197 - Kohima

The WW2 Podcast

Angus Wallace

Rifle, Gun, Second, Army, Ww2, War, Society & Culture, Carlin, Aircraft, Military, Navy, Wwii, World, History, Plane, Armour, Infantry, Tank

4.7 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 1 July 2023

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Fought between 8 March and 18 July 1944, the battles of Imphal and Kohima were the turning point of one of the most gruelling campaigns of the Second World War (1939-45). The decisive Japanese defeat in north-east India became the springboard for the Fourteenth Army’s subsequent re-conquest of Burma.

Joining me for this episode is Robert Lyman, author of the excellent A War of Empires; Japan, India, Burma and Britain 1941-45.

The book covers the defeat of the British and Indian armies in 1941-42, the change of commanders, the restructuring, training of the army and new tactics, and the extraordinary victories culminating in Mandalay in May 1945 and the collapse of all Japanese forces in Burma.

But that is a big topic to cover. So I thought we would focus on the battle of Kohima and, to some extent, Imphal. In 2013, a British National Army Museum poll voted the Battles of Kohima and Imphal as ‘Britain's Greatest Battle’.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	this country is at war with Germany. We shall go on to the end. I remember the
0:09.1	sheets of plane which came up and almost blinded us for my guns.
0:21.9	Hello and welcome to another episode of the World War Two podcast. I'm Angus Wallace.
0:27.7	Joining me for this episode is Robert Lyman, author of The Excellent, A War of Empires,
0:34.1	Japan, India, Burma and Britain 1941, 45. The book covers the defeat of the British and Indian
0:42.3	armies in 1941-42, the change of commanders, the structuring training of the army and new tactics,
0:48.8	through to the extraordinary victories culminating in Mandalayr in May 1945,
0:54.8	and the collapse of all Japanese forces in Burma. But that is a big topic to cover. So I thought
1:01.6	would focus on the battle of Kohima and to some extent infile. In 2013, a poll conducted by the
1:10.1	British National Army Museum voted the battles of Kohima and infile as Britain's greatest battle.
1:17.6	Robert, thanks for joining me. So before he gets to the battles, do you want to start by
1:23.0	setting the scene? Well, what I'll do is I'll just paint a picture, I think, Angus and explain
1:28.8	the strategic situation. So in 1942, the Japanese, of course, launched an invasion of Southeast Asia
1:35.6	and they occupied Malaya to Singapore and they also invaded Burma and pushed the British out of
1:40.8	Burma. They didn't think they didn't intend to occupy the whole of Burma. All they really wanted
1:45.3	to do when they attacked Burma was to capture Rangoon because Rangoon was the port which supplied
1:51.4	the Burma road and the Burma road was the major strategic irritant to the Japanese. So they got
1:57.6	Burma by default actually. They got it because Britain hadn't prepared its defense and the Japanese
2:03.0	had what I always described as stars as advantage. So then and up child by May 1942, the Japanese
2:09.6	found themselves an occupation of a very large country with only effectively two divisions
2:18.0	at the time. So about 30,000 men. Quite an extraordinary story that we didn't have time to go into
2:23.6	today. One of the consequences of the Japanese invasion of Burma is that they all of a sudden had a
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