Box of Lions: First-hand Accounts of Stopping the Japanese at Imphal

Set against the Japanese Army’s advance toward India during the Second World War, Box of Lions recounts the remarkable defense of a vital British supply depot on the Imphal Plain. The depot, codenamed Lion Box, contained food and military stores and appeared to the attacking Japanese to be an easy objective. Instead, they encountered determined resistance from an improvised force of drivers, administrators, sappers, storemen, and other support personnel from Britain, India, Nepal, and Africa. Thrust suddenly into front-line combat, these men held off professional Japanese troops during three days of bitter fighting, buying time for vital supplies to be evacuated.

Christopher Johnson, the son of a veteran who fought there, draws on thirty years of research, interviews with participants including Japanese survivors, and repeated visits to the battlefield. The result is a detailed and personal account of courage, fear, endurance, and an overlooked episode of the Battle of Imphal.