To commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Kohima during World War II, a group of 26 people, descendants of Allied Forces’ war veterans from the United Kingdom, laid wreaths at the Kohima War Cemetery here on Thursday.

The Battle of Kohima was fought between Japanese and British Indian forces from April 4 to June 10, 1944.

The trustee of Kohima Education Trust (KET), Charlotte Carty, led the team in paying homage to those who fought and died in the battle.

The war veterans founded the KET as a debt of honour to the Naga people as well as a means of sustaining the memory of the courage and sacrifice of those who fought and died in the battle, and of honouring the Nagas who were their allies in the war through assisting the education of succeeding generations of Naga children.

The cemetery, maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, houses 1,420 Commonwealth burials and a memorial for 917 Hindu and Sikh soldiers.

Speaking at the ceremony held at the war memorial, Viscount Mark William Rawdon Slim lauded the Naga people and the Indian forces
for being the allies of the British army in successfully fighting against the Japanese forces. Carty said the support that the Nagas gave to the allies is extraordinary.

As a descendant of a war veteran, she said it was her mother who passed the knowledge about the Battle of
Kohima to her and now she wants it to be passed down to the next generation so that they continue to remember the brave acts.

Terming the battle as one of the most ferocious wars ever, Carty hoped that a lesson has been learnt from the past and that it won’t be repeated.

Meanwhile, re-creating the 39-hour walk undertaken by her grandfather Lt Col Bruno Brown, Commandant of 1st Assam Regiment, and also marking the 80th anniversary of WW-II, Carty and team also walked from Jessami in Manipur to Kohima from Monday till Wednesday.