readytorunbook Chapter 554: Attack in the Pacific
Chapter 554: Attack in the Pacific
Five days after the Japanese government submitted its proposal to the United States, the United States Secretary of State Hull submitted the "Basic Outline of the US-Japan Agreement", or the Hull Memorandum, to the Japanese ambassador to the United States. The memorandum included one requirement for Japan and nine common requirements for both parties.
In the comparison of the land, sea and air forces of Japan and the United States and Britain in Southeast Asia before the war, the Japanese army had about 17 troops ready to be deployed in the army, and the Allied forces of the United States, Britain and other countries had about combat troops. In terms of navy, Japan dispatched a total of ships, including aircraft carriers, and the Allies dispatched a total of ships, including aircraft carriers. In terms of air force, Japan had about front-line combat aircraft, and the Allies had about . However, the Allies had B- long-range bombers known as "flying fortresses."
However, before the outbreak of the war, the main defense forces of the US and British allies in Southeast Asia were local mercenaries, and the troops were seriously lacking in advanced weapons and equipment and necessary combat qualities.
Among them, the United States had about 130,000 defensive forces in the Philippines, but there were only 1,200 of them were regular troops of the United States, and the rest were Filipino mercenaries and militia. The vast majority of the 88,000 British garrisons in Malaysia and Singapore were local troops from India, Australia and Malaysia. They had poor equipment, training and combat effectiveness, and even had no tank support. In Myanmar, Britain had only two divisions before the war. Many officers in the army were white lawyers, businessmen and plantation owners, and most of the soldiers were local Burmese. They could not resist the attack of the well-trained Japanese troops at all.
On December 1941, 12 (early morning to noon Hawaii time, December 7 Japan time), Japan dispatched more than 12 carrier-based aircraft and 8 warships, led by Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, commander of the Japanese Navy's Pearl Harbor Raid Mobile Fleet, and launched two consecutive fierce air strikes on the United States' warships and airports in Pearl Harbor, sinking or damaging more than American warships, including eight battleships, and destroying or damaging more than aircraft. The U.S. military was caught off guard by the Japanese surprise attack, and the main force of the United States' Pacific Fleet was almost completely destroyed, with more than officers and soldiers killed or injured.
The Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the naval and air force base of the United States, officially announcing the outbreak of the Pacific War.
This is also one of the important steps in Japan's southward policy.
The Pearl Harbor incident declared the complete bankruptcy of the isolationist diplomatic and defense policy pursued by the United States. When national interests were seriously damaged, the United States had to give up compromising with the Japanese government. In order to effectively prevent the Japanese army from continuing to advance southward, the United States, on the one hand, hoped to use China's abundant manpower and resources to delay and consume the Japanese army to the maximum extent; on the other hand, it prepared to place the battlefield for counterattack against Japan in the southwest Pacific.
On the same day that the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, Japanese aircraft took off from Taiwan and began to attack Hong Kong Island. While Japanese aircraft were bombing Hong Kong, the well-equipped 38th Division of the 23rd Army of the Japanese Army launched an attack on Hong Kong Island.
The British garrison stationed in Hong Kong Island consisted of only six infantry battalions and a small number of volunteers. There were no defensive fortifications built in the base and the port. Under the fierce attack of the 38th Division of the Japanese Army, the British Army was defeated and fled. In the end, under the attack of the 38th Division of the Japanese Army, more than 1,200 British officers and soldiers were killed and more than 12,000 were captured. The Japanese Army completely occupied Hong Kong Island and became the new ruler of Hong Kong Island.
On the same day, the second Japanese force, the 15th Army stationed in the Indochina Peninsula, launched an attack on Thailand and Myanmar. The Japanese offensive force encountered almost no organized resistance and occupied the Thai capital Bangkok the next day.
The Thai government was forcibly tied to the Japanese army's chariot and declared war on the United States and Britain the following year. After the Japanese army occupied parts of Thailand, it concentrated its forces on seizing Burma.
The Japanese army had two purposes for attacking Burma. The first was to cut off the last line of transportation between China and the outside world in order to isolate and encircle China. The second was to establish a defensive barrier from the west for the so-called "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere".
In mid-December, the Japanese army began to launch air strikes on Rangoon and captured it on March 12. At the same time, the Japanese troops assembled in northern Thailand also began to cross the Thai-Myanmar border and launched an attack on the interior of Myanmar. They wiped out a Chinese army fighting in Burma, cut off the retreat route of the British army retreating from Rangoon and another army of the Chinese Expeditionary Force. The defeated British Army and the Expeditionary Force had to break up and withdraw to India at the end of May.
On the day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the third Japanese army, consisting of the 25th Army stationed in the Indochina Peninsula, launched an attack on Malaysia and Singapore. The British colony of Singapore was the throat of the Pacific Ocean entering the Indian Ocean and was also the main target of the Japanese attack.
When the Japanese offensive forces landed in the Isthmus of Kra and Kota Bharu, the air force also carried out intensive bombing on Singapore. With the cooperation of naval and air forces, the Japanese ground offensive forces attacked southward along the railway, defeated the British garrison stationed in northern Malaysia, and retreated to Singapore in a hurry.
The defeat of the United States in the Pacific was also a serious setback for Britain's defense in the Pacific. In order to strengthen its defense in Asia, Churchill sent the battleship "Prince of Wales" and the battlecruiser "Repulse" to Singapore.
On December 9, the British battleships "Prince of Wales" and "Repulse" set sail from Singapore in order to destroy the Japanese troops that landed in Kuantan. On the morning of the 10th, they were attacked by Japanese bombers and torpedo planes and sank when approaching Kuantan. The commander of the British Far East Fleet, Phillips, also sank into the vast ocean with the ship. From then on, Britain completely lost its air and sea supremacy in the Pacific region.
The offensive force of the 1942th Japanese Army that landed in Malaysia continued to advance southward and occupied Kuala Lumpur in . By the end of January, the entire Malay Peninsula was completely occupied by the Japanese army.
On February 14, Singapore was surrounded and its fresh water supply was cut off. On the 25th, the 80,000 British garrison in Singapore surrendered to the Japanese army and Singapore was occupied by the Japanese army. In this way, the ocean route connecting Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia fell into the hands of the Japanese.
The fourth route of the Japanese army also launched an attack on the Dutch East Indies, which is today's Indonesia, by the 16th Army of the Japanese army stationed on Hainan Island in China on the day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The Dutch colonial troops stationed there were unable to resist the Japanese attack. The Japanese offensive forces successively occupied islands such as Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Timor and Sumatra.