Hello I'm James Rogers and this is the history hit World Wars podcast a

podcast dedicated to that turbulent period in history between 1914 and 1945.

Now by March 1942 the British position in Burma had rapidly weakened, deteriorated with the capital

Ragoon and its vital port lost. As the Japanese pushed relentlessly forward, the remaining surviving Allied troops carried out a five-month

slogging fighting retreat through to India across a thousand miles of dense and difficult terrain. Once in India, however, the British and Indian troops,

well, they had to stand firm as part of a broader push by the Southeast Asia Command to try and reverse the losses in the region.

Fought between March 8th and July 18th, 1944, the battles of Infal and Kajima on the Indian

border were a turning point in this most grueling campaign.

In Kahima alone, a few thousand British and Indian troops faced up to 15,000 Japanese soldiers as the Allies held a tight defensive grip onto this important

strategic chokehold. At some points this saw fighting as close as 200 meters away from each other. In this episode, first recorded

for Dan Snow's history hit, we welcome award-winning historian, writer and broadcaster,

James Holland to discuss these decisive battles that led to this

defeat of the Japanese in the region and acted as a springboard for Allied victory and the regaining of Burma. We are here today to talk about on your TV projects which you have done for Historyhit.

TV when you went to northeast India to places where very few people have been for decades.

Very few historians have been for decades.

Yeah, well it's really interesting.

So when we think of the Burma campaign, we think of it all being in Burma and in the

jungle and the rest of it, but actually one of the key most crucial battles of all was actually around Infal and added on to that was

the Battle of Kahima which is part of the bigger I'mfal battle but sometimes is sort of seen as a separate

battle but actually it's one big

campaign one big battle that happens in the spring and summer of 1944 and that is

actually in northeast India as you correctly say and actually is in Manipur State and Nagoland. Well

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