Thayne
Posts: 748
Joined: 6/14/2004 Status: offline
|
Saturday, January 3, 1942 Henry: Singapore is now completely cut off. Japan forced the defenders to retreat from Johore Bahru. Ultimately, General C.E. Wavell decided not to make a determined stand at Johore Bharu for a couple of reasons. (1) Because of the possibility that the units would end up getting cut off and forced to retreat to Mersing. (2) Because Japan would be fighting the Japanese in pieces rather than as a unified force. There is a great deal of concern over the lack of supplies to be found at Singapore. It is considered doubtful that the city will hold on even until the middle of the month against the forces that Japan has thrown against it. Japan committed a force that outnumbers the defenders of Singapore by over 2 to 1 -- committing over 100,000 soldiers in the battle of Johore Bahru. Once Singapore falls, all of the units involved in its capture, minus whatever garrison Japan thinks it needs to govern the region, will be available for the next operation. Chances are, that will be the capture of Java (which may begin as early as the beginning of February). Some of the people that I have talked to have recommended that we may get a larger break than this because of the size of the force that Japan has committed to the operation to take Malaya. The drain on these units may mean that Japan has no fresh units to commit to a new operation. These units may need a considerable amount of time to rest and regroup before they be effectively thrown into another front. However, I am not counting on this. The Japanese superiority in numbers, plus their control of the air and the seas, should be able to make up for any deficiencies in the army. Besides, there will be time to rest after Java has fallen – time when Japan will be collecting the resources that Java can offer. Today’s Statistics The battle today was executed against ground units. Besides the battle at Johore Bahru, Japanese forces continued with the following attacks: • Nanning, China” Chinese units continue to occupy the hills outside of town and shell the defenders, who answer with their own artillery. • Manila, Philippines: Japan’s 16th Division continues to shell the defenders, but they are not launching any attack. Here, too, the defenders answer with their own shelling. • Burma: Allied air units out of Mandalay, in central Burma, flew interdiction missions against the 55th Japanese Division. Japan, in turn, flew ground attack missions against the 13th Indian Brigade north of Rangoon. Reinforcements It is another Saturday night, and time to list the resources that will be released to me next week. My habit of listing the reinforcements separately is going to create a rather long list this time, though, again, the bulk of these additional ships are transports, tankers, and cargo ships. I am getting a few more combat ships and, though they are not enough to replace the 5 cruisers sunk or damaged in the Dutch East Indies, they represent an improvement. The most significant reinforcements are: • 6 Destroyers, 1 Patrol Gunboat, and 2 Minesweepers, needed to cover the several transport convoys sailing around the Pacific. • 4 Submarines – the only ships we have that can actually go on the offensive right now. • 1 squadron of Hurricane fighters that will be uncrated on Ceylon, making an important contribution to that island’s defenses. The details for these reinforcements are as follows: Sunday, January 4, 1042 • DD Panther, Karachi • AK Mormacland, San Francisco Monday, January 5, 1942 • VP-72 (12x PBY Catalina) at San Francisco • PG Yarra at Sydney • AKs: San Felipe, Admiral Wiley, West Camargo at San Francisco • TKs: Victor H. Helly, Axtell J. Byles, F.H. Hillman at San Francisco Tuesday, January 6, 1942 • 2nd PA Division at Bataan, Philippines • 71st Aviation Regiment at San Francisco • 51st Base Force at San Francisco • SS Finback at San Francisco • AKs: Mormacgull, Mormacstar, Main, West Cape at San Francisco • TKs: Utacarbon, Associated at San Francisco Wednesday, January 7, 1942 • 221 RAF Base Force at Karachi • DD Anderson at San Francisco • AKs: Lihue, Sidney Hauptmann, McCormick Terminal at San Francisco • TK Paco at San Francisco Thursday, January 8, 1942 • 193rd USA Tank Battalion at San Francisco • SSs: Greyback, Gato at San Francisco • SS O24 at Soerabaja • AKs Makua, Admiral Laws, Admiral Senn, President Quezon, Nightingale at San Francisco • TK J.C. Fitzsimmons at San Francisco Friday, January 9, 1942 • DDs: Hammann, Mustin at San Francisco • MSW Mustin at Derby • MSW Launeoton at Sydney • AP President Adams at San Francisco • TK Santa Maria, Warwick, K.R. Kingsbury, R.J. Hanna, Brandywine at San Francisco Saturday, January 10, 1042 • 17 Squadron (16x Hurricane) at Trimcomalee • DDs: Hughes, Morris at San Francisco • AKs: Olopana, San Gabriel, Admiral Wood at San Francisco • TKs: Captain A.F. Lucas, Pueblo, Papoose, Dilworth at San Francisco China We have noticed a peculiarity in China. Since the American Volunteer Group destroyed the Nate squadron at Wuhan, there seems to be a shortage of Japanese pilots in China. Therefore, I have talked to Chang Kai Shek about sending the American volunteers on a different type of mission – against the city of Canton itself. Naturally, Chang Kai Shek has spies in Canton and people who know the region. We talked for a while about finding a suitable strategic target, and settled on railyards, warehouses, and fuel storage facilities. Since the middle of the 1850s, England and France maintained two “concessions” in Canton, where they managed trade between China and Europe. When Japan attacked Canton in 1938, they virtually destroyed the city – except for the concessions (since Japan was at war with neither England nor France at the time). Since then, the Chinese, under Japan’s control, have been rebuilding the city, particularly the factory and shipping regions near the Concessions. For me, this was a difficult conversation. I could not escape the fact that I was asking the Chinese leader to attack factories and marshalling yards where Chinese slave labor were the major occupants. I argued that we had been doing the same thing to France since the fall of that country over a year and a half ago. It is more important to prevent the arms and supplies produced in French factories from being used by Germany than to protect the French citizens who are being forced to work in those factories. It is one of the hard choices that war forces upon us. Chang Kai Shek seemed to have far less difficulty accepting the arguments than I had making them. Tomorrow, bright and early in the morning, weather permitting, the AVG will take part in a different type of mission – the destruction of Japanese warehouses, factories, and shipping centers in Canton. Maybe, we prove that we are a significant threat to resources that Japan cannot simply pack up and move a safe distance, Japan may feel the need to pull air units off of the front lines, and give our soldiers better chance in these other areas, at least for a while. That’s it for today. Thayne
Attachment (1)
< Message edited by Thayne -- 2/26/2005 9:27:21 PM >
|