War & Conflict: - Battle of Imphal

The battle of Imphal occurred in March 1944. Japanese troops had secured Burma, and despite the heavy fighting, British and Indian troops were unable to hold on to Burma, partly because of the intensity of the attacks and partly because they had little support from the locals who were weary of British rule and extended their support to the invading Japanese army.

British and Indian troops were forced to retreat into Indian territory. Scattered and shattered, low on morale and equipment, they regrouped around Imphal.

At the same time the allies were regrouping in Manipur to try and retake Burma.

Manipur housed numerous supply depots and airfields from where allied planes could take off and drop supplies into China, and refurbish the Chinese resistance movement, and should the tide of battle turn, it would serve as a launching pad from where British and Indian troops could launch strikes into Burma.

From the Japanese perspective, Imphal was crucial because its capture would not only allow the Japanese army to take control of the airstrips in Manipur and stop further airdrops into China, but the rations that were stored in the depots would also help replenish food supplies that the Japanese troops desperately needed.

The war at that stage was not going well for Japan in the Pacific and it had trouble ferrying supplies to its troops.

The Japanese attack was spearheaded by Lt. Gen. Renya Mutaguchi who commanded the 15th Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and the plan was to attack the scattered troops on the field, surround them, and force either a surrender, or a retreat, and to take control of the airstrips in Manipur and thereby cut off the supplies to the Chinese Nationalists Army that was fighting the Japanese in China. The operation involved more than a hundred thousand Japanese soldiers, but it was risky because the task had to be completed by a certain time.

Japanese troops at that stage had no more than three weeks of rations, and if for any reason success was delayed, the chances were high that the troops would die from starvation on the battlefield.

On the British and Indian front, despite the fact that they didn’t know it at the time, all they had to do was to simply delay the Japanese advance, and the invading army would run out of supplies and would not be able to progress.

The area around Imphal was defended by 4 corp. of the 14th British Army; the infantry divisions of 4 corp. comprised mainly of Indian soldiers. The Japanese attacked in the hope of swiftly forming a perimeter around Imphal, and at the same time capture Kohima, some 135 km. or so north of Imphal, and thereby cutoff the supply route to Imphal. The capture of Kohima however was by no means easy, and it was the scene of a fierce and bloody battle, and that delayed the attack on Imphal, giving enough time for the allies to not only reinforce the lines in Imphal, but to also strip the depots in Imphal of ammunition and supplies, and because the Japanese army was running short of supplies, the odds started to stack up against them.

The IJA failed to take Kohima but even if they had, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference because the allies had started replenishing the troops in Imphal by air.

The battle for Imphal was nothing short of brutal, with both sides suffering massive casualties, but the British and Indian troops were able to hold out because their lines were constantly being refurbished, while the IJA was forced to retreat because of depleted supplies.  

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