The Japanese are being to fall into the classic mistake of reenforcing failure, instead of reenforcing success. IOTL the Japanese enjoyed a consistent stream of success, which forced the various allied nations onto the back foot, and to reacting instead of acting. Where as ITTL while they have enjoyed a measure of success against the Americans, their performance against the British has been mostly unsuccessful. And they are now trying to make good on their plans, by moving even more troops into Malaya. However given that the British have managed to keep the Burma road open, moving troops from China who are going to be desperately needed to face off against the Chinese forces in future. Those troops that are going to Malaya are only going to be thrown in to a fight, with poor to non existent logistics, against an ever improving military force. The ability of the Japanese to live of the land, land that has already been stipend of resources, and had IOTL been reliant on imported rice. Is as the indigenous people move into the deep jungle, or behind the British lines, going to become impossible. And without plentiful local food supplies, after a at best difficult journey, the Japanese troops will quickly become ineffectual, living off bugs and roots. The major problem for the Japanese is that they haven’t succeeded against the British quickly, and given the sheer depth of Britain’s resources. While the British will be gaining strength day by day, they the Japanese are only becoming weaker, and are beginning to face the challenge of diminishing returns. Were as the British have a world spanning empire and the resources of the United States to draw upon, the Japanese who were already struggling pre war, now face the two strongest nations militarily, financially and industrially in the world. Let us look at just tanks, given the situation ITTL, the British alone are able to deploy tanks that are better than any that the Japanese can produce, but that have become functionally obsolete in Europe, in numbers that the Japanese can only dream of. And they can support these tanks, with logistics on a scale that dwarfs anything that the Japanese have available. And it’s the same with all the implements of war, from ships, aircraft, guns and even boots, let alone being able to feed their troops and the civilian population. While some British forces might go short of rations for a time, non of them will starve. And within a short time, no British forces, will have to ration their ammunition expenditure, unlike the Japanese who will be counting bullets.
RR.
