Battle of Imphal

Battle of Imphal
Part of the Burma Campaign
Gurkhas advancing with Lee tanks to clear the Japanese from Imphal-Kohima road in North Eastern British India
Date 8 March – 3 July 1944 Location Imphal, Manipur, India Result Decisive Allied victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom British India	Empire of Japan Azad Hind
Commanders and leaders
William Slim Geoffrey Scoones Jack Baldwin	Masakasu Kawabe Renya Mutaguchi S.C. Bose
Strength
4 Infantry Divisions 1 Armoured Brigade 1 Parachute Brigade	3 Infantry Divisions 1 Tank Regiment
Casualties and losses
12,603 killed and wounded	54,879 killed and wounded

United Kingdom

 Empire of Japan

The Battle of Imphal took place in the region around the city of Imphal, the capital of the state of Manipur in northeast India from March until July 1944. Japanese armies attempted to destroy the Allied forces at Imphal and invade India, but were driven back into Burma with heavy losses. Together with the simultaneous Battle of Kohima on the road by which the encircled Allied forces at Imphal were relieved, the battle was the turning point of the Burma Campaign, part of the South-East Asian Theatre of the Second World War. The defeat at Kohima and Imphal was the largest defeat to that date in Japanese history.

At the start of 1944, the war was going against the Japanese on several fronts. They were being driven back in the central and southwest Pacific, and their merchant ships were under attack by Allied submarines and aircraft. In southeast Asia, they had held their lines over the preceding year, but the Allies were preparing several offensives from India and the Chinese province of Yunnan into Burma. In particular, the town of Imphal in Manipur on the frontier with Burma was built up to be a substantial Allied logistic base, with airfields, encampments and supply dumps. Imphal was linked to an even larger base at Dimapur in the Brahmaputra River valley by a road which wound for 100 miles (160 km) through the steep and forested Naga Hills.

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Wikipedia