Battle of Kohima The Battle of Kohima was the turning point of the Japanese U Go offensive into India in 1944 in the Second World War . The battle was fought in three stages from 4 April to 22 June 1944 around the town of Kohima in north - east India . It is often referred to as the " " Stalingrad of the East " " . From 3 to 16 April , the Japanese attempted to capture Kohima ridge , a feature which dominated the road by which the besieged British and Indian troops of IV Corps at Imphal were supplied . By mid - April , the small British force at Kohima was relieved . From 18 April to 13 May , British and Indian reinforcements counter - attacked to drive the Japanese from the positions they had captured . The Japanese abandoned the ridge at this point but continued to block the Kohima – Imphal road . From 16 May to 22 June , the British and Indian troops pursued the retreating Japanese and reopened the road . The battle ended on 22 June when British and Indian troops from Kohima and Imphal met at Milestone 109 , ending the siege of Imphal . Background . The Japanese plan to invade India , codenamed U - Go , was originally intended as a spoiling attack against the British IV Corps at Imphal in Manipur , to disrupt the Allied offensive plans for that year . The commander of the Japanese Fifteenth Army , Lieutenant General Renya Mutaguchi , enlarged the plan to invade India itself and perhaps even overthrow the British Raj . The objections of the staffs of various headquarters were eventually overcome , and the offensive was approved by Imperial General Headquarters on 7 Jan 1944 . Part of the plan involved sending the Japanese 31st Division ( which was composed of 58th Regiment , 124th Regiment , 138th Regiment and 31st Mountain Artillery Regiment ) to capture Kohima and thus cut off Imphal . Mutaguchi wished to exploit the capture of Kohima by pushing the 31st Division on to Dimapur , the vital railhead and logistic base in the Brahmaputra River valley . The 31st Division ' s commander , Lieutenant General Kotoku Sato , was unhappy with his role . He had not been involved in the planning of the offensive , and had grave misgivings about its chances . He had already told his staff that they might all starve to death . In common with many senior Japanese officers , Sato considered Mutaguchi a " blockhead " . He and Mutaguchi had also been on opposite sides during the split between the " Toseiha " and " Kodoha " factions within the Japanese Army during the early 1930s , and Sato believed he had reason to distrust Mutaguchi ' s motives . Prelude . Starting on 15 March 1944 , the Japanese 31st Division crossed the Chindwin River near Homalin and moved north - west along jungle trails on a front almost wide . Although the march was arduous , good progress was made . The left wing of the division , consisting of the bulk of the 58th Regiment and commanded by the division ' s Infantry Group commander , Major General Shigesaburo Miyazaki , was ahead of the neighbouring formation ( the Japanese 15th Infantry Division ) when they clashed with Indian troops covering the northern approaches to Imphal on 20 March . The Indian troops were the 50th Indian Parachute Brigade under Brigadier Maxwell Hope - Thompson , at Sangshak . Although they were not Miyazaki ' s objective , he decided to clear them from his line of advance . The Battle of Sangshak continued for six days . The parachute brigade ' s troops were desperately short of drinking water , but Miyazaki was handicapped by lack of artillery until near the end of the battle . Eventually , as some of the Japanese 15th Division ' s troops joined the battle , Hope - Thompson withdrew . The 50th Parachute Brigade lost 600 men , while the Japanese had suffered over 400 casualties . Miyazaki had also captured some of the food and munitions that had been dropped by the Royal Air Force ( RAF ) to the defenders of Sangshak . However , his troops , who had the shortest and easiest route to Kohima , were delayed by a week . Meanwhile , the commander of the British Fourteenth Army , Lieutenant General William Slim , belatedly realised ( partly from Japanese documents that had been captured at Sangshak ) that a whole Japanese division was moving towards Kohima . He and his staff had originally believed that , because of the forbidding terrain in the area , the Japanese would only be able to send a regiment to take Kohima . Slim knew that there were few fighting troops , as opposed to soldiers in line - of - communication units and supporting services , in Kohima and none at all at the vital base of Dimapur to the north . Dimapur contained an area of supply dumps miles long and wide . As the fall of Dimapur would have been disastrous for the Allies , Slim asked his superior , General George Giffard ( commanding Eleventh Army Group ) , for more troops to protect Dimapur and to prepare to relieve Imphal . The Allies were already hastily reinforcing the Imphal Front . As part of this move , the infantry and artillery of 5th Indian Infantry Division were flown from the Arakan , where they had just participated in the defeat of a subsidiary Japanese offensive at the Battle of the Admin Box . While the main body of the division went to Imphal ( where some units had been isolated and almost all of IV Corps ' reserves had already been committed ) , the 161st Indian Infantry Brigade , commanded by Brigadier Dermot Warren and with 24th Mountain Artillery Regiment Indian Artillery attached , were flown to Dimapur . Early in March , the 23rd Long Range Penetration Brigade was removed from Major General Orde Wingate ' s Chindit force , and was dispatched by rail from around Lalaghat to Jorhat , north of Dimapur , where they could threaten the flank of any Japanese attack on the base . Giffard and General Claude Auchinleck , the Commander - in - Chief of the British Indian Army , also prepared to send the British 2nd Division and Indian XXXIII Corps HQ under Lieutenant General Montagu Stopford from reserve in southern and central India to Dimapur , by road and rail . Until XXXIII Corps headquarters could arrive at Dimapur , the HQ of 202 Line of Communication Area under Major General R . P . L . Ranking took command of the area . Battle . Geography . Kohima ' s strategic importance in the wider 1944 Japanese Chindwin offensive lay in that it was the summit of a pass that offered the Japanese the best route from Burma into India . and through which ran the road which was the main supply route between the base at Dimapur in the Brahmaputra River valley , and Imphal , where three divisions of British and Indian troops faced the main Japanese offensive . Kohima Ridge itself runs roughly north and south . The road from Dimapur to Imphal climbs to its northern end and runs along its eastern face . In 1944 , Kohima was the administrative centre of Nagaland . The Deputy Commissioner was Charles Pawsey . His bungalow stood on the hillside at a bend in the road , with its gardens and tennis court , and a clubhouse , on terraces above . Although some terraces around the village were cleared for cultivation , the steep slopes of the ridge were densely forested . North of the ridge lay the densely inhabited area of " Naga Village " , crowned by " Treasury Hill " and " Church Knoll " ( Baptist and other Christian missionaries had been active in Nagaland over the preceding half century ) . South and west of Kohima Ridge were " GPT Ridge " and the jungle - covered " Aradura Spur " . The various British and Indian service troop encampments in the area gave their names to the features which were to be important in the battle e . g . " Field Supply Depot " became " FSD Hill " or merely " FSD " . The Japanese later assigned their own code - names to the features ; for example , " Garrison Hill " was known as " Inu " ( dog ) and " Kuki Piquet " as " Saru " ( monkey ) . These were frequently - used names , and not generally as memorable as the British names which are used in most history textbooks . Siege . Before the 161st Indian Brigade arrived , the only fighting troops in the Kohima area were the newly raised 1st Battalion , the Assam Regiment and a few platoons from the 3rd ( Naga Hills ) Battalion of the paramilitary Assam Rifles . Late in March 161st Brigade deployed in Kohima , but Major - General Ranking ordered them back to Dimapur , as it was felt initially that Dimapur had more strategic importance . Kohima was regarded as a roadblock , while Dimapur was the railhead where the majority of Allied supplies were stored . Slim also feared that the Japanese might leave only a detachment to contain the garrison of Kohima while the main body of the 31st Division moved by tracks to the east to attack Dimapur . To Slim ' s relief , Sato concentrated on capturing Kohima . ( Early in the siege , on 8 April , Mutaguchi directly ordered Sato to send a detachment to advance on Dimapur . Sato unwillingly dispatched a battalion of the 138th Regiment but a few hours later Mutaguchi ' s superior , Lieutenant General Masakasu Kawabe commanding Burma Area Army , vetoed the move . ) As the right wing and centre of the Japanese 31st Division approached Jessami , to the east of Kohima , elements of the Assam Regiment fought delaying actions against them commencing on 1 April . Nevertheless , the men in the forward positions were soon overrun and the Assam regiment was ordered to withdraw . By the night of 3 April , Miyazaki ' s troops reached the outskirts of the Naga village and began probing Kohima from the south . Stopford ' s Corps HQ took over responsibility for the front from Ranking on 3 April . The next day , he ordered the 161st Indian Brigade to move forward to Kohima again , but only one battalion , 4th Bn . The Queen ' s Own Royal West Kent Regiment ( a forebear of the Princess of Wales ' s Royal Regiment ) , commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Laverty , and a company of the 4th Bn . the 7th Rajput Regiment arrived in Kohima before the Japanese cut the road west of the ridge . Besides these troops from 161st Brigade , the garrison consisted of a raw battalion ( the Shere Regiment ) from the Royal Nepalese Army , some companies from the Burma Regiment , some of the Assam Regiment which had retired to Kohima and various detachments of convalescents and line - of - communication troops . The garrison numbered about 2 , 500 , of which about 1 , 000 were non - combatants and was commanded by Colonel Hugh Richards , who had served formerly with the Chindits . The siege began on 6 April . The garrison was continually shelled and mortared , in many instances by Japanese using weapons and ammunition captured at Sangshak and from other depots , and was slowly driven into a small perimeter on " Garrison Hill " . They had artillery support from the main body of 161st Brigade , who were themselves cut off away at Jotsoma , but , as at Sangshak , they were very short of drinking water . The water supply point was on " GPT Ridge " , which was captured by the Japanese on the first day of the siege . Some of its defenders were unable to retreat to other positions on the ridge and instead withdrew towards Dimapur . Canvas water tanks on " FSD " and at the Indian General Hospital had neither been filled nor dug in to protect them from fire . However , a small spring was discovered on the north side of " Garrison Hill " , but it could be reached only at night . The medical dressing stations were exposed to Japanese fire , and wounded men were often hit again as they waited for treatment . Some of the heaviest fighting took place at the north end of Kohima Ridge , around the Deputy Commissioner ' s bungalow and tennis court , in what became known as the Battle of the Tennis Court . The tennis court became a no man ' s land , with the Japanese and the defenders of Kohima dug in on opposite sides , so close to each other that grenades were thrown between the trenches . On the night of 17 / 18 April , the Japanese finally captured the DC ' s bungalow area . Other Japanese captured " Kuki Picquet " , cutting the garrison in two . The defenders ' situation was desperate , but the Japanese did not follow up by attacking " Garrison Hill " , and when daylight broke , troops of 161st Indian Brigade arrived to relieve the garrison . Relief . The British 2nd Division , commanded by Major General John M . L . Grover , had begun to arrive at Dimapur in early April . By 11 April , Fourteenth Army had about the same number of troops in the area as the Japanese . The British 5th Brigade of the 2nd Division broke through Japanese roadblocks to relieve 161st Brigade in Jotsoma on 15 April . The British 6th Brigade took over 161st Brigade ' s defensive position ( the " Jotsoma Box " ) , allowing the 161st Brigade with air , artillery and armour support to launch an attack towards Kohima on 18 April . After a day ' s heavy fighting , the leading troops of the Brigade ( 1st Bn . 1st Punjab Regiment ) broke through and started to relieve the Kohima garrison . By this point , Kohima resembled a battlefield from the First World War , with smashed trees , ruined buildings and the ground covered in craters . Under cover of darkness , the wounded ( numbering 300 ) were brought out under fire . Although contact had been established , it took a further 24 hours to fully secure the road between Jotsoma and Kohima . During 19 April and into the early hours of 20 April , the British 6th Brigade replaced the original garrison and at 06 : 00 hours on 20 April , the garrison commander ( Colonel Richards ) handed over command of the area . Miyazaki continued to try to capture " Garrison Hill " , and there was heavy fighting for this position for several more nights , with high casualties on both sides . The Japanese positions on " Kuki Picquet " were only from " Garrison Hill " , and fighting was often hand - to - hand . On the other flank of " Garrison Hill " , on the night of 26 / 27 April , a British attack recaptured the clubhouse above the Deputy Commissioner ' s bungalow , which overlooked most of the Japanese centre . Counter - offensive . The Japanese had reorganised their forces for defence . Their Left Force under Miyazaki held Kohima Ridge with four battalions . The divisional HQ under Sato himself and the Centre Force under Colonel Shiraishi held " Naga Village " with another four battalions . The much smaller Right Force held villages to the north and east . To support their attack against the Japanese position , the British had amassed thirty - eight 3 . 7 Inch Mountain Howitzer s , forty - eight 25 - pounder field guns and two 5 . 5 inch medium guns . The RAF also bombed and strafed the Japanese positions . The Japanese could oppose them with only seventeen light mountain guns , with very little ammunition . Nevertheless , the progress of the British counter - attack was slow . Tanks could not easily be used , and the Japanese occupied bunkers which were very deeply dug in , well - concealed and mutually supporting . While the British 6th Brigade defended " Garrison Hill " , the other two brigades of 2nd Division tried to outflank both ends of the Japanese position , in " Naga Village " to the north and on " GPT Ridge " to the south . The monsoon had broken by this time and the steep slopes were covered in mud , making movement and supply very difficult . On 4 May , the British 5th Brigade secured a foothold in the outskirts of " Naga Village " but was counter - attacked and driven back . On the same day , the British 4th Brigade , having made a long flank march around Mount Pulebadze to approach Kohima Ridge from the south - west , attacked " GPT Ridge " in driving rain and captured part of the ridge by surprise but were unable to secure the entire ridge . Two successive commanders of British 4th Brigade were killed in the subsequent close - range fighting on the ridge . Both outflanking moves having failed because of the terrain and the weather , the British 2nd Division concentrated on attacking the Japanese positions along Kohima Ridge from 4 May onwards . Fire from Japanese posts on the reverse slope of " GPT Ridge " repeatedly caught British troops attacking " Jail Hill " in the flank , inflicting heavy casualties and preventing them from capturing the hill for a week . However , the various positions were slowly taken . " Jail Hill " , together with " Kuki Picquet " , " FSD " and " DIS " , was finally captured by 33rd Indian Infantry Brigade on 11 May , after a barrage of smoke shells blinded the Japanese machine - gunners and allowed the troops to secure the hill and dig in . The last Japanese positions on the ridge to be captured were the tennis court and gardens above the Deputy Commissioner ' s bungalow . On 13 May , after several failed attempts to outflank or storm the position , the British finally bulldozed a track to the summit above the position , up which a tank could be dragged . A Lee tank crashed down onto the tennis court and destroyed the Japanese trenches and bunkers there . The 2nd Bn , the Dorsetshire Regiment , followed up and captured the hillside where the bungalow formerly stood , thus finally clearing Kohima Ridge . The terrain had been reduced to a fly and rat - infested wilderness , with half - buried human remains everywhere . The conditions under which the Japanese troops had lived and fought were described by several British sources as " unspeakable " . The situation worsened for the Japanese as yet more Allied reinforcements arrived . The 7th Indian Infantry Division , commanded by Major General Frank Messervy , was arriving piecemeal by road and rail from the Arakan . Its 33rd Indian Brigade had already been released from XXXIII Corps reserve to join the fighting on Kohima Ridge on 4 May . The 114th Indian Infantry Brigade and the Division HQ arrived on 12 May and ( with 161st Brigade under command ) the division concentrated on recapturing the " Naga Village " from the north . The independent 268th Indian Infantry Brigade was used to relieve the brigades of British 2nd Division and allow them to rest , before they resumed their drive southwards along the Imphal Road . Nevertheless , when the Allies launched another attack on 16 May , the Japanese continued to defend " Naga Village " and " Aradura Spur " tenaciously . Japanese retreat . The decisive factor was the Japanese lack of supplies . The Japanese 31st Division had begun the operation with only three weeks ' supply of food . Once these supplies were exhausted , they had had to make do with meagre captured stocks and what they could forage in increasingly hostile local villages . ( Shortly before the siege of Kohima began , the Japanese had captured a huge warehouse in " Naga Village " with enough rice to feed the division " for three years " , but it was immediately bombed and the stock of rice was destroyed . ) The British 23rd LRP Brigade , which had been operating behind the Japanese division , cut the Japanese supply lines and prevented them foraging in the Naga Hills to the east of Kohima . The Japanese had mounted two resupply missions , using captured jeep s to carry supplies forward from the Chindwin to 31st Division , but they brought mainly artillery and anti - tank ammunition , rather than food . By the middle of May , Sato ' s troops were starving . He considered that Mutaguchi and the HQ of Japanese Fifteenth Army were taking little notice of his situation , as they had issued several confusing and contradictory orders to him during April . Because the main attack on Imphal faltered around the middle of April , Mutaguchi wished 31st Division or parts of it to join in the attack on Imphal from the north , even while the division was struggling to capture and hold Kohima . Sato considered that his division was being " messed around " without proper planning or consideration for the conditions . Nor did Sato believe that Fifteenth Army headquarters were exerting themselves to move supplies to his division . He began pulling his troops back to conserve their strength , thus allowing the British to secure Kohima Ridge . On 25 May , Sato notified Fifteenth Army HQ that he would withdraw on 1 June , unless his division received supplies . Finally on 31 May , he abandoned " Naga Village " and other positions north of the road , in spite of orders from Mutaguchi to hang on to his position . ( For a divisional commander to retreat without orders or permission from his superior was unheard - of in the Japanese Army . ) This allowed XXXIII Corps to outflank Miyazaki ' s position on " Aradura Spur " and begin pushing south . Miyazaki ' s detachment continued to fight rearguard actions and demolish bridges along the road to Imphal , but was eventually driven off the road and forced to retreat eastwards . The remainder of the Japanese division retreated painfully south but found very little to eat , as most of what few supplies had been brought forward across the Chindwin had been consumed by other Japanese units , who were as desperately hungry as Sato ' s men . Many of the 31st Division were too enfeebled to drag themselves further south than Ukhrul ( near the Sangshak battlefield ) , where hospitals had been set up , but with no medicines , medical staff or food , or Humine south of Ukhrul , where Sato vainly hoped to find supplies . Indian XXXIII Corps followed up the retreating Japanese . The British 2nd Division advanced down the main road , while the 7th Indian Division ( using mules and jeeps for most of its transport ) , moved through the rough terrain east of the road . On 22 June , the leading troops of British 2nd Division met the main body of 5th Indian Infantry Division advancing north from Imphal at Milestone 109 , south of Kohima . The siege of Imphal was over , and truck convoys quickly carried vital heavy supplies to the troops at Imphal . During the Battle of Kohima , the British and Indian forces had lost 4 , 064 men , dead , missing and wounded . Against this the Japanese had lost 5 , 764 battle casualties in the Kohima area , and many of the 31st Division subsequently died of disease or starvation . Aftermath . After ignoring army orders for several weeks , Sato was removed from command of Japanese 31st Division early in July . The entire Japanese offensive was broken off at the same time . Slim had always derided Sato as the most unenterprising of his opponents , and even recounted dissuading the RAF from bombing Sato ' s HQ because he wanted him kept alive , as doing so would help the Allied cause . Japanese sources , however , blame his superior , Mutaguchi , for both the weaknesses of the original plan , and the antipathy between himself and Sato which led to Sato concentrating on saving his division rather than driving on distant objectives . After Sato was removed from command , he refused an invitation to commit seppuku and demanded a court martial to clear his name and make his complaints about Fifteenth Army HQ public . At Kawabe ' s prompting , doctors declared that Sato had suffered a mental breakdown and was unfit to stand trial . He was replaced as commander of the 31st Division by Lieutenant General Tsuchitaro Kawada . Major General Miyazaki was promoted and appointed to command the Japanese 54th Division , serving in Arakan . The huge losses the Japanese suffered in the Battles of Imphal and Kohima ( mainly through starvation and disease ) crippled their defence of Burma against Allied attacks during the following year . On the Allied side , Major General Grover was dismissed from command of the British 2nd Division on 5 July , for perceived slowness in conducting the offensive , and also after complaints about his handling of Indian formations ( 161st and 33rd Indian brigades ) attached to his division . He accepted his dismissal stoically and was appointed Director of Army Welfare Services at the War Office . Aerial resupply . At the sieges of both Kohima and Imphal , the Allies relied entirely on resupply from the air by British and American aircraft flying from India until the road from the railhead at Dimapur was cleared . At Kohima , due to the narrow ridgelines , accuracy in the dropping of air delivered logistics proved to be a considerable problem and as the fighting intensified and the defended area decreased , the task became harder and more dangerous . The increasing dominance of Allied airpower by this stage of the Burma campaign was a major factor in helping the Allies turn the tide of the war in this theatre . Allied air supply enabled British and Indian troops to hold out in positions that they might otherwise have had to abandon due to shortages of ammunition , food and water , as reinforcements and supplies could be brought in even when garrisons were surrounded and cut off . Conversely , the Japanese found their own supply situation harder to resolve and in the end it was one of the deciding factors in the battle . Victoria Cross . Two Victoria Cross es were awarded for actions during the Battle of Kohima : Memorial . Kohima has a large cemetery of 1 , 420 Allied war dead maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission . The cemetery lies on the slopes of Garrison Hill , in what was once the Deputy Commissioner ' s tennis court which was the scene of the Battle of the Tennis Court . The epitaph carved on the memorial of the 2nd British Division in the cemetery has become world - famous as the Kohima Epitaph . It reads : The verse is attributed to John Maxwell Edmonds ( 1875 – 1958 ) , and is thought to have been inspired by the epitaph written by Simonides to honour the Spartans who fell at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC .