Fight Your Way Out: The Siege of Sangshak, India/Burma Border, 1944

In March 1944, Japan launched an audacious overland invasion of India from Burma, taking the British rear areas by surprise. The 50 Indian Parachute Brigade, training in the jungle around Manipur, was the only defense. Despite being outnumbered and outgunned, they fought bravely for a week before escaping through the mountainous terrain. The battle at Sangshak was a critical first major battle between Indian and Japanese armies on Indian soil, and it set the scene for the Japanese defeat at the final battles of Kohima and Imphal.

Format: Unspecified
Length: 192 pages
Publication date: 31 October 2023
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Ltd

In March 1944, Japan launched an audacious overland invasion of India from Burma, catching the British rear areas off guard. Except for the previously untested 50 Indian Parachute Brigade training in the jungle around Manipur, the British rear areas were exposed and undefended. After a series of brutal encounter battles, the Paratroopers consolidated on the isolated Naga village of Sangshak, high in the Manipur hills. Holding out against an aggressive and determined enemy, the Brigade fought off wave after wave of attacks in bloody hand-to-hand fighting. With shortages of ammunition and supplies and casualties mounting, the defenders held on for a critical week before fighting their way out through the mountainous terrain, back to British lines.

Fight Your Way Out is a book that describes this little-known but critical first major battle between Indian and Japanese armies on Indian soil. The siege is described in detail using first-hand accounts, as well as the daring escape through the jungle and the experiences of Indian and British survivors captured by the Japanese. The battle at Sangshak was a heartening first indication that by 1944, the previously all-conquering Japanese were not invincible. Sangshak cost the invaders precious time, from which they never recovered, and set the scene for their eventual defeat at the final battles of Kohima and Imphal.

Weight: 444g
Dimension: 164 x 241 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781399056311