Against all Odds: The British Empire in World War Two

ViperhawkZ said:

Mountbatten, on the other hand, is commanding forces way out in the Burmese outback where he can't hurt the Allies, thank god.

Click to expand...

Yeah, and since Phill the Greek will never meet the Queen, he's likely to fade into obscurity after the war.

It's one of the many, many things I'd do differently if I was to re-start this AAR from the beginning.

Regarding Monty, I'D either give him the 8th Army once it's landed in Italy or Singapore, both commands that would suit his style at least for a time.

Things that will feature in 1944:


Centurion Mk.I Universal Tank somewhere in Germany


Hawker Sea Fury taking off from HMS Illustrious during the Battle of the South China Sea


Gloster Meteors of No.111 Squadron patrolling over occupied Germany, autumn 1944.


After an encounter with a Polish Lancer regiment.

Well, not being able to go "Have our embassy in the US order another ten thousand Shermans" forces the Allies to go for quality over quantity to an extent. The RAC and friends are always going to be outnumbered.

Chapter 375​

5th February 1944


The streets of Tokyo were blacked out as a safety measure. Even though Allied bombers didn't have any bases within range, there was the occasional attack by Soviet Infiltrators that braved the formidable Japanese Air Defences. Those were rare, but enough to force a strictly enforced regimen of air-raid preparedness that worked with the basics established in Japan during the 1930s. And the one person in the room right now feared that they would soon be needed even more.

A knock on his door tore his attention away from the darkness behind the window and he drew the curtains tightly shut before switching on the light and inviting his visitor in.

The aide snapped to attention in front of the man who ruled Japan in the name of the Emperor.

“Sir, we have just received a message from 34th Army. Enemy artillery has started shelling their positions outside Halong.”

Tojo nodded and dismissed the aide without a word. He would have to make an appearance in the situation room soon, but for the moment he wanted and needed to reflect on what the imminent loss of South-East Asia would do to the Sphere's position. In and of itself French-Indochina was of no consequence and never could have been, but the morale factor was important. So important in fact that he had pulled out all the remaining Guards units during the Monsoon. At the same time and in spite of the usual phrases and the very genuine sacrifice that the troops of the 34th Army would make for the Tenno soon, he had to admit the reality that the perimeter around Halong would be lost. Even when the Allies had started their main attack not long after the new year he had been confident that between the rugged terrain and the fighting spirit of the Japanese soldier the position could be held.

Said confidence had died in a maelstrom of Artillery and airpower. In desperate fighting the Japanese position had contracted ever further, helped by a countryside that had exploded into rebellion in spite of brutal Japanese reprisals. Tojo didn't really care about the native Vietnamese or what happened to them, but it had all taken valuable men away from the fighting front. What was more, the Chinese units had evaporated as soon as they'd seen the first Allied soldier. Sowing in Japanese companies as stiffeners had done little good, and he was sure that most of those troops would soon be fighting with the so-called Free Chinese Army.

Luckily there were still a great many civilians left in Halong, so that the usual British tactic of just shelling everything in their sight into very fine powder.

There was one piece of good news. The British apparently had no desire to advance into China, or, indeed, much beyond Hanoi and Halong. They had secured Lang Son and Mong Chai, the two principal border crossings closest to the coast and seemed to be content to sit there. They had started mining the crossing between Hainan and the mainland, as well as bombing the entirety of the Island with what seemed like every plane they had. He doubted that they would do anything before having tried at taking Borneo, but the possibility was there, especially as it would make a good platform towards taking Hong Kong and Japanese Formosa.


Even as the last fight was going on, the British were already putting their newest acquisition to good use. Their infiltrators were flying attacks against targets in the Guangdong province and beyond, and that only made a restless province even more so. He hated the Chinese, but their numbers was what kept the Soviets away from Japan. Too bad they were too gutless to do the same against the Europeans and their traitor colonial troops.

Bushido aside, something needed to be done, the experiences of the Kwantung Army had shown that, and he had already ordered several projects to be accelerated. He only hoped that the Navy could get off it's arse and contribute something to the war effort.

How soon that would be needed was in this moment being decided on the fields of Indochina.

The situation was deteriorating elsewhere. The British were funnelling arms and men into the Philippines where wide stretches of the countryside could only be travelled in heavily armed convoys, and they were very successful at stirring up the population against the Japanese Empire on Borneo as well.

But what had the idiots in the Navy Ministry the most worried was the situation in the central pacific. The Americans had landed at Wake Island a few months ago, completely over-running the small Navy Defence force there and were obviously making a move towards taking the Mariana Islands before attacking further towards the Home Island, even though it was out of their way. It might be that they wanted to secure their flank, wanted to remind the British that the Philippine Island were theirs or, most likely wanted to eliminate the Japanese Air Fleet there.

Whatever actually would happen in the near future, it would threaten the right flank of the defensive shield around the home islands, and something needed to be done. He realized that even the idiots in the Navy would understand this and do something about it.

Tojo tore himself away from the window and picked up his hat from the stand near his desk. He switched off the light and walked out of his office, leaving behind a slowly smouldering cigarette in an ashtray.

The way to his destination was not very long. He had to speak to the Aide-de-camp to the Emperor, as the man was in spite of his thankless task, hand-picked by Tojo himself, and had requested answers to some of the Tenno's questions. Those were hardly surprising given the wreck of the Soviet Tu-2 that had had the gall of crashing on the grounds of the Imperial Palace some two months ago. Luckily the Tenno hadn't been hurt, but it had called the supposed invincibility of the Japanese Air Defences into question.

Tojo of course knew that they were anything but, yet it wouldn't do to unduly worry his Majesty.



~**---**~



On the other side of the Pacific Theatre Admiral Cunningham had reached similar conclusions, except that he wasn't assuming that his forces would be victorious. But unlike Tojo, he knew that the other branches of the Allied military machine would do as they were told and not hold back vital information for fear of appearing weak. At least they were supposed to.

Which was why he was perfectly willing to entrust his strategic planning group to the command of Army Brigadier who headed up motley tri-service group of men from all the Allied nations present in the theatre. When the previous holder of the post had become the victim of an incompetent lorry driver more than a year ago, Brigadier General Micheal Dunham, late of the Calcutta Light Horse and his unofficial deputy, then freshly integrated Major Harikiran Sahota Sing, had assumed the post. They had joined the group from General Auchinleck's staff, and Cunningham strongly suspected that the somewhat rigid and less 'out of the box' commander of the Indian theatre had just wanted to be rid of the two men.

Dunham's predecessor on the other hand had collected eccentrics and individualists after Cunningham had given him a free hand to build his department. It had worked well so far and the plan 'Dunham's madhouse' had come up with for the post-Borneo operations was certainly up to their usual standards. It was risky, it was incredibly risky and would be disastrous to his career if it failed, but if it didn't.... Cunningham appreciated that Dunham had added a “possible advantages” section to it. Frankly, if it worked it had the potential to at the very least seriously weaken the Imperial Japanese Navy, but at the same time it exposed all of his available Carriers to their Japanese counterparts, which was why he had been thinking about this plan for the last few days.

It was merely one of several potential problems. It also required the postponement of the invasion of Formosa, in itself a very risky and controversial within the Allied leadership plan to beyond this year's rainy season. It was much less of an issue for himself if he was to be honest, as even though it might prolong the war by a few months, it also gave the landing forces much more time before the monsoon stopped everything, as the tropic of cancer ran right through the Island.

He had sounded out London and Canberra, the former via the weekly courier, and both had objected to moving the tentative date for Formosa because it would allow the Japanese to bring in further troops from either the Home Islands or the Kwantung Army and further fortify their positions.

The Admiral had to admit that this was something to be considered, but to any officer of Her Majesty's Royal Navy reared on the legends of Nelson, Trafalgar and Cape St. Vincent as well as Dogger Bank and Jutland the potential of Dunham's newest plan was far too tantalizing to ignore. To say that he wasn't very tempted to do it would be the biggest lie of this war. But he had done too much in his current position to do it right now. To that end he picked up his phone and summoned his Chief of Staff.

“Richard,” he said once General Abercromby had entered the room, “sit yourself down.”

Use of his first name told Abercromby that something serious was up. As he had been given the same documents as the Admiral he had a good idea what it was. Therefore, he said nothing but: “Do it, Sir.”

Between most other officers and their Chiefs of Staff this would have been a shocking breach of propriety and protocol, probably even Queen's regulations, but the two of them had worked together for too long and sweated too much together for them to keep up all the formality when it was just the two of them.

Therefore Cunningham's answer was just an “Are you certain?”

Abercromby nodded. “Yes, Sir. Frankly, I can understand the issues the Dutch are having with it, but for one this is going to start after we've at least neutralized the Japanese on Borneo, and secondly our... Philippine friends will ensure that the Japanese on their Islands won't do anything. Never mind that the Prime Minister and the Australians have vetoed a full-out invasion until further notice.”

“I agree with them. If we do that, we get bogged down in a mess that will take some time and effort to sort out, and we can't really afford to spare either that much.”

“Yes, Sir.” Abercromby replied and frowned. “The French on the other hand.. The Chinese are in no state to invade Indochina from the north, not with the blocking force and their own units they are shipping in already. Why they expect that we'll get into a land-war in China on their behalf I don't really understand.”

Which was a generalization. Abercromby wasn't prone to those things, but he hadn't slept near enough in the last week and that was one of the symptoms. Both men were well aware that most of the problems with the French started at the Algiers city limits. Out in the field most French soldiers were just like the average Tommie with the exception that they spoke French, and they and their officers fought at least as hard as their British counterparts.

“London have voiced their objections, but we should not that they didn't specifically tell you not to do it. I suspect that the plan appeals to the Prime Minister because it offers great reward for great risk, while the CIGS is probably as torn as you are and decided to pass the parcel back to Commander in Chief, Allied Forces Pacific.”

“Which would be me.” Cunningham said with a wry smile. Yet he knew that there was a lot of truth to Abercromby's words, and what's more, the plan didn't require him to commit his precious carriers until very shortly before any chosen X-Day. And if it worked.... if. it. worked.

“Tell Brigadier Dunham and his group of ruffians to give me a detailed, fully worked out plan proposal by the end of next week.”

The post-war narrative of Admiral Cunningham's decision to adopt the plan would tell of a long and lonely vigil in his office with nothing but a cup of tea for company, but in reality Cunningham and his Chief of Staff spent most of it trading war stories.

And with that the Allied naval forces in the Pacific were set on the road that would lead them to the largest naval clash of the war, the Battle of the South-China Sea, and it's outcome would shape Asia for the rest of the war and far beyond.





tbc




Well, I was sitting down to write a piece on TTL's most famous conspiracy theories, and this is what came out instead. Oh well. Up next, things that go woosh and very fast.

SotV More than that, much more. Remember that this IJN was stronger to begin with (not by that much though) and has gone through neither Midway nor the great Mariannas Turkey shoot.

ViperhawkZ Indeed.

stevep Well, that's for me to know and for you to find out. But even if Taiwan isn't, even if the Japanese think that the Allies are going towards Hong Kong, if they make enough noise about this being the bulk of their amphibious forces the Japanese would still almost have to attack.

Some conspiracy theories are, though not necessarily in that order:

#1 George VI was assassinated by the Americans/the Germans/the Soviets/MI5/MI6/Queen Elizabeth/lizard men from Alpha Centauri.

#2 The first moon landing was fake.

#3 The Middle Eastern War was engineered by the Germans.

Pretty much what El Pip said.

What's more, TTL the Japanese have the problem that the enemy is approaching the Home Islands from two directions, unlike RL. They basically have to fight and win two decisive victories at opposite ends of the Pacific theatre (such as it is now) within less than three or four months from each other. As for fuel, they have a bit more than RL at this point in the game, but mostly because they discovered a few of the Manchurian fields by accident and are leeching China of as much as they can as well. It's nowhere near enough, mind and they'll run out soon enough (unless of course Her Majesty's Navy drastically reduces Japanese fuel oil consumption) but they have just enough to pull off the above.