THE LONG BATTLE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 889, 17 August 1956, Page 15

THE LONG BATTLE

THE SIEGE, a Story from Kohima, by Arthur 1? pa Allen and Unwin, English price "HE story of the siege of Kohima in April, 1944, is one of unbelieyable bravery against overwhelming odds, the odds becoming worse the longer the battle lasted. The town would have fallen, without a doubt, but for the stubborn courage of a battalion of the Royal West Kent Regiment, 500 strong, encircled at first by a regiment of 5000 Japanese and, a week later, by a division. After fourteen days of bitter fighting and short commons, two companies of Punjabi infantry reached the garrison to share its defence and open the road for the evacuation of its 600 wounded. Two days later the West Kent’s survivors were relieved, but it was another four weeks before the Japanese were driven back from Kohima and the first major victory of the Burma campaign won. Arthur Campbell tells the story of the siege as seen by the Royal West (continued on next page)

BOOKS (continued from prévious page) Kent’s intelligence officer fréti’ the C.O.’s command post in the centre of the battle. He tells it well, with a soldiet’s directness and economy of phrase, and he knows the country and his British and Indian infantry so well that one readily forgives the occasional banal thought. The author clainis the tovelist’s privilege of invention to fill gaps in the story caused by lack of récords and death in action, but most of it is

only too true.

W.A.

G.