Chapter 9: The pursuer and the pursued
(So, pretty much throw out the whole "only two months at a time" update schedule. Things are going very quickly, without the meaty sort of campaigns that need to be taken more slowly.)
In 1941, the tempo of the war began to change. The British, in particular, became more and more aggressive, with the sense that Japan was weakening. Over the course of January, the elaborate defensive works established in Burma were gradually emptied of trained regular infantry; the infantry were ordered to entrain and move to Rangoon for transfer to other areas of the Pacific. In the North Sea, the
Bismarck and
Tirpitz were spotted multiple times, even severely damaged, but evaded their ultimate fate at the bottom of the North Sea. [1] By 5 January, the talk of BBC Radio was the impending defeat of multiple Japanese divisions in Malaysia.
Newly promoted Lieutenant Larry Quentin of the Royal Marines saw 5 January differently, as another day of paperwork. Raising a new corps was hard work and far more involved than anything he'd done as an NCO. FInally, on 8 January, the Second Marine Corps, commanded by General Miles Dempsey, moved to Bournemouth to embark for Africa, at least as an early port to refuel. Quentin looked forward to transferring out of Dempsey's personal staff and getting his own platoon, although he'd not received any such orders to that point. Nonetheless, he was optimistic.
Alice Digby wrote of the events of January with anything but fondness. Her letter to Commander William Harris, who was patrolling the Indian Ocean around Ceylon, suggested a certain weariness and bitterness.
Alice Digby to William Harris said:
Dearest Billy,
I thought the war had moved on. Singapore is British again. I know how military strategy works; Singapore is a jumping off point for further attacks, we both know that. I hope we give the Japanese a sound thrashing. Yet no matter how often they are beaten, they keep coming back.
You probably know that Lord Mountbatten and his battleships sailed for Rangoon last week. They are to pick up some infantry divisions to help with the recapture of the various islands in the Indian Ocean. We spent much of the weekend listening to radio reports about Dutch heroism.
So what am I woken up with this morning? The Japanese. Again. They are, once again, trying to take the Malay Peninsula. When will they ever learn? Why can't they bully someone else for a change? The worst part is that you and your mates are so far away. I don't even think Lord Mountbatten can get here in time to intercept them. We shall do our duty, of course, but I find this extremely irritating.
I do hope you are doing well; you will be an Admiral by the end of this war, I am sure of it!
Alice
As it happened, the Mediterranean Battleships did not reach the coast in time, but they did drop off their new friends, giving the UK three infantry, two marine, and two Gurkha divisions, ample forces to repel any landing. This was no ordinary landing, however; it had air support, and specifically, the air support of three full carriers.
The battleships were ordered to disengage, and they did, although they later fought them off. Only carriers could fight other carriers, and all of the British carriers were otherwise occupied. One such carrier group was in Madagascar, as the Second Marine Corps began rolling up Japanese positions throughout the western portions of the Indian Ocean.
Back in London, however, the talk of the town was the invasion of Turkey by Germany, Bulgaria, and Hungary. Completely and utterly unprepared for warfare, the Axis declared war on Turkey on 25 January; by 7 February, every member of the Turkish government was dead or on their way to London.
Yet there was good news on 7 February as well. Seven full British divisions met four Japanese divisions at the battle of Kota Bharu, seeking to drive Japan out of Malay once and for all.
Farther to the west, Second Marines had retaken not only Madagascar, but the Comoros, Reunion, and Mauritius, slowly making it that much tougher for Japan to supply her operations in East Africa. The Seychelles fell on 17 February 1941, the first defended island Second Marines encountered since Madagascar. Unfortunately for Japan, its defense was nothing more than a Headquarters division, which quickly scattered upon sight of the Eighth Marine Division, many of whom had served with the lost divisions on Ceylon. Several more encounters with the Japanese fleet went positively for the British, as several transports, destroyers, and cruisers met their doom, yet the carriers themselves annoyingly stayed afloat. The Japanese decided that aggression needed to be met with aggression and launched an operation to retake Dubai.
The Maldives were too important to the British war effort, and so the Marines were kept there to begin preparations to retake it. Dubai would have to look after itself. However, they would receive some reinforcements: the Mediterranean Fleet, under the command of Admiral Horton, was ordered to the Straits of Hormuz to engage the Japanese fleet, if found, and sink it. With 13 ships, including two full carriers (
the Courageous and
the Glorious) and plenty of screens, this was a clear sign that the UK was taking the Japanese attacks seriously.
8 March was a remarkable day for all Londoners, as the government announced the end of metal rationing. Recent advances in British technology made making steel easier and cheaper, and with the Germans and Italians losing submarines faster than they could build them, convoys began running more frequently, ensuring that the soldiers in Singapore had the same materials that Manchester factories got.
A Dutch uprising on 12 March fared rather less well and was quickly defeated.
Even after the Maldives returned to British control, the heavy use of the Royal Navy required extensive repairs and, where possible, upgrades to existing systems. That left the Maldives ripe for attack, and Japan took advantage.
Marines were immediately sent and the Maldives were taken almost as quickly as they had fallen. Every day, further rumors spread of still more forces being sent east. Admiral Fraser of the Second Home Carrier Fleet eagerly campaigned for that duty, but without new aircraft, his imposing force was a paper tiger. [2]
Larry Quentin, who had zero combat experience with the Second Marine Corps, wrote about his first real action at the Battle of Socotra.
Page from Larry Quentin's memoirs on the battle of Socotra said:
I was so eager to get my first platoon. Sure, I'd been platoon leader as a Sergeant, and I had broken in plenty of green Lieutenants, but I promised to be different. I knew what fighting was. I'd seen the elephant. I understand why the top brass sent us to take Socotra, too: that damned little island had protected Japanese supply routes for too long; if we retook it and retook Dubai, they would be completely cut off in the northern portions of East Africa.
My platoon was given the job of infiltrating the island first and radioing back to the fleet for naval gun support. I'm still deaf in one ear from those guns going off. Made my job easier, of course. The fight was a bloody one, but we took less than 5% casualties and took 10,000 Japanese off the board permanently. That's a win in my book. A big win. The boys in blue sunk a bunch of their bloody transports too; I came to hate those little boats more than any battleship or carrier.
A few weeks later, Quentin and the rest of Second Marines were moving on Dubai. By 7 May, Dubai was retaken. Akagi and her sisters were spotted again, and more damaged inflicted, but still no serious casualties. With Africa more or less secure, the Indian Ocean's fleets sailed for Karachi to undergo repairs and refitting. They had little time to rest, unfortunately, as soon enough they were called to fight yet another Japanese landing, this one in Dar Es Salaam.
That landing was repulsed, with the Marines killing their Japanese counterparts and serious damage inflicted at the Battle of Cardiva Channel; Japan lost two cruisers, two submarine flotillas, and a transport flotilla. Even better, the battleship Hyuga joined her sisters at the bottom of the ocean the very next day.
A defeat at Dar Es Salaam did not stop Japan, of course: they retook Madagascar, and once again France refused to give the British notice. Again, the Marines were called upon to put out yet another brush fire; this time, however, Japan had a second target, this time at Mombasa. As Quentin and his weary brothers fought Japanese Marines again, he couldn't help but notice these Japanese seemed different. He wrote a memo to high command expressing this:
Memo of Lt. Larry Quentin said:
My men took some prisoners earlier this afternoon. We just got a new private -- Sampson -- who happens to speak Japanese pretty good. He learned it in school or something. Anyway, Sampson tells me that the Japanese were complaining about rationing back in Tokyo or Kyoto or Toyota or whatever. I know it might seem like we we're running around with our tails afire, but we are doing good work if the people back in Japan are feeling it.
I recommend pushing things still harder; my lads can handle it. If we have the money, let's replace our lost divisions and maybe even build a Third Corps. Think of what we could do with that, eh?
Other reports suggested the same thing, but Quentin noticed it first. His private Sampson was promoted to Lance Corporal; Quentin himself was promoted to Captain. That promotion was a mixed blessing: it meant he was returned to the Marine HQ instead of fighting with his men. He got to see and hear more but didn't have the direct contact with the enemy he craved. The First Marine Corps made a daring raid themselves; with only a division of transports and no covering fire, they crossed the Straits of Malacca and seized a key port. The terrain prevented them from breaking out further, but a bloodless victory is always to be cherished.
Second Marines retook the Maldives, hopefully for the last time, on 22 July. They rested and regrouped back in India, but their next target was clear: Ceylon. Cutting off Ceylon (and the Nicobar Islands) would prevent Japan from ever threatening India again. Every Marine looked forward to that, to operating in Japanese territory instead of British or French. A tragic incident occurred when a division of paratroopers, on the way to India, was shot down by German AA. No survivors were reported. [3]
As the Indian Theater proved a constant source of British success, the German invasion of Turkey, at long last, reminded the British that there was a European theater too. The British high command made a horrible miscalculation of German intentions. They had projected Turkey as a launching point against the Soviet Union, or perhaps incursions into Persia. Instead, they moved southwest: right towards the Suez Canal.
As the early summer of 1941 pushed on, more and more Bulgarian and German divisions were seen racing towards -- and through -- Tel Aviv. British forces on the west side of the canal were ordered to cross and shore up defensive positions on the eastern shore.
By 25 July, British forces dug in. They had already requested reinforcements from home, including the Second Armored Corps and another full corps of Infantry.
Unfortunately, there were no available transports, unless they were pulled out of the Indian Ocean. Committing further reinforcements to the Suez Canal meant delaying operations against Ceylon. Yet if the Canal fell to German or Bulgarian forces, that might make it far more difficult to operate in the Indian Ocean at all. At the very least, air support was going to be rushed to the front there, in the hopes that bombing vital roads might slow down the advancing forces, maybe even buy time to produce some more transports or wrap up Ceylon quickly. One thing was definitely true: the Canal could not be shut. That reopened North Africa, and worse still, allowed all of the good work that First Armored Corps had done in East Africa to be immediately undone.
British soldiers tensely awaited enemy attacks, hoping that relief would come, and come soon.
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[1] This is when I realized why the German BBs had escaped their doom -- once again, my carriers had no CAGs. By the end of this update, I figured out that German/Italian land-based aircraft had pretty much destroyed my CAGs and had been doing so all war. In my next session, I'm going to go for a looser blockade of German/Italian coastlines. I also added a bunch of CAGs to the queue at this point.
[2] So, the UK has two Admirals named "Fraser" -- one who is Fraser and one who is Bruce-Fraser. As far as I know, there was only Bruce A. Fraser in WWII, so I'm not sure who "Fraser" was supposed to be.
[3] This one is entirely on me. I should have waited for the ORG to build up.
As you can see, nobody guessed the surprise dimension of the enemy advance. That's okay, I didn't get it either. I know some of you might say "the canal itself is a great barrier, defend the western shore instead." However, if I remember correctly, losing even a single province means the canal is shut for everyone until I retake it. That's why I hope to get reinforcements over there. I know it's hard to see, but I've got nine or ten divisions there, with at least two divisions per province. Bismarck and Tirpitz will have to wait; I've only got one wing of strat bombers and one of tactical bombers, and I'm going to level the ever-loving shit out of the infrastructure there. I'll bring along fighters too, just in case.
I have four armored divisions and at least four infantry divisions in the UK I can transfer over, which would do a lot to stiffen resolve. Unfortunately, I don't see a way I can actually beat these forces. I'll hold for a while, but without the Soviets attacking them, they can pretty much throw whatever they want to at my canal defenses. They'll pay for it, I promise you that.
Those resource techs have, at least for now, given me enough metal to go to full production, and CAGs and transports are at the top of the list, as are more Marines. I'm really hoping Japan is on the ropes here and that, soon, I'll knock out their carriers. Ceylon has to be retaken; it's even more of a priority, right now, then the Canal. I've got at least a week, maybe longer, before I'm attacked, without infra damage. Maybe I'll do better than that. A really sneaky idea would be to wait until a whole bunch of divisions come forward, then land Marines and take Tel Aviv, cutting off their supplies.
One thing I haven't talked about is First Armored and Africa; it's going really well, to the point where I'll wipe out some more divisions soon. France, surprisingly, helped me retake some territory, for which I am grateful. This Suez Canal thing has me spooked, but if the USA gets involved (or, even better, the Soviets), I think we'll be okay. (Unintended consequence of a Soviet invasion -- they'll get to Turkey first and screw me out of that war goal. Oh well.)
If you have advice about the defense of the canal, I'm all ears. If I can keep the canal open with only one side, I will happily pull back across the canal (or establish my secondary line of defense there) and let them try to cross without Marines, which they don't have. I'm pretty sure I need both sides, though.
