Battle of Imphal - The Situation

The Situation

At the start of 1944, the war was going against the Japanese on several fronts. They were being driven back in the central and south west Pacific, and their merchant ships were under attack by Allied submarines and aircraft. In south east Asia, they had held their lines over the preceding year, but the Allies were preparing several offensives from India and the Chinese province of Yunnan into Burma. In particular, the town of Imphal in Manipur on the frontier with Burma was built up to be a substantial Allied logistic base, with airfields, encampments and supply dumps. Imphal was linked to an even larger base at Dimapur in the Brahmaputra River valley by a road which wound for 100 miles (160 km) through the steep and forested Naga Hills.

Imphal was held by the IV Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General Geoffrey Scoones. The corps was in turn part of the British Fourteenth Army under Lieutenant General William Slim. Because the Allies were planning to take the offensive themselves, the corps' units were thrown forward almost to the Chindwin River and widely separated, and were therefore vulnerable to being isolated and surrounded.

• 20th Indian Infantry Division occupied Tamu, 110 kilometres (68 mi) south-east of Imphal. The division was untried but well-trained.
• 17th Indian Infantry Division occupied Tiddim, 243 kilometres (151 mi) south of Imphal, at the end of a long and precarious line of communication. The division, which had two brigades only, had been intermittently in action since December 1941.
• 23rd Indian Infantry Division was in reserve in and around Imphal. It had served on the Imphal front for two years and was severely understrength as a result of endemic diseases such as malaria and typhus.
• 50th Indian Parachute Brigade was north of Imphal, conducting advanced jungle training.
• 254th Indian Tank Brigade was stationed in and around Imphal.