The Battle of Kohima: A Brutal Turning Point in the Second World War
In 1944, the Japanese army attempted to invade India, aiming to topple the British Raj. The struggle for the ridge at Kohima became a desperate, savage fight for survival. Starving soldiers and intense close-quarters combat defined this pivotal clash, which ultimately broke the Japanese offensive and saved the Allied position.
The Battle of Kohima, fought from 4 April to 22 June 1944, served as the decisive turning point of the Japanese U-Go offensive. Lieutenant General Renya Mutaguchi, commander of the Japanese Fifteenth Army, had expanded a limited operation into a full-scale invasion of India, hoping to demonstrate British weakness and bolster Indian nationalist efforts. The Japanese 31st Division, led by Lieutenant General Kōtoku Satō, was tasked with capturing Kohima to sever the vital supply road to the British IV Corps at Imphal.
The conflict quickly devolved into some of the most intense fighting of the war. At the Deputy Commissioner's tennis court, combatants fought at such close range that grenades were tossed between trenches, a scene described by historians Alan Millet and Williamson Murray as possessing a level of "mindless savagery" rarely seen even on the Eastern Front. The garrison, initially numbering about 2,500, endured constant shelling and severe water shortages while defending a shrinking perimeter on Garrison Hill. By the time reinforcements from the British 2nd Division and the 7th Indian Infantry Division arrived, the area was a ruined landscape of craters and half-buried remains.
The Japanese failure was ultimately sealed by a catastrophic lack of logistics. Having begun the operation with only three weeks of supplies, the 31st Division was left to starve as their supply lines were cut by the British 23rd Long Range Penetration Brigade. Disregarding orders from Mutaguchi, Satō began a retreat on 31 May. The battle concluded on 22 June when British and Indian forces from Kohima met those from Imphal at Milestone 109. The Allies suffered 4,064 casualties, while the Japanese lost at least 5,764 men, with many more succumbing to disease and starvation during their retreat.
Source: Battle of Kohima
