japanese force was locked in a deadly combat with picked units df the Chinese army:
Reports received. here on Monday claimed that the Chinese troops had begun a general withdrawal from the Lanfeng area the previous night.
From Lanfeng the Japanese line yesterday ran through—Pohsien, Kwoyang, Mengcheng, Hofei and Wuhu.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.