Kohima: How close combat over a tennis court helped turn the war with Japan

“When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today.” 

The famous epitaph at the monument to the British 2nd Division on Kohima’s Garrison Hill, under which the outline of a tennis court is etched into the soil. 

The odd feature at the cemetery in Northeast India marks the exact spot where British and Indian servicemen halted the Japanese ‘March on Delhi’ or Operation U-Go, the invasion of India.

22 June marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Kohima, which took place in the hills close to India’s border with Burma in 1944. 

It became one of the most desperate, brutal and important struggles of the Second World War’s Far East Campaign. 

Many historians have since referred to it as the Stalingrad of the East. 

Two soldiers were awarded the Victoria Cross for outstanding bravery during the bloody 64-day battle. 

In early March, 85,000 Japanese troops crossed the Chindwin River and poured into India. 

By April, the Japanese had reached Imphal, where the bulk of the British Fourteenth Army made their stand. 

Sixty miles north, a small Commonwealth garrison held the town of Kohima, the highest point on the pass through the impenetrable jungle to the allied base at Dimapur, a key point on the key Bengal and Assam Railway. 

If Kohima fell, Dimapur would follow and the vital supplies for the defenders of Imphal would cease.

Only half of the 2,500-strong garrison at Kohima were combat troops, but they held their ground for more than a month, despite being surrounded and outnumbered 10 to 1. 

Lance Corporal John Pennington Harman of the 4th Battalion of the Queen’s Own West Kent Regiment was one of the defenders of the Kohima Garrison and played a key part during the initial Japanese attack. 

He led a platoon during the fighting and twice went out alone to successfully attack enemy positions. 

The second time he was badly wounded as he made his way back to his own lines and lay dying in no-man’s land. 

His company commander recovered him under enemy fire, but the lance corporal refused help from a medic saying: “Don’t bother Sir… I got the lot. 

“It was worth it.” 

Moments later he died in the officer’s arms. 

He was later awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross – the first of two during the battle – and is buried in the Kohima War Cemetery. 

Pushed back in desperate fighting, the British defenders held out on Kohima Ridge, the home of the British Deputy Commissioner before the war. 

His house and tennis court became the scene of a brutal hand-to-hand struggle. 

After weeks of constant fighting, the garrison held only 350 sq metres of ground near the tennis court and the situation was desperate. 

Grenades were hurled across the playing surface in both directions and the scene was captured in the diary of one soldier from The Queen’s Royal Regiment. 

“It was the nearest approach to a snowball fight that could be imagined,” he wrote. 

“The air was thick with grenades, both theirs and ours, and we were all scurrying around trying to avoid them as they burst. 

“The duel seemed to go on for an unreckonable time.” 

On 18 April, the remaining defenders were running low on ammunition and prepared to make their final stand. 

Before the expected final assault, shells began falling on the Japanese positions. 

Relieving forces had arrived and the garrison was saved from annihilation. 

The stalemate at the tennis court was only broken when British troops were able to bring up Lee Grant Tanks, pulling, pushing and driving them up the steep slopes until they were able to blast the Japanese defences from almost point-blank range. 

The Japanese were far from defeated and fought bitterly to hold the many ridges and hills surrounding Kohima, leading to weeks of fierce fighting as the invaders were slowly driven back. 

Captain John ‘Jack’ Randle of the Royal Norfolk Regiment was part of the force which had relieved Kohima Garrison and joined the fight to prise the Japanese from the hillsides. 

During an attack on a heavily fortified position, he was hit several times. 

Undeterred, he continued to charge a Japanese bunker, using a grenade before throwing himself across the entrance to seal it. 

He was posthumously awarded the second Victoria Cross of the battle. 

The relentless combat eventually left the Japanese soldiers starving and virtually out of ammunition. 

The Japanese had brought 5,000 oxen with them to feed their troops, believing it would provide meat for 50 days. 

However, many died on the journey and the shortage of food became a major problem. 

A Japanese war correspondent wrote of the appalling situation, saying: “We had no ammunition, no clothes, no food, no guns. 

“At Kohima we were starved and then crushed.” 

As resistance dwindled, the road to Dimapur was eventually secured and the defenders of Imphal linked up with reinforcements advancing from Kohima on 22 June – officially marking the end of the battle. 

The victory at Kohima helped turn the tide of the war in the Far East, enabling Britain to recapture Burma. 

But it came at a high price. 

There were more than 4,600 British and Commonwealth soldiers killed and 5,700 Japanese. 

Neither side was willing to give in and the defence of Kohima came to symbolise the British Empire’s refusal to bow to Japanese aggression. 

In 2013, the Battle of Kohima was voted as Britain’s greatest battle after a poll by the National Army Museum in London, a surprise winner over the likes of D-Day and Waterloo.