Heroes of largely forgotten WWII battle honoured in new exhibition at Highlanders Museum near Inverness

The heroes of a largely forgotten Second World War battle are being honoured in a new exhibition.

The Highlanders Museum at Fort George near Inverness is paying tribute to troops who fought in northeast India, in a battle that was ultimately overshadowed by D-Day that same year.

The 1944 battle for Kohima helped steer the Allied powers to victory.

It saw the Japanese 15th army advance in a push aimed at capturing British and Indian supply bases – and to ultimately challenge the might of the British Empire.

Eighty years on, a proud son of Lochaber soldier Major Colin Douglas Hunter, who served with the victorious 5th brigade, has opened an exhibition to commemorate the battle that halted the Japanese invasion.

Andrew Hunter told STV News: “No-one had managed to beat the Japanese in land battles.

“I think the Americans had won a victory at sea in the Pacific, but no land army had managed to trounce the Japanese army at that point late on in the war, in 1944, and the British Army at Kohima managed to do that.”

The British were assisted by Indian volunteer forces in blocking Japan’s attempt to capture Kohima ridge, a feature that dominated the road by which besieged British and Indian troops were supplied.

Highlanders Museum supporter Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Douglas Young, another early visitor to the exhibition, shares close connections with Kohima.

He said: “An awful lot of people in Inverness and further afield actually have ancestors, I think in many cases grandparents now, even great grandparents [who fought there].

“I’m very proud that my father and father-in-law both served there.”

The collection at Fort George gives a powerful insight into a moment in history.

Major Hunter had received a Military Cross for earlier gallantry, in France. He died in 1997 at the age of 83.

The exhibition runs for six months.