On 8 March 1944 the Japanese Fifteenth Army of Lieutenant General Renya Mutaguchi began its advance from Burma toward Imphal, the capital of Manipur in north-east India, together with troops of the Indian National Army. The aim was to seize the great British base on the Imphal plain and cut the road to Kohima. Four months later the offensive had collapsed. Surrounded but supplied by air, the British and Indian troops of IV Corps held on, while the attackers were destroyed by battle, hunger and disease.
Operation U-Go
The Japanese archive JACAR dates the start of the advance on Imphal to 8 March 1944, and the National Army Museum in London gives the battles of Imphal and Kohima as fought between 8 March and 18 July. The museum writes that the offensive was meant to forestall a British invasion of Burma by capturing the British supply bases on the Imphal plain and cutting the road from Dimapur at Kohima. With Imphal in Japanese hands, the air supply route to China could be disrupted. JACAR adds a political aim: to stir up anti-British movements in India.1
The plan was Mutaguchi’s own. He led three Japanese divisions and a division of the Indian National Army, the force of Indian soldiers that fought on the Japanese side. The Kohima Museum in York notes that the Indian National Army troops were spread among the Japanese divisions, with the aim of inciting the people of India to rise against British rule.2
A trap laid in advance
Imphal was held by IV Corps under Lieutenant General Geoffry Scoones, part of Lieutenant General William Slim’s Fourteenth Army. Two of its divisions stood far forward near the Burmese frontier, the 17th Indian Division around Tiddim and the 20th near Tamu. The British meant to pull them back to the edge of the Imphal plain at the first sign of an attack, so that the Japanese would have to fight at the end of a long supply line over the mountains. The Kohima Museum recalls that Slim compared the Imphal base to a tethered goat, set out to lure the enemy to destruction.3
The offensive opened in the south. The National Army Museum describes the Japanese plan as a sequence: the 33rd Division would cut off the 17th Indian Division south of Imphal, and shortly afterwards the 15th Division would strike from the north-east and sever the road to Kohima. The 17th Division was slow to respond, according to the Kohima Museum, and was nearly cut off on its fighting withdrawal from Tiddim, about 150 miles south of Imphal, until the corps reserve, the 23rd Indian Division, came down the road to keep it open.4
Supplied from the air
Mutaguchi also sent his third division, the 31st, against Kohima, which cut the road that supplied Imphal. The Kohima Museum calls this the move that wrong-footed the Allies. The National Army Museum dates the siege of the Imphal garrison from 5 April. The answer came by air. The 5th Indian Division was flown in from the Arakan, and over the whole battle aircraft brought in some 19,000 tons of supplies and about 12,000 men and carried out around 13,000 casualties. The National Army Museum notes that Mutaguchi had counted on capturing British stores to feed his army, and when they did not fall into his hands, his men starved in the monsoon.5
On 22 June troops advancing from Kohima met the defenders of Imphal on the road, and the siege was over. The Kohima Museum dates the end of the offensive, on Mutaguchi’s own order, to 3 July.6
The cost
The losses are estimates, and the sources count them differently. The National Army Museum puts the Japanese Fifteenth Army at 85,000 men, of whom 53,000 were dead or missing, and gives 12,500 British and Indian casualties at Imphal plus another 4,000 at Kohima. JACAR counts more than 30,000 Japanese killed in battle and more than 20,000 dead of illness and starvation. The Kohima Museum estimates about 12,600 Allied and 54,900 Japanese casualties at Imphal. A British diplomat speaking at the 70th anniversary in Imphal gave 17,500 British and Indian killed or wounded and nearly 54,000 Japanese casualties. The National Army Museum calls Imphal and Kohima one of the biggest defeats the Japanese army ever suffered.7
The whole battle is told in our article on the Battle of Imphal, and its twin to the north in our article on the Battle of Kohima.
Also on this day
- 1801: Battle of Abukir. At Abu Qir on the Egyptian coast, a British expeditionary force under Sir Ralph Abercromby came ashore to drive the remaining French army out of Egypt.
