In the South-East Asian Theatre there was the siege of Singapore and in the Burma Campaign sieges of Myitkyina, the Admin Box, Imphal and Kohima which was the high-water mark for the Japanese advance into India.

On the central front, IV Corps advanced into Burma, before indications that a major Japanese offensive was building caused it to retreat on Kohima and Imphal.

General Irwin and Slim blamed each other for the result but in the end Irwin was removed from his command and Slim was promoted to command the new Fourteenth Army — formed from IV Corps ( United Kingdom ) ( Imphal ), XV Corps ( Arakan ) and XXXIII Corps ( reserve ) – later joined by XXXIV Corps.

In December 1944, during a ceremony at Imphal in front of the Scottish, Gurkha and Punjabi regiments, Slim and three of his corps commanders ( Christison, Scoones and Stopford ) were knighted by the viceroy Lord Wavell and invested with their honours: Slim was presented with his insignia as KCB, the others with their KBEs.

XV Corps was withdrawn on 22 March to assist the allied defence of Imphal.

Informed by the British that the situation in Imphal was under control, Stilwell wanted to launch a final assault to capture the Japanese airfield at Myitkyina.

On his return, flying from Imphal to Lalaghat, the USAAF B-25H-1-NA Mitchell bomber, 43-4242, of the 1st Air Commando Group in which he was flying crashed into jungle-covered hills in the present-day state of Manipur in northeast India, where he died alongside nine others.

In place of Wingate, Brigadier ( later Lt .- Gen .) Walter Lentaigne was appointed to overall command of LRP forces in the rank of acting Major-General ; he flew out of Burma to assume command as Japanese forces began their assault on Imphal.

Also, XXXIII Corps was moved from southern India, where they had been training for amphibious operations, to relieve the garrison at Kohima and then push on to relieve Imphal.

Once in India, the skeleton formation was filled out with Indian Army Corps of Signals and line-of-communications units, and took over from the ad hoc Burma Corps headquarters, which was disbanded, at Imphal in Manipur in north-eastern India.

During the early stages of the battle, the 5th Indian Division was flown into Imphal to join the corps.

Its new headquarters was at Imphal Barracks in York, and it consisted of three infantry brigades: the regular 24th Airmobile Brigade, and the 15th Brigade and 49th Brigade from the Territorial Army.

It had a clear focus on preparing brigades for Afghanistan and was based at Imphal Barracks, Fulford, York. During summer 2009, the divisional headquarters was significantly reinforced and transformed into Combined Joint Task Force 6 before deploying to Afghanistan as Regional Command South in November 2009.

It was situated on both sides ( western and eastern ) of the bank of the Imphal River.

The Loktak Hydropower Project on the Manipur River or Imphal River, with the Loktak Lake forming the head waters to provide regulated storage for power generation, was built in 1983 as a multipurpose project with power generation of 105 MW ( 3x35 MW ) for power supply to Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Tripura, and lift irrigation to an area of in the Manipur valley.

A fourth battalion was later formed Imphal in 1915.

The British Indian Army was key to breaking the siege of Imphal when the westward advance of Imperial Japan came to a halt.

The Japanese advance in Southeast Asia reached its furthest point and was halted in battles fought on the territory of India itself, at the Battle of Kohima and the Battle of Imphal.

Once the Japanese forces were able to break the British defenses at Imphal, the INA would cross the hills of North-East India into the Gangetic plain, where it was to work as a guerrilla army and expected to live off the land, garner support, supplies, and ranks from amongst the local populace to ultimately touch off a revolution.

However, the first division suffered the same fate as did Mutaguchi's Army when the siege of Imphal was broken.

The Japanese plan to invade India, codenamed U-Go, was originally intended as a spoiling attack against the British IV Corps at Imphal in Manipur, to disrupt the Allied offensive plans for that year.

The Imphal River is also linked with this zone by the Khordak channel.

Later, during the Battle of Imphal, the battalion suffered nearly 100 % casualties ( and an even higher percentage of losses among officers ).

This was to be repeated on a far larger scale in the impending Battle of Imphal.

In particular, the town of Imphal in Manipur on the frontier with Burma was built up to be a substantial Allied logistic base, with airfields, encampments and supply dumps.

At Kohima and Imphal in the remote hillsides of North East India, Services of Remembrance supported by the Indian Army are observed at Kohima and Imphal War Cemeteries ( maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission ).

By the time the Japanese had been stopped at Imphal, only one British Stuart remained operational.

Later in 1944 the Japanese launched an invasion of India aimed at Imphal, hundreds of miles to the north.

Desperate defensive actions were fought at places such as Imphal, Sangshak and Kohima, while the RAF and USAAF kept the forces supplied from the air.

In December 1944 Christison and his fellow corps commanders Stopford and Scoones were knighted and invested as KBE by the viceroy Lord Wavell at a ceremony at Imphal in front of the Scottish, Gurkha and Punjab regiments.

* 5 July-Thousands of women clash with police in Imphal, Manipur, in protest at the federal government's negotiations with neighbouring Naga rebels.

While a division advanced to Kohima to isolate IV Corps, the main body attempted to surround and destroy IV Corps at Imphal.

They were trained as Chindits, to operate behind Japanese lines, who were at that time attacking India, they were formed into two columns, the 33rd and 76th, to operate behind the Japanese lines during the fierce battles for Imphal and Kohima.

Third TAF gave sterling service to Fourteenth Army during the Battle of Kohima and the Battle of Imphal, strafing and bombing the besieging Japanese troops, often at very low level.

#* During the battle of Imphal there were seldom more than seven squadrons engaged at one time but over the three months ' of the siege altogether 21 squadrons took part: including three from the Indian Air Force ( Nos.

After driving the Japanese back at the Battle of Kohima, the division relieved a besieged Indian corps at Imphal.

It is located at the heart of the Imphal city almost intersected by 24 ° N Latitude, 94 ° E Longitude and it is above mean sea level.

The defence operations at Kohima and Imphal in 1944 have since taken on huge symbolic value as the turning of the tide in British fortunes in the war in the East.

The 21st ( and the first brand-new ) NIT is planned for Imphal in the north-eastern state of Manipur at an initial cost of Rs.

The river rises in the north at Karong, flows south of Imphal and hence is also known as the Imphal River.

The nearest rail head is at Dimapur on the broad gauge line of the North Eastern Railways, which is from Imphal by road.

Gen. William Old, who had flown the first Hump mission in 1942 ) to support the British and were used to fly the personnel and light equipment of the 5th Indian Division to Imphal and Dimapur, where it arrived in time to thwart the Japanese offensive.

While the main body of the division went to Imphal ( where some units had been isolated and almost all of IV Corps ' reserves had already been committed ), the 161st Indian Infantry Brigade, with 24th Mountain Artillery Regiment Indian Artillery attached, were flown to Dimapur.

As the fall of Dimapur would have been disastrous for the Allies, Slim asked his superior, General George Giffard ( commanding Eleventh Army Group ), for more troops to protect Dimapur and to prepare to relieve Imphal.

* In a separate subsidiary operation, the Japanese 31st Infantry Division under Lieutenant-General Kotoku Sato would isolate Imphal by capturing Kohima on the Imphal-Dimapur road, and then advance to Dimapur.

* The campaign winning Central Front road from Dimapur to Imphal.

161 Brigade joined XXXIII Corps, which was beginning to arrive at Dimapur, and fought in the Battle of Kohima while the remainder of the division reinforced IV Corps, whose land victory at Kohima and Imphal, in which the Division played an important part, proved to be the turning-point of the Burma Campaign.