1939
SEPTEMBER
1939
DECLARATIONS
OF WAR
3rd - Prime
Minister Neville Chamberlain broadcasts to
announce that Britain
was at war with Germany. France,
Australia,
New Zealand and India (through the
Viceroy)
declared war the same day. 6th - South
Africa
declared war.
OCTOBER
1939
German Heavy
Warships
- Pocket battleship "Graf Spee" claimed four
more merchant ships in the South Atlantic before
heading
into the southern Indian Ocean. Seven Allied
hunting
groups were formed in the Atlantic and one in
the Indian
Ocean to search for her. In total the Royal and
French
Navies deployed three capital ships, four
aircraft
carriers and 16 cruisers.
1940
JANUARY
1940
British
Empire
Troop Movements - By early 1940
Australian, Indian and New Zealand forces were
on their way to Egypt and the
Middle East. Troop convoys were always heavily
escorted,
and the Dominion Navies played an important part
in
protecting the men as they left their home
shores. Australian and New Zealand cruisers were
particularly active in the
Indian Ocean.
MARCH
1940
German Raiders
-Converted from a merchantman and heavily armed,
auxiliary cruiser “Atlantis” sailed for the
Indian Ocean round the Cape of Good Hope. In
1941 she
moved into the South Atlantic, and operations
lasted for
a total of 20 months until her loss in November
1941. She
was the first of nine active raiders, seven of
which went
out in 1940. Their success was not so much due
to their
sinkings and captures - a creditable average of
15 ships
of 90,000 tons for each raider, but the
disruption they
caused in every ocean. At a time when the Royal
Navy was
short of ships, convoys had to be organised and
patrols
instituted in many areas. The first German
raider was not
caught until May 1941 - 14 months from now.
Steps to War
with
Japan - Japan established a Chinese
puppet-government in Nanking.
APRIL
1940
German Raiders - “Orion”
sailed
for the Pacific and Indian Oceans around South
America's Cape Horn. She was out for 16 months
before
returning to France.
MAY
1940
German Raiders -
On
her way into the Indian Ocean, “Atlantis” laid
mines off South Africa.
JUNE
1940
German
Raiders
- “Pinguin” left for the Indian
Ocean around the Cape of Good Hope, later
operated in the
Antarctic and was finally lost in May 1941.
Italy
Declared War - Italy declared war on
Britain and
France on the 10th. Two weeks later France was
out of the
war. Still on the 10th, Australia, Canada,
India, New
Zealand and South Africa declared war on Italy.
Italian
East
Africa and Red Sea Area - see
East
Africa & Near East
for the complete campaign. However
actions taking place in the Indian Ocean as well
as
operations involving Indian and East/South
African forces
are included here: 19th - At the
southern end of
the Red Sea, the Italian “GALILEO GALILEI” on
patrol off Aden was captured by
armed trawler “Moonstone” following a gun duel.
23rd - Also in the Gulf of Aden, but off
French
Somaliland, Italian boat “EVANGELISTA TORICELLI”
was
sunk by destroyers
“Kandahar” and “Kingston” with sloop
“Shoreham”. During the action, destroyer
“KHARTOUM” suffered
an internal explosion and sank in shallow water
off Perim
Island, a total loss. 23rd - Italian
submarine
“Galvani” sank Indian patrol sloop “PATHAN” in
the Indian Ocean. 24th -
The following day off the Gulf of Oman,
“GALVANI”
was
accounted for
by sloop
“Falmouth”.
Mediterranean
Merchant
Shipping War - Losses in the Mediterranean
throughout
the war would generally be low as most Allied
shipping to
and from the Middle East was diverted around the
Cape of
Good Hope and through the Indian Ocean.
Steps to War
with
Japan, June/July - With its
possession of
the Chinese ports, Japan wanted to close the
remaining
entry points into China. Pressure was put on
France to
stop the flow of supplies through Indochina, and
on
Britain to do the same with the Burma Road. Both
complied, but Britain did so only until October
1940,
when the road was reopened.
JULY
1940
German
Raiders
- Only 11 months before German attacked
Russia, “Komet” sailed for the Pacific through
the North East Passage across the top of Siberia
with the
aid of Russian icebreakers. She operated in the
Pacific
and Indian Oceans until returning to Germany in
November
1941, the last of the first wave of surface
raiders to
leave Germany.
SEPTEMBER
1940
Steps
to
War with Japan - Vichy France
finally agreed
to the stationing of Japanese troops in northern
Indochina.
OCTOBER
1940
German
Surface
Warships - Pocket battleship "Admiral
Scheer" sailed from Germany for the Atlantic and
later Indian Oceans. She got back home in March
1941.
DECEMBER
1940
German
Raiders
- "Kormoran" was the first of the
second wave of raiders to leave for operations.
She
started in the central Atlantic and later moved
to the
Indian Ocean, where she was lost in November
1941.
Indian
Ocean Merchant Shipping Losses, April
to December 1940
Total 24 British and
Allied ships of 173,000 tons lost
1941
JANUARY
1941
German
Raiders - Six of the original seven
raiders were
still at sea including "Atlantis" at the
desolate island of Kerguelen in the southern
Indian Ocean
and "Pinguin" in the Antarctic. All six moved
to different areas over the next few months.
East
Africa - The British and Dominion campaign
started to
drive out the Italians from East Africa. Eritrea
in the
north was invaded from the Sudan by largely
Indian
forces, while East African and South African
troops
attacked Italian Somaliland from Kenya to the
south.
FEBRUARY
1941
German
Heavy
Warships - Heavy cruiser "Admiral
Hipper" and battlecruisers "Scharnhorst"
and "Gneisenau" were out in the Atlantic.
Meanwhile pocket battleship "Admiral Scheer" in
the Indian Ocean operated successfully off
Madagascar
before preparing to return to Germany.
East Africa -
In
the north the Indian advance into Eritrea was
held up for
most of February and March by the Battle for
Keren. In
the south, the Italian Somaliland capital of
Mogadishu
was captured on the 25th, after which British
forces
advanced northwest into Ethiopia. The East
lndies
Command under Vice-Adm R. Leatham
continually
supported the land campaign. 27th -
After breaking
out of Massawa, Eritrea's Red Sea port, Italian
armed
merchant cruiser "RAMB 1"
was located
off the Indian Ocean Maldive
Islands and sunk by New Zealand cruiser
"Leander"
MARCH
1941
East
Africa - British forces were transported
from Aden to
Berbera in British Somaliland on the 16th. From
there,
they advanced southwest into southern Ethiopia.
To the
north, Keren fell to the attacking Indian troops
and the
road was opened to the Eritrean capital of
Asmara and Red
Sea port of Massawa.
APRIL
1941
German
Raiders
- Pocket battleship "Admiral
Scheer" got back to Germany after five months in
the
Atlantic and Indian Oceans credited with 16
ships of
99,000 tons.
Middle
East
- A
pro-German coup in Iraq on the 1st threatened
Allied oil
supplies. British and Indian units were entering
the
country through the Persian Gulf by the middle
of the
month.
East Africa - On
the
Red Sea coast of Italian East Africa, the
capture of
Eritrea was completed when Asmara was occupied
on the 1st
and the port of Massawa on the 8th. Two days
earlier,
Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, had been
taken. Italian
resistance continued mainly in the north of the
Ethiopia.
Four Italian submarines managed to escape from
Massawa
and eventually reached Bordeaux, France after
sailing
down the Indian Ocean and round Africa.
Steps to War
with
Japan - Five Year Neutrality Pact
between Japan
and Russia benefited both powers. Russia could
free
troops for Europe and Japan concentrate on her
expansion
southwards.
MAY
1941
8th
-
On patrol north of the Seychelles in the Indian
Ocean,
heavy cruiser "Cornwall" found and sank German
raider "PINGUIN". This was the first raider to
be
hunted down, having accounted for 28 ships of
136,000
tons.
JULY
1941
Steps
to
War with Japan - The demand for
bases in
southern Indochina was now conceded by Vichy
France.
Britain, Holland and the United States protested
and
froze Japanese assets, but the troops went in.
The Dutch
East lndies cancelled oil delivery arrangements
and the
Americans shortly imposed their own oil embargo.
Japan
had lost most of its sources of oil.
AUGUST
1941
German
Raiders - "Orion" returned to France from
the Indian Ocean via the Cape of Good Hope. In
16 months
she had accounted for 9 1/2 ships of 60,000
tons, some in
co-operation with "Komet".
Middle East -
The
possibility of a pro-Axis coup d'etat led to
Anglo-Soviet
forces going into Persia on the 25th from points
in Iraq,
the Persian Gulf and Russia. A cease-fire was
announced
within four days, but later violations led to
Teheran
being occupied in the middle of September. The
landings
in Persia from the Gulf were made from a small
force of
British, Australian and Indian warships of the
East
ladies Command.
SEPTEMBER
1941
Steps
to
War with Japan - Japan and the US
continued
to negotiate over their differences, but as its
oil
stocks rapidly declined Japan accelerated
preparations
for war.
OCTOBER
1941
Steps
to
War with Japan - War Minister Gen
Tojo became
Japanese Prime Minister.
Also
in
October, Australia saw the fall of the Country
Party
of former Prime Minister Robert Menzies who
resigned
earlier in August. John Curtin and the Labour
Party
came to power.
NOVEMBER
1941
3rd -
The recently completed fleet carrier
"Indomitable"
ran aground and was
damaged off Kingston, Jamaica. She was due to
accompany
capital ships "Prince of Wales" and
"Repulse" to the Far East as a deterrent to
Japanese aggression. Her absence in December may
have
proved fatal to the two big ships.
19th
-
Far across the Indian Ocean off Western
Australia, the
Australian cruiser "Sydney" came across German
raider "Kormoran". Apparently caught unawares,
"SYDNEY"
was
mortally
damaged and lost without
trace. "KORMORAN" also went down. In a cruise
lasting 12 months she had sunk or captured 11
other ships
of 68,000 tons.
Steps
to
War with Japan - As talks dragged on
and the
United States demanded the departure of Japan
from China
as well as French Indochina, the Pearl Harbor
Strike
Force sailed into the North Pacific. Britain's
limited
naval deterrent to Japanese expansion, capital
ships
"Prince of Wales" and "Repulse" met
at Colombo, Ceylon on the 28th, en route to
Singapore.
Without the fleet carrier "Indomitable" they
had no ship-borne aircraft support.
DECEMBER 1941
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Strategic
and
Naval Background -
Indian Ocean
Britain
and Dominions
-
Responsible for
defending India, Ceylon,
Burma, Malaya, northern
Borneo,
Hong Kong, Australia,
New
Zealand,
the Papua New
Guinea/Bismarck
Archipelago/Solomon
Islands chain, and
numerous island groups
throughout the
Indian Ocean and Central
and South
Pacific. Few forces
could be spared from
existing war zones to
protect this vast
spread of territory and
its supply
routes. Britain's main
base was at Singapore
with its two
recently arrived big
ships. Three old
cruisers and some
destroyers were in
Malayan waters, and a
few old destroyers
at Hong Kong. By now the
surviving seven cruisers
and smaller
ships of the Royal
Australian and New
Zealand Navies were back
in the area.
Japan
went to war with both
the strategic and
military advantages:
Strategically
-
Japan
was well placed to
occupy the territory
needed for the
defence perimeter
covering the Indian
Ocean approaches:
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To
the
Southwest:
Thailand
and Malaya
would soon fall
to the invading
forces from Hainan and
Indochina.
Thereafter the capture
of Burma could
proceed smoothly. The
Burma Road would be
cut, India
threatened, and that
perimeter was secured.
In the South:
Lay
the
oilfields of the Dutch
East Indies
and the protection
offered by the island
chain of Sumatra, Java
and Bali through
to Timor.
The
main
island of Java was the
target of two
massive pincer
movements:
Westwards
- From Indochina
to
northern Borneo, and
later direct to
Sumatra and Java.
Eastwards
- From bases in
Formosa and the
Carolines to the
Philippines. From
there to southern
Borneo, Celebes and
Moluccas, and on to
Timor and Bali. Then
to eastern Java.
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Declarations and
Outbreak of War - Because of the
International
Dateline, events that took place on the 7th in
Hawaii as
far as Washington and London were concerned,
were already
into the 8th in Hong Kong and Malaya. By the
8th: (1)
Japan had declared war on Britain and the US;
(2)
Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South
Africa,
Holland, the United States had declared against
Japan;
and (3) China declared war against the Axis
powers.
South West -
Thailand,
Malaya, Burma - Japanese forces landed on
the Kra
Isthmus of Thailand and northeast Malaya on the
8th.
From there they drove down the west coast of
Malaya
towards Singapore, outflanking the defences by
land and
sea. Follow-up landings took place later in the
month and
in January 1942. By the 13th December
they had
crossed from Thailand into the southern tip of
Burma, but
stayed there for the time being.
10th -
Loss of “Repulse” and “Prince of
Wales”: the Sinking of Force Z - By the 8th,
the
battlecruiser and battleship had assembled at
Singapore
as Force Z under the command of Adm Sir Tom
Phillips.
That evening they sailed with four destroyers to
attack
the Japanese landing on the northeast Malay
coast.
Fighter cover was requested but not readily
available. In
the evening of the 9th, Force Z was well
up into
the South China Sea. Japanese aircraft were
spotted and
Adm Phillips decided to return. Around midnight
he
received a false report of landings at Kuantan,
further
down the Malay Peninsular and set course for
there. The
ships had by now been reported by a submarine,
and a
naval aircraft strike force was despatched from
Indochina. Attacks started around 11.00 on the 10th
December, and in less than three hours “PRINCE
OF
WALES” and
“REPULSE”
had been hit by a number of torpedoes and sent
to the
bottom. Nearly a thousand men were lost, but
2,000 were
picked up by the destroyers.
Following the Pearl
Harbor attack, not one of the Allies' 10
battleships
in the Pacific area remained in service.
South - Northern
Borneo
and Philippines Islands - The first
landings in
northern Borneo took place in Sarawak and Brunei
on the
16th December, and continued through until late
January
1942. In the Philippines, the island of Luzon
was the
main target. Between the 10th and 22nd, landings
were
made in the north of the island, in the south,
and at
Lingayen Gulf in the west. The Japanese forces
made a
combined drive on the capital of Manila, which
was
declared an open city. They entered on 2nd
January 1942
by which time preparations were being made to
attack Gen
MacArthur's US and Filipino troops now withdrawn
into the
Bataan Peninsular just to the west of Manila.
The
southern island of Mindanao was invaded on 20th
December
1941.
Indian
Ocean Merchant Shipping Losses,
January to December 1941
Total 20 British and
Allied ships of 73,000 tons lost
1942
JANUARY
1942
Arcadia Conference
-
In late December and early January, Winston
Churchill and
President Roosevelt with their Chiefs of Staff
met in
Washington DC. They agreed to the setting up of
a
Combined Chiefs of Staff Committee and to the
defeat of
Germany as the first priority, Japan second.
Allied Command
-
Early in the month, Gen Wavell was appointed to
command
ABDA (American, British, Dutch, Australian)
forces
responsible for holding Malaya and the Dutch
East Indies.
West - Malaya and
Burma
- In their drive on Singapore, the Japanese
captured
Kuala Lumpur on the 11th. To the north they
crossed into
southern Burma from the Kra Isthmus on the 15th,
and on
the 20th started the invasion of Burma from
central
Thailand. Thailand shortly declared war on
Britain and
the United States. On the last day of January,
the
retreating British, Australian and Indian troops
withdrew
into Singapore Island, having been driven down
the length
of the Malay Peninsula. By then carrier
"Indomitable" had flown off 48 Hurricanes for
Singapore via Java.
South -
Philippines and
Dutch East lndies - As the US and
Filipinos were
slowly pushed into Bataan, the Japanese began
the
invasion of the Dutch East lndies from southern
Philippines. First landings took place on the
11th at
Tarakan in Borneo and in the Celebes. More
followed later
in the month, but which time they had reached
the
Moluccas in the drive south towards Java.
17th -
Japanese
submarine "I-60" tried to pass through the Sunda
Strait for
the Indian Ocean. She was located and sunk by
destroyer
"Jupiter" escorting a convoy to Singapore.
20th -
Submarine "I-124" minelaying off Darwin,
northern
Australia, was sunk by Australian minesweepers
"Deloraine", "Katoomba",
"Lithgow" and US destroyer "Edsall".
27th - Two
old
destroyers, "Thanet" and Australian
"Vampire" attack well-protected troop
transports off Endau, southeast Malaya. "THANET"
was
sunk by the
5.5in cruiser
"Sendai" and destroyers.
Monthly Loss Summary:
Indian Ocean - 13
merchant ships of 46,000 tons
FEBRUARY
1942
West - Malaya,
Singapore and Burma - On the 8th, Japanese
forces
started crossing over to Singapore Island. Heavy
fighting
took place, but by the 15th Singapore
surrendered and
over 80,000 mainly Australian, British and
Indian troops
were doomed to captivity. Many would not
survive. The
Allies had lost the key to South East Asia and
the South
West Pacific. In Burma the Japanese pushed on
towards
Rangoon. 12th - Light cruiser "Durban"
was
damaged in
bombing attacks off
Singapore. 14th - Attempting to escape
to Batavia,
auxiliary patrol ship "LI WO" with a single 4in
gun attacked a
troop convoy south of Singapore and was soon
sunk by a
Japanese cruiser. Commanding officer Lt Thomas
Wilkinson
RNR was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
South - Dutch East
lndies - The two-pronged advance on Java
continued
with airborne landings on Palembang in southern
Sumatra
on the 14th, followed up by landings from the
sea one day
later by forces carried from Indochina. A few
days later
the islands of Bali and Timor were invaded from
the
Celebes and Moluccas respectively. The scene was
set for
the conquest of Java.
27th
February-1st March - Battles of the
Java Sea - ABDA's
main naval force was commanded by the Dutch Adm
Doorman
and consisted of a mixed squadron of cruisers
and
destroyers for the defence of Java: heavy
cruisers
"Exeter" and the US "Houston" (above -
Maritime Quest), light
cruisers "Perth" (Australian), "De Ruyter" and
Java" (both Dutch), and destroyers
"Electra", "Encounter",
"Jupiter", plus two Dutch and four American.
They put to sea on the 26th on the news
that
invasion convoys were approaching. Failing to
find them
they headed back to Surabaya the next day, but
before
getting in, more reports arrived and the Allied
force
went out again towards a position to the
northwest. The
main battle started on the 27th at
around 16.00
against the two heavy, two light cruisers and 14
destroyers covering the Japanese transports.
Both Allied
heavies opened fire at long range, but "Exeter"
was
soon hit and
her speed reduced. In
the resulting confusion one of the Dutch
destroyers was
torpedoed and sunk. As "Exeter" returned to
Surabaya with the second Dutch destroyer, the
Royal Navy
destroyers went in to attack and
"ELECTRA"
was sunk
by
gunfire. Adm Doorman headed back south towards
the
Java coast and sent off the US destroyers to
refuel. He
then turned to the north with his remaining four
cruisers
and two British destroyers. By now it was late
evening
and
"JUPITER"
was lost
probably
on a Dutch mine. "Encounter" picked up
survivors from the first Dutch destroyer and
shortly
followed the Americans to Surabaya. The four
cruisers,
now without any destroyers, were in action
sometime
before midnight and both "DE RUYTER" and "JAVA"
were
blasted apart by the big Japanese
torpedoes. "Perth" and "Houston" made
for Batavia, further west along the north coast
of Java.
The next evening, on the 28th, "Perth"
and "Houston" left Batavia and sailed west for
the Sunda Strait to break through to the Indian
Ocean.
From Surabaya three of the US destroyers went
east and
eventually reached safety through the shallow
Bali
Strait. "Exeter's" draught was too great for
this route and the damaged cruiser had to make
for the
Sunda Strait accompanied by destroyer
"Encounter" and US destroyer "Pope".
28th/1st
March - BattIe of the Sunda
Strait - Late that
evening
"PERTH" and "HOUSTON" ran into the Japanese
invasion fleet in the
Strait and attacked the transports. They were
soon
overwhelmed by the gunfire and torpedoes of the
covering
cruisers and destroyers and sank in the opening
minutes
of the 1st March. A Dutch destroyer following
astern
suffered the same fate.
Later on the morning
of
the 1st March "EXETER", "ENCOUNTER" and "POPE"
fought a lengthy action with a
cruiser force to the northwest of Surabaya
before they
too succumbed.
Of the entire
Allied
force, only three old US destroyers managed to
get
away.
Australia -
Aircraft from four of the Pearl Harbor Strike
carriers
raided Darwin, Northern Territories on the 19th.
One
American destroyer and a number of valuable
transports
were lost.
Monthly Loss Summary:
Indian Ocean - 18
merchant ships of 38,000 tons
MARCH
1942
German Raiders
-
Raider "Michel" sailed for the South Atlantic
and later Indian and Pacific Oceans.
West - Burma -
Rangoon, the entry port for the Burma Road, fell
to the
Japanese on the 8th. Towards the end of the
month the
Andaman Island group in the Indian Ocean
flanking the
south of Burma was occupied.
South -
Philippines and
Dutch East lndies - As the US and
Filipinos struggled
to hold on to Bataan, Gen MacArthur was ordered
to leave
for Australia. There he assumed the post of
Supreme
Commander, South West Pacific. US Adm Nimitz was
to
command the rest of the Pacific. The Java
landings went
ahead on the 1st and Batavia, the capital of all
the DEI,
fell. The Allied surrender was agreed on the
9th. On the
12th, northern Sumatra was occupied and the rest
of March
was spent consolidating the Japanese hold
throughout the
many islands. Japan's southern perimeter had
been secured
in less than four months. 2nd - Strong
Japanese
naval forces patrolled the Indian Ocean south of
Java to
stop the escape of Allied shipping. Old
destroyer "STRONGHOLD"
was
sunk in action with the 8in cruiser
"Maya" and two destroyers. 4th - Two
days later Australian sloop "YARRA" and the
ships she was escorting were also
destroyed.
Monthly Loss Summary:
Indian Ocean - 65
merchant ships of 68,000 tons
APRIL
1942
5th-9th
- Japanese Carrier Attacks on
Ceylon - A new
Eastern Fleet had been assembled under the
command of Adm
Sir James Somerville, recently of Force H. The
variety of
ships were split into two groups. A fast group
included
battleship "Warspite", carriers
"Indomitable" and "Formidable", heavy
cruisers "Cornwall" and
"Dorsetshire", two light cruisers plus
destroyers. In the slower group were four 'R'
class
battleships, old carrier "Hermes" and some
cruisers and destroyers. Two Australian
destroyers
accompanied each group. As the Ceylon bases of
Colombo
and Trincomalee were poorly defended and too far
forward,
Adm Somerville was operating out of the secret
base of
Addu Atoll in the Maldive Islands SW of Ceylon.
Early in
April, two Japanese forces headed into the
Indian Ocean.
One under Adm Ozawa with carrier "Ryujo" and
six cruisers made for the Bay of Bengal and east
coast of
India. In a matter of days 23 ships of 112,000
tons were
sunk. Japanese submarines sank a further five
off the
Indian west coast. Bad as this threat was, the
real one
came from the carrier strike force of Adm Nagumo
with
five Pearl Harbor carriers - "Akagi",
"Hiryu", "Soryu", "Shokaku"
and "Zuikaku" - plus four battleships and three
cruisers.
The Japanese fleet
was
first sighted on the 4th south of
Ceylon, and
shipping cleared from the ports. In the morning
of the 5th
a heavy raid on Colombo sank destroyer
"TENEDOS"
and armed merchant cruiser "HECTOR". Heavy
cruisers "CORNWALL"
and "DORSETSHIRE" were to the southwest,
sailing from Colombo to rejoin the Royal Navy's
fast
group. Found at noon they soon went to the
bottom under a
series of aircraft attacks. But Adm Nagumo had
not yet
finished. As Adm Somerville's two groups
searched for the
Japanese from a position between Addu Atoll and
Ceylon,
they circled round to the east. From there, on
the 9th,
Japanese aircraft found the shipping cleared
from
Trincomalee and back on its way in. Carrier
"HERMES", Australian destroyer "VAMPIRE"
and corvette "HOLLYHOCK"
were
amongst those
that
soon went down. The Japanese ships left the
Indian Ocean,
never to return again in force. Not knowing
this, the
surviving ships of the Royal Navy withdrew - the
slow
group to Kilindini in East Africa and the other
to the
Bombay area.
6th - Indian
sloop "INDUS" was
bombed and
sunk off Akyab on the
Arakan coast of Burma.
Philippines -
Conclusion - Japanese units made their
final push on
Bataan and on the 9th, the Americans and
Filipinos
surrendered. The island fortress of Corregidor
held out
until the 6th May. Some resistance continues on
other
Philippines islands. The infamous "Bataan
March" of American and Filipino POW's followed.
Monthly Loss Summary:
Indian Ocean - 31
merchant ships of 154,000 tons
|
Strategic
and
Maritime Situation - Indian and
Pacific
Oceans
To the west
and south the Japanese had
secured their
perimeter to plan. They also did so
in the southwest
as the British, together with the
Chinese in the
northeast, were steadily driven out
of Burma. The
debate was now whether or not to
push out to the southeast
towards Australia and New Zealand,
and eastwards
to the United States. Japanese gains
had been at
little cost, not least on the naval
side as coan
be seen from the losses up to end of
April from
all causes:
|
| Warship
types |
British
|
Australian
|
Dutch
|
US
|
ALLIED
|
JAPANESE
|
| Battleships
|
2
|
-
|
-
|
2 + 6*
|
4
|
-
|
| Carriers
|
1
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
| Cruisers
|
3
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
7
|
-
|
| Destroyers
|
7
|
1
|
7
|
5
|
20
|
5
|
| Submarines
|
-
|
-
|
8
|
4
|
12
|
7
|
|
Totals
|
13
|
2
|
17
|
12
|
44
|
12
|
* 6
battleships sunk at their moorings or
damaged.
MAY
1942
8th
- Landings at Diego Saurez,
Madagascar: Operation 'Ironclad' - Concerned
about the Japanese carrier sorties
into the Indian Ocean and the vulnerability of
the Cape
of Good Hope/Middle East convoy routes, Britain
decided
to take Diego Saurez at the north end of Vichy
French
Madagascar. Under the command of Rear-Adm E. N.
Syfret
(recently appointed to Force H), a large force
of ships
including battleship "Ramillies" and carriers
"Indomitable" and "Illustrious"
assembled at Durban, South Africa towards the
end of
April. The assault took place on 5th May in
Courrier Bay
to the west of Diego Saurez. As usual the Vichy
French
forces resisted strongly. Submarine "BEVEZIERS"
was sunk, but the only Royal Navy casualty was
corvette "AURICULA" mined on the 5th. The
advance on
Diego Saurez was held up and next day a Royal
Marine unit
stormed the town from the sea. By the 7th the
fighting
was over and the important anchorage was in
British
hands. On the 7th and 8th, French submarines "LE
HEROS" and "MONGE" were sunk by joint air
and sea attacks. On the night of the 30th,
Japanese submarines "I-16" and "I-20"
launched midget submarines for attacks on Diego
Saurez. "Ramillies"
was
torpedoed and
badly damaged and a
tanker sunk. By September the complete
occupation of
Madagascar became necessary.
Burma - On
29th
April, Lashio was captured and the Burma Road
cut in the
north. Supplies for China now had to be flown
over high
mountains known as the 'Hump' for nearly three
years
until a new road was finally completed in early
1945.
Mandalay fell on the 1st and by mid-month the
retreating
British Army was crossing the border into India.
Chinese
forces were also back in China as well as India.
With the
conquest of Burma, Japan's western defence line
was in
place.
Monthly Loss Summary:
Indian Ocean - 4
merchant ships of 22,000 tons
JUNE
1942
Monthly
Loss
Summary: Indian Ocean - 18 merchant ships of
90,000
tons
JULY
1942
Monthly
Loss
Summary: Indian Ocean - 9 merchant ships of
47,000
tons
AUGUST
1942
Indian
Ocean - Adm Somerville's Eastern Fleet
carried out
diversionary moves in the Indian Ocean at the
time of the
Guadalcanal landings by the US Marine Corps in
the
Pacific. But he was continually losing ships to
other
theatres and by month's end was down to
battleships
"Warspite", "Valiant", carrier
"Illustrious" and a few cruisers and
destroyers. There were also few escorts.
Merchant
Shipping
War - By this time Japanese
submarines
were appearing in the Indian Ocean and taking a
steady
toll of Allied shipping, sometimes accompanied
by
atrocities against ship's survivors. Until the
end of
1944 they were joined for various periods by
German
U-boats, sometimes direct from Europe and at
other times
operating out of Penang on the west coast of
Malaya.
Monthly
Loss
Summary: Indian Ocean - 1 merchant ship of 5,000
tons
SEPTEMBER
1942
Madagascar -
Britain decided to occupy the rest of the Vichy
French
island. Starting on the 10th, British, East
African and
South African troops were landed through the
month at
points in the northwest, east and southwest. By
the 23rd
the capital, Tananarive, was captured but
fighting
continued into October. The Vichy French did not
surrender until early November, by which time
they had
been driven down into the extreme southeast
corner of the
large island.
23rd -
Australian
troops were carried to the occupied island of
Timor by
Australian destroyer "VOYAGER" to strengthen the
Sparrow Force
guerrilla unit. She ran aground on the south
coast,
bombed by the Japanese and had to be destroyed.
Monthly Loss Summary:
Indian Ocean - 6
merchant ships of 30,000 tons
OCTOBER
1942
Burma - In the
First
Arakan Campaign a limited offensive was
launched from
India to take Akyab. By year's end the British
and Indian
forces were still short of their objective.
Monthly Loss Summary:
Indian Ocean - 11
merchant ships of 64,000 tons
NOVEMBER
1942
11th
- Action of the "Bengal"
and "Ondina" - Two Japanese
raiders armed with 6in guns
attacked the Dutch tanker "Ondina" (one 4in
gun) and her escort, the Royal Indian navy
minesweeper
"Bengal" (single 12pdr) commanded by Lt-Cdr W.
J. Wilson RINR to the southwest of the Cocos
Islands in
the Indian Ocean. "Bengal" hit "HOKOKU
MARU" which
shortly blew up. The other raider soon
disappeared. Both
Allied ships were damaged and separated, but
reached port
safely after this small ship action which ranked
with the
sinking of the "Stier" by the "Stephen
Hopkins" just two months earlier.
Merchant Shipping
War
- A few Japanese submarines continued to operate
in the
Indian Ocean and were now joined by a number of
German
U-boats on patrol off the east coast of South
Africa.
Monthly Loss Summary:
Indian Ocean only -
23 merchant ships of 131,000 tons
DECEMBER
1942
Monthly
Loss
Summary: Indian Ocean only - 6 merchant ships of
29,000 tons
