Kohima, battle of

Kohima, battle of, fought for this small town in Assam, eastern India, during Lt-General Mutaguchi'sImphal offensive launched from Burma in March 1944. Situated 1,220 m. (4,000 ft.) up in the Naga hills, Kohima commanded Imphal's supply road from Dimapur which Mutaguchi ordered Lt-General Satō Kotoku's 31st Division to sever. When the threat became clear Slim, the British commander, ordered the town's small garrison, led by Colonel Hugh Richards, to be hurriedly reinforced by one of 5th Indian Division's brigades. Part of it joined the garrison while the balance, which included its artillery, a decisive factor in the battle, formed a defensive box nearby.

At 0430 on 5 April Satō's 58th Regiment launched the first attack. The Dimapur–Imphal road was quickly cut and both Kohima and the defensive box were surrounded. Supplies were air-dropped, but the defenders were holding such small areas that many of them went astray. The Kohima garrison clung to several hills around the town, but one by one they were overrun. The defensive box was relieved on 14 April, but for those defending Kohima the situation became increasingly desperate. By 18 April, when the relief force broke through, only one position, Garrison Hill, remained in their hands. In some of the war's fiercest fighting—where tiny areas such as the district commissioner's tennis court were contested for weeks—Satō was then gradually driven back by Lt-General Stopford's 33rd Corps, which had been hurriedly brought forward from India. Instead of sending part of his division, as ordered, to help take Imphal, Satō committed all of it at Kohima—something Slim had not thought possible because of the terrain—but on 31 May, lacking reinforcements or supplies, and again against orders, Satō started to withdraw.

Kohima was a small action in terms of numbers involved, but the casualties were high and the consequences far-reaching. Total Japanese losses were around 6,000; British and Indian casualties, including three brigade commanders killed, came to 4,000. Satō's withdrawal, taken, he said, to save his division ‘from a meaningless annihilation’, was later called ‘premeditated treason’ by the Japanese intelligence officer, Fujiwara Iwaichi. It undermined Mutaguchi's offensive and helped Slim turn it into a rout.