Editing Indian National Army (section)

==Operations==
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:INA Parade.jpg|thumb|right|Military parade of the INA at the Padang
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{{Main|Battles and operations of the Indian National Army}}
{{See also|India in World War II}}
On 23 October 1943, ''Azad Hind'' declared war against Britain and the United States.<ref name=Singh16>{{Harvnb|Singh|2003|p=16}}</ref> Its first formal commitment came with the opening of the Japanese offensive towards [[Manipur]], code-named ''[[Operation U-Go|U-Go]]''. In the initial plans for invasion of India, [[Hisaichi Terauchi|Field Marshal Terauchi]] had been reluctant to confer any responsibilities to the INA beyond espionage and propaganda.<ref name=Toye1959p86>{{Harvnb|Toye|1959|p=86}}</ref> Bose rejected this as the role of [[Fifth-column]]ists,<ref name=Toye1959p86/> and insisted that INA should contribute substantially in troops to form a distinct identity of an Indian-liberation army. He secured from Japanese army Chief of Staff, General Sugiyama, the agreement that INA would rank as an allied army in the offensive.<ref name=Toye1959p149>{{Harvnb|Toye|1959|p=149}}</ref> The advanced headquarters of ''Azad Hind'' was moved to Rangoon in anticipation of success. The INA's own strategy was to avoid set-piece battles, for which it lacked armament as well as manpower.<ref name=Fay292and298>{{Harvnb|Fay|1993|pp=292, 298}}</ref> Initially it sought to obtain arms and increase its ranks by inducing British-Indian soldiers to defect. The latter were expected to defect in large numbers. Col Prem Sahgal, once military secretary to Subhas Bose and later tried in the first [[Red Fort trials]], explained the INA strategy to Peter Fay<ref name=Fay139>{{Harvnb|Fay|1993|p=139}}</ref>&nbsp;– although the war itself hung in balance and nobody was sure if the Japanese would win, initiating a popular revolution with grass-roots support within India would ensure that even if Japan ultimately lost the war, Britain would not be in a position to re-assert its colonial authority. It was planned that, once Japanese forces had broken through British defences at [[Imphal]], the INA would cross the hills of [[North-East India]] into the [[Gangetic plain]], where it would work as a guerrilla army.<ref name=Fay268>{{Harvnb|Fay|1993|p=268}}</ref> This army was expected to live off the land, with captured British supplies, support, and personnel from the local population.<ref name=Fay262>{{Harvnb|Fay|1993|p=262}}</ref>

===1944===
{{See also|Battle of the Admin Box|U Go Offensive|Battle of Imphal|Battle of Kohima}}
[[File:Indian National Army Possessed Transmitter - 1944 CE - Kolkata 2017-02-05 5116.JPG|thumb|Radio transmitting set seized from INA agents in Calcutta, 1944. Four agents had been landed by submarine on the Indian coast, tasked with setting up a wireless post.]]
The plans chosen by Bose and [[Masakazu Kawabe]], chief of the Burma area army, envisaged the INA being assigned an independent sector in the ''U-Go'' offensive. No INA units were to operate at less than battalion strength.<ref name=Toye1959p161>{{Harvnb|Toye|1959|p=161}}</ref> For operational purposes, the Subhas Brigade was placed under the command of the Japanese General Headquarters in Burma. Advance parties of the ''Bahadur'' Group also went forward with advanced Japanese units.<ref name=Toye159>{{Harvnb|Toye|1959|p=159}}</ref> As the offensive opened, the INA's 1st Division, consisting of four guerrilla regiments, was divided between ''U Go'' and the diversionary ''[[Second Arakan Offensive|Ha-Go]]'' offensive in [[Rakhine State|Arakan]].<ref name=Toye1959p161/><ref name=Toye162>{{Harvnb|Toye|1959|p=162}}</ref> One battalion reached as far as Mowdok in [[Chittagong]] after breaking through the [[British West African Division]].<ref name=Sareen1996p184>{{Harvnb|Sareen|1996|p=184}}</ref><ref name=Bijil112>{{Harvnb|van Der Bijil|2013|p=112}}</ref> A Bahadur Group unit, led by  Col. [[Shaukat Malik]], took the border enclave of [[Moirang]] in early April.<ref name=Toye1959p198&215>{{Harvnb|Toye|1959|pp=198, 215}}</ref> The main body of the 1st Division was however committed to the ''U-Go'', directed towards Manipur. Led by Shah Nawaz Khan, it successfully protected the Japanese flanks against Chin and Kashin guerrillas as [[Renya Mutaguchi]]'s three divisions crossed the [[Chindwin river]] and the [[Naga Hills]], and participated in the main offensive through [[Tamu, Myanmar|Tamu]] in the direction of Imphal and [[Kohima]].<ref name=Fayp283and284>{{Harvnb|Fay|1993|pp=283–284}}</ref><ref name=Toyep189to191>{{Harvnb|Toye|1959|pp=189–191}}</ref> The 2nd Division, under M.Z. Kiani, was placed to the right flank of the 33rd Division attacking Kohima. However, by the time Khan's forces left Tamu, the offensive had been held, and Khan's troops were redirected to Kohima. After reaching Ukhrul, near Kohima, they found Japanese forces had begun their withdrawal from the area. The INA's forces suffered the same fate as Mutaguchi's army when the siege of Imphal was broken. With little or nothing in the way of supplies, and with additional difficulties caused by the monsoon, Allied air dominance, and Burmese irregular forces, the 1st and 2nd divisions began withdrawing alongside the 15th Army and [[Burma Area Army]]. During the withdrawal through Manipur, a weakened Gandhi regiment held its position against the advancing [[Maratha Light Infantry]] on the Burma–India road while the general withdrawal was prepared.<ref name=Fay289>{{Harvnb|Fay|1993|pp=289–292}}</ref><ref name=Toye138and162>{{Harvnb|Toye|1959|pp=138, 162, 203, 210}}</ref> The 2nd and 3rd INA regiments protected the flanks of the Yamamoto force successfully at the most critical time during this withdrawal,<ref name="Toye1959207">{{Harvnb|Toye|1959|p=207}}</ref> but wounded and diseased men succumbed to starvation along the route. Commonwealth troops following the Japanese forces found INA dead along with Japanese troops who had died of starvation.<ref name=Toye180>{{Harvnb|Toye|1959|p=180}}</ref> The INA lost a substantial number of men and amount of materiel in this retreat. A number of units were disbanded or used to feed into new divisions.{{sfn|Fay|1993|p=417}}

===1945===
{{See also|Battle of Pokoku|Battle of Meiktila and Mandalay}}
As the Allied [[Burma campaign]] began the following year, the INA remained committed to the defence of Burma and was a part of the Japanese defensive deployments. The Second Division was tasked with the defence of [[Irrawaddy Delta|Irrawaddy]] and the adjoining areas around Nangyu, and offered opposition to [[Frank Messervy|Messervy]]'s 7th Indian Division when it attempted to cross the river at Pagan and Nyangyu during [[Battle of Pokoku and Irrawaddy River operations|Irrawaddy operations]].<ref name=Fayp330>{{Harvnb|Fay|1993|p=330}}</ref><ref name=Fay539>{{Harvnb|Fay|1993|p=539}}</ref> Later, during the [[Battle of Meiktila and Mandalay|Battles of Meiktila and Mandalay]], the forces under Prem Sahgal were tasked with defending the area around [[Mount Popa]] from the British 17th Division, which would have exposed the flank of [[Heitarō Kimura]]'s forces attempting to retake Meiktila and Nyangyu. The division was obliterated, at times fighting tanks with hand grenades and bottles of petrol.<ref name=Fay358>{{Harvnb|Fay|1993|p=358}}</ref><ref name=Toye1959p229>{{Harvnb|Toye|1959|p=229}}</ref> Many INA soldiers realised that they were in a hopeless position. Many surrendered to pursuing Commonwealth forces. Isolated, losing men to exhaustion and to desertion, low on ammunition and food, and pursued by Commonwealth forces, the surviving units of the second division began an attempt to withdraw towards Rangoon. They broke through encircling Commonwealth lines a number of times before finally surrendering at various places in early April 1945.<ref name=Fay539/><ref name=Singh32and33>{{Harvnb|Singh|2003|pp=32–33}}</ref> As the Japanese situation became precarious, the ''Azad Hind'' government withdrew from Rangoon to Singapore, along with the remnants of the 1st Division and the Rani of Jhansi Regiment. Nearly 6,000 troops of the surviving units of the INA remained in Rangoon under [[A. D. Loganathan]]. They surrendered as Rangoon fell and helped keep order until the Allied forces entered the city.<ref name=Toye261>{{Harvnb|Toye|1959|p=261}}</ref>

As the Japanese withdrawal from Burma progressed, other remnants of the INA began a long march overland and on foot towards Bangkok. In what has been called an "epic retreat to safety",<ref name=Belle204>{{Harvnb|Belle|2014|p=204}}</ref> Bose walked with his troops, refusing to leave them despite Japanese soldiers finding him transport.<ref name=Toye1959p248/> The withdrawing forces regularly suffered casualties from Allied planes strafing them and in clashes with [[Aung San]]'s Burmese resistance, as well as from Chinese guerrillas who harassed the Japanese troops.<ref name=Toye1959p248>{{Harvnb|Toye|1959|p=248}}</ref> Bose returned to Singapore in August to what remained of the INA and ''Azad Hind''. He wished to stay with his government in Singapore to surrender to the British, reasoning that a trial in India and possible execution would ignite the country, serving the independence movement. He was convinced not to do so by the ''Azad Hind'' cabinet.<ref name=BoseHMOp>{{Harvnb|Bose|2013|p=undefined}}</ref> At the time of Japan's surrender in September 1945, Bose left for [[Dalian]] near the Soviet border in [[Manchukuo|Japanese-occupied China]] to attempt to contact the advancing Soviet troops, and was [[Death of Subhash Chandra Bose|reported to have died]] in an air crash near Taiwan.<ref name=Fay372>{{Harvnb|Fay|1993|pp=372–373}}</ref><ref name=Fay384>{{Harvnb|Fay|1993|p=384}}</ref> The remaining INA troops surrendered under the command of M.Z. Kiani to British-Indian forces at Singapore.<ref name=Bose2006p143>{{Harvnb|Bose|2006|p=143}}</ref>