Burma and India
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 coincided with a new role conceived for his corps, which then consisted of only the British 2nd Infantry Division (Major General John Grover). 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 new Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia Command (SEAC), could instead plan to capture the Andaman Islands (Operation Buccaneer). In December the Allied leaders returned to Cairo, both Mountbatten and Stopford meeting them there, the former presenting his views to Roosevelt and Churchill. Despite his best efforts it was decided to cancel the latter operation, due to a lack of 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, the Japanese 15th Army (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 and Lieutenant General Geoffry Scoones, GOC IV Corps, had both predicted a move like this by the Japanese and Scoones, whose corps was holding the sector, withdrew to a more defensible sector. Slim had failed to estimate the arrival of the Japanese 31st Division (Lieutenant General Kōtoku Satō), which headed for Kohima, 80 mi (130 km) north of Imphal. If the 31st Division were able to take the small town of Kohima, they would be almost unopposed and be able to march into Assam, cutting land communications to Ledo, at the Indian end of the Ledo Road, then 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 substantially outnumbered. Slim made a decision for the 161st Indian Brigade, detached from the 5th Indian Infantry 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 Robert Ranking, GOC 202nd Lines of Communication Area (202 LoC), in temporary command of the area.
Realising that Scoones would be unable to control the Kohima battle, Slim asked his superior, General Sir George Giffard, commander of 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 Ranking, and began to assess the situation. He outlined the priorities as Dimapur, the Ledo Road and Kohima and ordered the 161st Indian Infantry Brigade to defend the Nichugard Pass, safeguarding Dimapur but leaving Kohima uncovered. Priorities changed, following a consultation with Slim and Kohima was now made the priority, and the 161st Indian Infantry Brigade was ordered to return. The 4th Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment (4th Royal West Kents) and a company of the 4th Battalion, 7th Rajput Regiment managed to reinforce the Kohima garrison, which consisted of a significant number of non-combat troops, before the town was surrounded. The remainder of the 161st Indian Infantry Brigade was cut off at Jotsoma, a few miles back from the road to Dimapur.
The initial defence of Kohima, therefore, was conducted by a far smaller force than was necessary. Fighting in very grim conditions reminiscent of the First World War, the force managed to hold on during a siege that lasted over two weeks, the British and Indian troops being boxed in on Garrison Hill. The distance between them and the Japanese was the length of the local District Commissioner's tennis court. Three Indian mountain batteries at Jotsoma were initially the only outside support. The 2nd Division (Major General Grover) broke the road block between Jotsoma and Dimapur, thus enabling the 161st Indian Infantry Brigade to relieve the defenders of Kohima on 18 April.
Stopford's objective was to drive the Japanese away from Kohima, the 2nd Division being the main initial tool for the job, although significant reinforcements were on the way. These consisted of the 23rd Infantry Brigade, which had been intended to join the Chindits, and the 21st Indian Division (Major General Cameron Nicholson) a temporary creation. Stopford knew Nicholson as a fellow instructor at the Staff College before the war, to take command of other units who had been brought up from India. The 6th Brigade of the 2nd Division relieved the 161st Indian Brigade and continued to hold Garrison Hill against a succession of Japanese assaults. The division's 4th Infantry Brigade undertook a right hook flanking movement to come in from the south, against the Aradura Spur, while the 5th Infantry Brigade began a left hook from the north. Both brigade assaults did not meet with the expected success. The 33rd Indian Infantry Brigade (Brigadier Frederick Loftus-Tottenham), part of the 7th Indian Infantry Division (Major General Frank Messervy), arrived from the Arakan and, assisted by the 6th Brigade, cleared the enemy from Kohima Ridge. The fighting was relentless as the Japanese remained in two strong defensive preparations, on the Aradura Ridge and around Naga Village. The 2nd Division, which by now was severely depleted but pushed them off Aradura Ridge in early June, the 7th Indian Division pushing them out of Naga Village around the same time. The Japanese retreated to the Chindwin River and, on 22 June, XXXIII Corps met IV Corps.
The battle over, Stopford made the decision to sack Grover and to replace him with Nicholson. During the Kohima fighting Stopford had begun to lose confidence in Grover, believing him to be too slow and cautious, as well as apparently having handled Indian units under his command rather unsatisfactorily, and, after consulting with Slim, had him sacked. This did not initially go down well with the division which, after its losses, spent the next few months recuperating. XXXIII Corps continued to clear the Japanese from the country to the west of the Chindwin River and north of Ukhrul, on 31 July taking over from IV Corps, which returned to India to rest. During the end of the summer and in the early stages of autumn the pursuit of the retreating Japanese continued and the 5th Indian Infantry Division (Major General Geoffrey Evans) along with the Lushai Brigade (both of which now formed part of XXXIII Corps), pursued the Japanese towards Tiddim and into the Chin Hills. At the same time the 11th (East Africa) Infantry Division (Major General Charles Fowkes) under XXXIII Corps cleared the Kabaw Valley, later establishing a bridgehead across the Chindwin River.
On 3 December the 80th Indian Infantry Brigade, part of the 20th Indian Division (Major General Douglas Gracey, which joined XXXIII Corps in July), crossed the Chindwin River at Mawlaik, and turned south. The day afterwards the 19th Indian INfantry Division (Major General Thomas Rees) crossed the river further north at Sittaung, heading eastwards. The corps, spearheaded by the 20th Indian Division, with the 2nd Division following up behind, crossed, on 18 December, the longest Bailey bridge in the world near Kalewa. Slim wanted to deceive the Japanese into believing that XXXIII Indian Corps was their main threat. Slim, knowing that the Japanese were planning to withdraw behind the Irrawaddy River, wished to surprise them, with XXXIII Corps being seen as the main threat, while IV Corps (Lieutenant General Frank Messervy) approached stealthily through the Chin Hills with the intention of crossing the Irrawaddy in the south and west.
On 15 December 1944 he and his fellow corps commanders, Christison and Scoones, were knighted and invested as Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Lord Wavell, the Viceroy of India, at a ceremony at Imphal in front of Scottish, Gurkha and Punjab regiments. Slim was knighted and invested as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath at the same occasion. Stopford executed his superiors' order to the letter as, in mid-January 1945, the 19th Indian Infantry Division established two bridgeheads across the river, north of the city of Mandalay, and in late February the division moved towards the city. The 20th Indian Division reached the river in late January, crossing in mid-February, while the 2nd Division formed a bridgehead on 25 February. The two divisions began to expand their bridgeheads but the 19th Indian Infantry Division won the race to capture Mandalay, which fell on 20 March.
IV Corps had, at the same time, taken Meiktila, holding it off against several determined Japanese counterattacks. This meant the end for any hopes the Japanese may still have had about retaining hold of Burma. In early May Lieutenant General Slim declared his intention of capturing Rangoon before the arrival of the monsoon. Lieutenant General Messervy's IV Corps took the Railway Valley towards Toungoo, and Stopford's XXXIII Indian Corps, with the 7th and 20th Indian Divisions now under command, advanced on both sides of the Irrawaddy. Rangoon fell in early May, by which time XXXIII Corps had cleared the river south of Prome.
Confirmed in his rank of lieutenant general in April 1945, in late May Stopford's XXXIII Indian Corps HQ was redesignated as the new HQ British Twelfth Army. The Twelfth Army now took responsibility for finishing the final stages of the campaign in Burma, allowing the HQ Fourteenth Army to return to India, to plan for future operations, specifically the recapture of Malaya. The battle under Stopford's command would become known as the Battle of the Sittang Bend. The remaining Japanese in the Irrawaddy Valley, numbering roughly 30,000 troops, attempted to cross the Pegu Yoma Hills and the Sittang River, into the supposed safety of the Karen Hills, bordering Thailand. Given Lieutenant General Messervy's IV Corps, with three divisions under command, the Twelfth Army inflicted severe losses upon the Japanese troops, a significant number of whom were suffering from starvation or otherwise ill. As it turned out, this was to be the last major land action fought by the Western Allies during the Second World War as, in mid-August, the Japanese surrendered in Tokyo. Stopford gave orders for all offensive operations to cease, and soon began negotiations with the Japanese, which culminated in their surrender at Rangoon in mid-September. The following month, at another ceremony, General Heitarō Kimura, commander of the Japanese Burma Area Army, handed over to Stopford his sword.
