Kohima & Imphal 1944: Burma Campaign Complete Battle Guide

Kohima and Imphal stopped Japan's 1944 invasion of India and changed the direction of the Burma campaign.

The battles are often separated in memory: Kohima with its tiny perimeter and tennis court, Imphal with its encircled divisions and airfields. Operationally they were one connected struggle. The Japanese plan depended on isolating Imphal, cutting the road through Kohima to Dimapur and sustaining an offensive across terrain that punished every weakness in logistics.

At a glance

Campaign: Burma Campaign / Japanese invasion of India.
Main battle period: March–July 1944.
Japanese operation: U-Go.
Allied command: Fourteenth Army under Lieutenant-General William Slim.
Key locations: Imphal, Kohima, Dimapur and the mountain road connecting them.
Outcome: decisive Japanese defeat and the beginning of the Allied return toward Burma.

Why Japan attacked India

The Japanese Fifteenth Army under Lieutenant-General Renya Mutaguchi aimed to destroy Allied forces around Imphal, sever communications to Assam and carry the war into India. Capturing the road network around Kohima and threatening Dimapur would also endanger the supply system supporting Allied operations and the air route to China.

The plan relied heavily on speed and on taking British and Indian supplies once the offensive succeeded. That assumption became one of its greatest weaknesses.

Imphal

Imphal was a major Allied base in Manipur. Several Indian divisions operated around it, and the plain contained airfields capable of sustaining a surrounded force.

As Japanese forces closed the land routes, Allied air transport became decisive. Men, ammunition, food and equipment could be flown in while casualties and non-essential personnel were flown out. The Japanese army, by contrast, had to sustain itself over increasingly difficult land routes.

Kohima and the road to Dimapur

Kohima sat on the road linking Imphal to the enormous Allied supply base at Dimapur. A Japanese seizure of the ridge and road threatened to isolate Imphal more completely.

The initial Kohima garrison was small. National Army Museum describes a defensive force of about 1,500 holding a tight perimeter against roughly 15,000 Japanese troops before relief forces arrived.

Garrison Hill and the tennis court

The fighting at Kohima became brutally close. The defensive perimeter contracted around Garrison Hill, administrative buildings and the Deputy Commissioner's bungalow. In one sector, the two sides fought across the width of the bungalow's tennis court.

The image became famous because it captures the scale of the battlefield: a strategic road battle reduced to yards of ground, grenades, machine guns and hand-to-hand fighting.

Relief of Kohima

British 2nd Division was rushed toward Dimapur and then fought to break the Japanese roadblocks. Relief elements reached Kohima on 18 April, but that did not end the battle. Clearing Japanese positions from the surrounding ridges took weeks.

The struggle then became an offensive to reopen the road south toward Imphal.

The siege of Imphal

At Imphal, Japanese formations attacked around the perimeter at locations including Nungshigum and Palel. The 5th, 17th, 20th and 23rd Indian Divisions and supporting troops held while air supply sustained the force.

The ability to move formations by air also transformed the campaign. Units could be shifted into the theatre much faster than Japanese planners had expected.

Logistics decided the campaign

Japanese planning assumed that captured Allied stocks would help feed the advance. When the Allies held their bases, the attackers were left at the end of a supply system stretched across mountains and jungle during the monsoon.

Food, medicine, ammunition and transport animals disappeared faster than they could be replaced. Disease and starvation became as destructive as combat.

The road reopens

After the Japanese withdrawal from Kohima began, Allied forces fought southward. On 22 June, troops advancing from the Kohima direction linked with IV Corps from Imphal, reopening the road.

Japanese attacks continued elsewhere, but the offensive had failed.

Casualties and scale

National Army Museum records the Japanese Fifteenth Army, about 85,000 strong, losing roughly 53,000 dead and missing. It gives British and Allied casualties of about 12,500 at Imphal and another 4,000 at Kohima. As with all campaign totals, definitions matter, but the imbalance shows how devastating the failed offensive became for Japan.

Why Kohima and Imphal mattered

The victories protected India, preserved the Allied logistics network and destroyed the offensive power of major Japanese formations. They also gave Fourteenth Army the initiative. The next phase was not simply defence of India but the advance back into Burma.

The Commonwealth army

The campaign should not be written as a purely British victory. Indian Army formations carried a huge share of the fighting. Gurkha units, British battalions, Indian regiments, African troops, air transport crews, engineers and service units all formed part of the wider Allied system.

Using “British” as shorthand without identifying that multinational army erases the people who actually fought the campaign.

Frequently asked questions

When were the Battles of Kohima and Imphal?

The main fighting ran from March to July 1944, with the Kohima siege beginning in early April and the land link to Imphal restored on 22 June.

Why is the Kohima tennis court famous?

Japanese and Allied positions were separated by the width of the Deputy Commissioner's tennis court during intense close-range fighting.

Who won Kohima and Imphal?

Allied forces defeated the Japanese offensive. The result was a strategic turning point in the Burma campaign.

Why did the Japanese offensive fail?

Allied defence, air supply, reinforcement and firepower combined with severe Japanese logistics failures, disease and starvation.

Kohima & Imphal 1944: Burma Campaign, Tennis Court & Complete Field Guide