The Battles of Imphal & Kohima - Part 3

The date is the 2nd of May 1944. 300 men of the Gandhi Regiment of the Indian National Army or INA are on their third night of trekking through the jungles of Manipur. The soldiers, Indian PS and civilians who volunteered to serve alongside the Japanese during the Second World War with the goal of toppling British rule in India are famished and exhausted. Under the command of Major Pritam Singh, they are finally about to enter combat. When the Japanese invasion of India began in March, the Gandhi regiment was mostly relegated to defending supply lines far behind the front line. But with the Japanese offensive faltering in the face of intense Allied resistance, the Gandhi regiment has been called upon to penetrate behind Allied lines and capture the key parallel airfield 22 mi to the southeast of the city of Infall. Singh's men have been promised that the Japanese Yamamoto force will launch a concurrent offensive against the Shaam Saddle and rendevous with the Gandhi regiment once they have taken the airfield. This is their chance to bring about the collapse of British rule in India. At 10:30 p.m., the INA column is approaching the village of Purum Chumbang, about 6 mi southwest of their objective, the Pal airfield. Having been on the move for over 36 hours straight, the men of the Gandhi regimen are looking forward to a short rest in the village before marching on the airfield. However, as they approach the village, they are hit by a volley of rifle and machine gun fire. A platoon of troops from the first Girka regiment are defending the village. Singh begins shouting in Hindi to cease fire and the Girkas surprised to hear an Indian language oblige. Singh goes forward to convince the Girkas to abandon the British and march on Delhi with the INA. Despite Japanese propaganda promising that Indian units in the allied ranks would switch sides, the Girkas resolutely refused to fight for the Japanese and end their negotiations with Singh. Singh rallies his men for an assault and the Gandhi regiment attacks the village in force shouting forward to Delhi. However, the INA soldiers are once again hit with vicious smallarms fire and forced to retreat. Singh la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la launches seven more attacks throughout the night of the 2nd of May and well into the morning of the 3rd, each time failing to break into the village. Singh pulls his men back further from the village to properly reorganize when they are hit by a combined arms counterattack from infantry and aircraft. The Gandhi regiment is quickly forced to flee back towards Japanese lines. Having lost more than a third of his men, Singh arrives back at their base late on the next day to find that the promised Japanese offensive never went ahead, leaving his men completely at the mercy of Allied firepower. This action is the epitome of the Japanese invasion of India, which is quickly turning into the worst disasters of the war for the Japanese Empire. >> [music] [music] >> Operation Yugo, General Rena Mutaguchi's ambitious plan to crush the British 14th Army and bring about the collapse of the British Raj so far has failed. After almost two months of bitter fighting, the Japanese 15th Army and its INA allies fall short of their objectives while sustaining heavy casualties. Mukuchi's forces are now locked in vicious attritional combat around the logistical hub of Infal and the administrative station around Kohima Ridge, 60 mi to the north of Infal. Fighting continues to rage at Nunchigan Ridge, 6 mi northeast of Infal, which leaves the crucial airfields needed for the resupply of the belleaguered allies garrison in danger. 30 mi to the southeast of Infal at the Shaam Saddle, Yamamoto force achieves several local successes in overcoming entrenched Indian and British units, but they are unable to force a breakthrough. Failing to capture Allied supply depots and with the Japanese logistical base over 50 mi to the rear of the front line, the Japanese units involved in operation Yugo are beginning to starve. Despite the desperate plight of his men, Muguchi believes the offensive can still succeed in taking infall and Kohima if his forces can capture key local objectives. At the beginning of May, he sets his sights on the southern sector of the front where the 17th Indian division is dug in around the town of Bishen, 17 mi to the southwest of Infal. Meanwhile, General Bill Slim and the British 14th Army are preparing its counteroffensive to eject the Japanese forces from India. The Japanese invasion caught Slim and four core commander General Jeffrey Skoon by surprise nearly resulting in disaster. Yet thanks to the heroic stand of British, Burmese, Girka, and Indian troops, the British 14th Army has kept the Japanese offensive at bay. Nowhere is this more important than at Kohima Ridge, where an encircled garrison holds off the Japanese 31st division despite being outnumbered 10 to1. The tenacious and often fanatical resistance of Allied troops at key bottlenecks allows Slim and Soon to execute their original plan of luring the Japanese 15th Army into a nutritional trap around info. True to Slim's prediction before the offensive, Japanese units succeed in encircling Allied units, but their failure to capture supply dumps doomed them to wither away in the jungles of Manipul and Nagaland. While the Japanese forces are suffering from disease and starvation, the British 14th Army is quickly gathering strength thanks in large part to one of the largest air operations of the entire Second World War. The Allied effort to maintain air superiority over the Infal battlefield includes pilots from the United Kingdom, United States, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Over the course of the Battle of Impal, 20,000 Allied reinforcements along with 22,000 tons of supplies are flown into six airfields ringing the town. Furthermore, 35,000 non-combatants and 10,000 casualties are evacuated in what is considered the largest airlift in military history up to this point. The Gandhi regiment's failure to capture the Pal airfield ensures that this constant flow of reinforcements and resupply will continue uninterrupted. The first step in the Allied counter offensive is to destroy the Japanese units clinging to their positions in and around Kohima. Although the Allied air operation into Infal is impressive in scale, heavier supplies such as tanks and howitzers must be delivered via the dimmer infall road, which remains closed until Coha can be secured. On the 20th of April, the men trapped at Kohima are relieved by the newly arrived British Second Infantry Division, but the fighting continues as the Japanese 31st division consolidates their position on its hard one ground. Multiple assaults by the British Second Infantry Division are held back with heavy losses as the Allies are faced with an enemy dug into the ridge line. Lieutenant Ken Cooper will later exclaim, "By Christ, them little bastards can dig." This is Robert Lyman, a retired British Army officer, historian, and author of Japan's Last Bid for Victory: The Invasion of India 1944 and Kohima 1944, the battle that saved India. He is the co-host along with Jack Baler of the Forgotten War podcast about the Burma campaign of the Second World War. The reason why they failed and they did fail in the initial attacks after the siege had been relieved was because they had underestimated the defensive tenacity of the Japanese. When the Japanese stopped and they dug in and they decided this was going to be a defensive battle. They were immovable and the British brought with them the tactics of 1917 which said a heavy artillery bombardment which will destroy most of the ridge of a hill will be sufficient to persuade the defenders to surrender. However, an attack on the night of the 26th of April by the Durham Light Infantry along with the Dorsucher and Barkshire Regiment succeed in recapturing the ruins of the tennis clubhouse which overlooks much of the Japanese position on the ridge. The main attack to push the enemy off the ridge line will involve the British second infantry division's fourth infantry brigade attacking the southern flank of Kohima Ridge known as Transport Bridge. The fifth brigade will strike from the northwest to capture Naga village less than 2 mi to the east. Finally, the sixth brigade will attack south from Garrison Hill to clear the enemy off the northern half of Kohima Ridge. British second infantry division commander General John Grover is under intense pressure to open the Dimmaur Infal Road and has amassed an impressive array of firepower to blast the enemy out of their entrenchment. 38 3.7 in mountain howitzers, 48 25p pounder field guns, and two 5.5 in medium guns, along with Royal Air Force Huracans and Vulty Vengeance dive bombers have been tasked with obliterating the Japanese positions. The first attack comes before dawn on the 4th of May without a preparatory artillery barrage to catch the enemy off guard. At 4:15 a.m., the fifth brigade advances towards the remnants of the Naga village. The men of the queen's own Cameron Highlanders and the Lancasher fuseliers have changed into gym shoes to move stealthily and quickly into the village. The surprise assault is initially successful and most of the village is overrun. However, the Japanese defenders spring into action and bitter fighting ensues. Japanese artillery fire proves to be a key factor in the battle and the British units are forced back to the western half of the village by the end of the day having failed to completely secure the area. The fourth brigade follows the same tactics as the fifth brigade, advancing quietly and quickly up the slopes of transport ridge before the sun rises. The second battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment, and the first battalion, Royal Scots Guards, bypass enemy bunkers, left to be mopped up by the follow-up units. However, the attackers are soon faced with enemy positions that cannot be outflanked, and both sides are soon locked in close quarters combat. The Norfolks advanced most of the way of transport ridge before they are halted just short of a series of bunkers located on a small hillock soon to be nicknamed the pimple. By the end of the day, the Norfolks and the Royal Scots secure most of the ridge and dig in to form defensive boxes ready to receive any Japanese counterattacks. By 7:45 a.m., the British Second Infantry Division's artillery finally opens up an earsplitting barrage, which is focused on the hills of the Kuki PK and Supply Hill. The Royal Welsh Fuseliers and the Durham Light Infantry follow the shellfire. The Fusiliates attack from their positions on Garrison Hill while the DLI advances down the Dimmapore Infile Road supported by Grant tanks. However, Sixth Brigade's advance quickly bogs down in the face of tenacious enemy resistance. The Japanese forces have burrowed deep into Cohima Ridge to escape the British shelling. Private Peter Wilson later recalls the grizzly events of the 4th of May. We started our attack, but were soon under fire from heavy machine guns and mortars [music] from the Japanese secure in bunkers. Stretcherbearers were called constantly, but there was nowhere safe to take the wounded. During our attack, we came upon a gully where the Japanese had piled hundreds of their dead from their recent attacks. The British advance is stopped across the Coheima front, and further attacks the following day also prove incapable of dislodging the enemy. The bloody stalemate at Kohima is far from over, but the commander of the Japanese 31st Division, General Koku Sat, senses that his men will not be able to hold out much longer. He signals General Mitsiguchi, 31st Division at the limit of its endurance. When are you going to destroy Infall? He receives no response from his superior officer. The attritional fighting extends 80 mi to the south where the 17th and 23rd Indian divisions are defending against a renewed attack by General Matosso Yanagida's Japanese 33rd Division. The southern section of Operation Yugo has also been locked in stalemate ever since General Punch Cowan's 17th Indian Division escaped destruction during the battle of the Tidim Road. But General Mataguchi now sees this area as the best chance for the Japanese 15th Army to capture him fall. However, Yanagida believes his division is too weak to break through the Allied lines. The terrain here is defined by massive hills to the west and swampy lowlands to the east where the Allied defenses are centered around the town of Bishen. The massive Loctac Lake protects the Allied right flank, meaning Japanese attacks coming from the south will be funneled into the swamps around Bishan and the tiny village of Potang Bang. Matuguchi orders Yanugida's 33rd division to capture a key jungle part which connects Bishen with the Allied supply base at Silchar over 60 mi to the west. Occupying the Silchar track and capturing the western high ground will allow the Japanese 33rd division to outflank the strong allied defenses in front of Bishan Paul opening the door to Impal from the southwest. The highest mountain in the area 5846 holds a commanding view over a bend in the Selchchar track and must be taken. Beers fighting in this area began in midappril and the silchar track is cut in multiple places with Japanese units penetrating as far as the village of Wyn 3 mi to the northwest of Bishan. Yet the defending 32nd Indian brigade prevents a major breakthrough. By the end of April, isolated Japanese units are scattered across the high ground to the west of Bishan with some remaining north of the Silchar track, but unable to receive sufficient reinforcements. As May begins, the fighting on this front now shifts to the swamps to the south of Bishan Paul. This is Jack Baler, historian and author of Thunderrun Metcara 1945 and Forgotten Armor Tank Warfare in Burma. Along with Robert Lyman, he is the co-host of the Forgotten War podcast giving deep dives into the Burma campaign of the Second World War. The 17th Indian division have occupied a town called Bishnapur [music] basically which is on between the mountains in this lock tac lake and it's where the main road that goes from Tbong down to Tidim up through Bishnapur to and far. >> Muguchi plans a three-pronged assault on Bishan. One unit moving south of the Silshar track, another moving west along the Silchar track itself and another attacking north from the village of Potang Bang, 3 mi directly south of Bishan. Yanuga however has reached the limit of his patience with his superior officer. Yanugida believes the invasion of India to be a foolish endeavor from the start and even ridicules Mutaguchi as a blockhead to his subordinates. [music] When Yanuga protests against this new plan to attack Infal from the south, Mutiguchi sacks him in a rage and divisional chief of staff, Colonel Tetsujiro Tanaka takes command on the eve of the offensive. This will be a last throw of the dice for the Japanese 15th Army to achieve victory at Imfal. To underscore the importance of this push, the Japanese 14th tank regiment from Yamamoto force is transferred from the Shannam Saddle to the southern front for the coming battle. At the same time, Punch Cowan, commander of the 17th Indian Division, is formulating his own plans for routing the Japanese from the southern approaches of Infal. He adopts a hammer and anvil approach with the 63rd Indian Brigade acting as the hammer striking south from Bishan port sweeping the enemy from the swampy lands in front of the village. Meanwhile, the 48th Indian Brigade will launch an ambitious flanking maneuver from the eastern coast of Loctac Lake. The brigade will move around the southern end of the lake and infiltrate deep behind the Japanese forward unit. A march of over 20 m. Once they have reached the western side of the lake, the 63rd brigade will cut the Tidim road at the village of Tbong. If this is accomplished, the entire Japanese 33rd division will be cut off. Crucially, Howan's attack will [music] go ahead days before Mutaguchi's own offensive against Bishan. On the 10th of May, the Allies strike first. The 63rd Brigade attacks Poxang Bang, supported by large formations of B24 Liberator strategic bombers and M3 tanks. Nicknamed pots and pans by the British soldiers, the village is completely leveled by the air strikes and artillery bombardment. However, unlike most Japanese units taking part in operation Yugo, the Japanese 33rd Division has advanced into India with an ample supply of 47 mm anti-tank guns. The flat landscape of the land between the western hills of the Infal plane and Loctac Lake allows the Japanese guns to range in on advancing tanks, knocking out several and stalling the British advance. It will take 5 days until the village is finally overcome. Yet, the follow-up attack against the larger village of Ningf Kong, 2 and a half miles to the south, is just as challenging, and the 63rd Indian Brigade struggles to force a breakthrough. While the hammer of the 63rd Brigade is stuck in bitter and attritional fighting, the experience of the 48th Indian Brigade's anvil has been entirely different. After a grueling 11-day march through the swampland south of Loctac Lake, the brigade reaches Torbong southwest of Loctac Lake on the 17th of May and quickly overruns the surprised Japanese garrison under the command of Brigadier Ronnie Cameron. The 48th sets up a road block and occupies a key hill known as 3404 which overlooks the Tidim Road. On the night of the 17th of May, eight Japanese lorries delivering supplies to the Japanese 33rd Division units fighting in the north drive right into the road block and are destroyed without a single survivor. The Japanese high command is stunned by this development, but Colonel Tanaka reacts quickly and dispatches every available unit to reopen the Tidim Road. 20 mi to the east of Tobong, the battle of the Shannan Saddle continues to rage as the Japanese Yamamoto force tries to open the door to Winfall in the southeastern sector of the front. Having captured Nifon Hill, the highest peak on the saddle, Japanese artillery rain shells on the British and Indian units defending the rest of the hill, allowing Yamamoto force to overrun several more positions on the high ground in late April and early May. However, the decision to transfer the Japanese 14th tank regiment out of Yamamoto force to take part in the Bishan 4 offensive has weakened the Japanese offensive potential. Nonetheless, Yamamoto force assaults the next peak on the Shaam Saddle known as Scraggy Hill, which is defended by the third first girkers of the 80th Indian Brigade. >> 10 May was really the culminating point of the long battle for Scraggy. 10 May is very interesting. It's only a few days before the loss of the tennis court by the Japanese on the 13th of May. So, it's a real turning point for the Japanese and it's a turning point in more than one sense because Scraggy there's a whole series of hilltops over the Shenam saddle and Scraggy is the last well I've been up on Scraggy. I've stood in Allied trenches on Scraggy. They're still there. And it's extraordinary because it's the last defensive point before you debush down into the infoul plane to pal airfield. And the Japanese basically by the 10th of May were throwing everything they could at Scraggy. The Japanese basically threw every last man. Whether you were previously injured or you were sick or you were a member of the signals platoon, you were thrown into battle. >> As darkness falls on the 10th of May, the Japanese Yamamoto force attacks Scraggy Hill in one of the largest human wave assaults of the entire campaign. The Girkas fire back with everything they have, mowing down entire columns of enemy soldiers, rushing up the steep slopes of the hill. >> When I first started interviewing Indian soldiers in the late 1990s, a number of them called, including Gian Singh had served on Scraggy. And he described to me how easy it was to kill the Japanese. All you had to do was stay awake because the Japanese threw themselves in very large numbers against the positions. >> Yet, it isn't nearly enough. and the forward positions are soon overrun. Japanese soldiers throw the bodies of their dead comrades over rows of barbed wire before climbing over them. Japanese artillery lashes the summit, killing and maming scores of girkers. In close quarters combat, the defenders slash and stab enemy soldiers with their bayonets and cook knives, but still the enemy draws closer to the crest of the hill with his men running out of ammunition. As midnight approaches, the third first Girka's commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Wingfield orders the 80th Brigade artillery to fire on his own positions. The signal goes out for the Girkas to take cover and many men say a final prayer as 24 mountain howitzers unleash a deadly barrage of high explosive shells. The artillery fire crashes down, wiping out most of the Japanese attackers along with some of the defenders. The enemy attack is halted in its tracks, and Yamamoto force falls back in disarray as an eerie stillness falls across the blasted landscape of Scraggy Hill. The surviving girkers carefully lift their heads out of the slit trenches and bunkers as the sun rises to find a scene of utter devastation. Account of enemy corpses strewn across the battlefield reveals more than 800 Japanese soldiers perished in the assault. The equivalent of an entire battalion having been wiped out. You've got to imagine this as it is now scragging now completely covered in trees and vegetation. It is entirely denuded of vegetation. There is not a green leaf or twig standing, you [music] know, for for hundreds and hundreds of yards. In fact, the entirety of these hills have been denuded. given is an indicator of the severity ferocity of the fighting. >> The Japanese will attack Scraggy Hill multiple times over the next month, but the summit will never fall and Yamamoto force fails to capture the hill. For his role in the dogged defense of Scraggy Hill on the night of the 10th to the 11th of May, Lieutenant Colonel Wingfield is awarded the Distinguished Service Order, but is later killed in late May by a Japanese sniper. On the 24th of May, another major attempt is made by Yamamoto force to break through on the Shannm saddle with one last desperate assault on a massive named Gibraltar northwest of Scraggy Hill. The hill initially falls to the enemy, but a determined counterattack by the fifth sixth Raj Putana rifles and the third 10th Girkas chases the enemy off the summit, ending the threat. The fighting for this war torn section of the front will continue for another 2 months until the tattered remnants of Yamamoto force are pushed off Nippon Hill for good on the 24th of July. Meanwhile, the British counterattack against the Japanese 31st Division in Kohima has descended into a bloody slog. Casualties on both sides are high and the landscape around the ridge and Naga village is turned into something resembling no man's land from the First World War. By the 11th of May, the monsoon season arrives a month early and turns the blasted landscape into a sea of mud, which only adds to the misery of the men on both sides. The weather during the battle of Infal and Kahima is particularly interesting because it changes halfway through the battles in particular at Infal but applies to both of them. It straddles the monsoon period and so therefore what you have is at the beginning it's very hot it's very dry and then in miday give or take at Kima where it's slightly further up in the mountains it's a couple of weeks earlier right at the end of April you get these huge downpours begin. Clearing the Japanese off of Kohima Ridge is crucial as the road to Winfal can't be used until they are gone. Taking control of the tennis court on the ridge from the Japanese has been incredibly difficult for the Allied infantry partly due to the weather but mainly because of the terrain and the Japanese tenacious defense. >> The siege of Kahima is 16 days of fighting where the width of that tennis court and that's an important detail. The width of that tennis court is basically no man's land. And the tennis court is on the third of four terraces. If we're talking from bottom to top, it's the third of four terraces around the complex that is the district commissioner's bungalow. On the next terrace up is his actual residency, the famous bungalow. The terrace above that is the tennis court. And between the two, there's some outuildings. There's a water tank at the end of the tennis court. There's some servant quarters, things like that. And then above the tennis court, you've got really what's basically the clubhouse with a sort of [music] viewing platform and things like that. And pretty much all of this is destroyed in the fighting. The skeleton of these buildings remains over the 16 days of the siege. >> To clear the Japanese defenders, tanks are brought up to the top of the ridge with the purpose of firing point blank at the dugin enemy. >> Now, this is very steep terrain, but a number of attempts were made. Three attempts were made, in fact, to bring tanks up. They're basically able to push a few of them through and one of them in particular commanded by a guy called Jerry Waterhouse who I genuinely feel he should be one of the most famous people that fought to the Burma campaign and very few people really know who he is. >> Waterhouse's tank is brought to the top terrace of the bungalow complex overlooking the tennis court. On the night of the 12th of May, a plan is made for attacking the Japanese side of the tennis court the following morning. The major problem for Jerry Waterhouse and his Grant tank was that the Japanese positions on the tennis court were immediately underneath about a 10-ft bun, so a large bank. And he had to get his Grand Tank down the high ground. All the while being fired out from behind by the Japanese, try to get over this bun without toppling over, turn around, and then destroy the Japanese bunkers in the wall or the bank above the tennis court. >> The attack begins with an artillery barrage on the entire complex. The second Dorset 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 very lucky. Waterhouse has managed to get [music] a guy called Snagger Hyatt. He's a left tenant in the dorsit. Snag is 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, so they got rid of the radio operator. But he has been on patrol. He's fought over that tennis court for [music] 10 days. 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 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. The loss of one man killed and three men wounded. It is one of the greatest pieces of small arms fighting. A single company of the Dorsets, the decomp of the Dorsets, and also one tank. It is a perfect operation. Braving the horrid conditions, Royal Engineers constructs tracks up Kohima Ridge to allow the 100th regiment Royal artillery to wheel six pounder anti-tank guns into place and blast Japanese bunkers from point blank range. This allows the fourth and sixth brigades to make progress in spite of the wretched weather and transport ridge is finally cleared of the enemy on the 14th of May. A BBC war correspondent describes the scene over a radio broadcast. Now all that's left is the litter of war piles of biscuits, dead japs with flies, heaps of ammunition, broken rifles, and silver from the district commissioner's bungalow. And among it, most inongruous of all, there's a man cleaning a pair of boots and other boiling tea. In the monsoon, [music] you're using Royal Engineer, Indian engineer, bulldozers to climb up the mountains, towing [music] the tanks behind them, or they're building what are called corduroy roads and that sort of thing. So, they're chopping down trees and they're laying them down for something that the vehicles can actually drive along. But really, that's the big problem. You have a monsoon that makes it incredibly difficult to move your tanks [music] into the combat zones as you push the Japanese further into the mountains and away from the Infar plane, away from Keem. With transport ridge cleared, Steuart light tanks and grants are finally able to move up and down the dimore infall road, blasting enemy strong points from close range. Incremental progress is being made in Kohima, but General Montigue Stopford, commander of the Kohima sector, is increasingly agitated with General Grover, commander of the British Second Infantry Division, and his conduct of the battle. Snottford thinks Grover is moving too slowly, whereas Grover urges a more methodical approach to capture Naga village. He believes a more aggressive approach will lead to high casualty counts as the British Second Infantry Division attempts to overcome entrenched Japanese forces. Stopford asks 7th Indian Division Commander General Frank Messi to visit Grover and assess the situation. Like Stoford, Messi is an aggressive officer who does not approve of Grover's battle plan. A seventh Indian division aid later writes that Messi fumed about Grover's inept handling of the battle. Following Messi's report, Stoford resolves to sack the British Second Infantry Division commander as soon as the campaign is finished. The Japanese commanders in this area of the front also have a fierce row over the direction of the campaign. The loss of transport ridge leads the commander of the Japanese 31st division, General Sato, to concludes that the battle is unwinable. He begins pulling back units from the Cohima Ridge to defend the Naga village, which still offers a commanding view of the battlefield. However, food has completely run out, and whatever meager supply that had been arriving in Kohima has since been diverted to Infall. With dozens of men in his division dropping dead from starvation every day, Sato asked Mutaguchi's position to withdraw from Cohima on the 25th of May. Instead, his increasingly unhinged superior officer berates Sato. How dare you use such an excuse of difficulty of supply and renounce Cohima? I want you to maintain your position for 10 days. Despite increasingly fatalistic reports from his commanders on the progress of the campaign, Mutaguchi still believes Infall can be taken. 90 mi to the south of Kohima, Brigadier Ronnie Cameron's 48th Indian Brigade continues to cling to their positions at the village of Tobung. The 48th Indian Brigade have moved south of Logac Lake to support the 63rd Indian Brigade's attack coming from the north of Tobung. The 48th Indian Brigade's roadblock on the Tidim Road has drawn almost every single Japanese unit in the area to them. One man will later compare their presence so far behind enemy lines to kicking a hornet's nest. Two newly arrived battalions of Japanese soldiers attack the roadblock and point 3404 on the 17th of May. >> Now this is somewhere that is very very difficult to break through because it's quite open ground. It's lots of rice patties. The villages are often on chungs that are coming down from the mountain into the lake. So there's lots of very defensible positions along there for either side to use. But the Japanese are desperate to break through here. >> To clear the roadblock, the Japanese sent type 95 hardgo tanks towards the men of the 48th Brigade. They did not expect to face Japanese armor, but put their limited supply of protector infantry anti-tank or piet to good use. During a morning assault, four Hargo tanks charge up the Tidim Road towards the positions of the first battalion 7th Girka rifles. Rifleman Ganju Llama moves forward on his own initiative and faces the tanks alone. >> When the Japanese send their tanks up this road, he crawls out so that he can use his Piet, the spring-loaded British anti-tank weapon, which is very good, by the way, in the jungle in particular in this close quarters fighting because it doesn't give away its position because it's not a rocket. It doesn't have a big cloud of smoke or anything. So, it fires from a concealed position and stays concealed. And it basically means that he's able to destroy three of these tanks before they then disengage and from barely, you know, 60 50 60 yards. Now, it's very, very close-range stuff. And they then pull back. >> This action earns Rifleman Llama the Military Cross. And a month later, he is awarded the Victoria Cross for a similar action in the same campaign. Another armored assault by the Japanese 14th tank regiment is thrown back with the loss of two more Haros while Allied artillery and air power shred advancing Japanese infantry before they can reach the road block. >> The problem with this is this happens multiple times. The Japanese never really learned the lesson cuz something similar happens in 1945 as well. But they try to break through, but they're using their lights to help them navigate, which I suppose in some sense is fair enough. They also know that the first and seventh girkas are in position in front of them. And again, they get ambushed trying to break through here. And so therefore, you have this problem where the Japanese keep doing this thing where they don't ever really take on the lessons and they keep just battering their tanks against known positions and they don't really ever work with infantry. That's the other really important thing here. In both of these two cases, the tanks and the infantry are not working together. However, the 63rd Indian Brigade to the north has failed to break through the Japanese units around Potang Bang and Ninth Thalong, meaning the British 48th Brigade remains isolated behind enemy lines. Furthermore, on the 20th of May, the Japanese 214th and 215th Infantry Regiments launch spoiling attacks towards Bishan from the north and west of the town. These attacks are defeated with heavy casualties, but they succeed in tying down the 63rd Brigade during its attempt to fight its way south towards Torbong. With the 63rd Brigade's advance checked, the 48th Brigade cannot hold on on its own. And on the 24th of May, Cameron abandons the Torbong roadblock and begins fighting his way north towards the 63rd Brigade. Cameron's men conduct a fighting withdrawal until they link up with units of the 63rd at Potzang Bang on the 30th of May. The battle for the road block has cost the Japanese over 1,150 men compared to 421 for the 48th Brigade. Although the plan to completely destroy the Japanese 33rd division has failed, Cowan's ambitious attack has disrupted Mitiguchi's final planned offensive against Infal. The two veteran regiments, which were to be the vanguard of the attack, are nearly wiped out with the 214th and 215th regiment reduced from a combined 9,000 men to less than 1,000 by the end of May. Without any reliable supply of food or medicine, command and control of the Japanese units around Infal is beginning to break down. The lack of medical supply means most battlefield wounds are death sentences for Japanese soldiers, while jungle diseases such as malaria and dissentry devastate their ranks. By comparison, wounded Allied soldiers are well cared for at expansive field hospitals throughout the Infal plane with some manned by volunteers from the American field service. With Japanese morale and fighting ability collapsing around infall, the Japanese 31st division is also on its last legs in Kohima. On the 26th of May, one of the key defensive positions in the Naga village falls to the fourth first Girkas. With no hope of holding back the British advance, General Satto radios Musiguchi that night and signals his intention to withdraw. We have fought for 2 months with the utmost courage and have reached the limits of human fortitude. Our swords are broken and our arrows gone. Shedding bitter tears, I now leave Kohima. The very thought is enough to break a general's heart. When Mutaguchi responds with a threat to have Sato caught marshaled, the division commander sends a contemptuous message unprecedented in the history of the Imperial Japanese Army. Do as you please, I will bring you down with me. The tactical ability of the 15th Army staff lies below that of cadets. Satato orders his radio set switched off before his superior officer can respond. On the evening of the 1st of June, Famish Japanese soldiers in Kohima begin gathering what little belongings they have and prepare to retreat. The Naga village is abandoned during the night and the remnants of the Japanese 31st division begin withdrawing back towards the old battlefield at Shang Shack 45 mi to the southeast. Fighting remains fierce for the next 3 weeks around the high ground overlooking the Dimmapore inf road where the Japanese weakened by months of combat, starvation, and disease are no longer capable of mounting effective counterattacks. At the same time to the south, the British forcore launches its own breakout from Infal with the fifth Indian division advancing north along the road as the British second infantry division drives south from Cohima. On the 22nd of June, the lead elements of the two forces link up at milestone 109, officially reopening the road between Infal and Kohima and ending the siege of Infal after nearly 3 months. Heavy supplies now begin pouring into Infal to bolster the Allied counter offensive. With the link up, the siege of Infal is over, but the battle is not. Allied forces immediately exploit the reopened road, rushing supplies, ammunition, and reinforcements into the Enfile plane while Allied troops maintain pressure on the retreating Japanese. The battered Japanese 31st division withdraws east from Kohima. The Japanese 15th and 33rd divisions begin abandoning their positions around Infal after months of fighting, crippled by starvation, disease, and severe shortages of ammunition. The battle for the Nunchiggan Ridge in the north comes to an end while the Bishop offensive in the south is canled. Unable to hold their ground or resume the attack, the Japanese retreat back towards Burma under constant Allied attacks. On the 3rd of July 1944, General Metaguchi finally orders the termination of Operation Yugo, acknowledging that the offensive has failed. 5 days later, the villages of Okril and Shang Shack are recaptured as the Japanese forces in India disintegrate. The fighting around Infal and Kohima is one of the most complex battles of the Second World War. General Bill Slim will describe the fighting as taking place on different spokes of a wheel with isolated yet significant engagements taking place across a front stretching nearly 200 m from Cohima to the Tidim Road. The campaign is decided after 3 months, 3 weeks, and 4 days of some of the most bitter fighting against the Japanese in the Second World War. The Japanese 15th Army has been destroyed in the fighting with 54,879 men killed, wounded or captured. In terms of pure casualty count, the failed invasion of India is the worst defeat suffered by the Japanese armed forces during the Second World War. By the end of the war, only 12,000 of the original 85,000 men of the Japanese 15th Army have survived to return to Japan. A contributing factor to the catastrophic nature of the Japanese defeat is the lack of consistent supply over some of the most difficult terrain anywhere in the world. General Mitiguchi's insistence on launching such a massive operation without proper logistical support eventually led to most of his men succumbing to starvation and disease when they could not capture Allied supply depots. General Slim's strategy of seeding ground but standing and defending supply depots to the last man has been inspired. The Japanese retreat back into Burma is a nightmare for the men who are able to survive the horrors they have faced on the battlefield. General Slim will later recall the absolute devastation he witnessed touring the recaptured town of Tamu. 550 Japanese corpses lay unburied in its streets and houses. Many groups grotesqually around stone Buddhas which looked blandly out over the sacrifices huddled at their feet. Dozens more over a hundred lay in indescribable filth dying of disease and starvation among the corpses. The allies have scored a decisive victory, but have also paid a heavy price. 12,603 Indian, British, Nepalese, and Burmese troops have been killed and wounded in the fighting around Infal and Kohima. Entire villages and towns throughout northeast India have been raised to the ground. After years of ineffective jungle warfare against Japanese forces, General Bill Slim's strategy of standing and fighting the enemy in India has revealed the enemy's Achilles heel. Beloved by those who served under him, he is considered by many since to be one of the finest military commanders of the Second World War. Operation Yugo was downright disastrous for the Japanese 15th Army. General Rena Mutaguchi believes the offensive would turn him into a national hero, but instead he oversees the destruction of his army in the hills and jungles of India. He along with Burma army area commander Matsakazu Kawab are sacked in disgrace as the weakened Japanese forces still in Southeast Asia prepared to defend Burma. Mutaguchi is briefly recalled to service in late 1945, but does not see further combat before Japan's surrender to the Allies. He is charged and convicted of war crimes committed by men under his command, spending the next 3 years in prison. Following his release in 1948, Mutaguchi lives out the rest of his life in quiet seclusion before dying in 1966 at the age of 77. It was a very very significant battle also because it allowed the front door to Burma to be opened later that year. >> The demoralized and gutted Japanese units which survived the India campaign are soon attacked by Slim's British 14th Army which is now on the ascendancy. The Burmese capital of Rangon will fall to the Allies within a year. Despite General Mutaguchi's high hopes that the Indian National Army would play a key role in Operation Yugo, the proaxis Indian soldiers of the INA fail to galvanize their countrymen into turning on the British. When the Japanese supply line breaks down, the INA units starve alongside their allies or desert. Of the 3,000 soldiers of the Gandhi regiment, just 750 survive the campaign. The utter failure of operation Yugo spells the end of Sububas Chandra Boza's dream that the INA will bring about the destruction of the British Raj. It will be another 2 years until the British Parliament grants India independence in July of 1947. Perhaps the biggest reason that the Japanese offensive failed is that General Mataguchi underestimated the fighting capabilities of the British and Indian troops defending Infal and Kohima. the Japanese who in their command appreciation of what operational planning is required to do that is to identify the thing that will enable you to win they just didn't do it and as a consequence the lives of many many many thousands of Japanese soldiers were sacrificed on the altar of command hubris Japanese commanders on the whole failed in India because they arrogantly assumed that the allies as Indian by when I say Indian I mean Indian including Girkas soldiers and British soldiers would necessarily fall to Bashido and they didn't. >> Prior to his assault, the Japanese commander had convinced himself that he was facing the same demoralized men which had been swept aside during the campaigns of 1941 and 42. Instead, the average Allied soldier fought with a determination which surprised and often impressed their enemy. At places like Shang Shack, Kohima, the Shaam Saddle, and Nunchigan Ridge, Allied troops endured unimaginable hardship yet proved more than a match for Musaguchi's men. The Japanese army in the Second World War has earned a well-deserved reputation as a fanatical fighting force. But the battles of Infal and Kohima proved without a doubt that the British and Indian troops facing them can be just as ruthless and resolute in combat. The battles of Infal and Kohima have a large impact on the Japanese people. >> It has a very very significant psychological place in the Japanese understanding of the war because it demonstrates or reflects our failure. It reflects strategic failure. It reflects hubris and arrogance and stupidity. And my experience certainly is that when you talk to Japanese, knowledgeable Japanese about the Second World War, they don't talk about Euima or Palao or Guanal or Okinawa. They talk about operation infile. And that's the significance of this battle. It was the first major battle in which a formed up Japanese army was defeated in the field not just by the British. And this is incredibly important to understand. They were defeated by Indian soldiers. So they were defeated by those people who they regarded as inferior and that was a big cultural shock for the Japanese. >> Today many of the battlefields around Infal and Kohima have been overtaken by urban sprawl. Infal is now the capital of the state of Manipur with almost 400,000 inhabitants. Its explosive growth has overtaken much of what was the Bishanpoor front in 1944. The story is much the same in the north where Kohima has become the capital of Nagaland with 116,000 inhabitants. There is little sign of the no man's land which defined the area 82 years ago. However, the towering peaks of the Shaam Saddle are almost perfectly preserved with trenches and bunkers still easily accessible. The village of Shang Shack, where the 50th Indian Parachute Brigade made their stand at the beginning of the battle, is much as it was then. Reminders of the human cost of the campaign are also everywhere. On the former garrison hill in the bustling city of Kohima, the outline of a tennis court is surrounded by thousands of war graves. A nearby memorial bears the inscription, "When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today." Thanks again to Robert Lyman, retired British Army officer, historian, and author of Japan's Last Bid for Victory: The Invasion of India 1944 and Kohima 1944, the battle that saved India. He is the co-host along with Jack Bowser of the Forgotten War podcast about the Burma campaign of the Second World War. Also thanks to Jack Bowser, historian and author of Thunderrun Met Cara 1945 and Forgotten Armor Tank Warfare in Burma. Along with Robert Lyman, he is the other co-host of the Forgotten War podcast.