Britain’s struggle to repel a combined force of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose-led Azad Hind Fauj and Japan during World War II, around Imphal and Kohima in 1944 has been adjudged as the ‘greatest ever battle involving British forces’, a report said.
The clashes that took place in northeastersn corner of India, were voted the winner of a contest run by the National Army Museum here, to identify ‘Britain’s Greatest Battle’.
The battles of Imphal and Kohima saw the British and Indian forces, under the overall command of lieutenant-General William Slim, repel the Japanese invasion of India and helped turned the tide of the war in the Far East.
The Japanese, along with soldiers of the Azad Hind Fauj, eventually lost 53,000 dead and missing in the battles. The British forces sustained 12,500 casualties at Imphal while the fighting at Kohima cost them another 4,000 casualties.
The campaign of Imphal-Kohima was on a shortlist of five battles which topped a public poll. Finally it was selected as the winner by an audience of more than 100 guests at a special event at the museum in Chelsea yesterday.
Imphal-Kohima received almost half of all votes. It was far ahead of D-Day and Normandy, in 1944 which received 25 per cent of the vote and came second, followed by the famous Battle of Waterloo, in 1815 (22 per cent).
At the event, each contender had their case made by a historian giving a 40 minute presentation. The case for Imphal and Kohima was made by Dr Robert lyman, an author and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.