Edwards - Kohima: the furthest battle: the story of the Japanese invasion of India in 1944 and the British-Indian Thermopylae

KOHIMA

THE FURTHEST BATTLE

I was close to Harman when I heard him say to his section, Right. Give me covering fire. He fixed his bayonet and charged the short distance down the hill, firing as he went. He shot two or three Japanese, bayoneted another and the rest ran away. As he came back up the hill he was shot, probably in the back, as Japanese opened up from the other side of a gulley he was in.

Major Donald Easten, Royal West Kents, describes the death of Lance-Corporal Harman VC, Easter Sunday, 1944.

It smelt to high heaven and was littered with kit. Flies were now so thick on this battered, barren and debris-scattered hillside, that complete corpses could be almost buried by them. They were everywhere, and were now content to sit on the mudblood hill itself. None of us ever saw a bird of any description up there. Jail Hill was, in fact, the acme of desolation, as, of course, was most of Kohima.

Major Michael Lowry, 1st Battalion, The Queens Royal Regiment

Sieges have been longer, but few have been more intense, and in none have the defenders deserved greater honour, than the garrison of Kohima.

Field Marshal William Joseph Bill Slim, 1st Viscount Slim, KG, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, GBE, DSO, MC, KStJ

KOHIMA

THE FURTHEST BATTLE

THE STORY OF THE JAPANESE
INVASION OF INDIA IN 1944 AND THE
BRITISH-INDIAN THERMOPYLAE

LESLIE EDWARDS

Back cover:After the battle. Looking towards the Naga village from Garrison Hill.

First published 2009

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2013

All rights reserved

Leslie Edwards, 2009, 2013

The right of Leslie Edwards to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Photographs courtesy of Eric Potton.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and publishers rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7509 5260 6

Original typesetting by The History Press

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 3 August 1943 Quebec Conference; Creation of 14th Army; Allied build-up to invasion of Burma; Imphal and Dimapur;
2nd Arakan Campaign

PART 4 BATTLE OF KOHIMA PHASE 2
CONSOLIDATION, STALEMATE, PREPARATION

LIST OF MAPS

Asia

North-East India and Burma

Assam and Manipur: Imphal to Chindwin River

Assam and Manipur: Dimapur-Kohima-Imphal

Diagrammatic Profile of Road Dimapur-Kohima-Imphal

Kohima Ridge. Pre-war Bungalow Area Viewed from East

Japanese invasion of South-East Asia, 1941/1942

Supply Routes into China

Allied and Refugee Retreat routes from Burma

1st and 2nd Arakan Campaigns

Proposed Lines of Attack following Quebec Conference

Pre-battle Kohima

Invasion Routes of Japanese 15 and 33 Divisions

Invasion Routes of Japanese 31 Division

Initial Kohima Boxes

Plan of Sangshak/Ukhrul area

Battle of Sangshak

Plan of Phek/Jessami/Kharasom area

Battles of Kharasom and Jessami

Battle HQ, Garrison Hill

Kohima Ridge. Defensive perimeter, 6 April

Kohima Ridge, RWK on Detail Hill, 6 to 10 April

Kohima Ridge. Defensive perimeter, 10 April

Kohima Ridge. Defensive perimeter, 18 April

Routes of 5 Brigades first Left Hook and 4 Brigades Right Hook

Garrison Hill. Attacks on Berks and Durhams, 23 April

Dorsets and Berks Attacks on Bungalow Sector, 27 April

Garrison Hill. Royal Welch Regiment, 29 April

Dorsets Welch and Durham Attacks along Kohima Ridge, 4 and 5 May

5 Brigade Attack on Naga Village, 4 May

Japanese Bunker Defences

Attack on Norfolk Bunker, 6 May

Attack on Jail Hill, 7 May

Attack on Jail Hill, 11 to 14 May

Attacks on Bungalow Sector and Kuki Piquet, 13 May

4 and 6 Brigades Attacks on Aradura Spur, 26 to 28 May

33 Brigades capture of Point 5120, Naga Village, 29 May to 2 June

5 Brigades second Left Hook, 3 to 7 June

Battle of Viswema, 8 to 14 June

Allied Advance to Chindwin River

Allied re-capture of Burma

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I first became interested in the Battle of Kohima when I was at boarding school in the early 1960s when it was the subject of one of the only four books I remembered reading in its oak-lined library. (The others were about the Zulu Wars, Tim O Learys experiments with something called LSD and the fourth was about a project to drill a very deep borehole through the earths crust to the Mohorovicic Discontinuity the only question I got right watching the television programme University Challenge a few of years ago!). During a dull period almost forty years later I wrote to the school asking somewhat optimistically if they still had the book (for which I had no title or author) and for its details they were most polite, said no, but sent me a short alternative reading list off the internet. By ordering what I could of the latter from the local district library and then over the next months widening my search via increasing cross-references, I eventually realised that I was hooked. So initial thanks must go to Bev Sumner at Shaftesbury School, Dorset, who got me started on what eventually became such a mammoth task.

At a more detailed level, it is with grateful thanks that I acknowledge the assistance provided over several years by all the numerous military museums, specialist university departments, published authors and individuals in putting together this account of the Battle of Kohima and the circumstances surrounding it. Space precludes me mentioning every source in this acknowledgement but I have hopefully included each and every such omission in the References and I am clearly equally grateful for those.

Although references are provided for all verbatim extracts included in the main text, published authors relied on extensively for background details and overviews included Slim (Defeat into Victory, 1956), Lucas Phillips (Springboard to Victory, 1966), Arthur Swinson (Kohima, 1966) and Louis Allen (Burma, The Longest War, 1984).

Military museums dedicated to particular units and staff who were especially helpful include David Murphy at the Royal Scots Museum in Edinburgh, Kate Thaxton at the Royal Norfolk Museum in Norwich, Nigel Magrane at the Kohima Museum and Memorial Trust in York, the Royal West Kent Museum in Maidstone, the Queens Royal Surrey Regiment Museum near Guildford and the Keep Military Museum at Dorchester (for the Dorsets). Of note was Kate Thaxtons advice that the Trustees of the Royal Norfolks Museum had commissioned the Imperial War Museum to interview many of the Norfolks Kohima survivors on behalf of the Trustees. I was able to undertake my own review of those recordings (which are also available in full in Peter Harts publication, At The Sharp End, 1998).

I assayed the unpublished documents and oral records archive rooms of the Imperial War Museum and the National Army Museum, both in London. Staff were unfailingly friendly, patient and helpful. Amongst the original documents and eye-witness accounts were many that, as far as I am aware, have never before appeared in public, including Japanese insights. An important source of original information relating to the early build-up of knowledge on the Japanese advance in 1944 was found in the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at Kings College London. The Centre also holds a comprehensive selection of cuttings of the limited British press coverage of events.