In April 1944 the town was besieged by a Japanese division spearheading what they hoped would be the invasion of India. The defenders, 1500 men of the Royal West Kents, the Assam Regiment and the Assam Rifles, held out for two weeks until relieved by their comrades of the 2nd British Division. The ensuing battle, fought at close quarters for two months, was the first defeat of the Japanese by the British army, and a turning point in the war in Asia.
The town of Kohima was completely destroyed, but this did not prevent the local inhabitants from supporting the British and Indian troops as guides, porters and combatants. Without the help of the Naga people, it is doubtful if the battle could have been won.
For sixty years after the battle the veterans, along with their families and members of the contemporary 2nd Division, met annually in York to remember their fallen comrades who lie buried in the war cemetery on the Kohima Ridge, the scene of the most bitter fighting.
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