ABSTRACT
The combined battle of Imphal-Kohima is considered the largest defeat on land for the Japanese Army. It is also considered the turning point of the Burma Campaign. Indian National Army (INA) was a third fighting force at Imphal, albeit a miniscule one compared to the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Armies. The battle involved the Japanese Fifteenth Army, together with INA units, attacking towards Imphal from three broad directions in mid-March 1944: the 15th Division from the north and north-east; Yamamoto Force, made up primarily of the 33rd Division, from the south-east; and the bulk of the 33rd Division from the south and south-west. The 31st Division crossed Manipur through and around the area of Ukhrul and headed towards Kohima in the then Naga Hills of Assam. Its aim was to take Kohima and cut the Imphal-Kohima-Dimapur Road which kept the British-Indian forces in Imphal supplied.
