Perched on top of a mountain ridge, some 5,000 feet up in the remote hilly terrain of northeast India, lies the town of Kohima, in what is now the state of Nagaland. During the Second World War, one of the most decisive battles in the Burmese front took place here—the one that thwarted the Japanese invasion of India and helped turn the tide of the war in the Far East. Like most battles that took place in the South-East Asian theater, the Battle of Kohima remains relatively unknown because the world was too preoccupied with Nazi Germany in Europe. The Allied Invasion of Europe also steered the spotlight away from the Battle of Kohima which was still being fought when D-Day started.

Men of the West Yorkshire Regiment and 10th Gurkha Rifles advance along the Imphal-Kohima road behind Lee-Grant tanks. July 1944. Photo credit: Imperial War Museum