VETERANS of one of the Second World War’s most vital Allied victories gathered at York Minster to remember the thousands of comrades who lost their lives.

The Duke of York was amongst the dignitaries to attend the Battle of Kohima memorial service and a wreath-laying in the Dean’s Gardens today, May 22.

The three-month battle in India in 1944 was the turning point in the war in the Far East. It stopped the advance of the Japanese through Asia, but at the terrible cost of more than 4,000 Allied lives.

Among those attending the service was veteran Edgar Merrey, who made the journey from his home in Sudbury, Derbyshire.

“Today has brought back a lot of memories,” he said.

“The battle at Kohima was nasty and I am sorry that we had to be nasty. We have links with the Japanese now. I had a Japanese friend who used to come to this reunion but sadly he has now died.

“The Japanese sent a model of a Samurai in his armour to “ the courageous 2nd Division” and we sent them a gift with the 2nd Division’s crossed keys emblem.”

Fellow veteran, Ron Brown, 90, drove himself up from Farnham in Surrey to attend the day. “It has been a great day for me, absolutely great,” he said. “To be in the Minster with that gathering including the Duke was wonderful.”

The Duke of York met and spoke with the veterans before moving outside for the wreath laying service and a minute’s silence.

Bob Cook, of the Kohima Educational Trust and curator of the Kohima Museum at Imphal Barracks in Fulford, said: “Until Kohima the Japanese had never had a defeat and after Kohima they never had a victory.”