I saw the first installment of Ken Burns’ eagerly anticipated “The War” last night and was not disappointed in the least.

The Kohima Memorial: “When you go home, tell them of us and say; For their tomorrow, we gave our today”

Episode 1 rocked. On that theme, and given my trip to the UK, I thought mutineers might be interested in an important, but lesser known (on this side of the pond) episode in WWII- the Battles of Kohima and Imphal.

These battles are important primarily because they marked the furthest advance of Imperial Japanese forces onto the Indian mainland. By holding back the Japanese in the highlands of Nagaland, combined British and Indian forces handed the imperial war machine its largest defeat thus far in the war and, perhaps more importantly, probably saved India from the savagery that had fallen upon China and Burma earlier.

In British war annals, the battle has a place in the history of WWII akin to America’s recollection of Guadalcanal. Earl Mountbatten referred to it as:

“probably one of the greatest battles in history… in effect the Battle of Burma… [was] the British/Indian Thermopylae”.

For desi’s, the historical record is somewhat controversial as the battles held the dubious honor of being the highpoint of activity by Subhash Bose’s Indian National Army in their alliance with the Axis powers.

Kohima is the capital of the Indian state of Nagaland and is ~400 miles north east of Calcutta over modern day Bangladesh. By this point in the war, British forces had been routed by the Japanese across China, the Pacific, and most of southeast Asia and they were determined to halt imperial advances at the gateway to India.

The Japanese, on the other hand, planned to capitalize on these massive victories with an “audacious” plan to drive the British from Asia altogether, the crown jewel being India. As recounted by the British -

…and so began the Japanese invasion of the Desh

The start of 1944 found the Japanese with a battle plan which was audacious, far-reaching, and simple. This was nothing less than a wholesale advance into India. All told, 100,000 troops were to march to the assault, first to seize the British bastions at Imphal and Kohima, and then to proceed another 30 miles northwards and put themselves astride the Bengal-Assam railway, the main supply road to General Stilwell and the Chinese. If all went well, they would by this time have virtually by-passed the 14th Army and left Stilwell out on a limb. India would then stretch before them, and their long-term plan was to move westwards to Calcutta - relying on political unrest in India to pave the way for their advance into the Delhi.

The fighting at Kohima saw the British / Indian forces face long odds, dynamic battles racing up and down hillsides, and nearly constant hand-to-hand combat -

…The garrison, which included a battalion of the Royal West Kent Regiment and a battalion of the Assam Regiment, was small - it mustered all told just over 1,500 men, including convalescent soldiers, civilians, and cooks. Against it was launched the full fury of the Japanese 31st Division, numbering 12,000 men.

For 14 days and nights the defenders of Kohima held the bridgehead to India. Now the eyes of the world were upon them because the Japanese had already made their usual enormous radio claims, among which was the one true one that they stood at last upon Indian soil.

…The Japanese finally withdrew on the night of June 6; the battle of Kohima was over. It had lasted 64 days and had seen some of the most stubborn and bloody fighting of the second world war. The

British and Nepali Gurkhas Advancing on Japanese Lines at Imphal

A decisive factor at Kohima was the Allied forces ability to secure provisions and men into the remote battlefield including the euphemistically-named Battle of the Tennis Court. Tenacious fighting, coupled with Japanese inability to resupply their troops eventually forced a retreat -
The decisive factor was the Japanese lack of supplies. Since the offensive started, they had had to make do with meager captured stocks and what they could forage in increasingly hostile local villages….The British and Indian forces had lost around 4,000 men, dead, missing and wounded. The Japanese had lost more than 5,000 men in the Kohima area fighting.

The Battle at Imphal happened at the same time as Kohima and although the territory wasn’t quite as strategic as Kohima, the terrain permitted far larger concentrations of men and material resulting in even more numerous casualties -

Of the 100,000 Japanese who raced with sword and grenade for Imphal, 50,000 were dead.

Imphal was also the venue for the most decisive action seen by Bose’s 40,000-strong Indian National Army who figured prominently in Japanese war plans including crucial flank defense & relief operations -

At the insistence of Bose, the Indian National Army made a substantial contribution. (Originally, the Japanese intended using them only for reconnaissance and propaganda.)

* Units of the First Division (initially the Subhas Brigade or 1st Guerrilla Regiment), less a battalion sent to the Arakan) was directed along Tamu road along with the Yamamoto Force. [1]

* The Special Services Group, redesignated as the Bahadur Group acted as scouts and pathfinders with the advanced Japanese units in the opening stages of the offensive. They were tasked to infiltrate through British lines and encourage units of the British Indian Army to defect. Fay quotes British Intelligence sources to confirm that these units achieved some success in these early stages.

…On the Japanese left flank, the INA’s Subhas Brigade, led by Col. Shah Nawaz Khan, reached the edge of the Chin Hills below Tiddim and Fort White at the end of March. From this position, the 2nd Battalion sent companies to relieve Japanese forces at Falam and to Hakha, from where in turn, Khan’s forces sent out patrols and laid ambushes for the Chin guerrilas under the command of a British officer, taking a number of prisoners. In the middle of May, a force under Khan’s Adjutant, Mahboob “Boobie” Ahmed, attacked and captured the hilltop fortress of Klang Klang.

Traitor, Useful Idiot, or RealPolitik-genius/casualty? The jury on Bose & the INA’s support of the Japanese is still out and controversial to say the least. I’ll refrain from this aspect of it for now to keep the focus on Kohima & Imphal-writ-large.

Regardless, the desi role in WWII is often overlooked. Unlike the other major combatants, Indians in the British Army were an all-volunteer force and their numbers (over 2.5M) made them one of the single largest force contingents in the war overall. And thankfully, decisive action at Kohima and Imphal helped ensure that, also unlike most other combatants, minimal combat would be seen on desi soil.

[related material — a pamphlet from the UK Ministry of Defense commemorating Kohima and a well written first hand account.]