Talk:Battle of Meiktila and Mandalay

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[edit] Commanders

I have removed three Indian National Army commanders, namely Prem Kumar Sahgal, Shah Nawaz Khan and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon, from the "Commanders" section of the information box. My reasons are that they were not concerned with the high-level strategic decisions in the theatre, and their actions are not referenced anywhere in the text. While the INA were separate from the Japanese Army, they were under (nominal) Japanese command; and if every division, brigade or battalion commander who made any notable contribution was included in the information box, it would look like a veritable cenotaph !

The INA commanders and their actions might well be incorporated in the text in the Irrawaddy Crossings section, but I do not have the relevant source (Fay) to hand. They could also be added to the article on the Battle of Pokoku and Irrawaddy River operations, which could well do with improvement and removal of POV in my opinion. HLGallon 18:45, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for this one. The last edit I did (adding Shah Nawaz Khan) was because Shah Nawaz came to be appointed the head of the INA 2nd division immediately before Irrawady ann Pokuku and also led one of the regiments on the grounds. This is important because INA only ever had three divisions in total, of which two ever fought and at any time there was probably only one on the ground. Shah Nawaz was therefore in charge of large proportion of the INA troops, and had considerable responsibillity as the commander(and was aware of this). What I got from Fay was that Khan Dhillon and Sahgal were the only three notable commanders on the ground, and took the operational decisions themselves, working with the Kanjo Butai. Of these, Sahgal's forces seems to have been the most active ones. The reason why I added all three initially was because all three were one the ground and notably so. I re-edited to include only Shah Nawaz because he was appointed the head of the INA's forces in the area, and as such in charge, although I came to the idea that Sahgal was the most active. I am re-editing this to include Shah Nawaz, if you still believe this is not keeping in proportion, feel free to revert.Rueben lys 11:49, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, but try as I might, I cannot find any grounds for retaining Shah Nawaz Khan in the "commanders" section. In particular, he is still referenced nowhere in the text of the article. If he is notable for command of substantial sections of the INA, this belongs in their own article. Command of a single division is not sufficient in itself for this particular battle. HLGallon 15:21, 15 August 2007 (UTC)