The Norfolks arrive at Kohima

14th April 1944: Just after arriving on the defended ridge at dawn Sergeant Hazell spots a Japanese patrol - and hastily organises an ambush

British 3-inch mortar detachment during the the Battle of Imphal-Kohima, March - July 1944.

The 2nd Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment had started the war in France, where a number of their men had been captured at Le Paradis and massacred by the SS. The remainder had been evacuated via Dunkirk. Four years later they found themselves rushed into action again.

The urgent need to reinforce the British lines at Imphal and Kohima had seen the battalion flown up from their bases in India, a novel means of moving regular troops at the time. It was the first time most of the men had been in an aircraft.

The British garrison at Kohima, heavily outnumbered, defended a number of interlocking positions along the ridge. On the 13th April the Japanese had taken the D.I.S. ridge.

Sergeant Fred Hazell was sent forward with an advance party of three tanks. In the morning of the 14th he went to look around the area by himself. The newly arrived men were not yet aware that the Japanese were attempting to infiltrate the whole area, the concept of a front line had little meaning.

Fred Hazell.

Suddenly he saw some men approaching through the jungle, at first he thought they were Indian troops, but then he realised¹:

I could see all these little hats bob - bobbing up and down. Then of course, just to cap it all, I realized I’d left my rifle behind! Dear oh dear! The thoughts that passed through my head at that moment - I thought, “My God, you’ve got a short war, laddie!”

I couldn’t stay there because they would pass within two feet of me, so I kept one eye on them and one eye sort of swivelling down to the ground as I walked backwards. I didn’t want to tread on any twigs and alert them.

[He managed to get back to his detachment and roused the men who were sleeping beside the tanks]

I was thinking there was nine of them at that stage. I said, “Nobody fire until I give the word”. I got my rifle and waited for the ‘nine’ to appear. It became nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fteen, sixteen, seventeen.... In the end we had a hundred of them lined up. As the first one started to disappear from view into the woods again I fired and everyone then joined in with rifle and Bren guns.