Chapter 28 - The Domino Effect
If there was one critical flaw in the British Army and Royal Navy, it was their pride.
Having built a globe-spanning empire, the British forces have been on the winning side of every major European war for centuries. They have crushed countless numerically superior forces under their boot heels, destroyed entire nations that dwarfed Britain's own size. The reason for this was that when push came to shove, the British forces would always stand their ground in defense. From Waterloo to Rorke's Drift, the remarkable resilience of British troops showed time and again as they held the line during the decisive moment.
Thus, for many of the Empire's commanders, it seemed unfeasible that the brave troops of the home isles could be uprooted from strong fortifications by anything less than a first rate power. Those ill disciplined colonial troops, perhaps. The Australians might fail at Calcutta and New Zealanders at Rangoon. But for those of true English blood? The fortress at Gibraltar have beaten back tremendous odds
before and they shall do it again, especially against those ragtag fascists calling themselves the 'Spanish government'. That left ample time to reinforce 'The Rock' before German reinforcements could arrive.
At least, that was what the British Army and Royal Navy expected, until four days of relentless assaults by Spanish veterans from their brutal civil war overran the defenses on the 23rd of July. To the Nationalists, Britain's repayment of Spanish territory was long overdue.
Franco's troops secured control of The Rock in the coming day. Their breakthrough came so sudden that a Royal Navy squadron being resupplied at harbor failed to pull out in time. Two carriers, one light cruiser, and nine destroyers were destroyed by direct-fire artillery support as they tried to escape*. It was the biggest disaster for the Royal Navy to date in this war. And it earned Hitler's hearty congratulations: the Spanish forces have proven their bravery and worth by dealing the British a strategic defeat within just one month of joining the war.
This would have decisive consequences, as the British communication and supply routes to the east - through the Mediterranean - were now cut off. North Africa would have to be supplied from around the Cape of Good Hope, adding thousands of miles to the tenuous supply line.
The British blamed it on the arrival of German troops. But in reality, only a Wehrmacht advisory group (HQ division) had taken part in the battle, and not a single German soldier had been killed.
On the same two days, the Australians' plan to launch a counterattack from Burma into Yunnan had been foiled by the NRA 3rd Route Army. Meanwhile the last three divisions of British Indian Army forces in eastern Burma surrendered at Taunggyi.
(
A division of China's best infantry also quietly boarded transports at Calcutta and slipped away into sea.)
...
July 26th, 1940: The first shipments of Lend-Lease from the United States have arrived in the United Kingdoms. ROC diplomats could only sigh as they watch the inevitable begin.
On the same day, General Charles de Gaulle made his appeal by radio from London. He rallied the French people in choosing resistance instead of surrender. Thus, the exiled general officially formed 'Free France' and the 'Free French Forces' -- a name Chiang Kai-shek found almost laughable, considering its provisional capital was in Brazzaville, on the land of Africans still denied their freedom from colonial oppression.
Later that night, General Xue Yue's 1st Route Army finally reported the good news: after two days of assault by four Muslim cavalry divisions and China's only light tank brigade, the Indian garrison at Karachi surrendered. Xue's forces were moving in to secure the port city -- the last of China's military objectives in Operation Clear Sky.
Unbeknown to him, Chiang's chief strategist Bai Chongxi had added one more objective to the list. However, with the necessity of surprise paramount to the mission's success, only a handful of people on the continent actually knew about the top secret operation.
(
Somewhere in the Bay of Bengal, hidden by summer monsoons...)
...
July 28th: Hitler seems unable to let Norway go, as after losing multiple capital ships and tens of thousands of men, he still insisted on renewed amphibious landings at Alesund. Germany's 4th attempt feeds another 2,700 able-bodied men to the already bloodied beaches. At least this time they didn't lose any naval assets, possibly because the Kriegsmarine didn't have any more big ships to lose.
On the same day, Chinese forces secured Karachi, the last major port on the Indian subcontinent still in British hands. With its seizure, the colonial administration of the British Raj met its final collapse. The Republic of China formally annex the now-defunct colonies of British India, British Burma, and the Princely States. Bose was still busy in Delhi negotiating with the various Hindustani leaders on the creation of a new Indian state(s). Chiang planned to join him soon, but until then, he and his generals busied themselves with mopping up the ~20 foreign divisions (Australian, New Zealand, South African, British) still trapped on the continent.
Bai Chongxi's gamble with China's limited fleet assets also paid off, as the ROCN 1st Flotilla (2 light cruisers and 15 destroyers) landed forces near the largely-undefended British naval base at Colombo.
A week ago, Bai had reasoned that if the British couldn't intercept the Chinese flotilla after it dashed past the Straits of Malacca, then there was a strong possibility that the British simply didn't have enough naval forces in the Far East to hunt down a small, mobile concentration from China. Furthermore, the intense pressure to stop the Chinese push in Hindustan meant that the British India GHQ likely stripped their defenses across the region for manpower. Many of the island bases in the area were probably held down by no more than a skeleton garrison.
Britain was the pre-eminent naval power in the world, while China was a fledgling whose naval traditions had to be rebuilt from scratch after its completely destruction in the First Sino-Japanese War. It was unlikely that anyone could have seen such an audacious play coming from the ROCN, certainly not the prideful British admirals who saw themselves as the rightful rulers of the sea.
But most of all, China could also
afford to lose a mountain division; and the seizure of Ceylon would threaten the lines of communication between Singapore and British forces in Suez. Therefore in this case, the reward was worth the risk.
Considering these points, Chiang had agreed and given the go ahead. The result was yet another monumental moment in China's rebirth:
The landing site chosen for the 4th Mountain Division was the beaches of Galle. It was the very same town that Zheng He, the Muslim admiral and explorer from Ming dynasty, set foot in and raised the
Galle Trilingual Inscription (between 1409-1411). The Chinese had come in peace long before the arrival of the Imperialistic Europeans. They showed their respect to the locals and left lavish gifts and offerings to Buddha and Allah at the temple on Sri Paadaya, choosing to awe through wealth and generosity rather than through brutality and force.
Chiang wanted a display that the new China would treat India in the same way.
(
The tablet was inscribed in Nanjing. The original was rediscovered in 1911 and is now in the Colombo National Museum of Sri Lanka)
...
July 29th: With the seizure of Gibraltar, the British supply lines were cut off just long enough for the Italians to (finally) achieve a major land victory. The British failed to retreat in good order after the 3rd Battle of As Sollum. Several Italian motorized divisions broke through and overran the bulk of the British Army in North Africa. The final tally of losses, killed or captured, numbered over 100,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers, not to mention several more divisions cut off in the Saharan Desert. Axis leaders find it doubtful that the British could recover from this, especially considering the weight of Italian numbers still barreling towards them.
July 30th: Reports from America note that US public opinion -- prodded by a biased, Anglophile media -- once again sided with the UK. The American people reacted strongly against the return of Gibraltar to its rightful owners.
August 3rd: The NRA 4th Route Army was still marching down the Malay Peninsula when it encountered resistance from a division of South Africans. The Chinese troops threw them back with overwhelming force, but now the garrison at Singapore knew what was coming their way.
In the west, the British Royal Navy, fearing that the Germans would seize the mostly untouched French Fleet, declared an ultimatum to French Admiral Gensoul at Mers-el-Kébir to either scuttle his ships or join the British Mediterranean squadrons in fighting the Axis. Admiral Gensoul rejected, citing that it would be a gross violation of the armistice and thus would put his occupied home country in a precarious position. In response, British forces under Admiral Somerville launched a merciless attack against those had been their allies, whom British ministers had "given their whole hearts to [...] and offered common brother nationhood" (Churchill) just weeks before. This treacherous act of unprovoked aggression would kill nearly 1,300 French sailors, sink the battleship
Bretagne plus damage two others, and trigger a surge of Anglophobia across the once sympathetic and friendly French populace.
"[It was] the biggest political blunder of modern times and will rouse the whole world against us... We all feel thoroughly ashamed."
- Admiral Somerville
After hearing about the news, Chiang was once again reminded of how he lost his elite 200th Division in that other world. With a bitter tone he commented to his staff: "The British are the most selfish and unreliable people in the world. What did the French expect?"
August 6th: True to President Roosevelt's words, the United States was establishing itself as the Arsenal of Democracy. US lend-lease shipments were now arriving to equip the 'Free' French.
August 10th: ROCN 1st Flotilla lands a second mountain division on the Maldives, seizing the barely-defended British naval port at Malé.
August 12th: General Zhang Zhizong of NRA 4th Route Army report that his forces have seized the city of Johore Bahru. They now overlooked the island of Singapore, located just across the Johore Strait. Intelligence provided by Dai Li's BIS network report that the British and their Australian/South African vassals have already managed to bring five divisions to the port known as the 'Gibraltar of the East'. Zhang Zhizong tried to secure some brief rest for his exhausted men after their hike through Indochine and Malay, but General Bai Chongxi - ROC Head of Operations - had none of it:
"We must seize our Gibraltar before the British could bring ashore any more men. You have 24 hours to launch the assault."
What Bai did not mention, was that a backup plan was already in effect. A dozen divisions of dedicated assault troops were on deployment to Johore Bahru even as they spoke. Britain's display of arrogance -- in holding onto such an isolated position attached to the Asian mainland -- was an insult to all Asians, and Bai intended to see them pay.
There was no room for clever maneuver, no friendly air bases within range, nor would China risk providing naval support. The battle would have to be a frontal assault.
But China could afford any butcher's bill. The foreigners could not.
Notes:
1. Just about every source I've read documented that the British sorely underestimated the Japanese in the Malay campaign... due to complacency born out of racism towards "little yellow men". Interestingly enough, it wasn't limited to non-whites either, as even the Australians and New Zealanders wrote about how British officers often rejected their kind from social establishments (bars/restaurants/etc), forcing them to go mingle with the Indian Sepoys instead.
2. For some reason ships sunk by land forces don't leave a record on the 'Sunk Ships' game log? I did not leave a good save point in figuring out what carriers the Royal Navy lost at Gibraltar.
3. I'm still pretty busy in the coming months, but I'll try to squeeze out 1-2 updates every month (except maybe the Partition of India, that topic requires research and thus lots of time).
