The Kohima War Diaries

Fascinating stuff. Skimming through, the first entries of interest to me was the 28th May 1944. This was a bad day for the 1st Bn. After the success of the main battle of Kohima, they had begun advancing south clearing the area of Aradura of the Japanese. In Red Dragon it refers to "The Battalion being caught on the hop" or similar words. Reading through the diary the Japanese effectivly overan the Bn, forcing them to withdraw virtually every man for himself, in a disorganised fashion, whilst under withering LMG and mortar fire. At one point, one callsign took 90% casualties. In addition the Bde Comdr was injured during the assault.

Interestingly, during the night preceding the attack, one line in the diary states..."Quiet Night, A Coy reports stones being thrown at forward positions"!!!!!!!!

The following day the 29th, the CO is summoned to Div HQ. The next entry shows the CO Lt Col Braithwaite replaced by Lt Col Stocker!!!!

This brief timeline may assist members when looking through the diaries:


12/4/44 Bn arrives at Dimapur
13th Start Departing Dimapur to Graspani. On the 14th

15th Zubza/Some fighting, a Platoon Comd was killed, I did wonder if your Grandfather was injured here.

17th Reached Jotsoma. Some heavy fighting, indeed 2 sections of A Company 1RWF were overun by the Japanese, the survivors were taken prisoner. An immediate counter attack was launched by Lt Callaghan and A Coy CSM. Using a covered approach they counter attacked, and completely wiped the enemy out, and rescued their own men!!! During the counter attack they killed 17 of the enemy.

29th April Ferried by Bren Carriers to the outskirts of Kohima. This was the start of their part in the Kohima Battle, they were to remain in action until the battles end on the 12th May, a few days later they moved to Forest Gate Rest Camp at Dimapur, for a short break.

28th May, deployed to a jungle box, close to Aradura, which is South of Kohima. The Japanese still held this area, and heavy fighting ensued. They took a bit of a kicking during this period, its possible that the CO was replaced as the Japanese had managed to catch the Bn off guard. Aradura was finally taken on the 6th June.
They now started advancing south along the main road to Imphal, engaging enemy on route.

18th June Advancing on Mao Songsang Sands.

24th June The Bn launches an attack on Thumion Khulen, killing a number of the enemy, similar skirmishes happen over the next few days.

By the 1st July the Division was in full control of Imphal, and they were visited by Mountbatten.

Hi Al,glad to see the war diaries are now on the website.I still havent sat and read through them all properly as they blow my mind and make me very sad when i think about what my grandad went through during this battle.
Hope other people read them as they are a great source of information!!
Shaz :o)