Publications
Imphal 1944 - The Japanese invasion of India
By Hemant Singh Katoch
Osprey/Bloomsbury, 2018
In March 1944, the Japanese Fifteenth Army launched an offensive into India from Burma. Named "U Go," its main objective was the capture of the town of Imphal, which provided the easiest route between India and Burma. Whoever controlled it, controlled access between the two countries. Facing off against the Japanese was the British Fourteenth Army and its Imphal-based 4 Corps. For the next four months, over 200,000 men clashed in the hills and valley of Manipur in what has since been described as one of the greatest battles of World War II. Although numbers vary, it is estimated that some 30,000 Japanese soldiers died and 23,000 were injured at Imphal-Kohima in 1944 due to fighting, disease and in the retreat back to Burma. It remains the largest defeat on land ever for the Japanese Army. With fully commissioned artwork and maps, this is the complete story of the turning point in the Burma campaign in World War II.
This book can be ordered directly from Osprey here. It is also available on Amazon.
The Battlefields of Imphal: The Second World War and North East India
By Hemant Singh Katoch
Routledge, 2016
This book is the first systematic mapping of the main scenes of the fighting in the critical Battle of Imphal. It connects the present with the past and links what exists today in Manipur with what happened there in 1944. The events were transformative for this little-known place and connected it with the wider world in an unparalleled way. By drawing on oral testimonies, written accounts and archival material, this book revisits the old battlefields and tells the untold story of a place and people that were perhaps the most affected by the Second World War in India.
This book can be ordered in India from Amazon India here. From everywhere else, it can be ordered from the New Delhi bookshop Bahri Sons here.