Their losses were to handicap their defence of Burma in the following year. In July, 1944, the Allied South East Asia Command began making definite plans for the reconquest of Burma. The Battle of Imphal was still being fought but it was clear that the Japanese would be forced to retreat with heavy casualties. One of the strategic options examined by South East Asia Command was an amphibious assault on Rangoon. This originally had the working name, Plan Z. (Plan X referred to the recapture of northern Burma only by the American-led Northern Combat Area Command with the limited objective of completing the Ledo Road linking China and India; Plan Y referred to an Allied offensive into Central Burma by the British Fourteenth Army.) Plan Z, which was to be developed into Operation Dracula, had several advantages. The loss of Rangoon would be even more disastrous for the Japanese in 1945 than it had been for the British in 1942. Not only was it the principal seaport by which the Japanese in Burma received supplies and reinforcements, but it lay very close to their other lines of communication with Thailand and Malaya. An advance by Allied forces north or east from Rangoon of only to Pegu or across the Sittang River would cut the Burma Railway and several major roads which were the only viable overland links for the Japanese with their forces in these countries. If Rangoon fell, the Japanese would therefore be compelled to withdraw from almost all of Burma, abandoning much of their equipment. However, the Allied planners considered that to mount an amphibious assault on the scale required would need resources (landing craft, escorting warships, engineering equipment) which would not be available until the campaign in Europe was concluded. (At the time, the Battle of Normandy was being fought, with its outcome still in doubt in some quarters). Operation Dracula was therefore postponed, and Plan Y (now codenamed Operation Capital) was adopted instead. When sufficient numbers of landing craft and other amphibious resources became available late in 1944, they were first used in operations in the Burmese coastal province of Arakan. Indian XV Corps, under Lieutenant General Sir Philip Christison, captured Akyab Island with its important airfield on 31 December 1944. In late January 1945, Allied troops landed on the Myebon peninsula and inflicted heavy casualties on retreating Japanese troops. Also on 21 January, Allied troops landed unopposed on Cheduba Island, and on Ramree Island which was cleared of Japanese troops only after a severe battle. Airfields were quickly constructed on these islands, allowing Fourteenth Army to be supplied by transport aircraft as it advanced into Central Burma.