Maynamati War Cemetery (Mainamati War Cemetery), Comilla - Historical Graveyard of World War 2

Maynamati War Cemetery is a place of historical interest. It is one of the significant places of Bangladesh as well as Comilla, symbolizes the cruelty and sacrifice of the Soldiers of Second World War. Before the Second World War Comilla was a place of some small huts and cottage. But when the War was beginning, the significance of this place was rising enormously. During the War, several army camps and hospitals were to be established there. Maynamati War Cemetery is the burial ground of martyrs of 2^nd World War.

It’s a burial place which reminds us about the sacrifice of combatants for the period of the 2^nd World War. Comilla, a very large hospital and reinforcement center and an important air base, was also the site of the Fourteenth Army headquarters for a year until October 1944 when it moved to Impale. The 736 War burials are mainly from that hospitals but include some moved in from isolated sites after the war. They are mainly injured at the battlefield of Burma (Myanmar) during that time to shelter Burma (Myanmar) from Japanese attack, which was tactically very important place for the both sides. By service they comprise 3 sailors, 567 soldiers and 166 airmen. There is also one non world-war grave in the Maynamati War Cemetery.

The war casualties served in the forces of:

** Undivided India, in this context, means those territories which now comprise India, Bangladesh & Pakistan.

 This Maynamati War Cemetery was constructed and now maintained by the commonwealth war graves commission and also the assistance of Bangladesh Army. The Cemetery is adjacent to Comilla CMH.

As a graveyard, Maynamati War Cemetery is a sacred place for the people. It is a place of mourning and remembrance for the martyrs who gave up their lives. So, for the tourists’ attention I can mention that please don’t do anything which is not suitable in a graveyard. It is also noteworthy that the authority is very alert and passionate about this issue. The authority never allows you a long time to visit this place. You will get 30 minutes to 1 hour for your visiting. This place is open for all and doesn’t need any ticket. It is open for all from 7 AM to 12 PM and again from 2 PM to 5 PM after lunch and prayer break.

 Maynamati War Cemetery authority have placed a information board regarding war at Burma (Myanmar) which is in the background of this cemetery, hence this information is also important to know the war cemetery better. I am writing the history hear for your convenience which was written on the information board.

THE WAR IN BURMA, 1941-1945

The British, Indian and local troops defending Burma (Myanmar) in 1941 organized in two weak divisions, one covering the southern approach to Rangoon and the other, later joined by two Chinese armies, guarding central Burma against attack from the east.

The object of the Japanese invasion, which started with the seizure of the Tenessarim airfield in the mid-December 1941, was to close the Burma Road – the supply route to China where Japan has been fighting since 1937. The main attack, in mid-January 1942 compelled the abandonment of Rangoon at 7 March. The British-Indian force, thus deprived on both base and line of communication with India, withdrew in good order up the Irrawaddy and Sittang Valleys to Mandalay and thence up the Chindwin valley into India, reached in late may. The Chinese, on the left flank, retired up the Salween valley into Yunnan. The monsoon intervened and saves for the patrols; there was no further action until December.

 1943 saw two offensives. An attempt to recapture Akyab started in December 1942 and achieved initial success but was repulsed over the next six months. Secondly the long-range penetration group known as the “Chindits”, acting in dispersed columns and supplied by air, wrecked considerable disruptions behind the Japanese lines. Concurrently with this operation a successful policy of aggressive patrolling by other formations along the front was combined with intensive training in India of divisions destined for the Burma campaign. Within India roads and railways were improved and airfields constructed. Ascendancy in the air, lost after the fall of Rangoon, was progressively regained. Supply to China was resumed from airfield in Assam and a new overland route was opened from Ledo. Fourteenth Army stood confident and ready.

 In December 1943 XV Corps Attacked in the Arakan front. In early February 1944 a Japanese counter attack, designed to draw reserve away from the central front around Imphal, was decisively defeated and four weeks later XV Corps resumed its advance.

The main Japanese attack developed along the central front in early March 1944. Its objects were to frustrate the expected Allied offensive and, by breaking into Assam, to destruct airfield supplying China and the Ledo Road. The attack had been anticipated and the three divisions of IV Corps executed a skillful withdrawal on to the Imphal plain to fight on ground of their own choosing. In the three months of intense fighting which followed, IV Corps, cut off by land, was supplied and reinforced by air. Further north Kohima, also blockaded, was relieved on 18^th April after a siege of eleven days during which the small garrison had withstood intense and continuous attack by a Japanese Division. This epic stand gained time for the arrival of reinforcement – two Division from Arakan and one from south India with XXXIII Corps Headquarters – and the preparation of the counter-offensive which, by June, had won the decisive battle of the campaign. The remnant of the attacking force was pursued down to the Chindwin by XXXIII Corps.

Simultaneously, a Chindit force, largely airborne, had engaged considerable Japanese resource by guerrilla operations in the area south and west of Myitkina; in late June, they captured Mogaung and went on to assist the American-Chinese force advancing from the north to take Myitkina on 3 August.

 In late November 1944 the Allies took the offensive on three fronts. The American-Chinese force attacked from the north while in Arakan XV Corps in a series of combined operations, advanced to capture the airfields at Akyak and Ramree. In the center, IV and XXXIII Corps crossed the Chindwin, advanced swiftly to the Irrawaddy, captured Myitkila and Mendalay in hard-fought battle, pursued the shattered Japanese Armies southward to reach Pegu on 1^st May 1945 and, five days later, link up with XV Corps which and entered Rangoon 3^rd May after and unopposed landing.

 The surviving Japanese troops divided into three groups by the parallel advances down the Sittang and Irrawaddy Valleys, endeavored to escape eastward. Further fighting was necessary to round them up, but operations had virtually been completed before the formal cease-fire in August 1945.

 This campaign, opening with the longest withdrawal – 1000 miles – in the history of Indian and British armies, culminated in the conquest of the Burma (Myanmar) from the north – a feat unique in history. It has been described by the progress on the ground but it was in every way a joint land and air war and it result as much a victory for the air forces as for the Fourteenth Army.

 The 45,000 Commonwealth dead of the campaign (of whom nearly 27,000 came from the Indian forces) are commemorated on headstones or cremation memorials in the nine war cemeteries in Burma, Assam and Bangladesh or, where there is no known grave, on memorials at Rangoon (soldiers) and Singapore (airmen).