A few miles from Kyaukpyu on Ramree Island, Burma, the men of 123rd Mechanical Equipment Corps and 702nd Mechanical Equipment Corps level a large area of ground in order to use it as a stores depot.

The 26th Indian Division use heavy mechanical equipment to flatten the area. A scraper moves from right to left. Lots of dust is thrown up and tractors can sometimes barely be seen through thick clouds of dust. The machines carry on working. A scraper is attached to a tractor; the attaching bolt is put in place by a shirtless soldier. More levelling is carried out and a driver operates the levers to drive a tractor.

Notes

Operations in the coastal Arakan region of Burma had been hampered by the lack of road or rail communications which made supply difficult. The capture of Akyab and Ramree provided the opportunity to set up forward logistical bases that could be supplied from the sea from places like Chittagong, thus relieving some of the logistical pressure. A note in official history adds 'The port of Kyaukpyu would have to maintain 36,000 men from February to May [1945] and handle the stores necessary to construct two all-weather airfields and to build up a stockpile of 22,000 tons; this represented a daily import of 450 tons in February and 650 from March to May'.