Operation Saucy

'Saucy' was the Allied scaled-down version of 'Anakim' (i) adopted at the May 1943 'Trident' (3rd Washington) conference for implementation in the autumn of 1943 (summer 1943).

The plan called for a three-part Allied offensive southward through northern Burma against the northern formations of General Masakazu Kawabe’s Burma Area Army, with Lieutenant General W. J. Slim’s British 14th Army advancing to the south-east from Imphal, Lieutenant General Joseph W. Stilwell’s Chinese Army in India ('X' Force) to the south from Ledo, and General Chen Cheng’s (later General Wei Li-huang’s) Chinese 'Y' Force to the south-west from Yunnan. An advance in the Arakan region was to complement the British effort from Imphal.

Despite the fact that it would have resulted in the reopening of land communications with south-western China, the plan was greatly delayed and hampered by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, who wished to use Chinese forces more in China, and also to see a greater Allied (and particularly British) commitment to the war against the Japanese in Asia.