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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106 - Operation Swallow
105 - Case White: The Invasion of Poland, 1939
104 - Alarmstart: The Luftwaffe in the Mediterranean
103 'Chink' Eric Dorman-Smith
102 - D-Day Through German Eyes
101 - Operation CHASTISE: The Dambusters
100 - Left For Dead At Nijmegen
99 - George Mergenthaler - MERG
98 - Operation Market Garden
97 - Japanese POW: Ray Fitchett
96 - Bridge Busters: The Dortmund-Ems Canal Raid
95 - Jimmy Stewart
94 - 1941
93 - D-Day: The British Beach Landings
92 - D-Day: Omaha
91 - USS Arizona: Brothers Down
90 - Storm On Our Shores
89 - Cork Wars
88 - Division Leclerc
87 - Hitler's Death
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