The Tennis Court Battle, Kohima and Imphal

[Cholmondely Percival IV]

The key to understanding the battle over the tennis court is to grasp the topography of the area, only then does it make sense that a battle could have been fought over such a small area. Think of a series of steps up a narrow spur. The Japanese must attack from the lower portion at the narrowest point of the spur. The British are at a point higher up the series of steps and in particular in possession of a small mound that gave an excellent vantage point to dominate the lower areas by fire. The Japanese had to struggle up a steep slope to approach each level area, arriving at the top to be suddenly greeted by fire from a position they could not observe or bring under fire from lower down. If they crossed the open ground successfully then had to repeat the climb up to the tennis court and go through the same ordeal of fire again (this time also within grenade range of the British on top). To make it worse the tennis court was surrounded by a very high fence (to prevent tennis balls disappearing down the hillside and into the jungle). This was a significant barrier to movement but not to bullets. At all stages the Japanese had trouble bringing their fire to bear and were constantly repulsed. Understanding how this topography impacted fire and movement goes a long way to grasping how the fight over such a small area could have dragged on for as long as it did.

A tough one to game without recreating that topography on the table top.

To say  nothing of dozens of British voices shouting, "Come on Tim Tojo!"

[FifteensAway]

Not being familiar (though aware of Kohima), I Googled the tennis court battle and there is a photo, rather small on my laptop, showing at least some of the terracing and a statement that it was an asphalt court.  Wikipedia may not be perfect but it generally works out.

[blacksoilbill]

This thread here has a diorama from the Imperial War Memorial: https://www.planetfigure.com/threads/kohima-diorama-iwm-duxford.72389/

[TacticalPainter]

Great stuff TacPaint!   Thanks.  I assume it was a red clay court?

No idea, but if I was a gambling man, I’d say it was grass.

[robh]

For anyone interested in the Burma Campaign (but like me lacking the time or resource to research it deeply) there is an excellent history series just concluding on Youtube by Lord HardThrasher which is instructive and entertaining.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMWipphLLSd-z8E9QHILjjcoGdxO28TEv

Well worth putting in on the background while painting.

[TacticalPainter]

Phillips' Springboard to Victory has a few excellent sketch maps and diagrams to illustrate this.



The first gives an overhead view. The Japanese are coming from the top of the page approaching the pointy end of the spur. As you can see the approach is very difficult in terms of the steep slope. The British were able to cover the roads on both sides of the spur, so there was no option for the Japanese to outflank the position, the best way was to fight up the spur towards Garrison Hill.



The second sketch gives a very good idea of the topography. For the Japanese it's a series of steep climbs to reach level ground from where they can be greeted by British fire from above. Most critical is the mound at the top left of the picture near the Club. This was a particularly good vantage point and a dug in Bren gun team were able to lay down very effective fire on any Japanese advance up each slope, in particular the tennis court area. You can also see how difficult it was for the Japanese to target some of those higher positions from below. In most cases they would only have line of sight once they reached the lip of each raised area, by which time they can be targeted. Also easy to see how easy it was for the British to lob grenades down on the attacker.

So while the tennis court area was not that large, the surrounding topography dramatically changed the nature of the fighting and explains why it dragged on for as long as it did.

[FifteensAway]

When it comes to simulating topography it's hard to beat a topographical map, to whit:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kohima#/media/File:Kohima_ridge.jpg

Hope that is helpful. 

You've sent me on a journey of exploration regarding this campaign.  Who knows what you might be ultimately responsible for! 

[fred]

You've sent me on a journey of exploration regarding this campaign.  Who knows what you might be ultimately responsible for! 

Well Fifteens, from prior experience it will be a small perusal of sources, leading to a modest purchase of enough figures to do the campaign at 1:1 scale…

[FifteensAway]

Can someone please escort fred to the nearest psychiatric hospital stat; he appears to be having a critical episode of sanity deprivation!


 



1:1?  Not even 1:1,000,000 (that would be about 120 figures more or less).  Hmm, the whole of the war with 120 figures...

...nah, winding down, not winding upward

[fred]

 

[Smokeyrone]

Yeah, I started something here!     

That diorama is great, and spot on, according to my research.   Unfortunately, the real battle is not how I envisioned. 

I dreamed of building a beautiful grass court (it was really an asphalt surface) with a net, fences, windscreens, ball boys, scoreboard, fan seating, strawberries and cream food carts, etc.

(That's what my battles look like, except arepas are the food item of choice at my clubs)

This is more like a WWI trench fight.   

Still gonna do it!