Product Description

By the end of 1943 the Japanese had occupied most of South-East Asia. On 6 March 1944, the first units of the Japanese 15 Army crossed the inhospitable border of what was then Burma, and invaded India. At the township of Kohima they were met by a small, hastily assembled force of Indian and British troops, later reinforced by 2 Division of Slim's 14 Army, who fought valiantly and forced the Japanese to retreat. Described by Mountbatten as 'the British/Indian Thermopylae', Kohima was a turning point in Japanese fortunes, heralding their continued defeat in battle until their formal surrender on 2 September 1945. Using extensive research in primary sources and many previously unpublished first-hand accounts, Leslie Edwards presents a definitive analysis of this pivotal battle.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63031 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-02
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 480 pages

Review
The clarity of the author's presentation in describing a very complex battle sets a benchmark standard should anyone else consider writing a book on the subject. --Britain at War Magazine, September '09

A good narrative history of the battle --Bulletin of the Military History Society, November '09

Highly recommended --Pennant, November '09

Customer Reviews

Good, but not definitive.
This is a book that can be recommended to those who wish to know more about the battle of Kohima. It is not, however, a masterpiece nor definitive, since it contains far too many errors, and leans too heavily on previously published works to earn those accolades. This is partly the result of it's dependence on books such as Colvin's `Not Ordinary Men', whose many errors it repeats. While the author also uses a range of new sources, such as the Gracey papers, he also tends towards larger than normal quotations from easily available accounts, such as McCann's.
The main selling point of the book is its structure. Leaving aside the weak topping and tailing chapters, the core of the book adopts a purely chronological format; each day is examined location by location and/or unit by unit. This tends to break up the narrative flow of the account, but it is worth it. Kohima was a complicated battle; this structure makes it much easier to understand, and the book is chiefly recommended for that reason.
The book is not without it's faults. The emphasis on chronological structure leaves too little space for analysis. I have read clearer accounts of Japanese planning, and the stresses of the British/Indian command are not covered in enough detail. Indeed the reader is never really made aware of the command problems and decision making process on the British side. Nowhere is it explained why 2 British Division took so long to clear Kohima and open the road. There is very little discussion of the suitability and effectiveness of British/Indian training, weapons and tactics. Where the author has ventured opinions they are often wrong; does he really think that Lee/Grant tanks had limited mobility because they were wheeled, rather than tracked!
Time and again the author demonstrates his unfamiliarity with the Indian Army (5/27 Mahratta, 9/12 Frontier Rifle Regiment, 4/7 Rajputana Rifles, etc.), but, of course, more familiarity might have resulted in a book called "Kohima The Nearest Battle".
Faults that may, or may not, be attributable to the publishers are a very poor system of references, extremely crude maps (plenty of them, though), a poor selection of photographs and the worst index I've seen for a long time.
This book was clearly a labour of love for the author and he has done an immense amount of work in putting together a clear and coherent account of this important battle, and as such, despite it's errors, it is recommended.

Magnificent achievement
Leslie Edwards is to be congratulated on the publication of what can only be described as the definitive military account of the battle of Kohima, described through the records, published or otherwise, of those who were there. He has chosen to tell a complicated story day by day, and piece by piece. My initial fear that this approach would remove the sense of narrative have been dispelled, because Edwards manages, amidst the detail of people, times and places - Japanese and British - to keep a coherent story line throughout. The great strength of this book is that it brings the people involved in the battle to the fore, some well-known to students of the battle but many untouched by historians and opened to the world for the first time. It is a long book, but Edwards avoids losing the reader by the judicious insertion of extremely good maps, enabling one to follow each twist and turn of this extraordinarily bloody struggle in the Naga Hills between the British under General Slim and the Japanese under General Mutaguchi between late March and June 1944, with relative ease. Nor does the addition of a considerable quantity of survivor's records (taken from oral and written archives, as well as published memoirs) divert the reader from the overall flow of the narrative. I am certain that this book will prove to be an indispensable companion to those who continue to be interested in studying what Mountbatten expressively and accurately described as 'the British/Indian Thermopylae' and is strongly recommended.

A Reference Masterpiece
I agree entirely with the sentiments of Robert Lyman's review. I have a personal interest in this particular battle as my late father's older brother was killed on the 27th April at Kohima whilst serving with the 2nd Dorsets. He was only 19. I have collected numerous books on this particular battle and I have had the honour of travelling to Kohima to pay my respects. Leslie Edwards' excellent work provides the detailed daily account, and makes sense of the complexities, of this quite frankly horrendous battle. He should be congratulated on producing this long overdue, but highly important work of reference.