Soldiers with captured Japanese flag at Leik Hill, 1944 (b/w photo)

Soldiers with a captured Japanese flag at Leik Hill, 1944. Photograph, World War Two, Far East, 1944. The assault on Leik Hill in October 1944 by units of the King’s African Rifles formed part of the Allied pursuit of Japanese forces down the valley of the Chindwin River and deep into Burma in the summer and autumn of 1944. The hill was a key strategic point known as ‘the main gateway to the Chindwin’. The slopes of the hill were precipitously steep and covered with dense jungle, this gave great advantage to its defenders and the hill was only taken after repeated assaults and heavy casualties. From an album of 608 photographs compiled by Colin Campbell of the King’s African Rifles.