Posted on 06/23/2014 6:56:19 PM PDT by cold start
I’d rank it ahead of D-Day, but behind Waterloo in the list of Britain’s greatest battles.
My wife’s father was an airplane mechanic with the RAF in Burma and India.
Straight On For Tokio.
Lieutenant-Colonel O.G.W. White, DSO.
Gale & Polden Ltd. Aldershot 1948.
It was about my Dad's old regiment, 2nd Battalion Dorsets. The old 54th of foot. They fought a rearguard action to help get men off to safety at Dunkirk. It was with their Indian comrades that they dueled it out with the Japanese at Kohima.
I always remember in WW2 there was disappointment by the troops. This was at the news coverage about the 14th Army in Burma. The tremendous excitement at the defeat of Germany seemed to overshadow the gallant men of the British Army. The Dorsets took their heaviest loss at Kohima.
Your enemy was in your face in those days. Today, soldiers are faced with a different type of warfare. They too, will be written about with pride in future years.
Crazy battle. _I_ still remember checking out a book about it when I was 12. If it wasn’t for the Brens they would have been easily overrun, and it showed the flawed tactical leadership of the Japanese Army.
Perhaps you could read up on the Indo-Pak wars of 1965,71 and 98. In 1971, India dismembered Pakistan and midwifed the birth of Bangladesh. In '98 - the Kargil conflict saw Indian forces evicting Pakistani troops bunkered significantly above them and still suffered fewer casualties.
Hence the Paki preference for Mumbai 2008 style fidayeen attacks.
I agree with all that Slim was brilliant. When he realized what the Japanese were really up to he redeployed his troops just in time to stop them.
The whole thing was a disaster for the Japanese. They had no way to cut a supply line through the jungle and depended on being able to seize supplies in Imphal and Kohima, which they failed to do. They engaged the British and Indian troops in ideal defensive terrain. The magnitude of their defeat opened Burma to Slim's later reconquest.
IJA-in-India Ping.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.