Ukhrul: To commemorate and honor the war veterans of World War II, family members and well-wishers from the United Kingdom embarked on a 39-hour-walk from Manipur’s Jessami village in Ukhrul district to Kohima in Nagaland on Monday midnight.
The family members also paid homage to the soldiers who fought in the Battle of Jessami in 1944 against the Japanese force at Jessami War Memorial and Khamasom village under Chingai sub-division.
Charlotte Carty, the granddaughter of Lieutenant Colonel William Felix (‘Bruno’) Brown, commanding officer of the 1st Assam Regiment who fought the first battle with the Japanese army in Jessami, was among the 26 walkers from the United Kingdom who walked 124 km from the border village to Kohima.
During World War II, the Battle of Jessami took place in the village fought between the 1st Assam Regiment of the Allied Forces and the 31st Division of Japanese soldiers from March 28, 1944, to April 1, 1944.
On Thursday, the British walkers, including the well-known war historian Prof Dr. Robert Lyman and Sophie and Jock Walker-Munro, the great-grandchildren of Ross Howman, the founder of the Assam Regiment, celebrated the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Kohima in Kohima.
According to Charlotte Carty, the 39-Hour-Walk was aimed to remember her grandfather and to pay tribute to the fallen heroes on the battlefield of 80 years ago. “I became particularly interested in the withdrawal back to Kohima of the Assam Regiment from the village of Jessami, where fierce preliminary contact had been made with the invading Japanese. This withdrawal, on foot, was over a distance of some 29 miles, and some 60 miles along the paths and tracks, across sub-Himalayan terrain, in frequent contact with the Japanese. The Regiment achieved this in 39 hours, with some 260 men making it through to bolster the thin defenses at Kohima. They started at midnight on April 1st and arrived at Kohima 39 hours later at 3 pm on April 3rd, 1944,” said Carty.
“As part of the 80th anniversary of the battle in 2024, I am seeking to recreate this walk to highlight the achievements of all the forces who fought at Kohima, and to remember the local Naga people who were so vital in the campaign and in particular the fighting withdrawal of the Assam Regiment back to Jessami,” she added.
The itinerary of the tour was planned by Sampan Travel in collaboration with the Jessami Kaleidoscopic Tourism & Wildlife Conservation Board.