The battle of Kohima was an unnecessarily desperate encounter between the British and the Japanese in the middle of nowhere at the border between India and Burma in April to June 1944. The British made the mistake of not fully fortifying this defensive stronghold on their supply line from Dimapur to Imphal. A more effective British strategy would have let the Japanese approach to the more open terrain in front of Dimapur where the British advantage in air power, tanks and artillery would have been devastating. Instead, the totally surprised British battled the Japanese in bloody bunker warfare in inhospitable terrain.

The Japanese were foolish too. The Schwerpunkt of the Japanese attack should have been on the British supply depot of Dimapur. Its conquest would have made life in Imphal very difficult. Besides the overall totally inadequate attack force of three Japanese divisions, the allocation of a single division to capture Kohima (and Dimapur) set the Japanese up for failure from the start. Similar to the battle of the Bulge, the offensive was a harebrained last ditch effort that only increased human suffering. The British advantage in numbers won this battle of attrition.

This Osprey Campaign offers a good narrative and explanation of the campaign, even if Lyman indulges in a bathetic writing style: "The belting staccato of machine guns added a different tone to the cacophony." The mix of dissonant tones is the very essence of a cacophony. A good editor would have massively pruned the text. The editor might also have toned down the Lord of the Rings-y Japanese ork attack impression. Ospreys are usually written from a pronounced Anglo-American point of view. This title, however, is cheerleading a little bit too much for my taste.

The 3D maps are a major let-down. They replicate almost identical 2D maps instead of zooming in on the action. At this scale, they are simply boring. The illustrations by Peter Dennis include many anatomically-challenged fighters. He should really study how the human neck is attached to the body. The Hulk-like contortions look funny. Another area of improvement is the throwing of hand grenades. Dennis' soldiers throw like girls. He seems to be under the impression that a hand grenade is thrown by using only the under arm instead of the full length of the arm. His hand grenade throwers would be a danger to their own side. The illustrations by the same author in the Bill Slim Command title are much better (even if he gets the hand grenade throw - and weapon handling - wrong again).

Overall, an interesting title about a little known campaign that suffers from poor execution. ( )

This is a very good book. I could rate this either a 2 star (due to the poor quality) or a 4 1/2 star (due to the subject). My dad was just down the road from where this action took place, maybe while this was happening. Subject wins!

This booklet is in the Osprey Campaign series. It is about the campaign in Kohima, India, from March 8 to June 22, 1944, between the Japanese and the British. It is well illustrated, with some very beautiful art work, and has some good maps.

Some major and minor issues:
-- Where is Kohima? I assume it is between Burma and India, but where? A map insert showing some of India and Burma and highlighting Kohima would have been a big help. My father served in India during World War II, as a radio operator flying in transport aircraft over the 'Hump' (the Himalaya mountains). He brought back a 1932 version of the 'Indian School Atlas'. It is in English and Burma page 17 clearly shows Kohima, Dimapur, Jorhat (my father's Indian base), Chittagong, etc.
-- The maps on pages 44-45 and 68-69 have north to the bottom of the page. I know the author was trying to stress an operational view, but it was confusing and totally unnecessary!
-- Much of the text explaining the two page pictures is duplicated in the main body. This was a real annoyance!

Read from November 29 to December 2, 2010. ( )