The was an

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

division of the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emper ...

. Its

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally ass ...

was the . The 31st Division was raised during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

, on March 22, 1943, out of

Kawaguchi Detachment The Kawaguchi Detachment was an Imperial Japanese Army formation that existed during World War II. Under the command of Major General Kiyotake Kawaguchi, the detachment consisted of the 35th Infantry Brigade and the 124th Infantry Regiment. The det ...

and parts of the 13th, 40th and 116th divisions. The ''31st division'' was initially assigned to 15th army (the part of the

Japanese Burma Area Army The was a field army of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. History The Japanese Burma Area Army was formed on 27 March 1943, under the control of the Southern Expeditionary Army Group as a garrison force to defend the nominally-ind ...

Action

In 1944, under Japanese operation

U-GO The U Go offensive, or Operation C (ウ号作戦 ''U Gō sakusen''), was the Japanese offensive launched in March 1944 against forces of the British Empire in the northeast Indian regions of Manipur and the Naga Hills (then administered as part ...

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on th ...

Renya Mutaguchi was a Japanese military officer, lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II and field commander of the IJA forces during the Battle of Imphal. Biography Mutaguchi was a native of Saga Prefecture. He graduated from the ...

ordered the 31st Division across the border of

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

into

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

as part of the overall

Battle of Imphal ) , partof = the Operation U-Go during the Burma Campaign in the South-East Asian theatre of World War II , image = Imphalgurkhas.jpg , image_size = 300 , caption = Gurkhas advancing with Grant tanks ...

. Its assignment was to capture Kohima, thus cutting off Imphal, and then exploit to Dimapur. The 31st division's commander, Lieutenant General Kotoku Sato was unhappy with his role. He had not been involved in the planning of the offensive, and had grave misgivings about their chances. He and Mutaguchi had also been on opposite sides during the split between the '' Toseiha'' and ''

Kodoha The ''Kōdōha'' or was a political faction in the Imperial Japanese Army active in the 1920s and 1930s. The ''Kōdōha'' sought to establish a military government that promoted totalitarian, militaristic and aggressive expansionistic ideals, ...

'' factions within the

during the early 1930s, and Sato distrusted Mutaguchi's motives. In addition, along with many of the senior Japanese officers in Burma, he considered Mutaguchi a "blockhead". Starting on March 15, 1944, the 31st Division crossed the

Chindwin River , , image = Homalin aerial.jpg , image_size = , image_caption = The Chindwin at Homalin. The smaller, meandering Uyu River can be seen joining the Chindwin. , map = Irrawaddyrivermap.jpg , map_size = , map_alt = , map_caption ...

near

Homalin Homalin or Hommalinn ( my, ဟုမ္မလင်း မြို့ ) (Shan: ႁုင်းမၢၵ်ႇလၢင်း) is a small town in north-western Burma and capital of the Homalin Township in Hkamti District of the Sagaing Region. The ...

and moved northwest along jungle trails on a front almost 100 kilometers wide. The left wing of the division, the 58th Regiment, commanded by

Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

Shigesaburō Miyazaki clashed with Indian troops of the Indian 50th Parachute Brigade under

Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. ...

Hope-Thompson in the

Battle of Sangshak The Battle of Shangshak took place in Manipur in the forested and mountainous frontier area between India and Burma, from 20 March to 26 March 1944. The Japanese drove a parachute brigade (fighting as infantry) of the British Indian Army from its ...

, on the northern approaches to

Imphal Imphal ( Meitei pronunciation: /im.pʰal/; English pronunciation: ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Manipur. The metropolitan centre of the city contains the ruins of Kangla Palace (also known as Kangla Fort), the royal seat of the f ...

on March 20, 1944. The battle continued until March 26, 1944, delaying Japanese advance. Miyazaki's troops were probing Kohima on April 3, completing siege preparations by April 6, 1944. He then launched a series of attacks into the north-east region of the defenses on April 8, and by April 9 the British and Indians had been forced back driven into a small perimeter into what came to be known as the

Battle of the Tennis Court The Battle of the Tennis Court was part of the wider Battle of Kohima that was fought in North East India from 4 April to 22 June 1944 during the Burma Campaign of the Second World War. The Japanese advance into India was halted at Kohima in Apr ...

. By the night of April 17, the defenders' situation was desperate. However, on the morning of April 18 British artillery opened up against the Japanese positions, which stopped the attacks. To support their counterattack, the British had amassed 38 3.7-inch mountain howitzers, 48 25-pounder field guns and 2 5.5-inch medium guns. The RAF also bombed and strafed the Japanese positions. The Japanese could oppose with only 17 Type 94 75mm mountain guns, with very little ammunition. The road between Dimapur and Kohima had been opened, and the siege was lifted. The Japanese did not retreat at once, but stayed in position and fought tenaciously for several more weeks. By the morning of May 13, 1944, most of the Kohima region had been re-taken by the British forces. Around May 15 the 31st Division began to withdraw, pursued by troops of the

British Fourteenth Army The British Fourteenth Army was a multi-national force comprising units from Commonwealth countries during the Second World War. As well as British Army units, many of its units were from the Indian Army and there were also significant contribu ...

. After ignoring orders for several weeks, Sato was removed from command of the 31st Division early in July 1944 and replaced by Uchitarou Kawada. The course of the entire

Battle of Kohima The Battle of Kohima proved the turning point of the Japanese U-Go offensive into India in 1944 during the Second World War. The battle took place in three stages from 4 April to 22 June 1944 around the town of Kohima, now the capital city of N ...

was broken off at the same time. Lieutenant General Slim had always derided Sato as the most unenterprising of his opponents, but Japanese sources blame his superior, Mutaguchi, for both the weaknesses of the original plan, and the antipathy between himself and Sato which led to Sato concentrating on saving his men rather than driving on distant and indefensible objectives. Remnants of the 31st Division continued to oppose the British reoccupation of Burma, but the division had largely ceased to exist as a strong fighting force after the Battle of Kohima.

Action

See also

Further reading