Battle of Kohima: The Greatest World War Two Battle Everyone Forgot

Perched on top of a mountain ridge, some 5,000 feet up in the remote hilly terrain of northeast India, lies the town of Kohima, in what is now the state of Nagaland. During the Second World War, one of the most decisive battles in the Burmese front took place here—the one that thwarted the Japanese invasion of India and helped turn the tide of the war in the Far East. Like most battles that took place in the South-East Asian theater, the Battle of Kohima remains relatively unknown because the world was too preoccupied with Nazi Germany in Europe. The Allied Invasion of Europe also steered the spotlight away from the Battle of Kohima which was still being fought when D-Day started. Men of the West Yorkshire Regiment and 10th Gurkha Rifles advance along the Imphal-Kohima road behind Lee-Grant tanks. July 1944. Photo credit: Imperial War Museum The two northeastern states of Manipur and Nagaland, then part of Assam, were important frontiers of the Second World War in what was known as the Burmese front. In the rough terrain and dense forests of the region, Indian and British forces fought many fierce battles against the Japanese army. One of these battles—the Battle of Kohima—saw the defeat of the Japanese, an event that sealed the fate of Tokyo’s imperial ambitions in South Asia. Kohima is situated on a ridge that runs roughly north and south. Upon this ridge, a road ran connecting the British supply base at Dimapur, in the Brahmaputra River valley in the north, and Imphal in the south, through the town of Kohima. From Imphal, the road proceeded further south and into Burma. This was the route the Japanese intended to take to invade India from Burma. Known as Operation U-Go, the objective was to break through the hills of Nagaland and race to Dimapur on the plains. Once they take over the bases there, they could cut off Allied communication to China and then proceed for an all-out assault on British India.