battle of Kohima

Kohima, battle of (1944). Kohima was linked to the larger action at Imphal, a defensive battle fought by the British against the major Japanese offensive launched in early 1944. The hill station of Kohima stood on the road connecting the main British forward base of Imphal with the railhead at Dimapur, 46 miles (74 km) to the north. Its garrison, commanded by Col Richards, consisted of 2, 500 men, about 1, 000 of them non-combatants, with Lt Col Laverty's 4th Royal West Kents as its most effective unit. The British were expecting Imphal, 80 miles (129 km) to the south, to be attacked, and although they thought that the Japanese would hook northwards to cut the road at Kohima they judged that only a regiment would be given the task. Lt Gen Sato's 31st Division, after a difficult march across country, attacked it on 3 April, greatly outnumbering the defenders.

For the next fortnight the Japanese mounted attacks on the string of defended localities running along the road. They took GPT (General Purpose Transport) Ridge early on, gaining control of the water supply, and pushed the garrison back into a small area around the district commissioner's bungalow and the FSD (Field Supply Depot) area to its south. The fighting was some of the worst in the war, with wounded being hit again as they lay on stretchers, and the smell of unburied bodies polluting the position. LCpl Martin Coles Harman of the Royal West Kents was awarded a posthumous VC for repeated valour.

Kohima was relieved on 20 April, but fighting went on in the area for another two months. Overall casualties there amounted to 4, 000 British and almost 6, 000 Japanese. The British memorial at Kohima bears the poignant words:

When you go home
Tell them of us, and say:
For your tomorrow,
We gave our today.

Bibliography

• Campbell, Arthur, The Siege: A Story from Kohima (London, 1956).
• Swinson, Arthur, Kohima (London, 1966)

— Richard Holmes