270 HIS MAJESTY’S OPPONENT
rale with pep talks. On February 3, 1944, the entire regiment gathered
to hear their supreme commander wish them Godspeed in the battles.
As the trains carrying his soldiers left Rangoon for Mandalay and
Prome on February 4–6, tears streamed down Bose’s face.
One Bahadur group of the INA, led by Major L. S. Misra, had al-
ready been deployed on the Arakan Front, where the offensive was
launched on February 4. The reconnaissance and subversion conducted
by Misra’s men enabled the 55th Japanese Division to trap the 7th Brit-
ish Indian Division on the eastern side of the Mayu range, cutting it
off completely from the 5th British Indian Division and rupturing its
communication links with the British 15th Army headquarters. Even
though the Japanese were unable to cap italize on this early success, the
reputation of the INA as a fight ing unit was established. Wireless mes-
sages received from Calcutta, sent by the secret agents who had landed
on the Kathiawar coast, were further cause for satisfaction. In late
March, Bose decorated Misra with a high award for gallantry, and held
him up as an example to the of fi cers and men proceeding toward the
more im por tant battlefront of Imphal. Misra was killed in action later
in the year, but the battalion of the Subhas Brigade sent to the Arakan
sector did well against the 81st British West African Division from
mid- March onward. From its base in Kyauktaw, the battalion, led by
Major P. S. Raturi, moved steadily north up the Kaladan Valley, captur-
ing Kaladan, Paletwa, and Daletme and establishing itself at Mowdok
on the Indian side of the Indo- Burmese border.^61
Just as the three battalions of the INA’s Gandhi Brigade, commanded
by Inayat Kiani, started arriving in Burma from Malaya, Bose received
news that Kasturba, the Mahatma’s wife, had died in Poona while in
British custody. In a broadcast from Rangoon, Bose paid a moving
tribute to the “great lady who was a mother to the Indian people”:
“Mahatma Gandhi called upon the British to quit India and save India
from the horrors of modern war. The insolent reply of the British was
to throw him into prison like an ordinary criminal. He and his noble
consort would rather die in prison than come out free in an enslaved
India.” He urged the sons and daughters of India to avenge the death of
their mother, Kasturba, by completely destroying the British Empire in
India.^62