The 2nd Manchesters fought at Kohima. The following is an extract from our forthcoming book 'Two Towns Go To War' (I've removed the soldier's name to avoid any copyright issues):
The Battle of Kohima (north east India) commenced on 4th April when the Japanese attempted to capture the Kohima Ridge, the high ground which commanded the road used to supply the besieged British and Indian garrison of Imphal. The small British force at Kohima held the Japanese off until they were relieved in mid-April by the 2nd British Division and the 5th and 7th Indian Divisions, who had broken through the Japanese roadblock on the Dimapur-Kohima road. In early May the Allies counter-attacked and by 13th May the Japanese had been forced from the positions they had captured in April. Much of the Battle of Kohima was fought in appalling conditions brought on by the torrential rains of the Monsoon. The British and Indian troops pursued the fleeing Japanese, reopening the supply route and ending the siege of Imphal on 22nd June.
Local man, Private XXX XXXX, 5 Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, The Manchester Regiment, took part in the battle. The 2nd Manchester Regiment was the machine-gun battalion of the 2nd Division and B Company was attached to the 5th Infantry Brigade within the 2nd Division. XXX, a machine-gunner, gave the following account of his time in India and the call to Burma to relieve Kohima: From there they sent us to the Bengal jungle, after we’d been there a while for training for Burma, it’s near Goa, Goa was actually only a few mile away. We had no transport then, you all just lived in the jungle. It was alive with bloody baboons and everything. Had some experiences like but nothing like that. I sat with the T2s we were being the scouts this day, we sat down under this tree in front of the others. I looks up and saw this bloody snake, curled round this bough, we was off. And it was the same with the baboons, when we saw the baboons at first, it was just, the tree was like that, Billy Booth it was, he said ‘they’re bloody gorillas them.’ We gets back, they said ‘there’s no gorillas in India, they’re baboons.’ Anyway we got a call then, we had to go into Burma, so of the whole of the 2nd Division, we move up like, and we drove all the way from Bengal and I had a bloody truck with no windscreen, and every day I used to be caked with sand and with sweat, it must have been about 2,000 miles or more.
We couldn’t cross the Brahmaputra, the ferry didn’t take vehicles over, we were carrying on to Calcutta, then we got on flat-tops on the railway and they took us north again, that’s like to southern Himalayas. They put us off and then we finished up crossing this railway bridge with the vehicles over the sleepers, and I remember going along this road, Himalayas again, thousands of different people, lovely metal road, just gulleys like that every so far, and then we drove down to Dimapur, where all the supplies come through. That’s where the Japs was heading for, Dimapur railhead. Able to supply anything. So I was put on this gun with my mate, Fred, and we were together all the time, you know you’d eat and sleep together, on the gun together, he was No 1, I was No 2, I fed the gun.
During the battle his gun team was located on the hills opposite the Japanese positions at Kohima and directly above them was the British Artillery. When the British guns fired, the noise was tremendous. At the end of the bombardment the Japanese would emerge from their dug-outs to shake out their blankets to remove the dust and earth thrown up by the explosions. This was the machine-gunners’ signal to open fire. He had no idea whether he hit anyone. He described the situation at Kohima: We fought through Kohima and it took, I think it took about six weeks to take that place, anyway they were fighting there before we got there, we went on the other side, out of the tracks. But that was a bad fight that was, lost a lot of men there, the division. That was terrible that was. I forget what mob was holding that when we got there, repelling bloody attacks all the time, if they hadn’t have done they’d have took bloody India. A lot of them was killed. They were doing all sounds, the Japanese were speaking English, you know, ‘come on Tommy, it’s all out now.’ Shouting for help like a wounded soldier, you daren’t go out, you daren’t reply, that’s what they said, ‘come on Tommy.’
