Additionally, and cynically, the British can now save thousands of Commonwealth lives in that theatre by arming the Thais. In fact, with Singapore, Burma, and Malaya now unquestionably secure, I'm not really sure the British need many troops at all in theatre, other than a few divisions for political reasons, at the most. We could even see large scale Indian Army commitments to the ETO (and I'm calling it now, a Greek campaign is happening).
DISREGARD DISREGARD DISREGARD EDITED 3/15/19
Right now in the Far East, five divisions are already heading back to the Med. The Commonwealth has [strike]9[/strike] heavy combat divisions in either Malaya, Burma or Thailand:
1 Australian Armoured Division
3 Australian Infantry Division
4 Indian Infantry
1 UK Infantry
The Australians have an infantry division in Tunisia. New Zealand has an infantry division in Tunisia.
There needs to be a garrison for Malaya and now Siam, plus a corps to support South China Sea operations. CIGS can probably bring the committment down to no more than six divisions. The question will be distribution. I anticipate that the Australian government would be willing to send 2 divisions (including their Armoured) back to the Med. One Indian division could probably be sent as well. I think the UK infantry division would be needed just to provide a token of London's commitment to the Empire. None of those divisions in the second strategic wave would be available to fight the Germans or Italians until Christmas 1943, IMO.
PAY ATTENTION STARTING HERE
Going back to
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...uisers-volume-2.451883/page-130#post-18523490
Commonwealth Forces East of Calcutta as of November 1942:
Malaya
3 Infantry corps with 9 divisions (2 Australian, 4 Indian, 3 British)
1 Armored Exploitation corps (1st Australian Armored, 7th UK Armoured)
LoC troops (Straits Settlements Volunteers etc)
Burma
2 Indian Infantry Divisions
1st Burma Rifles
1 UK Infantry Division
1 East Africa Division
1 Armored Brigade
1 Rhodesian Brigade
1st Strategic Wave out ---
From Malaya --- 7th UK Armour, 3 Indian Infantry Divisions
From Burma 1 UK Infantry Division
1 Rhodesian Brigade
Current Forces in SE Asia as of March 1943
2 Australian Infantry divisions (Thailand occupation duty)
1 Indian Infantry division (Malaya)
3 British Infantry Divisions (Malaya/Kra)
1 Armoured Division (Australian --- rebuilding at Singapore)
In Burma
3 Raj infantry divisions (2 Indian, 1 Burma)
1 East African Division
I misplaced 2 divisions.
Total redeployable forces back to Europe/Med theatres are probably 5 divisions
2 Australian, 2 UK, 1 Indian