The Defence of Scraggy Hill at Imphal

In close quarters combat, the defenders slash and stab enemy soldiers with their bayonets and kukri knives, but still the enemy draws closer to the crest of the hill. With his men running out of ammunition as midnight approaches, the 3rd 1st Gurkhas commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Wingfield, orders the 80th Brigade artillery to fire on his own positions. The signal goes out for the Gurkhas 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 Gurkhas carefully lift their heads out of the slit trenches and bunkers as the sun rises to find a scene of utter devastation. A count of enemy corpses strewn across the battlefield reveals more than 800 Japanese soldiers perished in the assault.