Post by Toyama on Apr 10, 2017 18:17:01 GMT
the Burma Campaign
7 December 1941 – 26 May 1942
Japan had invaded China in 1937, gradually isolating it from the rest of the world except for two tenuous supply lines: a narrow-gauge railway originating in Haiphong, French Indochina; and the Burma Road, an improved gravel highway linking Lashio in British Burma to Kunming in China. Along these routes traveled the materiel that made it possible for Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Chinese government to resist the Japanese offensives into the interior.
In 1940 Japan took advantage of the German invasion of France to cut both supply lines to China. In June, with France focused on the war in Europe, Japanese warships moved into French Indochina and closed the railroad from Haiphong. A month later, threatening war if its demands were not met, Japan secured an agreement from the hard-pressed British government to close the Burma Road temporarily.
The Burma Road reopened in October 1940, literally the sole lifeline to China. By late 1941 the United States was shipping lend-lease materiel by sea to the Burmese port of Rangoon, where it was transferred to railroad cars for the trip to Lashio in northern Burma and finally carried by truck over the 712-mile-long Burma Road to Kunming. Over this narrow highway, trucks carried munitions and materiel to supply the Chinese Army, whose continuing strength in turn forced the Japanese to keep considerable numbers of ground forces stationed in China. Consequently, Japanese strategists decided to cut the Burma lifeline, gain complete control of China, and free their forces for use elsewhere in the Pacific.
When Japan entered the war on the side of the Axis powers in December 1941, her main aims were to acquire raw materials, particularly oil, rubber and tin and, through expansion of the so-called Greater Co-Prosperity Sphere, to create space for the population of the over-crowded home islands.
These needs fired the strategic thinking of belligerent politicians and service chiefs in Tokyo. They worked on the assumption that a surprise attack on the United States Pacific Fleet's base at Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii, would enable the Imperial Japanese army, air force and navy to attain the warlords' territorial aims before the western Allies could react.
The raid at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 was a devastating blow to the Americans. It failed, however, in its main aim, that of sinking the American fleet's aircraft carriers. On hearing this intelligence, Admiral Yamamoto, the gifted master planner of the enterprise, knew that the war was already as good as lost.
Despite this, Japanese plans elsewhere worked beyond expectation. Hong Kong and Indo-China fell to them without difficulty, but the greatest triumphs occurred on the Malay peninsula and in Singapore, where British, Australian and Indian troops were forced into humiliating surrender.
The Japanese completed their triumphs by overrunning the Dutch East Indies, spreading out into the western Pacific by capturing numerous island bases - and by invading Burma.
Less than a week after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese planes took off from captured bases in Thailand and opened the invasion of Burma by bombing the Tavoy airdrome, a forward British outpost on the Andaman Sea south of Rangoon. The next day, 12 December 1941, small Japanese units began the ground offensive by infiltrating into Burma from Thailand. The Japanese quickly captured Rangoon, cutting off the Burma Road, and depriving the Chinese of their only convenient supply base and port of entry. In response, General Sir Archibald Wavell, in supreme command of the Far Eastern theatre, formed two scratch divisions, the 1st Burma and 17th Indian, into Burma corps (Burcorps).
He ordered his commanders, against their better judgement, to defend well forward. They, however, were aware, as he was not, of the deficiencies of their commands. The troops were raw, lacked combat experience, and were inadequately trained and equipped to take on the aggressive and bold invaders.
Battle report
For this scenario, a game of Crossfire was played, the miniatures were all of genuine AAM stock.
For more about Crossfire see: This game called Crossfire (click)
Forces:
Japan (attacker): 1 leg infantry company, enhanced with 2 50mm Mortars, 2 AFVs, 2 HMGs, and an ATG.
British forces (defender): 1 leg infantry company, enhanced with an off-board 3” mortar, a Valentine 2pdr, a 2pdr ATG, an additional HMG and 2 BREN carriers.
Special rules: Balagan's house rules were in play. Victory condition: kill the opponent's company command section. As part of the game was played in solo mode, Hidden Deployment rules were dropped.
(village overview with deployed British)
As defender, the British forces set up to defend the Burmese village first, after which Japan's Imperial forces received the initiative with entering the map from the east. During this first initiative, japan took its time deploying and moving its forces into postion while keeping out of British sight.
(Japan's initial deployment)
One fireteam exposed in a fire lane for a split second and drew reactive fire from the British ATG – which missed its mark. With all forces set up in and behind cover, Japan hesitated in advancing any further and lost the initiative to the British.
(Japanese advancing along the Burma railway)
Observing the Japanese threat, the British reorganised their defense in a subtle way. Some spotted long-range mortar barrages were exchanged as well as several probing shots at opposing units in cover. On both sides, fireteams got pinned – and subsequently rallied by their cheering commanders.
The skirmishes changed into serious engagement, when the Japanese successfully laid a smoke screen over the south approach to the village, after which the British decided to retreat into the nearby woods.
Seizing the opportunity and while the smoke screen dissipated, the Japanese tried to move into cover of a crop field. Their advance was checked by reactive fire from the regrouped British after which a temporary stalemate developed, with the British in and the Japanese just outside of the crop field. The British were outnumbered and the Japanese carried a heavy machine gun, so something was bound to happen...
(UK denying Japan access to vegetable garden)
On the north side of town, things were heating up as well. The British forward observer directed a smoke screen in front of a rapidly advancing Imperial platoon, enabling the British to sneak into covered positions in another crop field.
(forward observer identifies hostile activities...)
(smoke gets in your eyes)
Knowing they would be easy meat with clearing of the smoke screen, the Japanese quickly decided to charge into the smoke. Banzai!
The British, who were at full combat strength, treated the Japanese on countless bursts of reactive fire, after which they easily wiped the entire platoon from the Burmish countryside in close combat.
(Imperial soldiers caught in reactive fire)
When the smoke finally cleared, the British platoon was surprised to descry the Imperial company command section trying to hide in the opposite jungle border...
Back in the south, both opposing platoons were preparing for a final show-off. After somewhat softening-up the Royal colonials with machinegun fire, the arisaka-toting Japanese soldiers changed their tactics to what they do best: charge the enemy. Ignoring any pinning shots, they engaged and finished the surprised British soldiers to the last man. A BREN carrier, effectively a HMG on tracks, soon met the same fate. At last, a southern entry into the village was forced – time to hunt down the British company commander...
(suppressed British soldiers don't stand a chance against fanatic Imperials)
Meanwhile, in the north, the British were smelling an easy victory. While their Valentine tank thoughtlessly obsoleted the two Japanese AFVs, ignoring any return fire, the by now overconfident British platoon sped towards the heavily outnumbered Japanese command section. One British fireteam got suppressed by desperate Japanese mortar fire, but the remainder of the platoon charged into the commander & Imperial Guard.
(company command caught in close combat)
With lots of positive modifiers on their Close Combat roll, the British rolled their die... a 1! They quickly checked the Japanese result... a 6!!! Against all odds, the stubborn Japanese commander slaughtered the British assailants!
Take home message: never underestimate the power of Asian martial arts.
At the same time, the Japanese platoon that was searching the outskirts at the village's southside, stumbed upon the British command section. Despite outcrying “My!”, "Bugger!" and “You don't say!”, the British commander was taken prisoner.
(hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way)
Another Axis victory!
Epilogue
Apart from two experienced light tank regiments and an infantry battalion brought in from the Middle East, whose presence in the long retreat up-country undoubtedly saved Burma Corps from total destruction, no other reinforcements reached Burma Command. (The British 18th Division, destined for Burma, was redirected to Singapore on Churchill's orders, reaching it just in time to march into Japanese prison camps.)
Help was promised from China, but as Sino-British relationships were lukewarm at best and the British command had to put up with abrupt changes of mind by Chiang Kai-shek, the British didn't get – or sometimes even accept – support in the needed numbers of troops and materiel.
Operating a scorched-earth policy as it went, Burcorps, now under command of Lieutenant General William Slim, fell back up the Irrawaddy river, accompanied by tens of thousands of wretched Indian refugees, harassed and murdered by the Burmese population as they struggled to gain Indian soil.
On 26 May, the campaign ended with barely a whimper as the last of the Allied forces slipped out of Burma. Stilwell's assessment was brief and to the point: "I claim we got a hell of a beating. We got run out of Burma and it is humiliating as hell. I think we ought to find out why it happened and go back and retake it."
The loss of Burma was a serious blow to the Allies. It completed the blockade of China, and without Allied aid, China's ability to oppose the Japanese invasion was extremely limited. Militarily, the Allied failure in Burma can be attributed to unpreparedness on the part of the British to meet the Japanese invasion and the failure of the Chinese to assist wholeheartedly in the defense.
The Japanese had a tremendous advantage from the beginning of the campaign. The invading forces were under a single command with one goal, the capture of Burma. Their unity of purpose and unity of command were complemented by the commitment of adequate resources to accomplish the agreed-upon task. Japanese air superiority gave their ground forces significant advantages, not the least of which was using air reconnaissance to confirm Allied troop dispositions and denying the same information to their opponents.
For the Allies, the CBI (China-Burma-India) theater would remain low on their priority list throughout the war. In this economy-of-force theater, the Allies conducted limited operations to occupy Japanese attention. That role, however, did not restrict Allied forces to purely defensive operations. Immediately after the humiliation in Burma, Stilwell and Allied planners began preparations for their next campaign, drawing on the lessons they had learned from the 1942 disaster. Allied strategy during the next phase of the war in the CBI theater would center on recapturing enough of Burma to reestablish a supply line into China. However, continued problems with inter-Allied cooperation, among other factors, would make it a very costly campaign.
7 December 1941 – 26 May 1942
Japan had invaded China in 1937, gradually isolating it from the rest of the world except for two tenuous supply lines: a narrow-gauge railway originating in Haiphong, French Indochina; and the Burma Road, an improved gravel highway linking Lashio in British Burma to Kunming in China. Along these routes traveled the materiel that made it possible for Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Chinese government to resist the Japanese offensives into the interior.
In 1940 Japan took advantage of the German invasion of France to cut both supply lines to China. In June, with France focused on the war in Europe, Japanese warships moved into French Indochina and closed the railroad from Haiphong. A month later, threatening war if its demands were not met, Japan secured an agreement from the hard-pressed British government to close the Burma Road temporarily.
The Burma Road reopened in October 1940, literally the sole lifeline to China. By late 1941 the United States was shipping lend-lease materiel by sea to the Burmese port of Rangoon, where it was transferred to railroad cars for the trip to Lashio in northern Burma and finally carried by truck over the 712-mile-long Burma Road to Kunming. Over this narrow highway, trucks carried munitions and materiel to supply the Chinese Army, whose continuing strength in turn forced the Japanese to keep considerable numbers of ground forces stationed in China. Consequently, Japanese strategists decided to cut the Burma lifeline, gain complete control of China, and free their forces for use elsewhere in the Pacific.
When Japan entered the war on the side of the Axis powers in December 1941, her main aims were to acquire raw materials, particularly oil, rubber and tin and, through expansion of the so-called Greater Co-Prosperity Sphere, to create space for the population of the over-crowded home islands.
These needs fired the strategic thinking of belligerent politicians and service chiefs in Tokyo. They worked on the assumption that a surprise attack on the United States Pacific Fleet's base at Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii, would enable the Imperial Japanese army, air force and navy to attain the warlords' territorial aims before the western Allies could react.
The raid at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 was a devastating blow to the Americans. It failed, however, in its main aim, that of sinking the American fleet's aircraft carriers. On hearing this intelligence, Admiral Yamamoto, the gifted master planner of the enterprise, knew that the war was already as good as lost.
Despite this, Japanese plans elsewhere worked beyond expectation. Hong Kong and Indo-China fell to them without difficulty, but the greatest triumphs occurred on the Malay peninsula and in Singapore, where British, Australian and Indian troops were forced into humiliating surrender.
The Japanese completed their triumphs by overrunning the Dutch East Indies, spreading out into the western Pacific by capturing numerous island bases - and by invading Burma.
Less than a week after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese planes took off from captured bases in Thailand and opened the invasion of Burma by bombing the Tavoy airdrome, a forward British outpost on the Andaman Sea south of Rangoon. The next day, 12 December 1941, small Japanese units began the ground offensive by infiltrating into Burma from Thailand. The Japanese quickly captured Rangoon, cutting off the Burma Road, and depriving the Chinese of their only convenient supply base and port of entry. In response, General Sir Archibald Wavell, in supreme command of the Far Eastern theatre, formed two scratch divisions, the 1st Burma and 17th Indian, into Burma corps (Burcorps).
He ordered his commanders, against their better judgement, to defend well forward. They, however, were aware, as he was not, of the deficiencies of their commands. The troops were raw, lacked combat experience, and were inadequately trained and equipped to take on the aggressive and bold invaders.
Battle report
For this scenario, a game of Crossfire was played, the miniatures were all of genuine AAM stock.
For more about Crossfire see: This game called Crossfire (click)
Forces:
Japan (attacker): 1 leg infantry company, enhanced with 2 50mm Mortars, 2 AFVs, 2 HMGs, and an ATG.
British forces (defender): 1 leg infantry company, enhanced with an off-board 3” mortar, a Valentine 2pdr, a 2pdr ATG, an additional HMG and 2 BREN carriers.
Special rules: Balagan's house rules were in play. Victory condition: kill the opponent's company command section. As part of the game was played in solo mode, Hidden Deployment rules were dropped.
(village overview with deployed British)
As defender, the British forces set up to defend the Burmese village first, after which Japan's Imperial forces received the initiative with entering the map from the east. During this first initiative, japan took its time deploying and moving its forces into postion while keeping out of British sight.
(Japan's initial deployment)
One fireteam exposed in a fire lane for a split second and drew reactive fire from the British ATG – which missed its mark. With all forces set up in and behind cover, Japan hesitated in advancing any further and lost the initiative to the British.
(Japanese advancing along the Burma railway)
Observing the Japanese threat, the British reorganised their defense in a subtle way. Some spotted long-range mortar barrages were exchanged as well as several probing shots at opposing units in cover. On both sides, fireteams got pinned – and subsequently rallied by their cheering commanders.
The skirmishes changed into serious engagement, when the Japanese successfully laid a smoke screen over the south approach to the village, after which the British decided to retreat into the nearby woods.
Seizing the opportunity and while the smoke screen dissipated, the Japanese tried to move into cover of a crop field. Their advance was checked by reactive fire from the regrouped British after which a temporary stalemate developed, with the British in and the Japanese just outside of the crop field. The British were outnumbered and the Japanese carried a heavy machine gun, so something was bound to happen...
(UK denying Japan access to vegetable garden)
On the north side of town, things were heating up as well. The British forward observer directed a smoke screen in front of a rapidly advancing Imperial platoon, enabling the British to sneak into covered positions in another crop field.
(forward observer identifies hostile activities...)
(smoke gets in your eyes)
Knowing they would be easy meat with clearing of the smoke screen, the Japanese quickly decided to charge into the smoke. Banzai!
The British, who were at full combat strength, treated the Japanese on countless bursts of reactive fire, after which they easily wiped the entire platoon from the Burmish countryside in close combat.
(Imperial soldiers caught in reactive fire)
When the smoke finally cleared, the British platoon was surprised to descry the Imperial company command section trying to hide in the opposite jungle border...
Back in the south, both opposing platoons were preparing for a final show-off. After somewhat softening-up the Royal colonials with machinegun fire, the arisaka-toting Japanese soldiers changed their tactics to what they do best: charge the enemy. Ignoring any pinning shots, they engaged and finished the surprised British soldiers to the last man. A BREN carrier, effectively a HMG on tracks, soon met the same fate. At last, a southern entry into the village was forced – time to hunt down the British company commander...
(suppressed British soldiers don't stand a chance against fanatic Imperials)
Meanwhile, in the north, the British were smelling an easy victory. While their Valentine tank thoughtlessly obsoleted the two Japanese AFVs, ignoring any return fire, the by now overconfident British platoon sped towards the heavily outnumbered Japanese command section. One British fireteam got suppressed by desperate Japanese mortar fire, but the remainder of the platoon charged into the commander & Imperial Guard.
(company command caught in close combat)
With lots of positive modifiers on their Close Combat roll, the British rolled their die... a 1! They quickly checked the Japanese result... a 6!!! Against all odds, the stubborn Japanese commander slaughtered the British assailants!
Take home message: never underestimate the power of Asian martial arts.
At the same time, the Japanese platoon that was searching the outskirts at the village's southside, stumbed upon the British command section. Despite outcrying “My!”, "Bugger!" and “You don't say!”, the British commander was taken prisoner.
(hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way)
Another Axis victory!
Epilogue
Apart from two experienced light tank regiments and an infantry battalion brought in from the Middle East, whose presence in the long retreat up-country undoubtedly saved Burma Corps from total destruction, no other reinforcements reached Burma Command. (The British 18th Division, destined for Burma, was redirected to Singapore on Churchill's orders, reaching it just in time to march into Japanese prison camps.)
Help was promised from China, but as Sino-British relationships were lukewarm at best and the British command had to put up with abrupt changes of mind by Chiang Kai-shek, the British didn't get – or sometimes even accept – support in the needed numbers of troops and materiel.
Operating a scorched-earth policy as it went, Burcorps, now under command of Lieutenant General William Slim, fell back up the Irrawaddy river, accompanied by tens of thousands of wretched Indian refugees, harassed and murdered by the Burmese population as they struggled to gain Indian soil.
On 26 May, the campaign ended with barely a whimper as the last of the Allied forces slipped out of Burma. Stilwell's assessment was brief and to the point: "I claim we got a hell of a beating. We got run out of Burma and it is humiliating as hell. I think we ought to find out why it happened and go back and retake it."
The loss of Burma was a serious blow to the Allies. It completed the blockade of China, and without Allied aid, China's ability to oppose the Japanese invasion was extremely limited. Militarily, the Allied failure in Burma can be attributed to unpreparedness on the part of the British to meet the Japanese invasion and the failure of the Chinese to assist wholeheartedly in the defense.
The Japanese had a tremendous advantage from the beginning of the campaign. The invading forces were under a single command with one goal, the capture of Burma. Their unity of purpose and unity of command were complemented by the commitment of adequate resources to accomplish the agreed-upon task. Japanese air superiority gave their ground forces significant advantages, not the least of which was using air reconnaissance to confirm Allied troop dispositions and denying the same information to their opponents.
For the Allies, the CBI (China-Burma-India) theater would remain low on their priority list throughout the war. In this economy-of-force theater, the Allies conducted limited operations to occupy Japanese attention. That role, however, did not restrict Allied forces to purely defensive operations. Immediately after the humiliation in Burma, Stilwell and Allied planners began preparations for their next campaign, drawing on the lessons they had learned from the 1942 disaster. Allied strategy during the next phase of the war in the CBI theater would center on recapturing enough of Burma to reestablish a supply line into China. However, continued problems with inter-Allied cooperation, among other factors, would make it a very costly campaign.