Page 28 - Seniors Today - January Issue

70th Anniversary Commemorations the turning point of one of the most
During the 70th Anniversary
Commemorations of the Battle of Imphal
held from March to June 2014, a series of
events were organized by the Manipur
Tourism Forum and the Second World
War Imphal Campaign Foundation to
mark key dates from the battles and pay
tribute to the martyrs who died fighting
during these fierce battles.
War Tourism: Also, in a first-of-its-kind
of war tourism effort in India, the Eastern
Heritage Trails, Imphal had conducted
a series of guided tours focused on the
Battle of Imphal. An initiative of Mr
Hemant Singh Katoch, son of a retired
Army officer and an ex-United Nations
and Red Cross official; these tours
covered prominent sites in and around
Imphal and Manipur related to this
historic battle. I went on the most popular
Battle of Imphal Tour. It included the
Second World War era airfield – Koirenge:
the two War Cemeteries (Imphal Indian
Army and the Imphal War Cemetery),
which commemorates the memories of
the Indian and British soldiers who died
during the War; battlefield visits around
Imphal and the colonial era Gen Slim’s
Cottage, which is now a heritage property
in Kangla Fort Complex. It was once the
headquarters of the British 14th Army
Commander from where he planned and
initially fought the Burma Compaign.
The Battles of Imphal and Kohima
The Battles of Imphal and Kohima pitted
1,20,000 British-led Allies against
70,000 Japanese and 7000 INA soldiers
in some of the bitterest fighting seen
during the Second World War. “Fought
between March 7 and July 18, 1944, the
Battles of Imphal and Kohima were
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gruelling campaigns of the Second World
War. The decisive Japanese defeat in
Northeast India became the springboard
for the Fourteenth Army’s subsequent
re-conquest of Burma”: National Army
Museum, London.
While 16,000 on the Allies side were
either killed or wounded at Imphal-
Kohima, 12,000 of them died during the
Battle of Imphal. An estimated 30,000
Japanese soldiers died due to fighting
or disease in the simultaneous battles
of Imphal and Kohima, and on the
retreat back to Burma. Soldiers carried
the injured back towards the Chindwin
River. Those who could not be carried
were left behind. The fingers of many of
the dead were cut to be cremated back
home. It was the greatest defeat on land
in Japan’s history and the vast majority of
casualties occurred during the Battle of
Imphal. Among the 7,000 INA men who
accompanied the Japanese till Moirang,
about 400 were killed in the battle, while
1,500 died of disease and starvation
during their withdrawal towards Burma.
Till this day skeletons presumed to belong
to the dead soldiers are found in Manipur.
The British military historian Dr Robert
Lyman who played a prominent role in
Gurkhas clearing enemy positions on Scraggy Hill near
Imphal, April 1944