I saw the first installment of Ken Burns’ eagerly anticipated “The War” last night and was not disappointed in the least.
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The Kohima Memorial: “When you go home, tell them of us and say; For their tomorrow, we gave our today“ |
These battles are important primarily because they marked the furthest advance of Imperial Japanese forces onto the Indian mainland. By holding back the Japanese in the highlands of Nagaland, combined British and Indian forces handed the imperial war machine its largest defeat thus far in the war and, perhaps more importantly, probably saved India from the savagery that had fallen upon China and Burma earlier.
In British war annals, the battle has a place in the history of WWII akin to America’s recollection of Guadalcanal. Earl Mountbatten referred to it as:
“probably one of the greatest battles in history… in effect the Battle of Burma… [was] the British/Indian Thermopylae”.
For desi’s, the historical record is somewhat controversial as the battles held the dubious honor of being the highpoint of activity by Subhash Bose‘s Indian National Army in their alliance with the Axis powers.
Kohima is the capital of the Indian state of Nagaland and is ~400 miles north east of Calcutta over modern day Bangladesh. By this point in the war, British forces had been routed by the Japanese across China, the Pacific, and most of southeast Asia and they were determined to halt imperial advances at the gateway to India.
The Japanese, on the other hand, planned to capitalize on these massive victories with an “audacious” plan to drive the British from Asia altogether, the crown jewel being India. As recounted by the British –
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…and so began the Japanese invasion of the Desh |
The start of 1944 found the Japanese with a battle plan which was audacious, far-reaching, and simple. This was nothing less than a wholesale advance into India. All told, 100,000 troops were to march to the assault, first to seize the British bastions at Imphal and Kohima, and then to proceed another 30 miles northwards and put themselves astride the Bengal-Assam railway, the main supply road to General Stilwell and the Chinese. If all went well, they would by this time have virtually by-passed the 14th Army and left Stilwell out on a limb. India would then stretch before them, and their long-term plan was to move westwards to Calcutta – relying on political unrest in India to pave the way for their advance into the Delhi.
The fighting at Kohima saw the British / Indian forces face long odds, dynamic battles racing up and down hillsides, and nearly constant hand-to-hand combat –
…The garrison, which included a battalion of the Royal West Kent Regiment and a battalion of the Assam Regiment, was small – it mustered all told just over 1,500 men, including convalescent soldiers, civilians, and cooks. Against it was launched the full fury of the Japanese 31st Division, numbering 12,000 men.For 14 days and nights the defenders of Kohima held the bridgehead to India. Now the eyes of the world were upon them because the Japanese had already made their usual enormous radio claims, among which was the one true one that they stood at last upon Indian soil.
…The Japanese finally withdrew on the night of June 6; the battle of Kohima was over. It had lasted 64 days and had seen some of the most stubborn and bloody fighting of the second world war. The
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British and Nepali Gurkhas Advancing on Japanese Lines at Imphal |
A decisive factor at Kohima was the Allied forces ability to secure provisions and men into the remote battlefield including the euphemistically-named Battle of the Tennis Court. Tenacious fighting, coupled with Japanese inability to resupply their troops eventually forced a retreat –
The decisive factor was the Japanese lack of supplies. Since the offensive started, they had had to make do with meager captured stocks and what they could forage in increasingly hostile local villages….The British and Indian forces had lost around 4,000 men, dead, missing and wounded. The Japanese had lost more than 5,000 men in the Kohima area fighting.
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p>The Battle at Imphal happened at the same time as Kohima and although the territory wasn’t quite as strategic as Kohima, the terrain permitted far larger concentrations of men and material resulting in even more numerous casualties –
Of the 100,000 Japanese who raced with sword and grenade for Imphal, 50,000 were dead.
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p>Imphal was also the venue for the most decisive action seen by Bose’s 40,000-strong Indian National Army who figured prominently in Japanese war plans including crucial flank defense & relief operations –
At the insistence of Bose, the Indian National Army made a substantial contribution. (Originally, the Japanese intended using them only for reconnaissance and propaganda.)* Units of the First Division (initially the Subhas Brigade or 1st Guerrilla Regiment), less a battalion sent to the Arakan) was directed along Tamu road along with the Yamamoto Force. [1]
* The Special Services Group, redesignated as the Bahadur Group acted as scouts and pathfinders with the advanced Japanese units in the opening stages of the offensive. They were tasked to infiltrate through British lines and encourage units of the British Indian Army to defect. Fay quotes British Intelligence sources to confirm that these units achieved some success in these early stages.
…On the Japanese left flank, the INA’s Subhas Brigade, led by Col. Shah Nawaz Khan, reached the edge of the Chin Hills below Tiddim and Fort White at the end of March. From this position, the 2nd Battalion sent companies to relieve Japanese forces at Falam and to Hakha, from where in turn, Khan’s forces sent out patrols and laid ambushes for the Chin guerrilas under the command of a British officer, taking a number of prisoners. In the middle of May, a force under Khan’s Adjutant, Mahboob “Boobie” Ahmed, attacked and captured the hilltop fortress of Klang Klang.
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p>Traitor, Useful Idiot, or RealPolitik-genius/casualty? The jury on Bose & the INA’s support of the Japanese is still out and controversial to say the least. I’ll refrain from this aspect of it for now to keep the focus on Kohima & Imphal-writ-large.
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p>Regardless, the desi role in WWII is often overlooked. Unlike the other major combatants, Indians in the British Army were an all-volunteer force and their numbers (over 2.5M) made them one of the single largest force contingents in the war overall. And thankfully, decisive action at Kohima and Imphal helped ensure that, also unlike most other combatants, minimal combat would be seen on desi soil.
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[related material — a pamphlet from the UK Ministry of Defense commemorating Kohima and a well written first hand account.]
Field Marshal Sam “Bahadhur” Manekshaw (later would lead India in 1971 – the first surrender after WW II) was one of the heroes of the Burma front.
From wiki on Sam Manekshaw
I have been there, Kohima, and Imphal, and seen those tombstones. Laddies of 17 and 18! In the months earlier my grandfather literally the last civilian to leave Rangoon (as custodian of documents in the War Office, he had to see each and everyone of those files – and the cipher diaries – was burnt) scrambled ahead of a great mass of convicts and inhabitants of local the “mental hospital” – the last two places to be unlocked during an evacuation, according to the British manuals. He trekked the last few 100 miles into Dimapur. Vinod, the Indian contingent in WW2 is the largest volunteer army ever I know over 2.5 million served, would appreciate if you tell us how many were killed and injured in battle.
Kush,
Sam Bahadur disobeyed orders to carry his injured batman out of harm’s way.
Vinod,
Bose was fully aware of the horrendous record of the Axis, and declared himself willing to collaborate even with scum to throw out the Brits. He was inspired in part by the Indian rebel of WW1 – “Jai Hind” Shenbagaraman Pillai, who worked with the Central Powers to free India, and was even on board on the Imperial Fleet’s Emden when it shelled Madras. Shenbagarman was the one who coined the cry Jai Hind, which became the battlecry of Bose’s INA.
In hindsight, had Bose’s plan succeeded, India would have probably made it into post-WWII world as a military dictatorship, or even worse a Japanese satellite. However at that time Bose would have had no guarantee that actual independence would follow the war, and going by the British track record and speeches of Churchill, he made a ‘wise’ decision. For us today, the INA helps to end the perception that India was ‘given’ its freedom…..if it didn’t come peacefully we would have fought for it. That is why Bose and the INA still deserve to be ‘heroes’ of the independence struggle.
Is the direction, north west, a typo?
PG Wodehouse – thanks for pointing out the mistake. fixed!
The most poignant words I have ever heard:
“When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say, For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today”
Was this the same retreating army, backing into India proper, that practiced a burn and slash policy to prevent the food supply from falling into the hands of the Japanese forces? If so, then the British command was responsible for the deaths of many starving civilian, ie. Bengal Famine 1943. The fact that millions of Indians volunteered during WWWI and WWII never gets mentioned in American or Canadian (where I live) school history textbooks or media. Netaji and the INA are heroes. One of my grandfathers was a member and was incarcerated for a year in Singapore. But Bose’s plan was doomed to fail after the Japanese lost at Midway. Without there support an armed struggle against British imperialism would have been difficult. Yes, Bose probably did know what the Axis powers were doing. I know I would have been on his side instead of the spineless Congress and Muslim League. At least the INA had the guts to fight.
I met him back in the day on a school trip. He had a place in Ooty and was gracious enough to let a bunch of kids and teachers stop by, take a tour of his place (one of our teachers knew him personally), and recount a few tales including the one where he took bullets to his abdomen for which he was awarded a medal. He was an impressive figure even in his golden years.
Several soldiers from the British Indian Army were recepients of the Victoria Cross for actions on the Burmese front.
It was also an inspiration for the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny. Together these events led the British to the conclusion that they had lost their grip on the Indian armed forces, which of course made it extremely dangerous for them to stay on.
The British pretty much ignored the widespread deaths in the 1943 famine, on the grounds that there was no time or funds to be wasted on such efforts during wartime. Later they made some half-hearted efforts, after British generals complained that seeing their fellow countrymen dying all around them was having an adverse effect on the Indian troops morale.
The Kohima epitaph was coined by JM Edmonds, and inspired by an epitaph originally written for the Battle of Thermopylae (link). It is quite popular: I have seen it on memorials to local freedom fighters in many small towns of Uttar and Madhya Pradesh, perhaps because it sounds pretty good in hindi too (‘aapke kal ke liye humne apna aaj de diya’).
Interestingly, Gen. Ayub Khan’s son insinuated a few years ago that Gen. Manekshaw had sold India’s war plans to Pakistan during the 1965 war. No one took the allegations seriously, because of Gen. Manekshaw’s unimpeachable credibility, and also because nothing in Pakistan’s strategy in ’65 suggested they knew what India was up to.
These and many others are a variation of the epitaph remembering the Battle of Thermopylae
thank you for writing about this little known history for us ABDs or at least some of us ABDs.
I’m amazed that the army was volunteer – I wonder why? Was it b/c their country’s economy (a colonized India) gave them few other choices to make a living?
When I think of soilders who fought for their country, but were second-class citizens in their country, it makes me feel such a mix of emotions, – pride, awe in their bravery and resilience against racism, and also sadness that they had to suffer the ignomy; When I read about African-Americans fighting in wwII, jewish groups who tried to get support from Polish patriots as they tried to defend Warsaw, Indian soilders fighting in the british army. I always think amid the horror that is war, how the soilders fighting for an institution that denies them their full rights, are able to sustain the morale to be so brave and resilient.
the horrendous record of the Axis, and declared himself willing to collaborate even with scum to throw out the Brits
Colonized people were really between a rock and a hard place, weren’t they?. Reminds me of the situation of many Muslims in Bosnia, who during WWii sided with the nazis, or many Vietnamese siding with the communist govt during the time when Vietnam was controlled by the French.
Interesting trip into the history of Burma. I see your interest in it was very high, so I assume you must be very passionate about it. Keep up the good work, because you seem to be very successful with it.
Yours Sincerely.
I don’t know anything about this, however, in war Generals are known to let plans ‘slip’ in order to give their enemies a false lead. Think the deception campaign of D-Day where an elaborate scheme was set-up to let Hilter think that Calais was would be the focal point of the invasion, not Normandy. Messages were intercepted, a fake Army was stood up under Patton, plans were given to known double agents, etc.
That’s possible, but mostly I think its just a lot of bull. wikipedia has some info:
btw, I was wrong in saying it was a few years ago: it seems to be only a few months (may 2007).
The German Army was welcomed in the middle east. They hated the British and the Germans were nice. Most of the middle east aided the German war effort in whichever way they could. This might have had something to do with the fact that the Axis forces in the ME were led by FM Rommel.
Mostly people start screaming murder when they hear this and point to the Holocaust. But the fact remains that one does not reflect upon the other. They are both equally matters of historical record.
Very interesting post. Just a few days ago I came across a BBC radio documentary Stand at East in which Mark Tully interviewed veterans of the “forgotten army”. Indian soldiers under the command of both Indian and British officers fought not just in Burma but also in North Africa, Middle East (Iraq, Iran, Syria), Cypress and Italy in WW-II. Very astonishing story. Please do listen to the documentary. It was this army that laid the foundations of Indian armed forces of today.
In no particular order…
Yes, India did raise the largest standing volunteer (as opposed to mandatory service or draft) army ever. I’ve been long trying to get a reliable estimate of Indian military casualties in WWII, killed and wounded, but for some reason the answer is elusive. I’ve seen figures from 78,000 to over 200,000. Comparisons are supposed to be odious, but the latter figure (if it represents the dead) would be of the same order of magnitude as United States casualties in WWII.
The Indian Army site’s historical section is notably weak on pre-independence British Indian Army details, which is surprising, since at the regimental level, memories and histories go back almost two centuries. I have not check the Pakistan Army sources.
In any case, the Indian contribution to WWII was far from negligible, and I never fail to let my fellow Americans know.
In Singapore, a memorial to the INA was raised in early July, 1945 by Subhash Bose, who died a few weeks later early August in a plane crash in Taipei (or has been seen in Elvis’ company, according to some other reports originating in the Eastern parts of India).
The memorial was restored some years ago by the Singapore government.
i don’t think this war has any significance. after nagasaki and hiroshima, the japanese surrendered everything they had. the british were equally brutal; remember 5 million bengalis who died because of british indifference (churchill said something like they breed like rabbits). may be we should retire the metaphor rock and hard place and use british and japanese instead.
And lets not forget the Indian soldiers of Wehrmacht’s Indisches Infanterie Regiment 95 or the Italian army’s Battaglione Azad Hindoustan!
A close relative fought in the INA army. Died a few years ago. He often said that the lowest point of his INA life was to realize that he was not killing englishmen but fellow indians. The Govt of India has provided a freedom fighter pension for those fought in the INA.
The real traitors were the indians fighting for the British Empire.
CookieBrown: Wiki says 87K (millitary Only) – 187 K (Millitary + Civialian incl famine) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties#Casualties_by_country
I think this is accurate since it kinda tallies with a really comprehensive WW2 book I used to own and also with Bharat rashak http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/LAND-FORCES/Army/Galleries/main.php?g2_itemId=739&g2_page=2 (Check out the cool pics!)
When I checked up BRs WW2 section I was surprised how few articles it had, since I had heard so many WW2 from my friends families while going to school in a defense colony (I went past a sherman Tank every day and actully had a friend called Rommel!)
Marginalize_the_macualayites: If you consider what actually happened to Andaman the only part of India that was ‘liberated’ by the japanese, calling Bose a dupe is being extemely charitable.
In principle the INC and commies were both against the axis, so the people who signed up for the british empire were hardly traitors,. This is especially true if you consider the sacrifices many of them later made (as sakshi pointed out) to free the members of the INA.
For a thorough and fascinating histoy of the wars in the region, see Chris Bayly and Tim Harper’s Forgotten Wars and the follow-on Forgotten Armies. More focused on Burma, but also touches the entire Burmese Crescent, including India’s NE.
Bose’s Forward Bloc Party is alive and well in India today. Ok, well mostly just in W. Bengal. As to his and their politics? Bose himself wrote, “You cannot have a so-called democratic system, if that system has to put through economic reforms on a socialistic basis. Therefore, we must have a political system — a State — of an authoritarian character…we have come to the conclusion that with a democratic system we cannot solve the problems of Free India.”
The Andaman Islands were where the british overlords of India imprisoned, tortured and hanged thousands of indians including many freedom fighters. The dupes and useful idiots were those who fought to defend and expand the British Empire.
As someone said earlier the real traitors to india were the communist parties and congress bootlickers. Netaji Subash was the only leader of that time who had the courage and foresight to challenege the british misrule. His militarism was in stark contrast to Wimpy Gandhi and that is to be admired in a man when the whole of india was under the spell of pacifism.
And that attitude holds true even in the post WWII years:
The British may well have hanged ‘thousands’, but I doubt if they would bother to take them to the Andamans to do that. There was certainly a famous colonial jail in Port Blair, where prisoners awarded ‘transportation’ to the ‘Kala Pani’ were held.
All that aside, the probable reason the Japanese were able to occupy the Andamans is because they were weakly defended, and in any case the Andamans are part of the Indonesian archipelago, the rest of which the Japanese had already occupied.
Another side point – Burma had been administered from Calcutta as part of ‘British India’ till 1937, just before the War. So I would argue that the fact that the Japanese pushed the British out of Burma should be taken to mean that they did in fact get a substantial chunk of what was ‘British India’ (‘Peshawar to Rangoon’) during the War. The Japanese were also able to bomb Eastern Indian seaports – Madras, Vishakhapatnam, Kakinada, and probably also Calcutta during the War. These happenings get rather short shrift in historical accounts of the era.
All that aside, the probable reason the Japanese were able to occupy the Andamans is because they were weakly defended, and in any case the Andamans are part of the Indonesian archipelago, the rest of which the Japanese had already occupied.
Andamans were taken for one reason.
Indonesia has lot of oil and gas, therefore, it was capture by energy-starved Japan for that reason.
Taking Andamans, you control the waterways, and safe passage of your ships carrying gasoline.
my father remembers madras being bombed from burma, and lots of people beforehand had left to go inland to thanjavur and kumbhakonum and such places.
I found the Ken Burns movie Burnsy in that way of his where he makes everyone a little too saintly, and then kind of haphazardly organized, too, especially the first episode, which kind of finishes, and then they tack on the stories of these two mexican marines. Plus he has at once the sort of regular “here’s the battle plan” with the maps, etc. but unlike say Civil War, in this he’s very adamant about not considering the major strategists and only considering the “regular” soldiers. I also don’t like how he only focuses on small towns and people from small towns (waterbury ct, sacramento, some MN town).
other desi connection is that they have norah jones singing the theme song.
Wow! Is there any well made India documentaries about the ‘feats’ of the Indian army?…or do we have to wait some white to guy to make one! LOL
India was “used” as the source of “man power” and “materials” by Britain during the world wars and they have to do nothing special.. Bring in a concept called “martial races” and throw a few crumbs and people would flock like dogs to join the army.. Because there is nothing much better to do anyways with the economy being strangled..
The Brits were building air fields and weapon factories in north east of India during the early 40s to safeguard their empire from Japanese attacks when millions were dying of famine / hunger / starvation in the same region..
India was “used” as the source of “man power” and “materials” by Britain during the world wars and they have to do nothing special.. Bring in a concept called “martial races” and throw a few crumbs and people would flock like dogs to join the army.. Because there is nothing much better to do anyways with the economy being strangled..
Speaking of Burns PBS documentary “The War”, the depressed economy of the US was also given as a reason why so many US voluntarily enlisted in the beginning of WWII.
As far as Indians being used, I’m sure most Indians who joined the British army had to weigh the choices that they had, and understood teh irony of joining a British army that and defending the British crown. I don’t think you meant this but when you say “used” and “throw a few crumbs” it makes the Indians who joined the army seem like they weren’t cognizant of their situation – I’m sure many of them were.
” The German Army was welcomed in the middle east. They hated the British and the Germans were nice. Most of the middle east aided the German war effort in whichever way they could.
And that attitude holds true even in the post WWII years:
Anyone one who thinks the Nazi’s would have remained ‘nice’ to Arabs after they lost their usefulness is a complete idiot. Hitler considered everyone but North Europeans to be racially inferior. There’s no doubt what he would have thought of Arabs, who not only were ‘racial cousins’ of the Jews, but also primitive and lived in tribes.
36 Arjun,
Because we just ‘know’ the British were very nice in the ME. Hell if anything they treated them worse than the treated us. The bombed whole villages. Imagine! Or is it only a war crime if white people are mass-murdered?
Umm…comparing the British to the Nazis does neither justice. British may have committed war-crimes, they may have acted racist at times, but the British never claimed to want to extinguish an entire group of people. Though many may have been killed, the British never had mass murder as the OBJECTIVE of policy. The British acted like colonialists…fine, but the Nazis claimed to be, and acted like murderers. Even amongst colonialists the British come out far more humane than, for example, the Belgians in Africa or the French in Vietnam.
“The bombed whole villages. ” This comes of rather comedic in its effect, since a village has what…100 people max.
Is being humane only defined by war-crimes ? Is the metric of being humane defined by how many people you have killed ( as if killing 10 is better than 100 ) ? I think there have been innumerable/immense socio-economic exploitation of the Indians by the British; which doesn’t make them humane at all. And what about the Jalianwala Bagh massacare and many other such small scale killings of ordinary folks which probably never made it to the headline news just because it was not mass-extermination ?
Subhash Bose is considered the ultimate 20th century Bengali hero.. I am yet to meet a bengali who doesn’t like him and/or thinks he is one of the most important figures in the Indian independence movement. And most bengalis also think that there was a conspiracy by other Congress leaders to get rid of him (In that way, I guess he is probably our JFK).
He made some very passionate, soul-stirring speeches.
My grandfather and his brothers were in the freedom struggle at a local level. They admired Bose. And Bose did not seem the type who reveled in the holocaust. Indians had so many problems of their own that the holocaust’s real impact was not felt here just the same way India’s suffering was not really felt in the U.S. as much as it should have. The U.S. has partnered with monsters in the past for convenience. Unless we are prepared to denounce our government, should we be looking down on Bose’s desperate attempt at getting allies? What were his options back then??? DO you seriously think Bose could have asked France or the U.S. for military help?
It is to the credit of our grandparents that many of them have no held long lasting grudges towards the British as much as other communities have had towards their oppressors.
Let’s get real people.
Subhash Chandra Bose is the most popular Bengali of all time in Bengal – and lots of the rest of India. There is little debate there, which sounds more like a Eurocentric perspective.
Spoken like a true macaulayite apologist for british rule. The british committed numerous genocides and atrocities:
http://phoenixwoman.blogspot.com/2005/12/british-genocides-in-india-could-top.html
http://www.alternet.org/stories/42219/
http://www.danielnpaul.com/BritishGenocide-1759.html
http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/sep1999/geno-s07.shtml
and much much more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andaman_Islands
Subhash Bose is India’s Washington. Even if washington had lost we would be no less honorable.
When nazis were bombing britain, the british were bombing indians. nor suprising that gandhi stayed out of the war since from india’s perspective both british and nazis were evil empires.
My father is a world war 2 vet (not an officer). He volunteered along with the other 2.5 million. The post-independence govt’s treatment of these vets is little short of shameful. They were denied benefits that ex-servicemen get in India because they were not recognized as having served the govt of India (unless they stayed on after Independence). He friends fought in Italy, Somalia, Ethiopia, Egypt, and garrisoned Iraq (yes, Iraq!). Finally, during Rajiv Gandhi’s PMship, they got ID cards recognizing them as ex-servicemen. Go figure!! I have just one picture of him in his uniform.
MarginalizeTheMacaulayites @45:
Your own link shows that the Andaman Islands were used as a penal colony, that many people died there – from mistreatment and being worked too hard.
That’s what happens in a penal colony where people are sent for ‘life’ – they die there. The fact that such a penal colony existed, that most of those who were sent there were political prisoners, and that the dead might have numbered in the thousands, is in itself a pretty damning indictment of the nature of British rule in India. That many of them died there, however, is not the same thing as saying that they were hanged. It makes no economic (or even penal) sense for people to be sent from the mainland to the Andamans to be hanged.
First of all Priya there is a BIG difference between killing 10 and 100 people, and I’d have about 90 people that have my back on that one.
Second I agree the EFFECTS of British policy were often the deaths of millions. The policies were often careless, racist and despicable. And of course they economically exploited their colonies…thats what makes them colonialists. Of course they were the worst of oppressors.
I had not heard of this Kikuyu genocide, I will read about it when I get the chance. I have heard of the Mau-mau rebellion, but was under the belief that that was more part of a war strategy than genocide.
Anyway what I am saying, is even when the British did these things, they never ‘revelled’ in it publicly. THey at least kept up a ‘veil’ of decency. The Nazis screamed that they were going to commit genocide…and then they did it. They revelled in their evil. That is the difference.
This is also why most would say Hitler was worse than Stalin(I wouldn’t necessarily agree), but Stalin’s 20 million dead were the results of poor, incosiderate policy, while for Hitler the policy WAS death. Also the Nazis were FAR more ruthless in the killing of children….just look at the disgusting medical experiments they often seemed to carry out ‘for kicks’ with gypsy children. One such experiment….to counteract the effects of hypothermia “beautiful” 15 year old naked gypsy girls were bundled with soldiers who had just spent hours in cold water. You can go read about many many worse examples. What the Nazis did, at least in a scale of “pure evil,” cannot be rivaled. The British and American governments ALSO have a history of unsavory medical experiments(mostly regarding poisen gas), but they were mostly on adult populations, often soldiers. Maybe the Belgians in the Congo come close.