VETERANS of one of the most vital and hard-fought battles of the Second World War yesterday remembered their comrades who never returned.

The battle of Kohima effectively ended the Japanese plan to invade India and was described by Earl Mountbatten as “probably one of the greatest battles in history”.

Kohima is a hill town in Nagaland, 5,000ft above sea level in the middle of the Naga Hills, and between April 4 and June 22, 1944, Allied forces brought the Japanese forces to a halt.

Despite being hampered by monsoon rain and treacherous terrain, they succeeded in taking Kohima during hand-to-hand fighting that famously culminated on the District Commissioner’s tennis court.

But victory came at a cost – more than 4,000 British and Indian soldiers died, as did nearly twice as many Japanese troops.

Yesterday, remaining survivors, many in their 90s, attended an annual memorial service and wreath-laying at York Minster and at the Kohima Memorial, in the Minster Gardens. The soldiers who died in the battle 66 years ago were remembered during a minute’s silence and a bugler from the Heavy Cavalry and Cambrai Band sounded the Last Post and Reveille.

The service was conducted by the Reverend Peter Eagles, the Assistant Chaplain General of the 2 Division.

Readings were given by the commanding officer of 2 Signal Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Knott, and Regimental Sergeant Major Alastair Combe.