Source: Manipur Mail
Imphal, April 07:
A 32 member team of Royal British Legion, which included eight World War II
veterans and their friends and family members, visited the Imphal War
Cemetery to pay homage to those, who made the supreme sacrifice in the
Battle of Imphal today.
As part of the formal cer�emony, conducted under the
aegis of HQ IGAR(S), Brig PK Kayastha, Commander 9 Sector Assam Rifles laid
floral wreath along with the War veter�ans at the War memorial.
Troops of 22
Maratha Light Infantry pre�sented a Guard of Honour and sounded the Last
Post.
Later a memorial service was held.
It was an emotional mo�ment for all
the visitors, while they paid solemn trib�ute to the departed souls, who
made supreme sacri�fice in the service of the Nation.
Daniel Milligan (85)
who took part in the war said he gunned down three fighters and were
involved in the war at Bishenpur.
He said the troops referred to Gen�eral
Slim who commanded the Allied Forces as Uncle Slim.
He also narrated the war
at Mandalay, Shwebo and other battles he took part.
He showed his friends
who died in Manipur.
Early in 1942, as the Japa�nese approached Rangoon, a
very large proportion of its Indian population fled from the city to India,
many of them to Upper Burma by Chindwin tracks to Assam.
In May of that year
our forces followed the same route on their retreat to In�dia.
In their wake
came still more civilian refugees, many of whom perished on the terrible
journey under ceaseless heavy rain, with�out transport and without food!.
Of
the 4,00,000 civilians who fled to India about 1,40,000 passed through
Imphal into Assam.
The defense of India and the retention of a position from
which Burma could be re-entered now became of primary importance.
The 23rd
Indian division was formed in Manipur State, new airfields were con�structed
here, and army and air force reinforcements ar�rived.
Eventually there was a
considerable concentra�tion of our fighting forces in the Imphal area.
Strategically well placed for attacks in the lines of communication by road
and river which were vital for the maintenance of all Allied operations in
Burma, Imphal with its airfields was a main objective when the Japa�nese
made their thrust to�wards India in the spring of 1944.There was severe
fighting in the surrounding hills and on the outskirts of the plain; and the
enemy succeeded in cutting and holding for over three months a long section
of the Imphal-Kohima road.
The fourteenth Army held grimly on, inflicting
heavy casualty.
Of all the battles on this frontier of India, the siege of
Imphal and its relief in the summer of 1944 rank next in importance to the
Battle of Kohima.
The site is open and flat, and easily accessible.
There
were originally some 950 burials in the cemetery, but the graves from two
smaller cemeteries in Imphal and from isolated locations in the region were
moved into this cemetery by the Army Graves Service after hostili�ties had
ceased.
The total number of burials is now 1,603 classified as shown
opposite.
Four of the sol�diers from the United King�dom whose graves could
not be precisely located are commemorated by special memorials type 'C", ie
in�scribed "Buried near this spot".
On 6th March 1944, the Japanese started
the attack.
The Japanese 33rd Division advanced towards Tiddim, the 15th
towards Imphal and the 31st towards Kohima.
The Japanese troops with a force
of al�most 120,000 men tried to break through the Imphal valley.
British and
Indian troops fought the most in�tense battle in the Imphal valley against
the Japanese which is comparable for its ferocity and bloodshed with the
battle of Stalingrad and Berlin.
There were two simul�taneous battles that
were fought at Imphal and Kohima.
These battles proved to be the turning
point for the Allied forces as from here onwards they marched into Burma
relent�lessly which led to her final victory in the South East Asian
Theatre.
On the other hand it was the beginning of the Japanese downfall and
complete subjugation.
General Slim pointed out, "Like unevenly spaced spokes
of a wheel, six routes were covered on the Imphal plain; from the north the
broad Kohima road and the footpath down the Iril river valley, from the
North�west, the Ukhrul road, from the Southwest, the tarmac Tamu-Palel road,
from the South, the rugged Tiddim highway and from the West, the
Silchar-Bishenpur track." The Northern sector of the perimeter was held by
the In�dian 5th Division.
It en�countered the first Japa�nese attack at
Imphal, which came from the North, and lost the key heights at Nungshigum.
Subse�quently the British were able to wrest control of the vital summit
from the enemy and continued to capture the remaining heights.
General
Gracey's 20th Di�vision was spread over with a frontage of 25 miles facing
Japanese 33rd Division In�fantry Group under General Yamamoto at Palel.
Japanese forces tried to push up the Palel road, and the battle raged
between April 4 and 10.When the Japanese Army finally withdrew, the 20th
Division had yielded only two miles of ground and successfully held another
series of hilltops known as Crete West and Scraggy.
The official figures
show that 30,000 were killed in battle, while hundreds more died after the
defeat became a rout, as victims of sick�ness, malnutrition and expo�sure.
As the Japanese feared, the Imphal Plain be�came the fountainhead of the
successful British effort to retake Burma.
The Japanese starving and
diseased had by now lost 60,000 troops and fell back to Chindwin River,
abandoning their artillery and transport.
The Japanese defeat on the Imphal
Plain and the re�opening of the Kohima- Imphal road meant that be�fore the
end of June 1944 the Japanese invasion of India had finally failed; no
further full-scale offensive was at�tempted by the Japanese in Burma.
Allied
losses in the same period totaled about 2,670 killed and fewer 10,000
wounded and missing.
Most of those who died lie in the British War Cemetery
and Indian Army War Cemetery, at Imphal and Kohima.