The Battles of Imphal and Kohima, March-July 1944

[Tim Nice But Dim]

When most people think of the great battles fought against the Japanese in Asia between 1941 and 1945, they think of battles like Iwo Jima or Okinawa. Yet one of Japans most devastating defeat on land was more than a thousand miles to the west, on the Indian Burmese border in a series of battles at Impha and Kohima…


The Battles of Imphal and Kohima, March-July 1944

In March 1944 the Japanese 15th Army began an advance against India’s north-east frontier to forestall a planned British invasion of Burma. The Japanese intended to capture the British supply bases on the Imphal Plain and cut the road linking Dimapur and Imphal at Kohima. A Japanese diversionary attack in the Arakan was defeated at the battle of the Admin Box but in early April the troops at Kohima and Imphal were cut off. Supplied by air, the garrisons threw back the Japanese attacks in bitter close quarter fighting until relief forces reached them. At Kohima, the garrison commander, Colonel Hugh Richards, hastily organised a scratch force built around 4th Battalion, The Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment and the Assam Regiment. His 1500 troops held a tight defensive perimeter centred on Garrison Hill. Facing them were 15,000 men of the Japanese 31st Infantry Division commanded by Lieutenant-General Kotoku Sato. Between 5 and 18 April Kohima saw some of the bitterest close-quarter fighting of the War and in one sector only the width of the town’s tennis court separated the two sides. When on 18 April the relief forces of the British 2nd Division arrived, Richards’s defensive perimeter was reduced to a shell-shattered area only 350 metres square. Despite the arrival of British and Commonwealth reinforcements and supplies, the battle continued to range around Kohima until 22 June when the starving Japanese began their desperate withdrawal. The opening of the road at Kohima ensured the relief of Imphal. In this, their greatest defeat yet on land, the Japanese lost over 60,000 men and the momentum gained here allowed General Slim’s 14th Army to begin the reconquest of Burma.

From - http://www.national-army-museum.ac.uk/pages/Second-war/far-east.html

More on the Battle of Imphal at http://www.burmastar.org.uk/imphal1.htm

More on the Battle of Kohima at http://www.mod.uk/aboutus/history/kohima60/kohima2.htm

[chulo_allen]

whooo hoo! i live there.. (random fact)

http://kohima.nic.in/photos/cemetery-f.jpg
http://eastindiavyapaar.com/travel/nagaland/war_fin.jpgKohima is the place where the allied forces halted the advance of the Japanese army in April 1994, during the world war II. Kohima war cemetery was built as a memorial to the war dead is superbly maintained and kept spotlessly clean. In kohima war cemetery there are 1421 bronze plaque memorial graves and 917 memorials of Hindu and Sikh dead whose mortal remains were committed to fire.

http://www.burmastar.org.uk/images/Kohima.gif
The Kohima 2nd Division Memorial is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on behalf of the 2nd Infantry Division. The memorial remembers the Allied dead who repulsed the Japanese 15th Army, a force of 100,000 men, who had invaded India in March 1944 in Operation U-Go. Kohima, the capital of Nagaland was a vital to control of the area and in fierce fighting the Japanese finally withdrew from the area in June of that year.

The Memorial itself consists of a large monolith of Naga stone such as is used to mark the graves of dead Nagas. The stone is set upright on a dressed stone pedestal, the overall height being 15 feet. A small cross is carved at the top of the monolith and below this a bronze panel is inset. The panel bears the inscription


"When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today"


The words are attributed to John Maxwell Edmonds (1875 -1958), an English Classicist, who had put them together among a collection of 12 epitaphs for World War One, in 1916.

According to the Burma Star Association the words were used for the Kohima Memorial as a suggestion by Major John Etty-Leal, the GSO II of the 2nd Division, another classical scholar.

The verse is thought to have been inspired by the Greek lyric poet Simonides of Ceos (556-468 BC) who wrote after the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC:


"Go tell the Spartans, thou that passest by,
That faithful to their precepts here we lie."



"When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today"
This famous epitaph is found on numerous Veteran Memorials and Monuments throughout the world. It is also found on many internet websites for veterans ranging from India, Australia, UK, United States and very likely on non-English veteran websites as well.

In nearly all instances the words cite the origin as being from the Kohima Epitaph. Although that memorial is the most well known, the lines pre-date the inscription on that WWII memorial.

I have assembled some of the material from my internet search below. Several of which cite John Maxwell Edmonds as the original author of those lines.

I have presented material here from a few internet sources. Again, for the reason that sources on the web often blink off and are lost. The copied versions are presented here solely for informational and educational purpose with no intent to plagiarize.

It is my opinion that the lines of that epitaph are some of the most moving lines written about veterans. They state very succintly what it is that each veteran gave to his fellow citizens, i.e. all of their tomorrows.

It also seems fitting that Mr. Edmonds, who wrote those famous lines, should be cited as the author.

(Note, that in many of the quotes the epitaph reads "your tomorrow" vs "their tomorrow". It is thought that Edmonds' original poem used "their". Any authoritative reference to clarify that point would also be appreciated

[Para]

It must also be remembered that the Chindits had drawn many thousands of Japanese soldiers away from this fight, after they landed behind Japanese lines and started to attack their line of communication