Ukhrul: Retracing her grandfather’s 39-hour World War II journey from Manipur’s Jessami village to Kohima, Charlotte Carty from the United Kingdom set out to walk from the border village in Ukhrul district to Kohima on Monday midnight. Carty, the granddaughter of Lt Col Bruno Brown, commanding officer of the 1st Assam Regiment, was accompanied by 26 other walkers, including her husband and three children.
The other walkers included Mark Slim, the grandson of General William Slim of WWII. He was travelling with his sons Rufus Slim and Billy Slim and nephew Solomon. Sophie and Jock Walker-Munro are great-grandchildren of Ross Howman, founder of the Assam Regiment. They were travelling with their father Euan.
Dr Robert Lyman, a well-known war historian and an expert on the Battle of Kohima, was also part of the team along with his son Phin.
Angus Barclay’s uncle fought and died at Kohima during WWII. He is the current chairman of Kohima Educational Trust (KET) and was travelling with his wife Sophie and two daughters Isabella and Anna.
“I don’t think others have a specific connection to the Battle of Kohima, but they have interest and want to support the others on the walk, learn more and travel to this interesting part of the world,” said Bertie Alexander, MD of Sampan Travel and who also arranged the walk.
The 124 km walk was to commemorate and remember all those soldiers of the Allies and the Japanese army as well as the Nagas who helped them in the war.
“The main objective of the walk was to remember and be grateful for all of their service and to preserve the history for future generations,” said Carty.
According to war historian Dr Robert Lyman, the first battle fought with the Japanese army in Jessami in 1944 was the soldiers of the Assam Regiment. Despite a young battalion raised in Shillong in 1941, they were well-trained professionals, and most of these soldiers were Indians, including the Nagas.
These soldiers were not defending the Raj and the British army but they were defending India from the Japanese army. So this was not the battle fought between the British and Japanese army in India but between Indian and Japanese soldiers fought in India, said Prof Lyman.
He further said that the Japanese army was ferocious and yet, the Indian Army stopped them both in Kohima and Imphal with the help of the British army.
“The battle in Jessami, Kharasom, Shangshak and Kohima was the door that opened Burma to the Allied forces in December 1944 and defeated the Japanese army in 1945,” added the war historian.
Before the 39-hour walk kicked off, the families of the war veterans and other participants also visited some of the historical sites of the biggest and deadliest war in the history of mankind (WWII) in Jessami and Kharasom villages, including Jessami War Memorial, bunkers used by the soldiers and British old roads.
They also witnessed to see some of the war artefacts being displayed at the Jessami Village Council office.
Also Read: Meghalaya Police defend arrest of KSU members in Ichamati murder case