Wishlist: Map request Kohima 1944

[IronDuke99]

I have noticed that there are some real map wizards on here and I wonder if I might please request a large (200 x 160) map of Kohima in Nagaland, North East India close to the Burma border C. April-June 1944.

It was the scene of bitter fighting in 1944 between, initially, very heavily out numbered, Anglo-Indian and Japanese forces and resulted in a hard won British victory. At one stage British and Japanese troops faced each other across the Local District Commissioners - who stayed on and helped with the defence- tennis court, close to his wrecked bungalow...

At the start about 1,500 Anglo-Indian soldiers, not all of them front line infantry, faced up to 15,000 Japanese, not for nothing was it rated one of the British Commonwealths greatest battles by the British National Army Museum.

From the games point of view the major British force at the start was just one British infantry battalion, 4th battalion Royal West Kent's (supported by small units of Indian and Gurkha troops). The battle is sometimes referred to as 'the Stalingrad of the East'. The battle falls into two stages A) The siege. B) The relief and the fight to drive the Japanese off. All together the fighting lasted about three months.

The Kohima memorial in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery there is famous for the inscription: "When you go home tell them of us and say, for their tomorrow we gave our today."

If anyone can help out I should be most grateful, even if it is too late for this years patch.

I think that it is often forgotten that the greatest ever defeat that the Imperial Japanese Army received on land was that given to it by the British Commonwealth (British, Indian, Gurkha and African troops) 14th Army in Burma in 1944-45...