Where was Elephant Point in WWII?

Elephant Point was in Burma, the country now officially known as Myanmar. It lay near the mouth of the Rangoon River, close to Rangoon, Burma’s major port and capital during the Second World War.

The Battle of Elephant Point took place on 1 May 1945 as part of Operation Dracula, the Allied plan to recapture Rangoon from Japanese forces. A composite Gurkha airborne battalion parachuted onto the area and attacked a Japanese coastal battery protecting the river approaches. Despite heavy rain and a friendly-fire incident, the airborne force neutralised the position.

The operation helped clear the way for an amphibious assault by the 26th Indian Division on 2 May. Japanese troops had already largely withdrawn from Rangoon, so the city was occupied with little resistance. The episode belongs to the Burma campaign, a long Allied struggle to reopen routes through Southeast Asia and threaten Japanese positions in Malaya and Singapore.