In 1944, the Japanese army had been wreaking havoc on the land of China for more than ten years, and from the beginning of the "invincible Japan Empire", it found that its life was not so good.
The US military counterattacked strongly in the Pacific theater, and the Japanese army basically did not take advantage of it, and on the Chinese battlefield, the Chinese people never gave up resistance, which also made them feel headaches.
At this time, Germany also put pressure on Japan, hoping that they could have a hearty victory in the Asian theater and relieve the pressure on the Axis powers in the European theater.
After careful consideration, the Japanese army chose the location of the war in Imphal, India. Imphal is a fortress in northeastern India, connecting mainland India with Burma, and is also an important strategic location, through which the Allies delivered supplies to the Chinese battlefield.
At the same time, Imphal is also a strategic material gathering place and military base for the British army, if Imphal is captured, the Japanese army can take these materials for nothing, cut off the supply lines of the Allied forces, and occupy the British army's airfield in vain, and maybe also turn the situation in the Asian theater.
With one blow and three wins, the Japanese army formulated the "Imphal Battle Plan" overnight and appointed a big man, Mutaguchi Ryoya, as the commander of this battle.
Mutaguchi was also the commander who ordered the firing of the "Lugou Bridge Incident", and he was a fanatical warmaker, and in order to improve his status and influence in the army, he was also bound to win Imphal.
At first, Muta did not take the Anglo-Indian troops seriously at all, and formulated a plan to take Imphal in one month, and all the troops were lightly armed to implement the practice of "fighting to feed the war". Two of them were armies, and they only brought three weeks' rations.
On March 8, 1944, Muta led 85,000 Japanese troops to Imphal, India, in three ways.
This force included not only soldiers, but also livestock such as monkeys, cows, horses, sheep and elephants, which were used by the Japanese army to transport equipment and supplies, and to slaughter and eat in case of emergency.
At first, the Japanese marched well, they occupied a number of strongholds, and the British had to narrow their lines and concentrate on the defense. As the front advanced, the Japanese gradually discovered that taking Imphal was not as easy as they thought.
The dense jungles and rugged mountainous terrain unique to Imphal made the march difficult. The British army had been operating here for a long time, was familiar with the terrain, and built many military construction sites, which made it even more difficult for the Japanese army to advance.
Even if the British army could not hold their position, they would never leave a little thing for the Japanese army, and they would take away everything they could take away, and burn all the things they could not take away, ensuring that the Japanese army could not get even a drop of water.
This move dumbfounded the Japanese troops who were preparing to "feed the war with war", and they could not get any supplies and equipment from their positions.
To add insult to injury, the Japanese army's logistical supply lines also had problems, and they had no way to replenish supplies in time, and the livestock they brought with them scattered and fled as soon as they entered the dense forest, and they couldn't catch them, even if they later set aside some troops to watch these animals, it would be useless.
The Japanese army continued to advance in an environment of lack of food and clothing, and ammunition, and although the commander-in-chief Mu Tian urged the logistics to keep up every day, there would always be problems of one kind or another, making it difficult for the Japanese army's logistics to keep up.
Just when the supply problem of the Japanese army eased a little, the rainy season in India arrived, and the continuous heavy rain turned India's big rivers into big rivers and small rivers into swamps.
The heavy rain was humid and the hot weather caused many Japanese soldiers to get infectious diseases, and because of the frequent heavy rains, the Japanese army could not airdrop food, and the supplies on the ground were also interrupted.
The lack of food plummeted the Japanese army's combat effectiveness, and thousands of Japan soldiers laid down their weapons in search of anything they could eat, wild vegetables, tree bark, and even rats.
At this time, the number one enemy of the Japanese army was no longer the British army, but hunger and disease. The British seized the opportunity and began to organize a counterattack. At this time, the Japanese army could no longer organize effective resistance, and could only resign itself to fate, and in the process of advancing the British army, Japanese transport vehicles, tanks and corpses could be seen everywhere on the road.
In July 1944, Mutaguchi had to order a retreat. originally thought that a war could be resolved quickly, but in the end it became a life-and-death escape.
Of the 85,000 Japanese troops who entered Imphal, 73,000 were eventually killed or wounded, of which only 20,000 died by artillery fire, and the remaining 50,000 died of disease or starvation.
The Imphal War gave the invincible Japanese army a taste of defeat, and the Allies turned to a counteroffensive in the Asian theater, and it was once called the "Battle of Stalingrad in the East" by the United Kingdom.