Part 64
The move East
December 1944
1. British Naval prestige. HMS Formidable at Colombo.
With the fifth year of the war drawing to its end and the fighting in Europe over, Britain looked back over what the conflict had cost her. Over 450,000 of her own and the Empires sons now lay dead, and hundreds of thousands more had been wounded. The economy, although propped up by war production, was still heavily reliant on US credits, while the cost of protecting an Empire which stretched around the globe was astronomical. The war in Europe itself had devastated large parts of Italy, France and Belgium, and Britain now had to maintain a large army on the continent to ensure peace. In the Middle East, although Britain had won a resounding victory over Italy, the first cries for independence were already being heard, and the inevitable truth was that she could not hold onto these lands indefinitely without further huge expenditure in both men and money. Already, before the war was even over, many could now see the writing on the wall for the Empire.
Nevertheless, the war was now entering a new, and hopefully, final stage. The whole point of a settlement with Germany, once Hitler had been taken out of the equation, was the defeat of Japan. For Japan had managed so far to expand her own Empire almost unimpeded by the Allies. The US had not managed to build up strength sufficiently fast enough to press a decisive offensive against Japan, and Britain, engaged with both Italy and Germany, had been unable to spare the forces to do anything but nip at her flanks. Now that was going to change.
However, the scale of the redeployment task facing the British armed services now became apparent. It was obvious that the mobile and mechanised Army that had been needed to take on Germany in Europe was not going to be suitable for war in South East Asia. Therefore, before any redeployment could even begin, the Army had to be completely reorganised. During December this task began, with many of the existing formations being broken up and reformed according to their new task. 2nd 8th and 9th Armies would now become almost exclusively mobile, while 5th and 11th Armies, which would form the new offensive element in Asia, were reconstructed with Britain’s traditional Infantry, Marine and Mountain Divisions. And because the Army was scattered from Belgium and Holland to the Caucasus, this task alone was a logistic mammoth. Collectively, many units involved had already clocked up thousands of miles before they even left Europe, while the Royal Navy’s transport assets were stretched to the absolute limit to meet the timescale. GHQ had laid down that the reorganisation was to be complete before the end of December, in order that redeployment could begin in January of 1945. This led on to operations beginning against Japan in Mid March at the earliest. It would take that long to move nearly 300,000 men, 4000 aircraft, 800 ships and support vessels halfway around the world, put the supplies to sustain them in place and draw up the plans to take on the Japanese. It was no easy task.
At the top, 2nd Army Group was now reorganised. Major General Festing was promoted Lt General and took over at I Corps, while its former leader, Alanbrooke, took over the reins at 14th Army. Slim became Field Marshall, reflecting his outstanding organisation skills, and was put in charge of the whole show at 2nd Army Group. By the time 5th and 11th Armies were redeployed, he would have almost 750,000 men under his command.
Both the Royal Navy and the RAF now faced similar difficulties. The South East Asia theatre was enormous, yet the infrastructure there was very poor, and more importantly, the air and naval bases now required to support operations on the ground were insufficient for the size of forces about to be poured in. The supply situation alone would be a war in itself, and that precluded the kind of large scale invasions that had been used in Europe, or the immediate “force to hand” style of air and naval support practised in the West. Both the Navy and the RAF would have to be used in a rotational method in order for the supplies to keep up with operational demands. There was simply not enough room or enough capacity for the whole military machine to be in operation simultaneously.
During this period nevertheless, the Navy were not inactive. For in reality, the first battle that had to be won was the one at sea, to turn Britain’s advantage into a clear superiority. Throughout 1944 an operation had remained on the agenda to take Dutch Java, yet every time the forces were made available for this operation, a crises elsewhere had popped up to force its cancellation. Yet now this operation would be at the top of the priority list. A joint strategy between Britain and the US still had the final details to be worked out, but securing the air and naval bases of Singapore had to be achieved before anything else could be done.
With this in mind, Pound had set in motion a series of operations designed to keep pressure on and weaken the Japanese in the area of Singapore, prior to major land operations beginning in 1945. The first of these operations was set in train on the 1st December, but for the first few weeks, the IJN remained elusive as usual. Then, on 13th December, the Navy got hold of intelligence from the Dutch that an IJN task force was at sea, steaming north away from Singapore. The RN had strong forces in the area, including both 5th and 6th Carrier Groups and the 2nd Battle Group.
With surprise on his side, it was Vian who made contact first, devastating Yamaguchi’s force with his first strike in Lho Balohan, sinking no less than 2 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and a destroyer covering group. With his escape to the south cut off by Cunningham’s 2nd Battle Group, Yamaguchi tried to escape to the north with his remaining vessels, only to run directly into Sommerville’s 5th Carrier Group, and in this second engagement, all the remaining Japanese ships were sunk, including another escort carrier, and the brave admiral himself who went down with his ship.
It was another crushing victory and a great start to the operation. But the British had not had it all their own way. As the RN withdrew, land based Japanese Naval bombers hit the 2nd Battle Group which had strayed a little too far south, slightly damaging the battleship HMS Howe, sinking the 21st Destroyer flotilla and badly damaging the 19th. It proved the point that Naval superiority alone was not going to be enough. The British had to gain air superiority over Singapore aswell. This was easier said than done, since British possession of the city hung by a thread.
In Burma, all remained quiet as Christmas approached. The Japanese and their allies still sat facing British positions on the opposite side of the Salween River. They had large numbers of troops in place, but the majority of these were poor quality Siamese and Chinese soldiers. Additionally, the terrain over which they had to supply these forces was extremely difficult, and consequently, a stalemate had now set in. The Japanese could not take the offensive through lack of supplies, and the British were not yet strong enough to do so. Meanwhile, Singapore and its air and naval bases was still only held by a single division of low grade irregulars and a single Infantry brigade. And while the Japanese controlled the Tanjung channel and the air above it, getting troops ashore on either side was going to be no easy task.
2. Jungle patrol in I Corps area, Southern Burma
Finally, on Christmas day 1944, the 3rd Transport Group left Behbehan on the Persian Gulf with the advance elements of the 5th Army, the much travelled X Corps, and the Army HQ itself, 45,000 men in total. These would be followed over the next few weeks by V Corps, XXIII and XLI Corps. All told, 5th Army would then muster over 200,000 men alone.
In Europe, the border regions between France, Belgium, Holland and Germany had settled down to peace. Until France could recover her strength, the British 2nd and 9th Armies would remain stationed along the borders. In Italy, the 8th Army had now begun to dig in along the border with the Italian Socialist Republic, just north of Rome. And even though these Armies were no longer fighting, significant reinforcements had continued to arrive in the form of additional brigades to bring every British Division up to a strength of 4 brigades. This program would be virtually finished by the end of January, meaning that the European Army was very much stronger now than it had been a year ago. It had to be, for the deterrent to Germany was now a vital part of the peace.
At the end of December, the Admiralty also embarked upon a completely new operation against an enemy who had so far remained virtually untouched. The Navy now began patrol operations down the Brazilian coast, which for the moment was limited by range, since the only bases that could be used were those on the African coast and the tiny island base at Ascension. Nevertheless, it was a start. Submarine operations were also due to start against the Brazilians soon, and it was hoped that this would draw their naval forces out into battle. This was not to be treated lightly, since it was known that the Brazilian navy included at least 2 modern battleships, and since no carriers could be spared from the Pacific to counter them, this was going to be an old fashioned battleship v battleship cat and mouse duel.
On New Year’s Eve, the Admiralty, the Air Staff and GHQ sat down and drew up some basic plans for the coming operations in the Far East. With the Americans still firmly bogged down in their Island campaign, it was hoped that British operations would draw off sufficient strength to allow the US to mount operations against the Japanese home islands before the end of 1945. Then, with the British occupying the Japanese in Asia, it might be possible for a two pronged offensive against their mainland possessions in China and Korea.
However, for the moment, Pound suggested that Phase 1 operations to secure Singapore be followed by an offensive up the Malay Peninsula, which would be mounted in tandem with an offensive by 14th Army from Burma. Once this had the enemy’s attention, and assuming that naval superiority was sufficiently in hand, an operation be mounted in Phase 3 to land in French Indochina. This it was hoped would threaten Japan’s tenuous supply situation even further, and with their forces beset on three sides, should lead to victory in the south.
This was agreed as the broad general strategy to be followed, but Pound pointed out that up until now, the Navy had not yet faced any of Japan’s fleet carriers. These had been engaged against the Americans, and that if the operations of the Royal Navy were to achieve their desired effect, then this meant some of them would be diverted to face the British. In that case, the Navy could not expect such an easy fight as they had had up to now.
The fight against the Italians and the Germans had been tough at times. But they had no Carriers. The Imperial Japanese Navy still had 12 that they knew of, and maybe more. In a war of attrition to gain the superiority that was needed, the Royal Navy had now to expect more serious losses. There was no other way.
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