Chapter Fifty-four: No End in Sight
(May 1945)
Poland’s first experimental rocket testing site, completed in Poznan in May 1945.
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Canada
Early in May 1945, the Allies were trying to resume their drive west to the shore of Hudson Bay, hoping to cut off at least one US division in the north, while they also tried to make inroads along the entrance to the St Lawrence waterway. This front remained very much a secondary one but a good number and range of Allied formations had been shipped in, including one Czech division.
But after another three weeks, the attack in the south had failed and the Americans had counter-attacked the salient towards Hudson Bay and rolled it towards the border with Labrador in the centre.
However, by the end of the month the Allies had pushed back in the centre in a see-saw battle, though had lost some ground in the north. The Allied supply situation appeared to be far better than the Americans’.
Mexico and Guyana
By 3 May, it was the US on the attack all along the front in Mexico and Texas, with just one Allied attack in the far south-east of the line.
Two weeks later, most of those US attacks had been defeated, except for one in the centre near Juarez. But the Allies had gained ground on the Gulf coast, while a US division sat off shore, possibly to conduct an amphibious operation behind the Allied lines.
As things hotted up, by 25 May the Allies had pushed forward a little in the north-west into Arizona and had made good ground in Texas. As a counter-point, the US had put a landing ashore on the northern bank of the Rio Grande.
The US had not been able to take the nearby port, which was heavily garrisoned, but there was only a light Allied presence to their south while more US divisions waited off shore. Despite this, the US got no more troops ashore and the beachhead had been surrounded and then destroyed by the morning of 30 May.
As the month came to an end, the US had extended their shallow advance in the centre, while the Allies were attacking strongly towards Houston, having destroyed the US beachhead to the south earlier.
Overall, in the Americas the month had seen some small Allied gains in Texas, see-sawing advances in eastern Canada and no territorial change in Guyana, following a few battles during the month. Allied losses remained disproportionately heavy for the Allies after all the previous mass surrenders during the campaign so far.
Singapore and Malaya
It seemed the Japanese divisions spotted in convoy north of Papua at the end of April may have been destined for the Malayan Peninsula, because early on 1 May that began an opposed amphibious attack on Singapore. Fortunately, the small British garrison seemed well positioned to resist and we on top by that evening.
The following morning another Japanese division came ashore on the coast between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. An initial Allied attack was making slow progress, but reinforcements would arrive in the following days to surround the beachhead.
By the end of 4 May the attack on Singapore had been repelled and the beachhead was eradicated after a longer fight by early on the 10th.
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Papua
The last battle in West Papua was still going on the evening of 1 May against the last of the five trapped Japanese divisions but was over by the morning of the 3rd and the last Japanese remnants were killed or captured.
As the month ended, Dutch divisions were completing the slow process of reoccupying the last Papuan territory. There were no more Japanese landings in the South Pacific area and with the Papuan campaign effectively finished, it was unclear what the large gathering of Allied troops in PNG were going to do next.
Indochina
The Indochinese front remained active throughout the month, but there was little movement across the narrow front line from the Mekong to the Tonkin coast up to 10 May. As usual, the biggest battle for the Poles was in Tonkin, with another MAB attack taking heavy casualties, but wearing down the organisation of the Franco-Polish defenders.
On 18 May and 19 May, fresh Allied troops had been required to relieve exhausted defenders who were forced to withdraw even though they had inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy. But Tonkin was held, as weary Polish troops were rotated to the rear and a recovered division push forward again. But the French defending along the Mekong in southern Laos were finally worn out, falling back on the 24th.
Late in the month, a large Japanese fleet escorting troop transports was attacked by a French sub flotilla, but the battle seemed to end without any ships sunk on either side, though the Japanese had notionally won.
By the end of the month, the MAB had consolidated in western Laos and were holding back a weak French counter-attack. The French were attempting to attack from Tonkin, but with inferior numbers and little apparent success.
China
As the first week of May was ending, Poland ensured the new supply depot in Ganzi was geared up to the maximum level of motorisation.
[Question: it wasn’t clear if that was costing us more trucks or not, from what I could determine.] The local quartermaster also indicated the “toggling allied supply” was an option, but the meaning of this was lost in translation.
[Question: can anyone explain what this actually means or does? Who or what it toggles from, what would maximise the supply? I have no idea.]
Supply was yet to see much improvement in the front-line units at this point, though organisation levels seemed to be improving. And the completion of more rail upgrades and the full motorisation of the Ganzi supply hub seemed to have a noticeable positive effect over the next few days ...
The front had remained active all through the month and to the delight of 4th Army HQ, the Allies reported a breakout to the south, which by 12 May had extended two provinces deep into the MAB lines. As yet, the salient was precarious and would need to be reinforced to be held.
And to the north of this, another advance had been made to retake south-east Gannan.
Maybe the slowly improving supply flow was re-energising the Allies in this sector of the front. In any case, on the evening of 14 May three Polish divisions were added to an existing three South African divisions that were having a difficult time advancing into south-east Ganzi.
Taking it would provide the new supply hub with more security, so Poland was willing to invest the effort to help win this battle: it would not be easy or quick, but the Polish intervention immediately swung the odds from balanced to the Allies’ favour as they moved into the reserve line.
On 19 May, the defence of Gannan was going well, but the attack on south-east Ganzi was again running into trouble. After major projects on rocket testing facilities, military and civilian factories were completed, work would resume on improving the rail infrastructure from the Ganzi supply hub and, although Lanzhou had been retaken by the Allies earlier in the month, the secondary rail line to the north was also slated for an upgrade, in case the city fell again.
The next day, the south-east Ganzi attack was still in some trouble, even after two fresh Polish divisions (7 and 8 DPs) were thrown into the fight. Given the terrain, the now fully resupplied and reorganised 22 DPG was ordered up from the reserve, as the South African divisions had all withdrawn from the attack to recover, leaving all the fighting to the Poles alone.
From early on 22 May, the monthly Manchurian border clash played out for two days, with the usual outcome. In south-east Ganzi, 22 DPG had arrived and been able to reinforce the attack quickly because it was advancing from a different flank. The KBK had been forced to withdraw to recover and two of the four regular Polish infantry divisions were becoming disorganised.
But specialist mountain troops attacking from a new flank shifted the battle firmly back in the Poles’ favour, as the remaining PLA defenders also tired – and Allied air support helped. A major defence of south-east Gannan, which the Poles had also reinforced in recent days, was won on the 26th. And a very bloody victory was finally won in south-east Ganzi on the 27th, in which the attackers had lost almost as many troops as the Communist defenders.
Concurrently, further north another big defence in Golog was won early on the 25th and the Allies were on the on the attack to its north and south, showing some fair early progress.
As noted earlier, Lanzhou (and its key rail connection) had been back in Allied hands for most of May and by the 25th, it had been well reinforced and was holding off the latest PLA attempt to wrest it back.
Also earlier in the month, east Jiuquan had been taken by British forces, who by the end of May had narrowly defeated an MAB counter-attack. Supply was still too poor in this sector for the Polish division to its west to recover: in fact its organisation and strength were so low in would have to be withdrawn to a rear area to recover, despite not having fought at all during the month.
As we have seen, the Allies had performed well in the south during the month, with south-east Ganzi being added to the list of gains and now well garrisoned as May 1945 drew to a close. The Ganzi supply hub was now insulated from direct attack on all flanks and the supply states and organisation of Allied formations in the area looked to have improved significantly. Many were now fully supplied again, even on the front line, while others had shortages but not extreme ones.
Overall, the month had on balance been a modestly positive one for the Allied cause in Asia and the South Pacific. Due mainly to the heavy attack on south-east Ganzi and continued heavy fighting over Tonkin, Polish combat casualties were a fair bit higher than in previous months, but not unsustainable.
Domestic and International Affairs
As May began, the rocket test site in Poznan remained in the early stages of construction. Four rail connections in Poland were under construction, another three in Western China were queued, while the new military factory in Łódz (mentioned above) was added to the end of the list of projects.
And the new focus on modest naval development was extended, with two long-delayed appointments being made of a Navy Chief and a ship designer, as the lack of any naval experience meant the preferred doctrine line of trade interdiction could not yet be begun.
The few ships and subs Poland had left were soon also exercising in the Baltic Sea, making their own modest contribution.
On 2 May, Republican Italy offered lend-lease exports of surplus artillery (90 howitzers) and support equipment (123) each month. On the 6th, a surplus of light SP artillery was used to give the tank brigades of the four heavy infantry divisions some added firepower.
Four days later, Australia offered shipments of surplus 5.5 inch guns (235/month) and support equipment (112) was also gratefully accepted, on top of the existing lend lease programs – all of which continued through May.
The one research advance of the month was a significant one, as further logistics company efficiencies were implemented on 17 May with more to come as the doctrine writers continued their work.
The one new division for the month deployed into the reserve 5th Army (now 10 divisions strong) in south-east Poland on 29 May. As May ended, Germany’s troop holdings in Europe had been significantly depleted as more and more units were sent to Canada and Mexico. Only 48 now remained in Germany proper and East Prussia, the rest either in the America’s, on their way over or staging in their departure ports in Belgium and France. More than ever, Poland was the main strength left in central and eastern Europe ready to repel any surprise attack by Trotsky’s USR.
In Germany, the Polish-backed DNVP was now clearly the second most popular political party, though still trailing the Communists by a significant margin. Intelligence assessments of Soviet strength were far from accurate or reliable, with estimates of between 300-550 divisions and 7-11,000 aircraft providing sobering news, even if they were spread along very long borders all the way to Vladivostok.
An analysis of all casualties suffered by the current major participants in the war gave a good idea of where the heaviest blows had fallen so far (though excluded earlier casualties suffered against the now defunct Fascist Asian League, which would have been substantial for both the Allies and the MAB). The table below estimates for each country who caused the casualties they had so far suffered.
Of interest, China had suffered almost 330,000 casualties (among EFs) fighting the US. Germany had suffered more losses against the US than Japan as had Yugoslavia, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Lithuania. The UK had suffered by far the most of their casualties against Japan (perhaps many from troops lost in sunk convoys, it was speculated). Of course, all of Poland’s casualties (aside from earlier Asian League/Fascist campaigns) had been caused by the MAB, the great majority against the PRC.
The PRC had taken the highest losses from France, then the UK and Nationalist China and Germany, with Poland also making a substantial contribution (39,900 Polish against 264,500 PRC casualties in battles between them). Whereas Germany had caused the most Japanese casualties by a large margin, followed by France. Finally, the order US casualties was proportionate to those they had caused, led by Germany, the UK and France.
As May ended, only artillery (422 units) remained in deficit in the Polish logistics stockpiles. Infantry equipment was in a large surplus (over 3,000) and support equipment had just passed into a small surplus.
On the naval front, there had been increased activity in the Pacific during May, where Japan had lost 1 DD and 7 convoys and sunk 10 British, 7 Australian and one other DD, plus 3 Korean and 1 German convoys. The Philippines had also lost 8 convoys. In the Anericas, the US had lost 9 convoys and sunk 1 British DD and 11 German convoys.
