Battles and Operations of The Indian National Army - Second INA

Second INA

The strategy of operation of the Indian National Army, in relation to the opening Japanese offensive, was to be of a guerrilla force that would initiate defections among the British Indian troops, as well as garner support and sympathy among the local population for the INA.

The INA's own strategy was to avoid set-piece battles for which it lacked arms, armament as well as man-power. Initially, it sought to obtain arms as well as increase its ranks from Indian soldiers expected to defect. Once across the hills of North-East India and into the Gangetic plain, it was expected to live off the land and garner support, supplies, and ranks from amongst the local populace to ultimately touch off a revolution. Prem Kumar Sahgal, an officer of the INA once Military secretary to Subhas Chandra Bose and later tried in the first Red Fort trials, explained that although the war itself hung in balance and nobody was sure if the Japanese would win, initiating a popular revolution with grass-root support within India would ensure that even if Japan lost the war ultimately, Britain would not be in a position to re-assert its colonial authority, which was ultimately the aim of the INA and Azad Hind.

The plans for operation decided between Bose and Kawabe specified that the Japanese and INA forces were to follow a common strategy. The INA was to be assigned an independent sector of its own and no INA unit was to operate less than a battalion strength. For operational purposes, the Subhas Brigade was assigned under the command of the Japanese general Head Quarters in Burma. The general operations plan envisaged the INA units pushing to Kohima and Imphal with Japanese forces, and as the latter fell, the INA was to cross the Brahmaputra and enter Bengal, beginning the next phase initialing local resistance and revolts within India.

The British were given advance knowledge about the impending Japanese offensive on its North-eastern frontier by Bhagat Ram Talwar (codenamed "Silver"), a communist double-agent in Kabul and a confidant of Subhas Chandra Bose, after Bose unsuspectingly revealed it to him.