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Concept
Battle of Kohima
Summary
The Battle of Kohima proved the turning point of the Japanese U-Go offensive into India in 1944 during the Second World War. The battle took place in three stages from 4 April to 22 June 1944 around the town of Kohima, now the capital city of Nagaland in Northeast India. 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 and British Indian force at Kohima was relieved.
From 18 April to 13 May British and British 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 British Indian troops pursued the retreating Japanese and reopened the road. The battle ended on 22 June when British and British Indian troops from Kohima and Imphal met at Milestone 109, ending the Siege of Imphal.
The battle has been referred to by authors such as Martin Dougherty and Jonathan Ritter as the "Stalingrad of the East". Military historian Robert Lyman said that the battle of Kohima and Imphal "changed the course of the Second World War in Asia... For the first time the Japanese were defeated in a battle and they never recovered from it". This assessment, however, ignores the Battle of Changsha, the Battle of Milne Bay (September 1942) and the Battle of Guadalacanal (August 1942-February 1943), both significant Japanese defeats on land. It also ignores the fact most Japanese land forces (1m) were fighting the Chinese - in operation Ichi-Go they lost 100,000 men in 1944 alone.
In 2013, a poll conducted by the British National Army Museum voted the Battles of Kohima and Imphal as "Britain's Greatest Battle".
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.
Official source
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