Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
The Kohima Educational Trust is delighted to present this webinar with Dr Robert Lyman MBE and guest speaker David Allison, historian and author of Fight Your Way Out: The Siege of Sangshak.
In March 1944, Japan launched its audacious overland invasion of India from Burma. British rear areas in the Manipur hills were dangerously exposed, with only the untested 50th Indian Parachute Brigade standing in the path of the advance.
After a series of sharp and brutal encounters, the Paratroopers withdrew to the isolated Naga village of Sangshak. There, cut off, short of ammunition and supplies, they faced repeated Japanese assaults in dense jungle and steep hill country. For several days the Brigade held its ground in fierce close‑quarter fighting before the survivors finally fought their way out through the hills and back to friendly lines.
Drawing on his book Fight Your Way Out – The Siege of Sangshak, David Allison examines this little‑known but pivotal battle — one of the first major engagements between Indian and Japanese forces fought on Indian soil — and its largely unrecognised impact on the wider Imphal–Kohima campaign.
The Kohima Educational Trust is delighted to present this webinar with Dr Robert Lyman MBE and guest speaker David Allison, historian and author of Fight Your Way Out: The Siege of Sangshak.
In March 1944, Japan launched its audacious overland invasion of India from Burma. British rear areas in the Manipur hills were dangerously exposed, with only the untested 50th Indian Parachute Brigade standing in the path of the advance.
After a series of sharp and brutal encounters, the Paratroopers withdrew to the isolated Naga village of Sangshak. There, cut off, short of ammunition and supplies, they faced repeated Japanese assaults in dense jungle and steep hill country. For several days the Brigade held its ground in fierce close‑quarter fighting before the survivors finally fought their way out through the hills and back to friendly lines.
Drawing on his book Fight Your Way Out – The Siege of Sangshak, David Allison examines this little‑known but pivotal battle — one of the first major engagements between Indian and Japanese forces fought on Indian soil — and its largely unrecognised impact on the wider Imphal–Kohima campaign.
