page_title: Montagu Stopford
section_title: Burma and India
hierarchical_section_title: Montagu Stopford / World War II / Burma and India
caption_attribution_description: English: Japanese Peace Emissaries Arrive at Rangoon, Burma, 1945 In the Throne Room, Government House, Rangoon, which was used for the surrender negotiations, Lieutenant General Takazo Numata with Lieutenant Colonel Morio Tomura (left) and Rear Admiral Kaigye Chudo (right) faces the Allied commanders (front row, l to r): Brigadier E G Gibbons, Captain F S Habecker, Major General Feng Yee, Mr M E Dening, Rear Admiral W R Patterson, Lieutenant General Browning, Air Marshal Sounders, Major General Denning, Brigadier M S K Maunsell, Air Vice Marshal A T Cole and Captain J P H Perks. In the rear row, seated to General Browning's left is Lieutenant General Sir Montagu Stopford.
context_page_description: General Sir Montagu George North Stopford GCB, KBE, DSO, MC was a senior British Army officer who fought during both World War I and World War II. The latter he served in with distinction, commanding XXXIII Indian Corps in the Far East, where he served under Field Marshal Sir William Slim, and played a significant role in the Burma Campaign, specifically during the Battle of Kohima in mid-1944.
context_section_description: Stopford was sent to India to become GOC of XXXIII Indian Corps, in succession to Lieutenant General Philip Christison, who was posted to XV Corps as its GOC. Formed the previous year, the corps had so far not seen action against the Japanese, being initially held in reserve. Stopford's arrival, however, coincided with a new role conceived for his corps, which then consisted of only Major General John Grover's British 2nd Infantry Division. At the Cairo Conference, which was held shortly after Stopford's arrival in India, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt promised Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China that the Allies would launch an amphibious operation across the Bay of Bengal. Roosevelt's intention was to convince the Chinese to keep as many of their forces in northern Burma as possible. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill preferred an amphibious assault on Sumatra (codenamed Operation Culverin), at the northern tip of the island, but there were too few resources available for such an operation. As a result, Churchill considered Admiral Louis Mountbatten, the newly appointed Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia Command (SEAC), could instead plan to capture the Andaman Islands (codenamed Operation Buccaneer). In December the Allied leaders returned to Cairo, both Mountbatten and Stopford meeting them there, the former presenting his views personally to both Roosevelt and Churchill. Despite his best efforts it was decided to cancel the latter operation, due to a lack of resources, both in manpower and landing craft.
  Mountbatten was not beaten and, upon returning to India, ordered Stopford to continue to train XXXIII Corps in amphibious operations, which it did so for the next months. In March 1944, however, the Japanese 15th Army, under Lieutenant General Renya Mutaguchi, launched an offensive at the centre of the Allied front at Imphal. Lieutenant General William Slim, GOC of the Fourteenth Army (which Stopford's XXXIII Corps was serving under), and Lieutenant General Geoffry Scoones, GOC British IV Corps, had both predicted a move like this by the Japanese, and Scoones, whose IV Corps was holding the sector, withdrew his corps into a more defensible sector. The Fourteenth Army's GOC had failed to estimate the arrival of the Japanese 31st Division under Lieutenant General Kōtoku Satō, which headed for Kohima, 80 miles north of Imphal. If Satõ's 31st Division were able to take the small town of Kohima, they would be almost unopposed and be able to march into Assam, thereby cutting land communications to Ledo, at the Indian end of the Ledo Road, then in the process of being built to China.
  The British first received reports that the Japanese were aiming for Kohima from the local Naga people, and from V Force patrols, in the third week of March. The 1st Battalion, Assam Regiment moved west to Jessami to intercept them. On 28 March fighting began and continued for another two days, gaining valuable time. The battalion, only very recently raised, fighting against a numerically superior force, was forced to withdraw to Kohima. At the same time Colonel Hugh Richards had arrived to take command of the garrison at Kohima, which was severely outnumbered. Lieutenant General Slim, GOC Fourteenth Army, made a decision for the 161st Indian Brigade, detached from Major General Harold Briggs's 5th Indian Division, to be flown into Dimapur, and to move into Kohima, arriving there on 29 March, after receiving reports on the Japanese strength. Slim also placed Major General R. P. L. Ranking, GOC 202nd Lines of Communication Area (202 LoC), in temporary command of the area.
  Realising that Lieutenant General Scoones, GOC British IV Corps, would be unable to control the Kohima battle, Slim asked his superior, General Sir George Giffard, commanding the 11th Army Group, for Stopford and his HQ XXXIII Corps to be flown out from India. Stopford, establishing his HQ on 3 April at Jorhat, took over from Major General Ranking, and began to assess the situation. He outlined the priorities as being, in the following or
caption: In the Throne Room, Government House, Rangoon, which was used for the surrender negotiations, Lieutenant General Takazo Numata with Lieutenant Colonel Morio Tomura (left) and Rear Admiral Kaigye Chudo (right) faces the Allied commanders (front row, l to r): Brigadier E. G. Gibbons, Captain F. S. Habecker, Major General Feng Yee, Mr M. E. Dening, Rear Admiral W. R. Patterson, Lieutenant General F. A. M. Browning, Air Marshal Sounders, Major General R. F. Denning, Brigadier M. S. K. Maunsell, Air Vice Marshal A. T. Cole and Captain J. P. H. Perks. In the rear row, seated to Lieutenant General Browning's left is Lieutenant General Sir Montagu Stopford.
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