Well, it's just the beginning of end of the beginning of the end or something like that. But the way to Tokio has been inagurated. 
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That are some quite unimpressive results for such large scale raid. Big question now is will RN see this raid as a unimpressive show of british naval aviation (good for FAA), or will they conclude that naval aviation is generaly less effective (bad for FAA)?
Underwhelming yes--what's needed is some catch-up on both the CAG and related naval doctrine areas. Too bad the main Japanese fleet wasn't in port, but then again after the initial surprise it might've been hell on the Swordfish facing all that AA ...
The fact that the RN has mobile, long range striking forces will keep the Japanese on their toes at any rate.
The fact that the RN has mobile, long range striking forces will keep the Japanese on their toes at any rate.
Nice action-packed update.
Now that I think about it, the US doesn't lose any ships in the Pearl Harbor event.
Now that I think about it, the US doesn't lose any ships in the Pearl Harbor event.
The greatest British naval victory since when?
Battle of Jutland does not count...
Battle of Jutland does not count...
Battle of the River Platte? September '39?
And I thought that the British strategy was (in part) to let the USN fight the Combined Fleet while using the RN to clear the approaches to Singapore north to Hainan, lopping off stray IJN units as opportunity arises.
And I thought that the British strategy was (in part) to let the USN fight the Combined Fleet while using the RN to clear the approaches to Singapore north to Hainan, lopping off stray IJN units as opportunity arises.
Chapter 173, Mayfair, London, 20 February 1942
Oront waited in the second car, the first one being set aside for the General and his Chief of Staff. Next to him General Menzies shifted uncomfortably. He wasn’t happy with the sudden nature of the request (no, Oront thought to himself, demand is the better term) and had the look of a startled rabbit in his eyes. That’s why I’m here, Oront realised. He flapped and grabbed the first agent he could find.
“Oh, here he comes now,” his driver murmured grumpily. Oront chuckled; none of the occupants of the staff car was happy.
With a gentle, knowing smile at the chaos that he had created, (acting) Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Morgan strode out of the hotel, his Chief of Staff in tow. Menzies, now visibly panicked, looked away suddenly so Oront inclined his head. Morgan clambered into his car and they were off, racing through London to this quiet, unassuming little meeting at the Admiralty. Oront snorted: a meeting at Admiralty was anything but unassuming, if their previous examples had been anything to go by.
Oront found the Admiralty a peculiar building. From the miniature statue of Nelson guarding the the lobby to the odd way in which the Naval officers seemed to pretend that they were somehow onboard a ship, the whole place had an odd energy that was totally unlike the calm, languid War Office. Oront had been ‘home’ for only a few months; his tour in the British Embassy in Berlin cut short after intensive lobbying by Oront to be allowed to return to London. The Berlin job had been interesting at first, as Oront and the Intelligence Staff had watched and reported on the German preparations for their invasion of Russia, and then had tried their damnedest to fight for Britain’s interests as war overwhelmed Europe. The lack of direction from Britain had made their limited efforts all the more futile, and Oront had consequently requested a position in Whitehall. His difficulty was that he was not what his father’s generation would have referred to as an ‘orientalist’. His SIS experiences had all been European and he only spoke French and German (and Latin, and all three fluently). Oront could therefore be of little use as an ‘our man in’ and was limited to a staff role.
They were led into a particularly ornate room. Oront suspected that it was the Admiralty Board Room but he swiftly realised that it was not. They were shown to their seats, and just as they were settled, comfortable, a knock at the door signalled the arrival of their host and they rose as one to welcome Admiral Max Horton, Commander in Chief Portsmouth Command, a curious host as they were in the heart of London, the fiefdom of the First Sea Lord. Horton nodded genially to his ‘guests’ and sat down. They returned to their seats.
“Gentlemen, I am delighted to welcome you to the Admiralty on this horrid morning. It looks like the song that talks about ‘April Showers’ got it a month early, what? Not good golfing weather!” There was a polite chuckle and Horton ploughed on. “I am particularly grateful that General Morgan has travelled down from Fourth Army in Catterick, and that General Menzies, our man from the spy world, has travelled in from Windsor this morning. I trust His Majesty was in good health?”
“The very best,” Menzies managed, despite his being disconcerted.
“Let’s cut to the meat of the meeting, shall we? I have been asked by the First Sea Lord, as well as the War Cabinet, to discuss with you a plan that we are working on for the capture of a serious Japanese military objective. Gentlemen, if you turn to the papers in front of you, I present to you Operation Longbow.”
They all opened their red folders in front of them. Oront immediately had to surpress a smile as he read of the ambitious Royal Navy plans. As it was a purely Pacific operation he would, in all likelihood, say little at this meeting. He sat back and observed the others. Morgan seemed deep in the papers: his body language suggested monastic dedication to the task ahead of him. Oront had heard that his promotion to a Corps command in Brooke’s Fourth Army had been a key demand of Brooke’s accepting his own command, and Oront could see why. The General looked up, his expression impassive.
“An ambitious plan, Admiral,” he said in a clipped, slightly high pitched voice.
“Yes,” Horton gruffed, “as you can see the Naval element is completed. Getting the Army there is straightforward. But the actual assault stage...”
“General Menzies,” Morgan said, turning to the Chief of the Intelligence Staff, who despite his grand sounding title was actually quite junior, especially when compared to a full Admiral like Horton or a Lieutenant General, even an acting one, like Morgan. “What is your assessment of the defences? And the potential for a Chinese rising in our support?”
Menzies looked stunned, for he clearly had no idea. Oront, who had given his chief every file that the office possessed on the Chinese coast, snatched one of them now and tumbed through the pages. After a cursory examination he pitched in. “If I may, Sir, we actually have very little tangible information on the potential for an indingeous rising.” Oront stopped as he realised that he was starting to sound like a long winded lawyer. “The initial results from the Royal Navy’s raid on the island yesterday highlight a sloppy Japanese defence. We lost a number of aircraft...”
“Eleven Swordfish,” a Naval officer interjected.
“But all report intense anti-aircraft fire, which suggests that they were either slack, caught unawares or both.” Oront, running out of decent things to say, looked down at his papers. “Ah yes, the pilots all report that the port was well-defended, lots of anti-aircraft batteries there.”
“Presumably the ones that shot the Navy boys down,” Morgan’s Chief of Staff muttered, earning him a smile from some of the other Army officers. The Naval Officers, among them at least two men wearing the ‘wings’ of pilots, scowled.
Oront had paused, seemingly a polite gesture but actually demonstrating his irritation with the interruption. Morgan nodded at him. “Pray continue.”
“Sir. In terms of ground troops radio intercepts are scant, but we estimate that there are three infantry divisions, probably organised into a Corps. The attackers yesterday have indicated that they did not meet any Japanese aircraft.”
“So Somerville’s carriers could exercise control of the air,” another Royal Navy officer, this one a Commodore, said with a note of intrigue.
“Commodore Holland,” Horton said with a smile, “is our resident Carrier Queen. He recently commanded HMS Ark Royal and is working here at the Admiralty for the First Lord. What do you think, Hooky?”
“With three carriers he will have adequate air cover for the initial operation,” Holland said, scribbling away on his notes. “But I worry about the Japanese reaction. There are a lot of land-based aircraft not far away from the objective.”
“How would you solve it?” Horton looked with interest at Holland.
“I would say long-range land-based fighters, but we don’t have those so I think we have to bring in Phillips’ squadron. Two extra carriers and some good cruisers should help. And they’ll need all the battleships they can get.”
Horton nodded. “They’ll have them, Cunningham’s ships will provide bombardment support. But what about enemy submarines?” Horton, as an ex-submariner, was keenly aware of the potential of Japanese submarines to wreak havoc on their plan, to land troop on Hainan.
“They’ve yet to make their presence felt, from what I read,” Holland said cautiously. “But every plan carries with it an element of risk, Sir.”
Horton nodded. “So, we’re back to the beginning. We can get the Army there, wherever ‘there’ is. How many men will you need to land on Hainan?”
Morgan, arms folded, looked concerned. “My Corps to go in on the first wave, take and hold the objective and defend against Japanese attack from the mainland.”
Oront now raised his hand to signal that he wanted to interject. “Sir, I note that a secondary objective of the attack, after the primary objective of denying the port facilities to the Japanese Navy, is to help Hong Kong by forcing the Japanese to divert their troops from the siege of Hong Kong to counter the threat to China.”
“Yes, and?”
“Well, Sir, I wonder whether three infantry divisions, presumably mauled after their landings, will be enough to resist a determined counter attack from the Chinese mainland. Looking at the files in front of me the Japanese are expert at sending troops rapidly along the coast. And, after their mauling at Changsha, they are very strong on the coastal areas as they prepare to go inland to deal with the Chinese, and Auchinleck.” Oront realised that he might have overstepped his brief, and sat back to allow the thoughts that he had raised to be discussed.
Horton looked at Morgan, who whistled. “A good point. But if we expand the size of the attack...”
“Then we’re looking at a much larger scale assault than envisaged,” Holland said quickly.
“And we’ll probably need a diversion,” Morgan said, wrestling with the problem. “Spread the word in Singapore that the convoy is another reinforcement effort for Hong Kong, and also some sort of diversionary landing on the mainland, draw their divisions away from Hainan itself. Can you do that?”
Horton nodded. “We’ve got the ships, have you the divisions?”
Morgan looked uncertain. “It’ll have to come from Fourth Army. Which means that General Brooke will have to go out to the Far East after all,” he said calmly. “I presume that the Cabinet want a list of recommendations?”
Horton nodded. “They do. And they were insistent that we get on with it as soon as possible. When is the earliest that Fourth Army could make its assault?”
“When is the earliest you can get us there? Do we have the landing craft?”
Horton shook his head unhappily. “We have some, a few, that we were assembling in the Med in case we had to go after the Italians. They are already proceeding to Singapore. We’re commandeering some small coastal merchantmen to get your divisions ashore. But we are looking at sending you ashore in ship’s boats.”
Morgan whistled again, to the irritation of the Naval officers. “Then, Admiral, we cannot go in to a determined, defended beach. We must attack where this a chance that we can build up our divisions before engaging the Japanese. But the diversionary attack is crucial. We cannot have the Japanese rushing troops in from the mainland whilst our troops our clambering into motor launches.”
“Agreed,” said Horton. “We’re sending a plane over the island to have a look at the results of our air attacks, we can get them to reconnoitre the beaches as well. But when, Morgan, when can you do it?”
“At least three months,” Morgan said defiantly. “General Brooke will need to go out there with his staff, and our divisions are spread throughout England. If we’re going to concentrate everything on an amphibious attack upon Hainan then we’ll need time to get ‘everything’ out there.” Morgan looked around at the table. “General Menzies, you are looking concerned.”
Menzies blanched. “I am merely thinking that I am yet to be convinced on the need to take Hainan at all.”
Well good for you old son, Oront thought cheerfully. You’re finally having independent thoughts. Menzies, having committed himself, now looked around for support. Morgan, far from being irritated to have this question raised so far into the planning of the attack, actually looked at Menzies with interest.
“Why do you say that?”
“Well Sir,” Menzies said, recovering his air of formality. “Maritime matters aside I do not think that four divisions for an island that we do not need is a useful enterprise.”
“Hong Kong,” Holland said quietly, then more confidently when he realised that everyone was now looking at him. “We cannot get our ships to Hong Kong when the enemy can take refuge in Hainan’s port.”
“Could you not bomb ‘em again?” That was Morgan’s Chief of Staff.
“Can’t risk the carrier fleets,” Holland answered, “and besides, we need to return to port to regroup.”
“We are also,” Oront said, deciding that he ought to support his chief, “unsure as to how the Chinese will behave. Years of occupation will have had an effect. We may find that they do not assist us at all.”
“And what about Indochina?” As he said that, Horton looked sharply at Oront. The potential for a swift liberation of Indochina was another ‘secondary objective’ of the attack.
“Well,” Oront began after a pause, Menzies remaining silent. “In my Berlin days the French staff were very loose-lipped about their having their chaps in Indochina trying to stir up rebellion against the Japanese. But the local population seem to hate the French as much as the Japanese.”
“How do you know that?” Oront realised that Horton was not going to let him off the hook.
“Well Admiral, there has been no rebellion. If Paris really was working with a huge underground army to recapture its lost territory firstly we have had heard of it here, and secondly, there has been nothing from Indochina.” Next to him, Menzies nodded, happy that someone else was doing the work.
Horton nodded slowly as he thought about Oront’s opinion. “Thank you, er, for that analysis. But I’m afraid that this directive is from the very top. Eden himself.”
“Lord Hankey?” Holland was curious.
“Is glad to see a major threat to our shipping in and out of Hong Kong removed,” Horton, now increasingly dominant in this meeting, answered. “Do we report to the War Office that in, say, early May, we could pull this off?”
Morgan looked far from happy. “Too soon to tell, I will need to discuss this with General Brooke.”
“Yes, we can do it Sir,” Holland said, sounding like a car mechanic about to offer an expensive estimate on a repair job, “but the amphibious phase will take careful planning.”
“And you intelligence chaps?”
Oront let Menzies respond. After a painful silence he muttered a vague answer about needing to tap into Japanese radio messages and then tailed off.
“Royal Air Force?”
A tubby Wing Commander made the first RAF contribution to the debate. “We cannot provide any aircraft to this venture,” he said quickly.
“But have you any comment on its feasibility?”
“It could work, and the seizure of Hainan would give us a useful place from which to stage operations against the Japanese.”
“Would you therefore,” Morgan said calmly, “want to place fighters on Hainan.”
“Yes Sir,” the Wing Commander said simply.
Morgan, who had taken by far the most detailed notes of the discussion, looked to Horton to end the meeting. Horton, after checking that there were no further comments, seemed to rise in his seat.
“Gentlemen, the capture of Hainan from the Japanese is a major objective of the Government. I look to you to make our role, in the planning stage, a successful one. General Morgan here will be the only member of this team to actually be there when Operation Longbow commences. When you are preparing your briefings, remember that it is his boys who have to wade ashore and take the fight to the enemy. My Flag Lieutenant will send you all the minutes of this meeting shortly. Thank you all,” he rose, indicating that the meeting was over.
[Game Effect] – A committee of officers meets to consider a potential attack upon Hainan. After the limited success of the large aerial attack Fourth Army is given the task of dealing with the troublesome island.
You may be forgiven for thinking I’m obsessed, having spent a chapter telling you about an air attack there. But during the game I noticed that every bloody retreating Jap squadron headed there, making it a thorn in the side of the RN as they try to clear the South China Sea of the IJN and allowing the Japs to sneak out of port and hammer passing convoys to Hong Kong. Actually my convoys to Hong Kong were unharmed, but that is the AI for you! I do think that an IJN as strong as it is in the South China Sea would go for the Hong Kong convoys. So I think that the comment about denying the port to the IJN is key, albeit with a raft of ‘secondary objectives’ that may be possible too.
Oront’s return has been long coming; I have to confess that I shelved several potential spy stories in favour of ploughing on with the drift to war. Here we see him covering for Menzies’ lack of ‘grip’ on his subject. Menzies, like so many other British politicians/officers, is new to the war in the East. He is a competent schemer and Whitehall operator, but here, as we have seen, he is struggling with strategic concepts and has no idea on the Chinese/Indochina rebellions (or lack of rebellions).
Morgan was of course one of the key planners of Overlord. He was a meticulous officer, quick to analyse a problem, and was crucial in solving some of the very real problems in the early stages of planning D-Day. Here, he is given a very different proposition – go to the Far East with Brooke and Fourth Army and seize Hainan, after making a diversionary assault on China. And all within three months...
El Pip: No comment...
Trekaddict: The setup of naval warfare is soul destroying.
Kurt_Steiner: It’s a hell of a long way off!
Carlstadt Boy: A very important question that. There will be a separate FAA update later on, but for now it is obvious that the British are not satisfied with the limited damage done – hence the amphibious assault.
DonnieBaseball: Yes, and these mobile CV groups are a real asset to the British, given the slow progress of the Army.
Nathan Madien: No they don’t. I ‘deleted’ a few ships to replicate the attack in this AAR, but the game handles Pearl Harbour dreadfully IMHO.
Enewald: Well, River Plate probably, seeing as we haven’t had the battles in the Atlantic and Med that we would have done in reality.
Sir Humphrey: Ah yes, that was a good one.
MITSGS John: British strategy is to keep the lanes open to Hong Kong, whilst the Hussar plan is to draw out the IJN and defeat them. So far, so bad, TPs are the only losses!
Oront waited in the second car, the first one being set aside for the General and his Chief of Staff. Next to him General Menzies shifted uncomfortably. He wasn’t happy with the sudden nature of the request (no, Oront thought to himself, demand is the better term) and had the look of a startled rabbit in his eyes. That’s why I’m here, Oront realised. He flapped and grabbed the first agent he could find.
“Oh, here he comes now,” his driver murmured grumpily. Oront chuckled; none of the occupants of the staff car was happy.
With a gentle, knowing smile at the chaos that he had created, (acting) Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Morgan strode out of the hotel, his Chief of Staff in tow. Menzies, now visibly panicked, looked away suddenly so Oront inclined his head. Morgan clambered into his car and they were off, racing through London to this quiet, unassuming little meeting at the Admiralty. Oront snorted: a meeting at Admiralty was anything but unassuming, if their previous examples had been anything to go by.
Oront found the Admiralty a peculiar building. From the miniature statue of Nelson guarding the the lobby to the odd way in which the Naval officers seemed to pretend that they were somehow onboard a ship, the whole place had an odd energy that was totally unlike the calm, languid War Office. Oront had been ‘home’ for only a few months; his tour in the British Embassy in Berlin cut short after intensive lobbying by Oront to be allowed to return to London. The Berlin job had been interesting at first, as Oront and the Intelligence Staff had watched and reported on the German preparations for their invasion of Russia, and then had tried their damnedest to fight for Britain’s interests as war overwhelmed Europe. The lack of direction from Britain had made their limited efforts all the more futile, and Oront had consequently requested a position in Whitehall. His difficulty was that he was not what his father’s generation would have referred to as an ‘orientalist’. His SIS experiences had all been European and he only spoke French and German (and Latin, and all three fluently). Oront could therefore be of little use as an ‘our man in’ and was limited to a staff role.
They were led into a particularly ornate room. Oront suspected that it was the Admiralty Board Room but he swiftly realised that it was not. They were shown to their seats, and just as they were settled, comfortable, a knock at the door signalled the arrival of their host and they rose as one to welcome Admiral Max Horton, Commander in Chief Portsmouth Command, a curious host as they were in the heart of London, the fiefdom of the First Sea Lord. Horton nodded genially to his ‘guests’ and sat down. They returned to their seats.
“Gentlemen, I am delighted to welcome you to the Admiralty on this horrid morning. It looks like the song that talks about ‘April Showers’ got it a month early, what? Not good golfing weather!” There was a polite chuckle and Horton ploughed on. “I am particularly grateful that General Morgan has travelled down from Fourth Army in Catterick, and that General Menzies, our man from the spy world, has travelled in from Windsor this morning. I trust His Majesty was in good health?”
“The very best,” Menzies managed, despite his being disconcerted.
“Let’s cut to the meat of the meeting, shall we? I have been asked by the First Sea Lord, as well as the War Cabinet, to discuss with you a plan that we are working on for the capture of a serious Japanese military objective. Gentlemen, if you turn to the papers in front of you, I present to you Operation Longbow.”
They all opened their red folders in front of them. Oront immediately had to surpress a smile as he read of the ambitious Royal Navy plans. As it was a purely Pacific operation he would, in all likelihood, say little at this meeting. He sat back and observed the others. Morgan seemed deep in the papers: his body language suggested monastic dedication to the task ahead of him. Oront had heard that his promotion to a Corps command in Brooke’s Fourth Army had been a key demand of Brooke’s accepting his own command, and Oront could see why. The General looked up, his expression impassive.
“An ambitious plan, Admiral,” he said in a clipped, slightly high pitched voice.
“Yes,” Horton gruffed, “as you can see the Naval element is completed. Getting the Army there is straightforward. But the actual assault stage...”
“General Menzies,” Morgan said, turning to the Chief of the Intelligence Staff, who despite his grand sounding title was actually quite junior, especially when compared to a full Admiral like Horton or a Lieutenant General, even an acting one, like Morgan. “What is your assessment of the defences? And the potential for a Chinese rising in our support?”
Menzies looked stunned, for he clearly had no idea. Oront, who had given his chief every file that the office possessed on the Chinese coast, snatched one of them now and tumbed through the pages. After a cursory examination he pitched in. “If I may, Sir, we actually have very little tangible information on the potential for an indingeous rising.” Oront stopped as he realised that he was starting to sound like a long winded lawyer. “The initial results from the Royal Navy’s raid on the island yesterday highlight a sloppy Japanese defence. We lost a number of aircraft...”
“Eleven Swordfish,” a Naval officer interjected.
“But all report intense anti-aircraft fire, which suggests that they were either slack, caught unawares or both.” Oront, running out of decent things to say, looked down at his papers. “Ah yes, the pilots all report that the port was well-defended, lots of anti-aircraft batteries there.”
“Presumably the ones that shot the Navy boys down,” Morgan’s Chief of Staff muttered, earning him a smile from some of the other Army officers. The Naval Officers, among them at least two men wearing the ‘wings’ of pilots, scowled.
Oront had paused, seemingly a polite gesture but actually demonstrating his irritation with the interruption. Morgan nodded at him. “Pray continue.”
“Sir. In terms of ground troops radio intercepts are scant, but we estimate that there are three infantry divisions, probably organised into a Corps. The attackers yesterday have indicated that they did not meet any Japanese aircraft.”
“So Somerville’s carriers could exercise control of the air,” another Royal Navy officer, this one a Commodore, said with a note of intrigue.
“Commodore Holland,” Horton said with a smile, “is our resident Carrier Queen. He recently commanded HMS Ark Royal and is working here at the Admiralty for the First Lord. What do you think, Hooky?”
“With three carriers he will have adequate air cover for the initial operation,” Holland said, scribbling away on his notes. “But I worry about the Japanese reaction. There are a lot of land-based aircraft not far away from the objective.”
“How would you solve it?” Horton looked with interest at Holland.
“I would say long-range land-based fighters, but we don’t have those so I think we have to bring in Phillips’ squadron. Two extra carriers and some good cruisers should help. And they’ll need all the battleships they can get.”
Horton nodded. “They’ll have them, Cunningham’s ships will provide bombardment support. But what about enemy submarines?” Horton, as an ex-submariner, was keenly aware of the potential of Japanese submarines to wreak havoc on their plan, to land troop on Hainan.
“They’ve yet to make their presence felt, from what I read,” Holland said cautiously. “But every plan carries with it an element of risk, Sir.”
Horton nodded. “So, we’re back to the beginning. We can get the Army there, wherever ‘there’ is. How many men will you need to land on Hainan?”
Morgan, arms folded, looked concerned. “My Corps to go in on the first wave, take and hold the objective and defend against Japanese attack from the mainland.”
Oront now raised his hand to signal that he wanted to interject. “Sir, I note that a secondary objective of the attack, after the primary objective of denying the port facilities to the Japanese Navy, is to help Hong Kong by forcing the Japanese to divert their troops from the siege of Hong Kong to counter the threat to China.”
“Yes, and?”
“Well, Sir, I wonder whether three infantry divisions, presumably mauled after their landings, will be enough to resist a determined counter attack from the Chinese mainland. Looking at the files in front of me the Japanese are expert at sending troops rapidly along the coast. And, after their mauling at Changsha, they are very strong on the coastal areas as they prepare to go inland to deal with the Chinese, and Auchinleck.” Oront realised that he might have overstepped his brief, and sat back to allow the thoughts that he had raised to be discussed.
Horton looked at Morgan, who whistled. “A good point. But if we expand the size of the attack...”
“Then we’re looking at a much larger scale assault than envisaged,” Holland said quickly.
“And we’ll probably need a diversion,” Morgan said, wrestling with the problem. “Spread the word in Singapore that the convoy is another reinforcement effort for Hong Kong, and also some sort of diversionary landing on the mainland, draw their divisions away from Hainan itself. Can you do that?”
Horton nodded. “We’ve got the ships, have you the divisions?”
Morgan looked uncertain. “It’ll have to come from Fourth Army. Which means that General Brooke will have to go out to the Far East after all,” he said calmly. “I presume that the Cabinet want a list of recommendations?”
Horton nodded. “They do. And they were insistent that we get on with it as soon as possible. When is the earliest that Fourth Army could make its assault?”
“When is the earliest you can get us there? Do we have the landing craft?”
Horton shook his head unhappily. “We have some, a few, that we were assembling in the Med in case we had to go after the Italians. They are already proceeding to Singapore. We’re commandeering some small coastal merchantmen to get your divisions ashore. But we are looking at sending you ashore in ship’s boats.”
Morgan whistled again, to the irritation of the Naval officers. “Then, Admiral, we cannot go in to a determined, defended beach. We must attack where this a chance that we can build up our divisions before engaging the Japanese. But the diversionary attack is crucial. We cannot have the Japanese rushing troops in from the mainland whilst our troops our clambering into motor launches.”
“Agreed,” said Horton. “We’re sending a plane over the island to have a look at the results of our air attacks, we can get them to reconnoitre the beaches as well. But when, Morgan, when can you do it?”
“At least three months,” Morgan said defiantly. “General Brooke will need to go out there with his staff, and our divisions are spread throughout England. If we’re going to concentrate everything on an amphibious attack upon Hainan then we’ll need time to get ‘everything’ out there.” Morgan looked around at the table. “General Menzies, you are looking concerned.”
Menzies blanched. “I am merely thinking that I am yet to be convinced on the need to take Hainan at all.”
Well good for you old son, Oront thought cheerfully. You’re finally having independent thoughts. Menzies, having committed himself, now looked around for support. Morgan, far from being irritated to have this question raised so far into the planning of the attack, actually looked at Menzies with interest.
“Why do you say that?”
“Well Sir,” Menzies said, recovering his air of formality. “Maritime matters aside I do not think that four divisions for an island that we do not need is a useful enterprise.”
“Hong Kong,” Holland said quietly, then more confidently when he realised that everyone was now looking at him. “We cannot get our ships to Hong Kong when the enemy can take refuge in Hainan’s port.”
“Could you not bomb ‘em again?” That was Morgan’s Chief of Staff.
“Can’t risk the carrier fleets,” Holland answered, “and besides, we need to return to port to regroup.”
“We are also,” Oront said, deciding that he ought to support his chief, “unsure as to how the Chinese will behave. Years of occupation will have had an effect. We may find that they do not assist us at all.”
“And what about Indochina?” As he said that, Horton looked sharply at Oront. The potential for a swift liberation of Indochina was another ‘secondary objective’ of the attack.
“Well,” Oront began after a pause, Menzies remaining silent. “In my Berlin days the French staff were very loose-lipped about their having their chaps in Indochina trying to stir up rebellion against the Japanese. But the local population seem to hate the French as much as the Japanese.”
“How do you know that?” Oront realised that Horton was not going to let him off the hook.
“Well Admiral, there has been no rebellion. If Paris really was working with a huge underground army to recapture its lost territory firstly we have had heard of it here, and secondly, there has been nothing from Indochina.” Next to him, Menzies nodded, happy that someone else was doing the work.
Horton nodded slowly as he thought about Oront’s opinion. “Thank you, er, for that analysis. But I’m afraid that this directive is from the very top. Eden himself.”
“Lord Hankey?” Holland was curious.
“Is glad to see a major threat to our shipping in and out of Hong Kong removed,” Horton, now increasingly dominant in this meeting, answered. “Do we report to the War Office that in, say, early May, we could pull this off?”
Morgan looked far from happy. “Too soon to tell, I will need to discuss this with General Brooke.”
“Yes, we can do it Sir,” Holland said, sounding like a car mechanic about to offer an expensive estimate on a repair job, “but the amphibious phase will take careful planning.”
“And you intelligence chaps?”
Oront let Menzies respond. After a painful silence he muttered a vague answer about needing to tap into Japanese radio messages and then tailed off.
“Royal Air Force?”
A tubby Wing Commander made the first RAF contribution to the debate. “We cannot provide any aircraft to this venture,” he said quickly.
“But have you any comment on its feasibility?”
“It could work, and the seizure of Hainan would give us a useful place from which to stage operations against the Japanese.”
“Would you therefore,” Morgan said calmly, “want to place fighters on Hainan.”
“Yes Sir,” the Wing Commander said simply.
Morgan, who had taken by far the most detailed notes of the discussion, looked to Horton to end the meeting. Horton, after checking that there were no further comments, seemed to rise in his seat.
“Gentlemen, the capture of Hainan from the Japanese is a major objective of the Government. I look to you to make our role, in the planning stage, a successful one. General Morgan here will be the only member of this team to actually be there when Operation Longbow commences. When you are preparing your briefings, remember that it is his boys who have to wade ashore and take the fight to the enemy. My Flag Lieutenant will send you all the minutes of this meeting shortly. Thank you all,” he rose, indicating that the meeting was over.
[Game Effect] – A committee of officers meets to consider a potential attack upon Hainan. After the limited success of the large aerial attack Fourth Army is given the task of dealing with the troublesome island.
You may be forgiven for thinking I’m obsessed, having spent a chapter telling you about an air attack there. But during the game I noticed that every bloody retreating Jap squadron headed there, making it a thorn in the side of the RN as they try to clear the South China Sea of the IJN and allowing the Japs to sneak out of port and hammer passing convoys to Hong Kong. Actually my convoys to Hong Kong were unharmed, but that is the AI for you! I do think that an IJN as strong as it is in the South China Sea would go for the Hong Kong convoys. So I think that the comment about denying the port to the IJN is key, albeit with a raft of ‘secondary objectives’ that may be possible too.
Oront’s return has been long coming; I have to confess that I shelved several potential spy stories in favour of ploughing on with the drift to war. Here we see him covering for Menzies’ lack of ‘grip’ on his subject. Menzies, like so many other British politicians/officers, is new to the war in the East. He is a competent schemer and Whitehall operator, but here, as we have seen, he is struggling with strategic concepts and has no idea on the Chinese/Indochina rebellions (or lack of rebellions).
Morgan was of course one of the key planners of Overlord. He was a meticulous officer, quick to analyse a problem, and was crucial in solving some of the very real problems in the early stages of planning D-Day. Here, he is given a very different proposition – go to the Far East with Brooke and Fourth Army and seize Hainan, after making a diversionary assault on China. And all within three months...
El Pip: No comment...
Trekaddict: The setup of naval warfare is soul destroying.
Kurt_Steiner: It’s a hell of a long way off!
Carlstadt Boy: A very important question that. There will be a separate FAA update later on, but for now it is obvious that the British are not satisfied with the limited damage done – hence the amphibious assault.
DonnieBaseball: Yes, and these mobile CV groups are a real asset to the British, given the slow progress of the Army.
Nathan Madien: No they don’t. I ‘deleted’ a few ships to replicate the attack in this AAR, but the game handles Pearl Harbour dreadfully IMHO.
Enewald: Well, River Plate probably, seeing as we haven’t had the battles in the Atlantic and Med that we would have done in reality.
Sir Humphrey: Ah yes, that was a good one.
MITSGS John: British strategy is to keep the lanes open to Hong Kong, whilst the Hussar plan is to draw out the IJN and defeat them. So far, so bad, TPs are the only losses!
Well that was something of a dog's dinner of a meeting, you could almost taste the awkwardness as Menzies floundered. An ambitious plan but one that I fear has not been that well thought through, quite aside from the rush and lack of landing craft what happens after the landing (assuming it is successful). Is this a prelude to invading China, is the aim to just hold it until the Armies from Burma can link up? What is the plan?
I fear Eden is showing the same strategic vision he deployed so successfully at Suez.
I fear Eden is showing the same strategic vision he deployed so successfully at Suez.
Is this a case of Eden playing the OTL Churchill role of bullying his service chiefs into an operation? I can see the logic, but ... Hopefully Brooke, Morgan et al. can inject some realism into the material requirements & timing.
Too bad the RAF is unterstrength/not so interested in the FE--best way to neautralize Hainan would be for heavies from Burma and Malaya to bomb it regularly a la Brest in OTL.
Too bad the RAF is unterstrength/not so interested in the FE--best way to neautralize Hainan would be for heavies from Burma and Malaya to bomb it regularly a la Brest in OTL.
No, because it would begin to look like a raid in the Channel that went awry in OTL...
Hmmm, it would be fun/interesting to see the brits invade Indochina only to find a communist guerilla movement there... Now THAT would give the brits a headache I'm sure :rofl:
I know that we're talking about trying to outgeneral the AI, a feat well within the capacity of a normally intelligent set of office furniture.
But if I were a corps commander tasked to attack a defended beach, without an overwhelming advantage in numbers, or guaranteed control of the air, or proper landing craft, I'd be inclined to turn to my operations officer and say "Why don't we just shoot each other here and now and save ourselves the swim?"
But if I were a corps commander tasked to attack a defended beach, without an overwhelming advantage in numbers, or guaranteed control of the air, or proper landing craft, I'd be inclined to turn to my operations officer and say "Why don't we just shoot each other here and now and save ourselves the swim?"
Chapter 174, Near Menghai, China, 22 February 1942
The cautiously advancing British troops cleared the hills and, sticking firmly to the road, descended down the valley, resting when they reached a narrow pass. Immediately digging in, as they had habitually done at several points along the route of advance, this leading brigade set up their defensive positions and sent word back to Corps HQ. Their message was simple: the first objective, securing the important road junction to Jinghong, had been achieved with no sign of the Japanese.
As his staff officers plotted the advancing army on the map, General Auchinleck once again attempted to open the can of tinned beef. His increasingly irritated efforts merely left an untidy dent in its corner. Frustrated, he casually threw it away and gratefully accepted a mug of ‘gunfire’, the very strong, very sweet tea that some Scottish troops had made for him. Bored, he looked at his watch. Two minutes, he thought, and we’ll be off. He tried to look casually confident as Lieutenant Generals Percival and O’Connor arrived. O’Connor looked every inch the confident Corps CO as, all around him, his men prepared to reinforce their comrades’ initial success. Keen, and eager, he smiled as he watched the division line up for the main assault. Percival, officially Gort’s ‘liaison’ to Auchinleck’s HQ, looked ridiculous. It was a cool morning and Percival, a small man, had been forced to borrow a jumper from General Giffard, who was clearly not a small man. That and his gloomy expression made Auchinleck shake his head at this poor example of a British General. He hadn’t wanted Percival, whom he barely knew, and preferred instead to appoint his own man as ‘Chief Sneak’ to the War Office.
“Time,” O’Connor said in his sharp, slightly high-pitched voice. As in magical obedience to IV Corps’ GOC a sudden deep boom sounded the start of the artillery bombardment upon the Japanese defensive lines a few miles ahead of them. O’Connor had ordered a sudden bombardment of these positions, his troops coming up close behind.
Auchinleck looked at his wristwatch. “A good start,” he muttered to nobody in particular. He couldn’t shake off a deep suspicion that, despite the intelligence reports that he faced only one division, he was advancing into a trap. He had therefore insisted upon a broad advance, following the success of the earlier invasion by Lieutenant General Slim’s Indian Army Corps further North. He looked at O’Connor. “Any further gossip on the enemy?”
“One of the scouting companies has reported that they are being led by a General Ito,” O’Connor said quickly, beating Percival to it. “He’s one the key Jap officers in China.”
“And leading only one division,” Auchinleck said gloomily. Something was amiss.
Percival grabbed his binoculars. The HQ was perched on a hillside by a winding mountain road and offered a great view of the unfolding skirmish. O’Connor’s IV Corps were advancing along a wide front, encircling a solitary Japanese division that defended the rolling hillocks at the other side of the valley. In the distance small plumes of grey and black smoke rose from the jungle and the ‘rat-a-tat’ rattle of small-arms fire rumbled down the valley.
“Here we go,” Auchinleck mumbled.
As the Japanese came out of their strongpoints in the jungle to return fire the Royal Artillery increased their bombardment. A small staff car pulled up. O’Connor went to get in before he turned to Auchinleck.
“Sir, if you want to ride up to the front I’d be delighted to welcome you.”
Auchinleck smiled. “Not yet, not until Giffard starts his advance. But you go, you ought to be with your Corps Headquarters as it advances.”
The Indians of I Indian Corps were creeping forward now. Three strong divisions under the redoubtable Lieutenant General Giffard were to filter, over a five mile front, through the dense trees and flush out any opposition lurking there. Again, Auchinleck was playing a cautious game; a tentative advance by O’Connor’s men pinning down the Japanese until Giffard’s troops completed their sweep up the left flank and threatened the Japanese troops’ lines of communication. And all of this supported by a redoubtably dug-in reserve of two strong British divisions. Directly ahead, a few miles to the East, Auchinleck thought that he could see RAF bombers and transports flying into China to aid the Chinese.
Auchinleck turned to Percival. “Have any of the local Chinese been of use?” It was an important question. Back in London General Wavell was constantly pressuring Auchinleck to determine what use the supposedly rebellious Chinese could be to the advancing Commonwealth forces. But so far, in these seemingly tranquil mountains, the Chinese merely seemed stunned, subdued by years of warfare. They’re also waiting to see how we do, Auchinleck realised. They will have to live with whomever prevails, and so will not make a decision until one side appears to be winning.
Percival offered Auchinleck a feeble grin. “We’re not entirely sure, Sir. Giffard swears blind that his Indians have formed useful contacts amongst the Chinese resistance, but at a strategic level it’s all rather confusing.”
“A ha,” Auchinleck said absent-mindedly as a staff officer brought a message. “What news?”
“General Giffard’s compliments, Sir, and the main body of the enemy is withdrawing.”
“Thank you,” he turned to Percival. “Could you find out how O’Connor is doing?”
Percival beamed his goofy smile at Auchinleck and wandered over to give instructions to a young captain of the staff. Whilst they laboured to find out the latest on O’Connor’s advance Auchinleck still felt that today’s success was too easy.
“Sir,” Percival said quietly, “latest from IV Corps. Light resistance to the advance, brushed aside. Several hundred prisoners taken.”
“Good,” Auchinleck muttered. He pointed at a map. “Take a note to O’Connor, tell him advance to this line here,” he drew a thin pencil line on his map. “General Giffard will be sweeping past and I don’t want IV Corps getting mixed up with I Indian.” Another officer departed with the order. “Air Force?”
“Sir, The Wing Commander has gone back to Mandalay.”
Auchinleck frowned. “And he didn’t leave an understudy?”
The Captain, who was growing increasingly used to delivering bad news, gave a slight shake of the head. “There’s a Flight Lieutenant kicking around...”
Auchinleck looked bewildered. “Get someone over to Slessor’s HQ. Give him the latest coordinates of the Jap lines of communication. I advise, no, request him to spare some of the bombers to harry them.”
Percival frowned. “Is that necessary? We have them beaten.”
Auchinleck wondered how much of Percival’s sudden confidence was bluster. “We’ve opened the door, Sir Arthur, that’s all. We can get into China now, that I’ll grant you, but we must follow up our success.”
[Game Effect] – Well, finally, the Army gets going.
I am always split over Auchinleck. On the one hand he was a very capable strategist and tactician, who made some sensible decisions during his tenure in the Middle East. He has suffered, quite unfairly, by Montgomery’s scathing criticisms of the “mess” he inherited, but I am afraid that some of the mud sticks. He was an atrocious judge of subordinates, and is lucky that Giffard, O’Connor and Slim are amongst this Corps Cos. The lack of an RAF liaison to follow up the successes is regrettable; admittedly when playing the battle I had the RAF rather weakened after some logistical strikes and so they really needed a couple of days at Mandalay rebuiling and so I couldn’t spare the aircraft. Operations are not yet ‘combined’ and this will take time, probably after some shocks.
Problems aside, the Army has taken the border defenders by surprise and with Heath and Slim’s forces in the North doing well, Auchinleck has, by cautious tactics (actually I used a General Alexander battleplan) enjoyed success.
El Pip: The ‘plan’, as you’ve so rightfully seen, doesn’t really add up to much beyond ‘deny Hainan to the IJN’. Morgan has a lot of planning to do!
Kurt_Steiner: Well, technically the Canadians aren’t yet under British command so it’s more likely to be a Sir Humphrey-led Aussie Division!
Nathan Madien: Wait and see.
Trekaddict: They’re still reeling from the knowledge that Percival is serving on Auchinleck’s staff!:rofl:
DonnieBaseball: The RAF is just not up to it – hence carrierborne and now amphibious assaults.
Kurt_Steiner: Thank God Mountbatten isn’t involved!
Arilou: Poor Halifax – imagine the response!
Enewald: Sadly you’re not in the Admiralty: a few thousand lives would have been spared!
MITSGS John: It’s looking awful, that’s for sure.
The cautiously advancing British troops cleared the hills and, sticking firmly to the road, descended down the valley, resting when they reached a narrow pass. Immediately digging in, as they had habitually done at several points along the route of advance, this leading brigade set up their defensive positions and sent word back to Corps HQ. Their message was simple: the first objective, securing the important road junction to Jinghong, had been achieved with no sign of the Japanese.
As his staff officers plotted the advancing army on the map, General Auchinleck once again attempted to open the can of tinned beef. His increasingly irritated efforts merely left an untidy dent in its corner. Frustrated, he casually threw it away and gratefully accepted a mug of ‘gunfire’, the very strong, very sweet tea that some Scottish troops had made for him. Bored, he looked at his watch. Two minutes, he thought, and we’ll be off. He tried to look casually confident as Lieutenant Generals Percival and O’Connor arrived. O’Connor looked every inch the confident Corps CO as, all around him, his men prepared to reinforce their comrades’ initial success. Keen, and eager, he smiled as he watched the division line up for the main assault. Percival, officially Gort’s ‘liaison’ to Auchinleck’s HQ, looked ridiculous. It was a cool morning and Percival, a small man, had been forced to borrow a jumper from General Giffard, who was clearly not a small man. That and his gloomy expression made Auchinleck shake his head at this poor example of a British General. He hadn’t wanted Percival, whom he barely knew, and preferred instead to appoint his own man as ‘Chief Sneak’ to the War Office.
“Time,” O’Connor said in his sharp, slightly high-pitched voice. As in magical obedience to IV Corps’ GOC a sudden deep boom sounded the start of the artillery bombardment upon the Japanese defensive lines a few miles ahead of them. O’Connor had ordered a sudden bombardment of these positions, his troops coming up close behind.
Auchinleck looked at his wristwatch. “A good start,” he muttered to nobody in particular. He couldn’t shake off a deep suspicion that, despite the intelligence reports that he faced only one division, he was advancing into a trap. He had therefore insisted upon a broad advance, following the success of the earlier invasion by Lieutenant General Slim’s Indian Army Corps further North. He looked at O’Connor. “Any further gossip on the enemy?”
“One of the scouting companies has reported that they are being led by a General Ito,” O’Connor said quickly, beating Percival to it. “He’s one the key Jap officers in China.”
“And leading only one division,” Auchinleck said gloomily. Something was amiss.
Percival grabbed his binoculars. The HQ was perched on a hillside by a winding mountain road and offered a great view of the unfolding skirmish. O’Connor’s IV Corps were advancing along a wide front, encircling a solitary Japanese division that defended the rolling hillocks at the other side of the valley. In the distance small plumes of grey and black smoke rose from the jungle and the ‘rat-a-tat’ rattle of small-arms fire rumbled down the valley.
“Here we go,” Auchinleck mumbled.
As the Japanese came out of their strongpoints in the jungle to return fire the Royal Artillery increased their bombardment. A small staff car pulled up. O’Connor went to get in before he turned to Auchinleck.
“Sir, if you want to ride up to the front I’d be delighted to welcome you.”
Auchinleck smiled. “Not yet, not until Giffard starts his advance. But you go, you ought to be with your Corps Headquarters as it advances.”
The Indians of I Indian Corps were creeping forward now. Three strong divisions under the redoubtable Lieutenant General Giffard were to filter, over a five mile front, through the dense trees and flush out any opposition lurking there. Again, Auchinleck was playing a cautious game; a tentative advance by O’Connor’s men pinning down the Japanese until Giffard’s troops completed their sweep up the left flank and threatened the Japanese troops’ lines of communication. And all of this supported by a redoubtably dug-in reserve of two strong British divisions. Directly ahead, a few miles to the East, Auchinleck thought that he could see RAF bombers and transports flying into China to aid the Chinese.
Auchinleck turned to Percival. “Have any of the local Chinese been of use?” It was an important question. Back in London General Wavell was constantly pressuring Auchinleck to determine what use the supposedly rebellious Chinese could be to the advancing Commonwealth forces. But so far, in these seemingly tranquil mountains, the Chinese merely seemed stunned, subdued by years of warfare. They’re also waiting to see how we do, Auchinleck realised. They will have to live with whomever prevails, and so will not make a decision until one side appears to be winning.
Percival offered Auchinleck a feeble grin. “We’re not entirely sure, Sir. Giffard swears blind that his Indians have formed useful contacts amongst the Chinese resistance, but at a strategic level it’s all rather confusing.”
“A ha,” Auchinleck said absent-mindedly as a staff officer brought a message. “What news?”
“General Giffard’s compliments, Sir, and the main body of the enemy is withdrawing.”
“Thank you,” he turned to Percival. “Could you find out how O’Connor is doing?”
Percival beamed his goofy smile at Auchinleck and wandered over to give instructions to a young captain of the staff. Whilst they laboured to find out the latest on O’Connor’s advance Auchinleck still felt that today’s success was too easy.
“Sir,” Percival said quietly, “latest from IV Corps. Light resistance to the advance, brushed aside. Several hundred prisoners taken.”
“Good,” Auchinleck muttered. He pointed at a map. “Take a note to O’Connor, tell him advance to this line here,” he drew a thin pencil line on his map. “General Giffard will be sweeping past and I don’t want IV Corps getting mixed up with I Indian.” Another officer departed with the order. “Air Force?”
“Sir, The Wing Commander has gone back to Mandalay.”
Auchinleck frowned. “And he didn’t leave an understudy?”
The Captain, who was growing increasingly used to delivering bad news, gave a slight shake of the head. “There’s a Flight Lieutenant kicking around...”
Auchinleck looked bewildered. “Get someone over to Slessor’s HQ. Give him the latest coordinates of the Jap lines of communication. I advise, no, request him to spare some of the bombers to harry them.”
Percival frowned. “Is that necessary? We have them beaten.”
Auchinleck wondered how much of Percival’s sudden confidence was bluster. “We’ve opened the door, Sir Arthur, that’s all. We can get into China now, that I’ll grant you, but we must follow up our success.”
[Game Effect] – Well, finally, the Army gets going.
I am always split over Auchinleck. On the one hand he was a very capable strategist and tactician, who made some sensible decisions during his tenure in the Middle East. He has suffered, quite unfairly, by Montgomery’s scathing criticisms of the “mess” he inherited, but I am afraid that some of the mud sticks. He was an atrocious judge of subordinates, and is lucky that Giffard, O’Connor and Slim are amongst this Corps Cos. The lack of an RAF liaison to follow up the successes is regrettable; admittedly when playing the battle I had the RAF rather weakened after some logistical strikes and so they really needed a couple of days at Mandalay rebuiling and so I couldn’t spare the aircraft. Operations are not yet ‘combined’ and this will take time, probably after some shocks.
Problems aside, the Army has taken the border defenders by surprise and with Heath and Slim’s forces in the North doing well, Auchinleck has, by cautious tactics (actually I used a General Alexander battleplan) enjoyed success.
El Pip: The ‘plan’, as you’ve so rightfully seen, doesn’t really add up to much beyond ‘deny Hainan to the IJN’. Morgan has a lot of planning to do!
Kurt_Steiner: Well, technically the Canadians aren’t yet under British command so it’s more likely to be a Sir Humphrey-led Aussie Division!
Nathan Madien: Wait and see.
Trekaddict: They’re still reeling from the knowledge that Percival is serving on Auchinleck’s staff!:rofl:
DonnieBaseball: The RAF is just not up to it – hence carrierborne and now amphibious assaults.
Kurt_Steiner: Thank God Mountbatten isn’t involved!
Arilou: Poor Halifax – imagine the response!
Enewald: Sadly you’re not in the Admiralty: a few thousand lives would have been spared!
MITSGS John: It’s looking awful, that’s for sure.
Several hundred Japanese prisoners--surprising and impressive. Given the terrain, slow and cautious is about the only way to advance--good show so far!
You cannot just march to China through the mountains of Yunnan!
There are no roads!
There are no roads!