A group of soldiers from York will be flying out to north-east India this weekend to take part in a memorial service honouring those who fought in ‘Britain’s Greatest Battle’: the Battle of Kohima. STEPHEN LEWIS reports.

TUCKED away behind York Minster in Dean’s Park stands a row of ancient stone arches which were once part of the old Archbishop’s palace.

Fixed to the stone at the base of the central arch is a simple bronze plaque. Kohima, 1944, it says.

Above it, attached to metal railings, is a bronze laurel wreath that frames a simple memorial stone set a few feet back. Etched on the face of the memorial is an epitaph: “When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today.”

That epitaph is known as the Kohima epitaph: and it commemorates one of the greatest battles of the Second World War.

The Battle of Kohima, which raged for weeks around the remote Indian hill station of Kohima, was where the tide finally turned in the war against the Japanese. Until Kohima, it has been said, the Japanese never suffered a defeat. After Kohima, they never had a victory. So significant was the battle that, a couple of years ago, it was voted ‘Britain’s Greatest Battle’, eclipsing D-Day and Waterloo.

More than 4,000 British and Indian soldiers, and more than 7,000 Japanese, lost their lives during a bloody 14-day siege centred on the district commissioner’s compound at Kohima and the subsequent battle to gain control of the Imphal road – a vital British supply line as well as the Japanese route from Burma into India.

Among the soldiers who fought and died there were members of the signals regiment of 2 Division – forerunners of today’s 2 Signal Regiment based at Imphal.

This weekend, the regiment’s commanding officer, Lt Col Ian Hargreaves, will lead a group of picked soldiers back to Kohima, to honour those who fought and died there 71 years ago – and to learn the lessons from the past.

The role the Signallers played in the battle was a vital one, Col Hargreaves says: to maintain communications with the British high command.

It was no easy task. “Lines were constantly being cut, batteries were running out, they were down to their last radio. But it was enormously important for the senior command to know what was going on on the battlefield, because otherwise they couldn’t provide support.”

Good communications with the high command were psychologically important for the British and Indian troops fighting in the front line at Kohima, too. They needed to know that support was on the way, and that the battle could be won.

“The Japanese were an adversary who would not surrender,” Col Hargreaves said. “And they had a reputation for not taking prisoners. So the British and Indian troops knew that to surrender was almost certainly to die. Keeping yourself mentally fit, believing you could win, was very important.”

 

York Press:

 The view from above the Kohima memorial in the 1940s

Kohima was strategically important because it stood at the summit of a pass that offered the Japanese the best route from Burma into India. The road running through the pass was also the main supply route between the British base at Dimapur and Imphal, where three divisions of British and Indian troops faced the main Japanese advance.

Kohima was the administrative centre of Nagaland in north east India. The bungalow of district commissioner Sir Charles Pawsey stood on the hillside at a bend in the road, with its gardens and tennis court on terraces above.

Here, in early April 1944, a garrison of about 2,500 British, Indian and Nepalese troops was surrounded by advancing Japanese troops.

The Japanese arrived in the Kohima area on April 4 and, on the following day, began their offensive. The garrison was continually shelled and mortared. Slowly, day-by-day, the defenders were driven back to their final position: the district commissioner’s bungalow and his tennis court.

Here, for the best part of two weeks, the worst of the fighting raged, in what came to be known as the ‘Battle of the Tennis Court’.

A Major Frankie Boshell, in command of a company of the Royal Berkshires who took part in the fighting, left a vivid description of the scene.

“We were attacked every single night,” he wrote. “They came in waves, it was like a pigeon shoot. Most nights they overran part of the battalion position, so we had to mount counter-attacks... Air supply was the key, but the steep terrain and narrow ridges meant that some of the drops went to the Japs. My company went into Kohima over 100 strong and came out at about sixty.”

But help was on the way. The British 2 Division had been widely dispersed across India. Units were rushed across the sub-continent by road, rail and air - and on reaching Kohima were thrown into action piecemeal.

On April 12, the 1st Battalion the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, with artillery and tank support, destroyed a Japanese strong point near the 37th milestone. The 2nd Division’s operations to relieve the siege continued rapidly and, on 18 April, they succeeded.

However, the Japanese were dug deeply into surrounding hillsides and the fighting went on for a further seven weeks before the Japanese were finally forced to withdraw.

It has been said that the battle, which raged from April 4 - June 22, 1944, was the fiercest fought by British forces during the whole of the Second World War. The battle ground was likened to the Somme because of its utter desolation.

 

York Press:

REME mechanics in India in the 1940s. Photo: Kohima Museum

An article on the BBC’s WW2 People’s war website describes the scene around the shattered Kohima Ridge. The hill was “perpetually shrouded in swirling mists of clouds and cordite,” it says. “The shattered leafless pines, firs and oaks looked like grotesque dancers transfixed. A dense forest teeming with life had been stripped. Violence and destruction were everywhere. Bodies lay... where they fell, one of top of the other... Japanese and Allied soldiers together in death.”

The 2 Signal Regiment is the only unit still operational out of the Allied forces that fought in the battle 71 years ago.

A19-strong party from Imphal Barracks – named after the capital of the neighbouring state of Manipur which the Japanese attacked simultaneously with Kohima – will return to Kohima from 8-17 March to learn the history of the battle and pay their respects.

Bob Cook, curator of the Kohima Museum at Imphal Barracks, said: “2 Signal Regiment is the only unit that is still operational out of those that fought at Kohima, so it is fitting that the young soldiers visit the battlefield where their forebears fought so courageously, and to learn the enduring lessons from the past 70 years.”

The visit will be an important part of the soldiers’ training, added Captain Peter Watson, who has organised the visit. “If you forget where you come from, you forget where you are.”

As well as remembering those who fought in the battle, the visit will also be about continuing the regiment’s links with the local Naga people, who gave the Allies invaluable support 71 years ago Col Hargreaves and Mr Cook, who are Trustees of the Kohima Educational Trust (KET) will present 75 scholarships to local Naga students. Each scholarship will fund three years of education.

“The Naga people offered vital ... assistance to the British and Indian forces by providing guides in this remote, mountainous region, carrying wounded soldiers, stores and equipment and even fighting the Japanese soldiers themselves.,” Mr Cook said.

“The KET decided that the best way to repay that enormous debt of gratitude was to sponsor the education of Naga children, whose grandfathers and great-grandfathers had fought with us.”

• The Kohima Museum at Imphal Barracks is the only museum in the country that focuses entirely on the Burma Campaign. To find out more about the museum, or to arrange a visit, email kohimamuseum@yahoo.co.uk

To find out more about the Kohima Educational Trust visit kohimaeducationaltrust.net