As Japanese forces overran more and more of Asia during World War II, Britain grew increasingly concerned about its colony in India - the British Raj, crown jewel of the British Empire. In early 1944, the British government's resources were spread thin; London was still recovering from the Blitz, there was fighting going on all across Europe but also in Asia and Africa, Japan had captured the British colonies at Singapore and Malaya, and (unbeknown to the British) Hitler was preparing to launch devastating V1 and V2 rocket attacks against the home islands later that same year.

At this desperate time for Britain and its allies, Japan's Imperial Army in Burma (Myanmar) launched its U-Go Offensive into northern India, part of the planned "March to Delhi."

With so many battles raging on every front, Britain demanded incredible amounts of war material and even more troops from its colony in India. British Indian forces fought courageously all across Asia, but they would prove most tenacious of all in defense of their own land.  The Battle of Kohima would turn the tide of the land war in Asia.

Japanese Advance:

The town of Kohima sits near a key ridge in the mountains about 30 miles west of the Burmese border.  In order to march on Delhi, the Japanese Imperial Army needed to seize Kohima and thus cut off supplies to the entrenched British and Indian troops at Imphal, 139 kilometers (86 miles) to the south.

On March 7th, two divisions of the Japanese Army began to drive toward Imphal, while another entire division targeted Kohima.  The Japanese brought along scanty provisions that they calculated would last for 50 days - more than enough time to seize Kohima and Imphal.

  Fleeing refugees brought word of the Japanese advance to the British at Kohima on March 18th; that same day, Lieutenant General William Slim in Imphal hastily began calling up the scattered 7th Indian Division to reinforce that city.  New garrison commander Colonel Hugh Richards arrived at on March 22nd in Kohima, and found the defenses so disorganized that nobody even knew how many men were in his command.

The Assam Regiment was the first to meet the Japanese forces in a fierce skirmish at Jessami, about 35 miles east of Kohima, on March 28th.  The Assam sepoys fought furiously, but the survivors had to gradually pull back to Kohima by April 1st.  About 12,000 Japanese troops marched up to Kohima on the fifth of April, to find a garrison manned by just 1,500 Indian and British soldiers.  They began to attack and overrun dug-in positions in the surrounding hills, although at great cost in men killed and wounded, but they did not target the artillery emplacement at Jotsama.  Constant Japanese shelling and mortar fire kept the main garrison and the people of Kohima bottled up.

A week later, on April 13, the Japanese began their first assault on Kohima itself.  Artillery fire from Jotsama kept the siege from turning in to a route, but the Indian and British troops were still severely outnumbered.  The two armies fought from trenches, and by April 18th, the Japanese Imperial Army had managed to cut the British/Indian garrison in half.  Kohima nearly fell, but the 1st Punjab Regiment appeared at 8 a.m. that day to reinforce the defenders.  Now the Japanese troops' situation grew desperate, as their numbers dwindled and their food and water supplies grew more tenuous.  Two days later, a second group of British reinforcements arrived, the Royal Berkshire Regiment.

On the night of April 22nd-23rd, the Japanese attempted an all-out night attack.  However, a mortar struck an ammunition dump, setting off an explosion and fire that lit up the night and made the advancing Japanese soldiers clear targets.  The following morning, the British troops were able to clear the Japanese from their new positions on Kohima Hill.  Japanese Lieutenant General Kotoku Sato, commander of the Japanese forces in Kohima, realized that continuing the siege was becoming pointless.  His troops were short on food, water, and ammunition.  However, Sato's commander, Lieutenant General Renya Mutaguchi, ordered him to take Kohima at all costs; Mutaguchi promised to send food, but it never arrived.

By May 12th, the sick and starving Japanese began to withdraw from their trenches.  Sato sent a message to Mutaguchi informing him that the division at Kohima was going to move to a resupply point.  Mutaguchi responded with an order to remain in their position for ten more days.  Growing weaker every day, the Japanese dutifully faced waves of attack from British Gurkha troops.  Finally, as tanks moved into position to attack the entrenched Japanese on June 3rd, Sato gave the order to abandon the town.  Mutaguchi was furious, threatening to court-martial Sato.  Sato replied, "Do what you please."  Out of about 12,000 Japanese soldiers, nearly 6,000 were killed or wounded, many falling to dysentery or other diseases.  The British and Indian casualties totaled about 4,000.

With that retreat, a battle that is sometimes called "The Stalingrad of the East" concluded.  It turned the tide against the Japanese in their march across Asia, and saved India from Japanese occupation.

Sources:

"The Battle of Kohima, 1944."  History Learning Site, accessed 2/23/2014.

Tim Newark. "Turning the Tide of War: 50 Battles that Changed the Course of Modern History," London: Hamlyn (2003), 140-143.

Donovan Webster. "The Burma Road: The Epic Story of the China-Burma-India Theater in World War II," New York: Harper Collins (2004).