大象传媒

CHAPTER ELEVEN

JAPANESE ON INDIAN SOIL
March 1944
THE SIEGE OF IMPHAL

During that Spring of 1944 historic events were taking place in Assam.

In early March the Japanese Army massed in Burma had launched its planned "Invasion of India", or "The March on Delhi", with 100,000 crack Imperial troops. Their primary tasks were:
1 - to cross the frontier and seize and destroy the forward base of Imphal
2 - to cut the Bengal-Assam railway at Dimapur, this breaking the lifeline to the American/Chinese forces in the North
3 - to over-run Assam airfields, disrupting the airborne traffic over the "Hump" to China

General Slim and the 14th Army were ready and waiting for them. He planned to take the full force of the main attack, and break it, from his own ground on Imphal Plain, with its stockpiles and airfields.

But first he had to withdraw his forward troops. 17th Division, which my old workmate was with, was 100 miles forward at Tiddim, and they had a difficult time getting back. A strong enemy force was ordered to destroy them before they could reach Imphal, and they attacked, delayed and harassed them all the way. They were completely cut off and had to be kept supplied by air whilst they slowly pushed forward.

Bill says he was lucky, as he had a lorry to drive, but many had to walk all the way, with nothing but the clothes they wore. Transport was reserved for stores and wounded.

Eventually 23rd Div fought through and rescued them. Supported by light tanks they finally won through onto Imphal Plain in early April, after several weeks of being under continuous attack.

The main enemy force had rolled forward across the frontier into India with surprising speed and by March 29th Imphal was surrounded; on April 2nd the road to Kohima was cut. From then on Imphal was under siege, and would stay so for the next 3 months. Supplies and reinforcements - including a complete Division - were flown in by a massive airlift, the sick and wounded were flown out to India.

Squadrons of Spitfires and Hurricanes formed the backbone of the air defence and were masters in the air.

The Allied Forces on Imphal Plain held fast and repelled everything the enemy could throw at them. It became a killing ground, the Japanese died in their thousands trying unsuccessfully to gain a foothold on Imphal Plain.

THE BATTLE OF KOHIMA April-May 1944

Meanwhile, strong Japanese columns, bypassing Imphal, had secretly advanced by jungle tracks over the mountains, in a wide arc forward to the Kohima area, and in much greater strength and speed than had been expected. The situation began to look dangerous.

Although Kohima guarded a pass through the mountains vital to the control of the Imphal-Dimapur road, it had only a small garrison for defence. Dimapur had no garrison at all.

The situation had now become desperate, reserve Divisions were hastily being flown into Assam from India. The Kohima defenders, now about 3,500, came under a murderous barrage of shells, bombs and mortars from the heights above the village, blasting every basha, bungalow and tree.

For 16 days, day and night, they were continuously and savagely attacked from all directions, gradually driven into a small perimeter above the village. Field hospitals and dressing stations were shelled and mortared, there were casualties each time, both among the doctors and the patients. Fighting was fierce and bitter and at close quarters round the perimeter, which continued to shrink. Behind the Commissioner's bungalow only the tennis courts divided opposing trenches.

By now supplies were getting very low, air support was requested. Day after day Allied pilots flew low over the shrinking target area through a storm of shells and bullets to drop their loads.

A British Lance Corporal won the Victoria Cross during the battle. Water became scarce, then desperately short. By 18th April the defenders were facing total exhaustion. On that day leading troops of 2nd Division fought their way through to Kohima, by the 20th more reinforcements had arrived. The road to Dimapur was opened, the sick and wounded were evacuated in Red Cross Ambulances - under a continual hail of enemy fire.

But the battle for Kohima was far from finished. The enemy was still in strength in the hills and villages around, they fought for every spur, hill and feature overlooking the pass. It was not until 14th May that the British re-captured the 5000ft Kohima Ridge, it took another 10 days to drive the enemy right out of the area. Japanese resistance was fanatical, they would rather die than surrender.

Thus ended 50 days and 50 nights non-stop battle for Kohima, which finally denied the Japanese a bridgehead into India, and cost them 4000 dead. It was the decisive battle of the campaign.

It was mid-June and the monsoon season before the road through to Impal could be cleared and the siege of Imphal lifted. By mid-July British forces were on the attack in all sectors. During August the last Japanese forces were cleared from Indian soil, never to return. The Japanese had failed in their attempt to seriously invade India, but it had cost them 30,000 men killed in the Imphal-Kohima battles.
Incidentally, 30 Victoria Crossed were awarded to servicemen in Burma, more than in any other theatre of War in World War II.

CHAPTER TWELVE

AFTERMOUTH
August 1944

At "Assam & East Bengal Signal Company", which I had returned to in June after being in hospital, one of the major difficulties of my job was getting spare parts for my lorries. Spares were in short supply - like everything in the 14th Army - and ours, being a static unit, were at the bottom of the waiting list. In August we needed a complete rear axle replacement, but could not get one anywhere.

Then my Section Officer heard that there were a number of broken-down vehicles dumped and deserted on the Dimapur to Imphal road, particularly on the Kohima section, and he got permission to dismantle from those whatever parts he required.

Next day the Office, myself, and two sepoys set off for Dimapur, where we stayed overnight, traveling on to Kohima early next morning. The journey up into the hills, through beautiful tea gardens was very reminiscent of Ceylon, as too was the grinding climb up steep, tortuous roads into the mountains.

As we approached Kohima we saw evidence of the fighting and shelling that had taken place here. On all sides the trees were stripped clean of foliage and branches, only shattered naked stumps left. Everywhere the ground was scarred with trenches and dugouts, and gashed with shell holes. It had been a pretty village, a Naga settlement, lying in a steep valley and along the surrounding hillsides. Now most buildings had been demolished by shells and mortars, the native huts burnt to ruins.

We were fortunate that much of the aftermath of the battle had been cleaned up. We had heard reports from people who had traveled down just after the fighting, of the dozens of bodies on and at the side of the road, covered in flies and bloated, and the stench of it all.

We found no abandoned lorries on the roadside, but just beyond the village the road narrowed to become, for several miles, a ledge along the side of a steep mountain. During the fighting here any lorry that had broken down, or had been damaged by enemy fire had simply been pushed over the side into the valley below. There had been no time for repairs, and no room on the road for stationary vehicles.

We had to clamber down the hillside to the smashed lorries, where we worked for 2 or 3 hours in the boiling sun, with our shirts off, dismantling the parts we required. As these included 2 gearboxes and a complete rear axle, the Officer had to bribe a gang of local Naga tribesmen to haul them up onto the road and onto the lorry.

We were glad to get out of that airless valley because, judging by the unpleasant smells, we were sure there must be some corpses still lying around. Fully loaded, we returned to Dimapur for the night, then on to Gauhati the next day.

ON KOHIMA RIDGE

Two weeks later I made another journey up to Kohima, this time without the Officer. Having by mid-day got most of the spares we wanted, after lunch I left the two Sepoys to forage for a few more whilst I wandered off to have a look around.

The charred remains of the District Commissioner's bungalow stood on a promontory above the road, overlooking the valley. I climbed up there, walked across the tennis court that had been no-man's -land, and out onto the open slopes of the hillside behind. This was the area that the garrison has hung onto and fought for so desperately, the "last ditch" where they held out until relieved.

The whole area was now pitted with graves and dotted with small white crosses, not in tidy straight lines as in a military cemetery, but scattered around in twos and threes, in small groups, in large groups. During the siege, when possible, the dead had had to be buried where they fell, in their trenches and dugouts, in foxholes, and later in communal graves.

Waves of white crosses stretching away up the hillside marked their resting places. At the top of the ridge stood a large rough-hewn wooden cross, at its foot was a board on which was inscribed, in white paint, the now well-known message;

"When you go home,
Tell them of us and say,
For their tomorrow
We gave our today."

Some time later a more formal cemetery was laid out and a permanent monument raised, in memory of those men who lost their lives in the gallant battle for Kohima Ridge; Indians, Gurkhas and many British. I returned to my Unit in very thoughtful mood, feeling very humble and glad to be alive.

Ever since then any mention of Kohima brings to my mind not only the words of that poignant message, but also of that hillside dotted with white crossed, and the words from Rupert Brook's poem "The Soldier" -

"There is some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England."

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