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What is the Kohima Epitaph and what has it got to do with Britain’s forgotten battle that changed the Second World War?

Well, those of you living in the UK and who attend Remembrance Sunday services will probably know the words even if you don’t know the story behind them:

“When you go home, tell them of us and say,

For your tomorrow, We gave our today.”

The memorial which bears those powerful words, stands in a cemetery containing the graves over over 1,400 british servicemen and memorials to over 900 Indian troops who died alongside them.

They died in one of the bloodiest, toughest, grimmest battles of the Second World War.

A battle sometimes called the “Stalingrad of the East.”

Outnumbered 6:1 and half of whom were from non-combat units, the multi-national British garrison stood their ground in bloody hand-to-hand fighting, refusing to retreat or surrender for two weeks until relieved. And even then the battle continued for another vicious month.

That stand stopped the Japanese invasion of India in its tracks and turned the tide of the war in South East Asia.

Both for its ferocity and its turning point in the war, it has been called: “Britain’s greatest battle.”

And yet, it is almost completely forgotten.

Rather like the army that fought against the Japanese in Burma.

So, as we near Remembrance Sunday, I think it is time to reveal the story of the Battle of Kohima in 1944.

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