The Whale Has Wings Vol 2 - Taranto to Singapore (33 page)

The US War and Naval Departments send a message to the Pacific commanders advising them that the President was going to close the Panama Canal to Japanese shipping and would freeze all Japanese assets in the US, and those of banks situated in Japanese occupied China. The commanders were advised to “guard against possible eventualities”.

The British cruiser HMS Newcastle intercepts the German ship 'Erlangen' in the South Atlantic, which leads to the ship scuttling herself.

26th July

President Roosevelt incorporates the armed forces of the Philippines into the US Army and sends General MacArthur to take up the command of US forces in the Far East. MacArthur says that he is confident that the Philippines can be defended if war should spread to the Far East. The Army of the Commonwealth of the Philippines is called into Federal service.

MacArthur will continue as military advisor to the Philippine President. Upon learning of the mobilization of the Philippine National Army, he requests payment of the stipend of $50 per soldier serving in the Philippine National Army. This was provided for in his contract with the Commonwealth Government and had been approved by both Secretary of War Dern and the President in 1936. A number of other US Army officers had similar arrangements with the Commonwealth but one of them, Dwight Eisenhower, declined to accept his payment.

Soviet forces in and around Smolensk are cut off by the German pincer movement.

HMS Hood arrives in the US for a full refit. While the damage she suffered in the Bismark action has been fixed, the damage to her machinery and her general state means she is badly in need of a full refit, and dockyard space is not available in the UK. She will receive a general update and new machinery. It is hoped she will be ready in a year.

28th July

The crisis in the Far East worsened today when 30,000 Japanese troops entered French Indochina. The build-up includes elements of the Japanese navy, which have sailed into Camranh Bay and aircraft which are flying into Saigon. Japanese troops have also begun disembarking in Cambodia where 8,000 men will be within striking range of Siam.

Malaya is now seriously threatened from Indochina, which is providing the Japanese with a naval base within 750-miles of Singapore and airfields within 300 miles of northern Malaya. The Japanese move has isolated the Philippines and menaces the oil-rich Dutch East Indies.

The Vichy regime has given the Japanese a free hand in Indochina on the pretext that it was threatened by British and Gaullist plots. The fact that the Vichy regime no longer exists as a functioning government in France seems to have passed them by.

The USN forms its first experimental A/S group to be formed around a carrier. This will be escorting ships in the US section of the Atlantic, and is centred around the USS Ranger. The USA is building a number of escort carriers and merchant conversions for the UK, and has started to build additional ships for its own use. In addition to the escort duties the RN is using them for, the USN is interested in using an escort carrier for the transportation of planes. This would free up its fleet carriers for offensive uses, although they want the ships to ideally be faster and with a longer range for use in the Pacific. In the mean time, the Ranger will allow them to practice their own version of the RN escort tactics, which have been proving increasingly successful at keeping the U-boat packs away and shooting down long range reconnaissance planes.

30th July

Russia and the Polish government in exile signed a treaty of friendship in London today. The first result of the treaty will be the formation of a Polish army from prisoners of war held in Russia. Roosevelt's advisor Harry Hopkins arrives in Moscow to discuss ways to help the Soviet war effort.

Rolls-Royce has converted a Spitfire to use the new supercharged Merlin 60 engine. This has dramatically improved the high altitude performance. With the Gloster Sea Eagle due to come into service soon, the RAF has been putting pressure on the aircraft companies to improve Spitfire performance. It is hoped to have the new Mk8 with the new engine in production by the end of the year. A version of the Spitfire with the Griffon engine is expected to fly at the beginning of September, although the change to the much bigger engine means a longer development time is to be expected; it is intended that this aircraft will be the successor to the Mk8

2nd Aug

German forces attack Staraya Russa, south of Lake Ilmen, in their drive toward Leningrad.

US Lend-Lease aid begins for the Soviet Union, while the first Packard built Rolls Royce Merlin V-1650 aircraft engine is completed

The Royal Navy completes its assessment of shipping losses in July, and is quietly optimistic. Losses during the first six months of the year were running at over 400,000 tons of shipping in some months, but the losses have been steadily decreasing as the new escort carriers become available and more escorts allow proper escort groups to be formed. Escort groups are now formed on a long-term basis and practice as a group, and the combination is making losses drop steadily, although they are still concerned at what they see as the low level of U-boat sinkings. The biggest improvement has come from the decryption of the U-boat codes and the increasing use of HF/DF to locate U-boat packs, allowing evasive routing to slip through the searching submarines. This has been aided by using the carrier planes to keep U-boats closer to the evasive route down and allow the convoy to get through the gaps. The losses in July were around 90,000 tons. Losses need to be kept to under 200,000 tons a month to keep under the amount of new merchant ship construction in the Empire.

Centimetric radar is increasingly in use on the escorts, and its being fitted as fast as possible. It is also being fitted on the aircraft; the biggest limitation at the moment is the supply of radars. The new Leigh Light is just starting in operation, and the use of these even with the older metric radar on the Stirlings has sunk a number of U-boats. With the promise of the new Mediterranean route being open soon, the outlook for shipping resources is looking more promising. The new route will allow the ships supplying war equipment to return with full cargoes, and reducing the use of the Cape route will allow a good million tons of shipping to be reallocated. The southern route will also result in less shipping damage during the winter months. The one drawback is that the heavier use of this route will mean more air protection will be needed against Luftwaffe attacks from France, and it is seen as a necessity for these convoys to be covered by a carrier at least until range of Gibraltar.

A squadron of B-17's is delivered to the French in Algeria. This shipment has been redesignated as lend-lease as the USAAF want to see how the aircraft performs in actual combat. In addition to the planes there are a number of servicemen who speak French with a rather pronounced American accent.

New commands are put in place for Burma and Malaya, although the timing and composition of the additional forces are still secret.

British Far Eastern Fleet - Admiral Somerville

CinC India/Far East - General Auchinleck

CinC Burma General Cunningham

I Burma Corps

1 Burma Inf. Division (in place)

17 Indian Inf. Division (in place)

7th Armoured Brigade (in place)

II Burma Corps

12 African Division (arrives Nov 41)

4 Indian Division (arrives Nov 41)

CinC Malaya

General Alexander

CoS Gen. Percival

I Australian Corps - General Blamey

7th Australian Div (arrives Sep 41)

9th Australian Div (arrives Oct 41)

1 Armoured Division (arrives Sep-Oct 41)

III Indian Corps - General Heath

9th Indian Div (in place)

11th Indian Div. (in place)

18th British Division (arrives Dec 1941)

RAF Burma - tbd, until then RAF Burma will come under RAF Malaya command.

RAF Malaya - AirMarshal Park

After considering his report, General Slim is promoted so he can take over one of the Indian divisions in Burma. It is emphasized to both the existing commanders and the new ones that training is seen as most important, this being one of the greatest deficiencies listed in the report. While the addition of some experienced and well-trained formations will help, the units already in place need to be brought up to standard.

5th Aug

The Germans have wiped out the "Smolensk Pocket", destroying the Russian Sixteenth and Twentieth Armies and capturing 300,000 Russian soldiers, 3,200 tanks and 3,100 guns. It is a shattering defeat for the Red Army. Smolensk itself, the "gateway to Moscow", fell on 16 July and the Russian forces east of the city were surrounded.

HMS Implacable leaves New York (after a goodwill visit) to return home after having her bomb damage repaired in the USA. She will receive an updated radar fit and then sail with a new airgroup for Trincomalee in Ceylon. She will be accompanied by HMS Prince of Wales and a number of destroyers.

The first successful sortie of a Mosquito reconnaissance plane flies a mission over French coastal ports. Intercepted by three Me109 fighters, it easily outpaced them. The Mosquito is being developed primarily as a bomber, but it is also to be used in small numbers as a long-ranged reconnaissance plane to supplement the Whirlwind, which is now being trialled for use as a long-range fighter.

9th August

The first British landings in the Dodecanese islands start. The men used are the Commandoes of Leyforce, covered by aircraft using the rebuilt Cretan airfields, although a carrier is stationed south of Crete in case additional support is needed.

The first islands chosen as targets are Kasos and Karpathos, as these are close to Crete and air cover. Both only have small Italian garrisons, and they are seen as a trial before the larger and better-fortified islands of Kos and Rhodes are assaulted. The force for Kasos is Leyforce, around 1,500 commandos, supplemented by 10 tanks. At the same time 1,200 men of the 4th Indian division, again supported by a small number of tanks, assaulted the small island of Karpathos. These forces were the maximum that could be used with the available shipping capability.

Both attacks went satisfactorily, although there were a number of problems caused by the troops lack of experience at assault landings. There was also a considerable amount of air support given to the defenders by the Italian air force operating from Rhodes. Indeed, without the RAF bases on Crete it was not certain if the landings could have been sustained, as even with fighter cover a number of landing craft and two coasters were sunk. However resistance on the islands themselves was light, and although some of the Italian troops fought well they were outnumbered and outmatched by the invaders.

As a result of these landings, further assaults were planned for September, once the lessons learn from the first two had been incorporated.

The battleship HMS Prince of Wales, with Prime Minister Churchill aboard, arrives at Placentia Bay with a destroyer escort. Churchill is here to meet with the U.S. President who arrived in the heavy cruiser USS Augusta two days ago. Churchill calls on Roosevelt on board USS Augusta and the two confer over lunch and dinner. This conference will result in the Atlantic Charter; a statement of principles governing the policies of Britain and America. The conference will last for four days.

The Australian Prime Minister, Menzies, is back in Australia. The Australian government and people are increasingly anxious about the Japanese, especially with the bulk of their men in the Middle East. Menzies has been criticised in particular by the Labor party (who have refused to join a wartime coalition, preferring to play party politics instead). Menzies has a good hand to play, however. With agreement from Britain, he announces that I Australian Corps, under the command of General Blamey, and including a British Armoured Division, will be sailing for Malaya later this month. Additional British and Empire forces will follow. He also announces that the battleships Warspite and Queen Elizabeth will soon be based in Ceylon, and they will be joined by additional ships, as well as Australia's cruisers which have been aiding the Royal Navy. This announcement - of considerably greater force than anyone had expected - is used by Menzies to justify his time spent in the UK, and shows that the Empire is indeed prepared to help Australia now that she also is threatened. He asks that Australia prepares additional forces herself to back up the Imperial forces. The whole presentation has rather derailed the Labor party and Menzies political opponents. By previous agreement, he does not mention the submarine force that is planned for deployment.

Britain and the USSR promise to go to the assistance of Turkey in the event of an attack by any European power. In identical statements presented to the Turkish foreign office by their ambassadors, the two Allies have also pledged themselves to "observe the territorial integrity of the Turkish republic."

The statements are seen as counters to German propaganda that Russia would take advantage of Turkey and invade should the latter enter the war.

A raid by 24 Wellington bombers on Monchen-Gladbach is the first to use the new experimental Gee system for radiolocation. The results are said to be 'encouraging'. Further tests will follow and it is hoped to have the system in production for the much larger bombing raids planned early next year when the new Lancaster bomber will be added to the increasing Halifax force.