When you go home Tell them of us and say: For your tomorrow, We gave our today.
The Kohima Memorial, in the hills high above the India–Burma border, bears one of the most moving epitaphs (above) ever inscribed for fighting men. It recalls the linked battles of Imphal and Kohima where, between March and July 1944, British and Commonwealth troops inflicted a decisive defeat on Japanese forces. General Bill Slim, the subject of the first part of our special, was the architect of this hard-fought victory, which marked a critical turning point in the punishing Burma campaign. But what was it like to take part in this epic clash, and what determined the outcome?
The arena of battle
There were good reasons why Imphal and Kohima became the main focus of the struggle between British and Commonwealth forces and imperial Japan in the spring of 1944. The Imphal plain, at the centre of India’s Manipur region, lay some 70 miles to the west of the border with Burma. Here the British had established a major forward base. An area of level ground, 30 miles long and 20 miles wide, surrounded by hills, it was a potential launch pad for an Allied reconquest of Burma.
Excavating Hertfordshire