Key Facts
- Start date
- ~8 April 1944
- End date
- 13 May 1944
- Duration
- ~5 weeks
- Combat type
- Hand-to-hand and siege fighting
- Attacker
- Japanese Division
Strategic Narrative Overview
From around 8 April 1944, Japanese troops launched repeated assaults on the Deputy Commissioner's compound, including the tennis court immediately adjacent to the bungalow. Fighting at this location was exceptionally close, including hand-to-hand combat, as both sides struggled for control of the terraced grounds. The Commonwealth garrison held its position under sustained pressure from a full Japanese division, in what the Commonwealth War Graves Commission later described as perhaps the most bitter fighting of the entire Burma campaign.
01 / The Origins
As part of Japan's Operation U-Go in early 1944, Imperial Japanese forces advanced into North East India aiming to seize the strategic hilltop garrison town of Kohima. Capturing Kohima would sever Allied supply lines into Burma and potentially open a path deeper into India. A small Commonwealth garrison found itself surrounded and besieged beginning 4 April 1944, with fierce fighting concentrated on Garrison Hill and the grounds of the Deputy Commissioner's bungalow.
03 / The Outcome
By 13 May 1944 the assaulting Japanese troops began withdrawing from the tennis court area, marking the end of the immediate siege phase at that location. The wider Battle of Kohima concluded on 22 June 1944 with the Japanese advance into India halted. The failed offensive at Kohima proved a decisive turning point in the Burma Campaign, ending Japan's strategic threat to India.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Side B
1 belligerent
Kinetic Engagement Axis
Scroll horizontally to view full axis. Events plotted relatively.