(The staff article from the British National Army Museum.)
The Battle of Imphal/Kohima, when British troops
fighting in horrendous jungle conditions turned the tide against the Japanese
army in World War II, has been chosen as Britain’s greatest battle.
Imphal/Kohima was picked over the more celebrated battles of D-Day and Waterloo
in a contest organised by the National Army Museum.
The Battles of
Imphal and Kohima was a crucial turning point in the attempted Japanese
invasion of India during World War Two. By October 1942 Singapore, Hong-Kong,
Malaysia and Burma had all fallen to the Japanese; the Imperial army looked
unbeatable.
Yet it was then, when morale was at its lowest, that the new British commander Bill Slim set about reforming and rebuilding the Anglo-Indian British army. Slim aimed to revive Allied fortunes in the region – something many believed was an impossible task.
Meanwhile,
Japanese commander Renya Mutaguchi had ambitious plans of his own: the conquest
of British India. To initiate this plan the Japanese first had to capture one
key strategic town: Imphal, the gateway to India. The very close-run battles
that followed - fought between March and July 1944 - were clashes on epic
proportions as each side attempted to execute a master plan of their respective
visionary generals.
If they
succeeded, Slim knew the British would have a strong base from where they could
commence their reconquest of Burma and quell the rise of Japan. If they failed,
then the gates to all British India would be open to the Japanese army. The
eventual, hard-fought Anglo-Indian victory proved the turning point in the
Burma campaign and paved the way for the British-led reconquest of Burma and
the eventual Allied victory in south-east Asia.
The context
In the days and
weeks that followed, the Japanese invaded European colonies across East Asia,
including the British territories of Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore and Burma.
They hoped to create a fortified perimeter around a self-sufficient Japan,
which could be defended until the Allies tired of war.
The British had
long thought a Japanese land invasion of Burma unlikely, so its defences had
been neglected. When the attack began in January 1942, the British position
quickly deteriorated. By March, the capital Rangoon and its vital port had been
lost.
As the Japanese
pushed northwards, the surviving Allied troops carried out a five-month
fighting retreat to India across 1,000 miles (1,600km) of difficult terrain.
SEAC
In November 1943,
a new phase of the war in the Far East began with the formation of South East
Asia Command (SEAC) under Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten. SEAC replaced India
Command in control of operations. Under its leadership, the prosecution of the
war took on a new energy.
Previously,
British troops had fallen back when the Japanese cut their lines of
communication, and operations had practically ceased during the monsoon. Now,
the policy was to stand firm and rely on air supply when cut off, and to fight
on through the harshest conditions.
Japanese offensive
With Imphal in
their hands, the Japanese would be able to interrupt air supplies to China. It
would also give them a base from which to conduct air attacks against India.
A Japanese
diversionary attack in the Arakan was defeated at the battle of the Admin Box.
But in early April, the troops at Kohima and Imphal were surrounded.
The armies
The plan to
attack Imphal originated with Lieutenant-General Renya Mutaguchi (1888-1966), a
veteran of campaigns in China, Malaya and Singapore. He led three Japanese
divisions and one Indian National Army division.
Mutaguchi was
stubborn and quarrelled with his divisional commanders during the campaign. The
31st Division, sent to attack Kohima, was led by Lieutenant-General Kotoku Sato
(1893-1959). He considered Mutaguchi to be a ‘blockhead’.
Lieutenant-General
Geoffrey Scoones (1893-1975) commanded 4th Corps at Imphal. This included the
17th, 20th and 23rd Indian Divisions. The 5th Indian Division, which was
airlifted in as the battle developed, joined them there.
Colonel Hugh
Richards (d.1983), formerly of the Chindits, commanded the 2,500-strong Kohima
garrison. Lieutenant-General Montagu Stopford (1892-1971) led 33rd Corps, which
relieved Kohima and Imphal.
Overall command
of British-Indian forces during the campaign fell to Lieutenant-General William
Slim (1891-1970), commander of Fourteenth Army. Slim was responsible for
restoring the morale of the soldiers after the setbacks of 1942-43.
He emphasised
the need for jungle warfare training and the use of more aggressive tactics
that included the formation by surrounded units of defensive 'boxes' that were
supplied by air.
The battle
Imphal, the
capital of Manipur state, lay in a plain surrounded by hills and was the main
British base in the area. It was held by Scoones’ 4th Corps. Mutaguchi’s plan
relied on his men quickly annihilating 4th Corps and seizing its supplies
before his own communications and logistics broke down.
The Japanese
33rd Division would cut off the 17th Indian Division south of Imphal. Shortly
afterwards, the 15th Division would attack from the north-east, severing the
road to Kohima, some 80 miles (120km) away in Nagaland. Sato’s 31st Division
would simultaneously surround Kohima to prevent any relief from Dimapur, which
was a further 40 miles (64km) to the north.
Kohima surrounded
The Japanese
offensive started well. On 29 March, they cut the Imphal-Kohima road and almost
surrounded the 17th Division. Next, they quickly isolated the hilltop town of
Kohima, capturing all but the central ridge by mid-April.
Colonel Hugh
Richards had hastily organised a scratch force from his 2,500-strong garrison,
many of whom were non-combatants. It was built around 4th Battalion, The
Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment and the Assam Regiment. Elements of 161st
Indian Brigade, stationed at Jotsoma two miles to the west, also reinforced the
Kohima defenders.
At close-quarter
Faced by 15,000
Japanese, the British-Indian troops held a tight defensive perimeter centred on
Garrison Hill. Between 5 and 18 April, Kohima saw some of the bitterest
close-quarter fighting of the war.
In one sector,
only the width of the town’s tennis court separated the two sides. When, on 18
April, the relief forces of the British 2nd Division arrived, Richards’s
defensive perimeter was reduced to a shell-shattered area only 350 metres
square.
Relief
Mutaguchi had
underestimated his enemy’s defensive skills. Likewise, he misjudged the Allies’
ability to bring up reinforcements.
Mountbatten had
immediately despatched the 2nd Division from India by road and rail to Dimapur.
There, it joined Stopford’s 33rd Corps for the bitterly contested march to
relieve Kohima. On 14 April, the British broke the Japanese roadblock at Zubza
and reached Kohima four days later.
Link up
Despite the
arrival of the reinforcements, the battle continued to rage around Kohima until
mid-May, when Sato’s division began to withdraw. Stopford's men, assisted by
2nd Division, then cleared the road to Imphal. On 22 June, they linked up with
4th Corps, which had been under siege since 5 April.
The Japanese
made several attacks against Imphal’s defensive perimeter, particularly on the
Nungshigum heights and in the Palel area. But the 5th, 17th, 20th and 23rd
Indian Divisions held firm.
‘The fighting all around its circumference was
continuous, fierce, and often confused as each side manoeuvred to outwit and
kill. There was always a Japanese thrust somewhere that had to be met and
destroyed. Yet, the fighting did follow a pattern. The main encounters were on
the spokes of the wheel, because it was only along these that guns, tanks, and
vehicles could move.’
Field Marshal
William Slim recalling the Imphal fighting, 1956
Logistics
The Allies'
logistical and communications superiority were key. They had not only allowed
the quick deployment of reinforcements from Dimapur, but also the airlifting of
5th Indian Division and its equipment from the Arakan to Imphal in only two
days.
During the
battle, the Royal Air Force flew in nearly 19,000 tons of supplies and over
12,000 men, and evacuated around 13,000 casualties. Continually supplied by
air, the garrisons threw back the Japanese attacks in bitter close-quarter
fighting until the relief forces reached them.
‘Allied air supply… permitted ground forces in Burma
to consolidate their positions without being forced to retreat and thus
rendered [our] infiltration and encircling tactics abortive.’
Major-General
Ichida, Japanese Army, 1945
Casualties
The Japanese
could have withdrawn fairly easily had Mutagachi not persevered long after it
was clear the offensive had failed.
His plan had
relied on using captured supplies. When these were not forthcoming, his men
starved in the worst of the monsoon conditions.
The Japanese
15th Army, 85,000-strong, eventually lost 53,000 dead and missing. The British
sustained 12,500 casualties at Imphal, while the fighting at Kohima cost them another
4,000 casualties.
The consequences
Imphal-Kohima
was one of the biggest defeats the Japanese Army ever suffered. Mutaguchi was
relieved of command, recalled to Tokyo, and finally forced into retirement in
December 1944. That same month, Slim, Scoones and Stopford were knighted by the
viceroy of India, Lord Wavell, in a ceremony at Imphal.
After their
defensive victory, the British planned a new offensive aimed at clearing the
last Japanese forces from northern Burma and driving them south towards
Mandalay and Meiktila.
Fighting through
the monsoon and supplied by air, troops of the Fourteenth Army now crossed the
River Chindwin. The 15th Corps took Akyab in the Arakan, while 4th and 32nd
Corps won bridgeheads across the River Irrawaddy. After fierce fighting,
Meiktila and Mandalay were captured in March 1945.
The route south
to Rangoon now lay open. 4th Corps was only 30 miles (48km) from the city when
it fell to a combined air and seaborne operation in early May.
The legacy
The Commonwealth
War Graves Commission cemetery at Imphal contains 1,600 graves. The one at
Kohima holds 1,420. There are also several monuments to British and Indian
units that fought at Kohima, as well as the Kohima Cremation Memorial
commemorating the 917 Hindus and Sikhs killed there.
Kohima War
Cemetery lies on the slopes of Garrison Hill and also contains the British 2nd
Division’s memorial. The inscription on the latter has become famous as the
‘Kohima Epitaph’.
‘When You Go Home, Tell Them of Us and Say, For Your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today.’
'Kohima
Epitaph', John Maxwell Edmonds, 1944