12 World War II Moments (That Hardly Anybody Ever Talks About)

Much has been written and dramatised about the predominantly American campaign in the Pacific Theatre, which began with naval battles in the likes of Midway and Wake Island and culminated with the island-hopping campaign that gradually saw forces capture everywhere from Guadalcanal to the outlying Japanese islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Less has been made of the mostly land-based war in Southeast Asia, which saw Japan subdue large parts of China and the entirety of the then-British colony of Burma, which was viciously fought over throughout 1942.

The bloodiest (and most significant) battles of the campaign occurred in Imphal and Kohima, two cities near the India/Burma border, in 1944. The two were key to Japanese plans to invade India, cut off supply lines over the Himalayas to China and resume their continental conquest. This had been stalled (and countered by Chindit raids) since the onset of the monsoon season, which had made the jungle and mountains separating them from the British and Indians impassable.

In dire need of a victory given that they were by this point suffering heavy losses in the Pacific, the Japanese (and their own Indian allies) ultimately lost more than 60,000 men in what became known as the ‘Stalingrad of the East’ over the course of six months of fighting, mostly through starvation and disease. It was the beginning of the end for their war, as they were pushed back through Burma throughout 1945 until their capitulation.