Chapter 281
The Battle for Rangoon was now, three days after the first Allied units had crossed the city limits far different from what the Allies had expected. The Japanese were far more numerous on one hand and on the other the presence of the civillians did not deter the Japanese from falling back on the tactics that they had used in China, far from it in fact. General O'Connor still prevented the use of medium bombers in the battle, but the Japanese defenders soon began to fear the shape of the Hurricanes of the Royal Indian Air Force that were seemingly everywhere, firing their rockets into occupied buildings.
While the Allies were teaching the Japanese a lesson about the proper application of Air power and frontline Artillery support, the Civilians in Rangoon suffered.
Hawker Hurricane Mk. IVs of the No.59 Squadron, belonging to the RIAF War Memorial Squadron, 2010[1]
However the Japanese were throwing many things into this battle, including the aircraft that were stationed in Siam at the time. Forty-seven Ki-21 and Ki-49, escorted by almost sixty Naval A6M Model 32 that, while being phased out on the Navy's Carriers, were deemed appropriate against the 'minor' Air Forces the British were putting up in the South-Western theatre.[2]
In what turned out to be the biggest raid of the day the Japanese were trying to smash the hastily built Allied supply dumps west of Rangoon that fed the grinding and extremely bloody advance by the Allies in the city towards the harbour.
The lack of a viable RDF chain in central Burma allowed the Japanese to reach Rangoon without being detected, but over the city they ran into 35th 'Black Cat' Squadron of the newly reconstituted Republic of China Air Force. Flying ex-RIAF Spitfire Mk..VI (the tropical version of the basic Mk.V[3]) that had been replaced in RIAF service with the Mk.VIID, these pilots had something to prove to themselves and to the British, and that they hated the Japanese with a passion didn't hurt either.
Albeit only numbering fourteen aircraft (one pilot was missing in action, the second in the hospital) the Chinese fliers immediately threw themselves at the hated Japanese and attacked the vastly superior Japanese formation.
Coming in from two o'clock high they broke through the outer fighter screen before the Japanese even knew they were there and downed five bombers in their first pass.
The Japanese recovered quickly, and soon the Chinese pilots were embroiled in a fierce dogfight with their Japanese Counterparts. Slowly they were being overhwhelmed by superior numbers, loosing three more of their number for two Zeroes in return.
What they did accomplish however was that their attacks scattered the Japanese formation into the four winds, some of the bombers had even dropped their load and were now running for home, and gain time for more Allied aircraft to arrive.
These reinforcements came in the persons of No.1, No.20 and No.22 Squadrons, Royal Indian Air Force. Between them they brought fifty-five Spitfires as all had already suffered losses in the last few days. However this fresh influx of British Air Power decided the action as the head-on attack by the Indians broke up the two main groups the bombers had seperated into and managed to break through to the embattled Chinese.
RIAF Spitfire pursuing a Japanese Zero.[4]
Especially No.1 Squadron earned itself the enduring friendship of the Chinese Air Force (as evidenced in the Regimental Affiliation between No.1 Squadron and the 35th, the first non-Commonwealth one established by the RIAF) as their Spitfires set upon the ball of Japanese and Chinese fighters and allowed the tired and exhausted 'Black Cats' to extract themselves with nine of their numbers still alive. They would need several weeks of rebuilding but their action had thrown the Japanese plans into complete disarray.
The three new Squadrons made short work of the rest of the raid, and in the end the Japanese Army Air Force and Naval Air Service had lost close to twenty aircraft for eight Allied ones and a few bombs falling onto supply dumps that on the whole suffered only light damage. It was the last large-scale raid flown over the Rangoon area until Operation Take-Ichi in 1945.
At sea the situation was a foregone conclusion, as the Japanese Light Forces were no match for the British now that the Royal Navy was making a concerted effort at clearing the seas, and the ageing Thames Class Gunboats[5] were getting their last hooray before the new Ganges class, exclusively built on Indian yards and used in the Far East. These boats were far larger and more heavily armed than anything the Japanese still had in the Indian Ocean.
HMS Zambesi was the newest of the Thames Class Gunboats which showed in the relatively young age of her guns and the presence of a relatively advanced RDF set. It was a surface search set and right now it detected her two sisters and more importantly six Japanese MTBs (developed copies of the British 60ft MTBs, after plans obtained in 1936 via a honey trap run through the Japanese trade mission).
Lieutenant Commander David McKenna was somewhat junior for this command, but Zambesi had been rushed out of the yard where she was having some superficial damaged fixed and he had been the only Officer in convenient range.
He had served aboard HMS Severn as a fresh young Subbie and after her destruction and a promotion been sent to the Far East, spending most of 1942 aboard one of the Destroyers patrolling the convoy lanes. He actually was delighted at having been given this command. For some time at least he would get out of the most boring duty station the Fleet had to offer (in his estimation) and being back in small craft doing the kind of thing an Officer in the Queen's service was supposed to be doing when at war.
He glanced over the shoulder of the RDF operator and then turned towards his signalds officer.
“Flags, tell Clyde and Spey to assume Chevron formation, half a mile. Weapons free.”
“Aye aye, Sir.” came the curt reply.
The two other gunboats moved out of line formation and increased speed temporarily to take positions, half a mile ahead and to the port and starboard of the Zambesi. Their forward turrets were trained onto where their own RDF sets had detected the Japanese. The Japanese gunboats were as of yet unaware that the British were out here as the lack of RDF and the pouring rain prevented any sighting until the two forces where within almost half a mile of each other.
While Weapons free had been given, the conditions affected the British also. The MTBs were too small a target to allow for accurate RDF guided gunnery with the outdated RDF sets the gunboats sported and visual gunnery was out of the question until the range closed.
In the end mother Nature intervened as during the time when the Japanese and British slowly closed with each other the rain coming from above slightly let up and almost immediately the Japanese spotted the hulks of the British gunboats. Both side opened fire almost at the same time. The British 4.7'' guns barked whereas the Japanese, coming at the British from an angle, fired their torpedoes.
Instantly spotting the wakes, the three British Gunboats turned, throwing off their gunnery solutions.
However at a distance of little more than a quarter of a mile this was not going to help much. Being the closest, HMS Ganges had barely managed to put her rudder full over when she caught two Japanese 'fish' and disintegrated in a massive explosion.
Zambesi herself did not go unscathed either. Even though she did not suffer a direct hit, but debris from the Gamges showered her upper decks. This did cost her two of her .50 calibre Brownings and three crewmen killed.
Still, her 4.7inchers barked immediately in reply. While they did not hit anything they broke up the Japanese formation and allowed the Clyde to close with her damaged flagship. The British ships turned and so did the Japanese. The MTBs mounted a small 2pounder gun aft and these guns barked in defiance even though the armour on the gunboats while far too weak to withstand even their own guns was far too thick for the low-velocity 2pounders that the Japanese had intended for use against boats and assorted civilian craft. The only real defence the Japanese had lay in their speed and both they and the British knew this. The twin 5inchers forward however gave the Royal Navy vessels a disproportionate advantage in firepower and they used this to great effect.
Even as the Japanese began to disperse towards the Japanese lines east of Rangoon and the Light Forces base the Zambesi and the Clyde kept up their fire, by unspoken consent concentrating on the two nearest MTBs that began to draw away but were hampered by having to manoeuvre and the sea state.
The first and only hit that the Zambesi landed on 'Motor Torpedo Gunboat No.11' of the 'Type 36' Class was more by pure chance than skill, if the No.11 had not zagged to the right she would have survived but this way she ran right into a shell fired by Zambesi's No.2 turret which blew her into a thousand tiny bits.
The next loss for the Imperial Japanese Navy in this action came by skill though as No.11 had seemingly opened the floodgates. The Japanese CO aboard No.23 was wounded when the sudden motion of his command caused him to loose his footing and his Number One took command. Being a most aggressive Officer he instantly turned and attacked again, intending to fire the second and last salvo from the torpedo tubes. That this played right into the hands of the British did not occur to him.
It brought the Japanese gunboats into range of the Twin Bofors guns on the upper gun deck. The licensed copies of Sweden's first big contribution to the war opened up somewhat early, but eight of them, coming from two ships steaming in a comedic copy of the Line of Battle put up a virtual wall of hot lead. Two Japanese gunboats fell prey to this and the remaining three, No.23 among them, turned away again and attempted to open up the distance. To McKenna it showed that the Japanese commander had either to be a blithering Idiot or inexperienced.
McKenna would have fired his fish on the first run, losses be damned as at this distance hits were virtually guaranteed. He was however not prepared to let this opportunity pass and all the guns that could be brought to bear fired on the Japanese, even the .50s, spat out lead and fire into the broadside of the Japanese that had still not completed their turn. Another MTB was holed by a dozens of .50 calibre from Clyde, coming to a halt, with all of her crew dead, which was all the better as the the boat was on fire scant seconds later.
The two remaining MTBs however were, while damaged, able to extract themselves from the envelope of the small guns, figuring with good reason that avoiding the heavy 4.7'' guns was easier than the fully automatic smaller ones. McKenna decided not to turn but instead rather more decided to increase speed to the best speed possible, but the action was over sooner than expected as on the second run No.23 was wiped from the surface of the sea by the Clyde, and suddenly the lone remaining boat was very reluctant to press the attack, having whitnessed the demise of the CO in the light of the still burning fire of one of the other MTBs.
In the end a few more shots were traded before the remaining MTB withdrew.
Tactically the action had in spite of the losses been a victory for the Japanese as it forced McKenna to withdraw towards his base, but overall it did not make a difference in RN operations in the area. McKenna and 3 Patrol Squadron were but one of six such Squadrons scouring the coast of occupied Burma that night and overall the Japanese losses mounted and would continue to mount over the coming weeks. It did entrench in both the Royal Navy and the IJN the value of Light Forces and both sides would put the knowledge and experience gained to good use later in the Dutch East Indies, the Phillipines and along the Chinese coast.
What became clear to the RN Indian Ocean Station was that the Japanese had indeed all but abandoned the Indian Ocean, something that sat perfectly well with them. Lacking any Carriers and anything heavier than two 8'' Cruisers (Cumberland and Sussex) fighting the Battleline or the Carriers was a nightmare that haunted them often enough.
[1] I know it's a IIc but there's surprisingly few pictures of the Hurricane in SEAC markings on the web.
[2] Of course the RAAF and the RIAF would seriously object to being called minor, never mind the Dutch and the Chinese.
[3] In Europe the British are busy replacing the Mk.V with the Mk.X, which is in essence the OTL Mk.XIV. With the Vulture being axed early and the generally better condition of the British economy and infrastructure the two-stage supercharger was fitted to the base model.
[4] No idea what model of Spit this really is, but according to KiwiZac over at the whatif modellers board who took this picture it's an honest to god flyable Zero and not a rebuilt T-6. Picture taken during an NZ Air Show in 2010.
[5] For those who have forgotten, made out of bits and pieces left over from de-commed WW1 and inter-war DDs, built using small ship building capacity that IOTL was used for the Black Swan Class among other things and that is not needed for that here.