“Unlike traditional battlefield tours, Sampan’s Forgotten War Tour is no hop-on hop-off coach trip. In addition to Dr. Lyman, this tour is led by expert, specialist guides in each location. Travelers will enjoy hotels full of character with superb, local food throughout.”
Sponsored by Sampan Travel
IN 1941, the Japanese Imperial Army invaded British Burma. The onslaught forced the Allies into their longest ever retreat, over the border into India. Looking to capitalize on the advantage, in 1944 the Japanese began their “march on Delhi.”
In February 2025, tour operator Sampan Travel is running their Forgotten War Tour, led by historian Dr. Robert Lyman.
This 14-day journey explores the China-Burma-India theater (CBI) of WW2 in India. Dr Lyman will lead the group from Kolkata to Kohima, deep into the Naga Hills and then finally Assam. The tour will explore the role of General William Slim’s 14the Army and the impact of the USAAF and the Aluminum Trail, “flying the Hump” to resupply the Chinese Nationalist forces.
Dr. Lyman sets the scene at the beginning of 1944 in his book Japan’s Last Bid for Victory:
“The British and Americans were preparing for D-Day. The Soviets were advancing in Ukraine. There was a stalemate in Italy along the Gustav Line. The Americans were preparing to land in the Philippines. Germany and Japan were both in retreat, but not defeated. In this global context India and Burma were strategically peripheral, even inconsequential. Yet in this month, at a time when on every other front the Japanese were on the strategic defensive, Japan launched a vast, audacious offensive deep into India.”
In 1944, the village of Kohima was the site of a small military depot and the bungalow of the British District Commissioner. Here were stationed the Assam Regiment alongside just one battalion of the British Royal West Kents. From the 4 April, 1944, these men faced an onslaught from the entirety of the Japanese 31st Division. At times, the Allies were fighting outnumbered by almost 10:1. Hand-to-hand combat ensued, and grenades were lobbed from end-to-end of the commissioner’s tennis court. Eventually the Japanese were pushed back. What would be remembered as the Battle of Kohima was the turning point of the war in the China-Burma-India theater. Kohima ultimately led to the Allies pursuing the Japanese all the way to Rangoon.
Dr. Lyman will take the group by foot on a battlefield tour of Kohima ending at the cemetery where the white lines of the old tennis court are still marked into the perfectly clipped lawn.
After visiting Kohima, Dr. Lyman will lead the group to the Burma border to the village of Jessami high in the Naga Hills. Sampan is the only operator to lead historical tours this deep into Nagaland.
The Battle of Jessami saw the Japanese 31st Division attempt to seize the town to facilitate their advance towards Kohima. Defending the area were units of the newly-raised Assam Regiment, British officers leading local lads. Despite being heavily outnumbered, the defenders put up a spirited resistance but were eventually were ordered to withdraw. Commanding Officer Lt. Col. “Bruno” Brown led his men out of the perimeter at Jessami at midnight on 2 April, 1944, after which they made their way back to Kohima.
The Battle of Jessami gave the Allies crucial time to bolster their defences at Kohima. It is not an overstatement to say that if Jessami had not held, Kohima might have fallen, and the Japanese would have been able to march on towards Kolkata.
After exploring Nagaland, travellers will visit the tea fields of Assam. Also on the itinerary is a trip to Ledo Airfield, the start of the legendary Stilwell Road, and the Hump Airlift Museum, so to understand the role of the U.S. military in the CBI.
This northern front of the theatre was dominated by the Americans under General “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell. Stilwell remains a controversial figure: He struggled to work diplomatically with the Chinese, was scornful of the British, and famously drove his men seemingly without mercy. However, he was undoubtedly a remarkable man. The CBI theater newspaper reported during the war:
“Someday when the war is only a filthy memory, the whole story of Stilwell in Asia will be told, the epic of an unpretentious man who went forth sword in hand and slew the dragons of adversity in their dens.”
Flying the Hump was a perilous feat undertaken by U.S. pilots, that saw cargo planes fly vital supplies over the treacherous Himalayas to support China’s war against the Japanese.
The contemporary journalist Theodore White, wrote:
“Ice can build up so rapidly on the wings that within five minutes a plane loses all flying capacity and drops like a rock into the jungle. In summer there are monsoons – black, solid masses of rain and wind that flick a plane about as if it were a feather. There are thermal currents that send the instruments into crazy spins. A pilot may be putting his plane down as hard as he can and the wind and clouds will be sending it up twice as fast as he is descending; or vice versa, which is worse.”
Dr. Lyman is one of the world’s authorities on the CBI. After finishing a 20-year career in the British Army in 2001, he has published widely on the Second World War. He is Bill Slim’s military biographer and wrote Osprey’s definitive account of the Battle of Kohima in 2010.
In 2016, he published Among the Headhunters, an account of an American twin-engine plane that crashed in dense mountain jungle, deep within Japanese-held territory in Burma. Among the passengers and crew were an OSS operative who was also a Soviet double agent, and Stilwell’s personal political adviser. Among the Headhunters tells the incredible true story of the adventures of these men among the Nagas, their sustenance from the air by the USAAF, and their ultimate rescue.
Unlike traditional battlefield tours, Sampan’s Forgotten War Tour is no hop-on hop-off coach trip. In addition to Dr. Lyman, this tour is led by expert, specialist guides in each location. Travelers will enjoy hotels full of character with superb, local food throughout.
The price of this tour is $9,000USD per person in a shared room. The price is $9,999USB for single accommodations. The price includes welcome and farewell dinners, private car transfers, and all domestic flights, but not international flights.
For more information visit the Forgotten War Tour page. We hope to see you there.
