2nd Dorsets Take Tennis Court at Kohima

The attack begins with an artillery barrage on the entire complex. The second Dorsets attack it from two sides, going down the terrace towards the tennis court. Waterhouse's tank moves down through the middle and drops down the first terrace directly on top of a Japanese bunker, crushing it. The tank then destroys a Japanese water tank reinforced with machine guns. >> The Dorsets then swarm into the buildings. The tank then methodically takes out each of the Japanese bunkers and they're really lucky. Waterhouse has managed to get a guy [music] called Snagger Hyatt. He's a lieutenant in the Dorsets. Snagger's a nickname. But he's inside the tank in the old radio operator's position. If it was a Lee tank, obviously it's an empty seat now in a Grant tank cuz they've got rid of the radio operator. But he has been on patrol. He's fought over that tennis court for 10 days. [music] He knows where all the bunkers are, so he's pointing them out to the gunners. He's making sure they hit their targets whilst the Dorsets approach across the tennis court [music] and then they clear the bunkers. When they bring Waterhouse's one Grant tank up onto that tennis court, this whole operation is over in 80 minutes and they clear it completely with the loss of one man killed and three men wounded. This is one of the greatest pieces of small arms fighting. A single company of the Dorsets, the D company of the Dorsets and also one tank. It is a perfect operation.