To mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Kohima during World War II, a group of 26 people, descendants of war veterans of the United Kingdom Allied Forces, laid wreaths at the Kohima War Cemetery on Thursday.
The Battle of Kohima was fought between Japanese and British Indian forces from April 4 to June 10, 1944.
Kohima Education Trust (KET) trustee Charlotte Carty led the team to pay tribute to those who fought and died in the battle.
The war veterans founded the KET as a debt of honor to the Naga people, as well as a means to maintain the memory of the courage and sacrifice of those who fought and died in battle, and to honor the Nagas who were their allies. in the war. war helping the education of the next generations of Naga children.
The cemetery, maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, is home to 1,420 Commonwealth burials and a memorial to 917 Hindu and Sikh soldiers.
Speaking at the ceremony at the war memorial, Viscount Mark William Rawdon Slim praised the Naga people and Indian forces.
for being the allies of the British army in the successful fight against the Japanese forces. Carty said the support the Nagas provided to the allies is extraordinary.
As a descendant of a war veteran, he said it was his mother who passed on knowledge about the Battle of
Kohima for her and now she wants it to be passed on to the next generation so that they continue to remember the brave acts.
Carty called the battle one of the fiercest wars in history and hoped that a lesson had been learned from the past and would not be repeated.
Meanwhile, recreating the 39-hour walk undertaken by his grandfather, Lieutenant Colonel Bruno Brown, Commander of the 1st Assam Regiment, and also commemorating the 80th anniversary of World War II, Carty and his team also walked from Jessami in Manipur to Kohima from Monday to Friday. Wednesday.
