The Telegraph (May 2, 2012)
Heros of 'India's Battle of the Somme' honoured by royal visit
It is the scene of great acts of heroism and sacrifice – but few beyond
a select group of historians, veterans and relatives of the dead will
be aware of the gruesome history of the small Indian hill station town
of Kohima.
Image 1 of 3 (unable to copy-b)
The trenches at Kohima in 1944
By Dean Nelson, Kohima6:59PM BST 01 May 20125 Comments
Nestled in the vast country's north-eastern state of Nagaland, it is a
place where two Victoria Crosses were won for outstanding bravery,
where a 1,000-strong British and Indian force, outnumbered 10 to one,
halted the Japanese army's relentless march across Asia.
Blood-soaked battles in April 1944 saw the troops of the Royal West
Kent Regiment, with their comrades from the Punjab Rifles and other
Indian regiments, under siege on the top of Kohima's Garrison Hill.
Troops fought hand to hand in torrential rain from rat-infested
trenches dug on the then British deputy commissioner's clay tennis
court.
The two sides were so close that they could lob grenades into each
other's strongholds barely 50 feet away and, according to chroniclers
of the battle, Allied troops sometimes woke in their monsoon mud
trenches with Japanese troops sleeping alongside them.
When the siege of the hill was finally relieved some 45 days after it
had begun, British officers were appalled at the conditions in which
both Japanese and allied forces had fought and compared it to the
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Battle of the Somme. Some of the Japanese soldiers had died of
starvation and disease. By then end, more than 4000 allied soldiers
were dead, and 5764 Japanese troops had been killed.
Had they lost the Battle of Kohima, Japan would have taken the nearby
railhead and air field at Dimapur, then in Assam, and used it as a base
to sweep across Bengal.
The heroism of the troops of Kohima has been the stuff of legend but
their unique contribution to winning the war was finally recognised by
Britain's royal family on Tuesday when the Duke of York, Prince Andrew,
visited the town's Commonwealth War Cemetery.
"It's very important for the modern generation, particularly across
India, for people to remember and recognise the sacrifice that took
place here, because without that sacrifice and that stand then the
freedom that we now have … would not have been possible," he said.
The prince, dressed in a white Navy uniform, laid a wreath among the
tombstones which now surround the former tennis court, but the words on
those granite memorials do not begin to tell the stories of those who
lie beneath.
There's Captain John Randle of the Royal Norfolk Regiment. He was
wounded by machine gunfire from a Japanese fox hole, but crawled
towards it, tossed in a hand grenade and used his body to seal the hole
and ensure the maximum number of enemy troops were killed – he too he
was killed in the 'suicide mission' and won a Victoria Cross for his
bravery.
Lance Corporal John Harman had spurned the likelihood of a commission –
his family were the largest landowners on Lundy – and instead joined
the Royal West Kents. According to P. Atuo Angami, whose father
established the cemetery, Lance Corporal Harman single-handedly
destroyed two Japanese machine gun posts before being shot dead as he
made to take cover.
The cemetery reflects the extraordinary multiracial, and religious
nature of the Allied fighting forces in Asia. There is a section for
Gurkhas, Punjabis, Nepalis, Burmese, with a Hindu cremation memorial,
and Muslim graves of the Punjabi Rifles, many from what is now
Pakistan, facing towards Mecca.
Old local veterans of the Allied campaign told The Daily Telegraph they
were proud of their roles and delighted that the Royal Family had
finally honoured contribution.
"My heart was with the British," said Zharvishe Angami, a 93-year-old
veteran who served with the British Assam Regiment. "We had served
under the Crown and it is a privilege that someone from the Royal
Family is coming to recognise the service we gave to the Crown at that
time," he added.
Tuochalie Rengma, 85, wore his three medals with pride – the Star of
Burma and a British war medal bearing the image of King George V. "I
fought with belief to win the war, and I wanted to fight for the
British Raj," he said.
According to Mr Angami, the retired keeper of the Commonwealth War
Cemetery, its enduring legacy is as a memorial to the sacrifices and
commitment of Indians to a foreign power which had subjugated them.
"It's part of our history, we can't deny that fact. Indians went even
to Africa [to fight] for King and country. When my father was awarded
the British Empire Medal, the high commissioner told him it was for
services rendered to the Crown. For me it's an honour that the British
Royalty should come to visit this place, it shows they have not
forgotten," he said.
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