Malaya What If
- Thread starter Fatboy Coxy
- Start date
As of Gort's arrival and the planning of defenses, no Japanese airborne capability had been demonstrated anywhere. Did the Allied side even know that Japan was working up a small airborne force?
Unless Japan were to use paratroops almost immediately, they would become aware of the considerable presence of defensive armor. Given that their paratroops had no anti-armor weapons and no relevant combat experience or...I'd guess...training, one would think that'd give pause to any thoughts of their use except in circumstances where the defenders already were disrupted.
Unless Japan were to use paratroops almost immediately, they would become aware of the considerable presence of defensive armor. Given that their paratroops had no anti-armor weapons and no relevant combat experience or...I'd guess...training, one would think that'd give pause to any thoughts of their use except in circumstances where the defenders already were disrupted.
FWIW, IOTL the Allies were taken completely by surprise when the Japanese deployed paratroops at Menado and Palembang, although they did put up a dogged defence nonetheless. And at Palembang the Allied aerodrome was indeed one of the paratroops' key objectives along with the oil refineries.
Driftless
Donor
Thanks. I would suspect with Gorts indirect knowledge of the reckless daring and successes of German airborne forces in the Low Countries, that at least some contingency thoughts were discussed. The forward airfields weren't as heavily protected as any of the Commonwealth leaders would have liked, due to insufficient resources and lack of time.
What got me thinking on that airborne notion was Ramp Rats comments on the placement of the auxilliary units. The best soldiers would be placed elsewhere, other than guarding airfields. It would have been darn hard to cover all possibilities.
There's a saying: "Too little butter scraped over too much bread"* that could apply to many of the dilemmas faced by Commonwealth and DEI leadership,
* I first heard that adage in The Fellowship of the Ring". Is the sayi ng older than that book?
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Excellent.
By spacing out the Orders of Battle when they're relevant to the story, they'll make more sense.
Looking forward to the next installment.
Have fun in Prague.
Ramp-Rat
Monthly Donor
An interesting question has arisen, did the British/Allies know about the Japanese airborne capability, and could the Japanese use it in Malaya to capture an airfield, and what would happen if they parachuted into a British airfield. To the first point as others have said it wasn’t until the Japanese used paratroopers in the DEI, that the Allies knew that they had the capability, and I for one do not believe that the Allies ITTL, will know of this capability until it has been demonstrated. And thus despite his experience in France and the Low Countries, Gort will not have the thought of an aerial assault on his mind. Unless he receives intelligence information from Park or the intelligence agencies that the Japanese have moved a large number of transport aircraft into the South of Thailand or FIC, which hasn’t occurred ITTL. To successfully capture a British airfield in Malaya would require a force of at least 500 paratroopers, which requires 50 aircraft if they are carrying 10 paratroopers per aircraft. Or 34 aircraft carrying 15, and 25 aircraft if they are carrying 20, such a large collection of transport aircraft would be noticed. Also it should be remembered that the Japanese paratroops were a part of the Navy and not as such under Army control. Hence their use in the DEI, and not in the Philippines, Malaya or Burma IOTL, which were all basically Army operations, the IJA and the IJN really didn’t play well together. The air environment in Malaya is ITTL completely different to that in the DEI, IOTL. The very recently formed parachute forces were not trained in night drops to the best of my knowledge, so you are looking at a daytime drop, and given that it takes time for aircraft to form up, much as in the DEI, you would be looking at a drop time around about 09:30. And a large 25 plus formation of aircraft heading towards a British airfield unless extremely lucky is going to be noticed and possibly intercepted. And even if they managed to capture the airfield, what next how do they keep control until they are relieved. An isolated paratroop unit on a British airfield in Malaya is going to be a problem, but unless they can join up quickly with ground forces or receive significant reinforcements by air, I personally would give them at most a day before they are wiped out.
RR.
RR.
Actually both the IJA and IJN had their own parachute troops. The Menado paras were Navy Rikusentai, while the force that took Palembang were Army Teishin.
They seemed to jump with their personal weapon, although their is mention of parachute containers for the heavier weapons
Even if you don't think your adversary has a paratroop capability, the idea of an Entebbe-style direct combat-assault landing by a short-roll transport on the airfield goes way back. Any competent general would want to be prepared against that...possibly by siting the airfield's low-altitude-air-defense MMGs so that with quick discarding of a few sandbags, they have clear fields of fire all the way down to horizontal across all of the runways/taxiways/aprons, any of which could be used as a runway for such a combat landing. Any low altitude transport arriving at such a prepared airfield, even if it made it to ground level in one piece, would find it very hard to unload troops alive if it was in a crossfire from two or more well-crewed MMGs with plenty of ammo.
Having a well-sited mortar station with starshells as well as frags would be icing on the defensive cake, to deal with an attackers that got into drainage ditches or other spots with some bullet protection, or that were attacking at night when defensive visibility would be limited.
Having a well-sited mortar station with starshells as well as frags would be icing on the defensive cake, to deal with an attackers that got into drainage ditches or other spots with some bullet protection, or that were attacking at night when defensive visibility would be limited.
The Japanese used chutes based on those of the early-WWII Germans. Those small chutes had a very rapid descent rate even with just a pistol, one grenade and a knife. A section's rifles, ammo, grenades, LMG, canteens and all other survival equipment would be in the wicker drop-containers. Japanese doctrine followed that of the Germans; the instructors in the Japanese school were German, so they taught German-like methods and use of German-like equipment. The German doctrine of the time was what was done on Crete, except for the Japanese containers being wicker like those of the British or French, instead of steel like the German ones used in Norway, Holland and Belgium, or aluminum like the German ones on Crete.
A great example of this is what happened at Yontan Airfield in 1945. One wonders how much more successful such an operation would have been if the Japanese carried out three or four years earlier against a far less prepared Allied base.
The best defense against such raids would be concentrated MMG fire from prepared positions, with all friendlies near the fighting (such as the aircraft service and operational support personnel who were on the Yontan airfield as the attackers arrived) trained and ordered to run off the airfield and away from any attackers they see, even if those service personnel are armed, in order to clear the interlocking MMG fields of fire. The best time to engage such attackers would be before or as they exit the arrival aircraft.
Biggest thing before ground combat even starts may be what the British subs get up to.
1 submarine, a decent spread of torpedoes, and the Kota Bharu invasion force could be stopped dead in their tracks before even getting close enough to swim to shore. Even if a decent sized force still lands, they could end up landing more piecemeal, and likely without a lot of equipment. Combined with higher casualties, that's begging for a situation where even if British forces have to fall back similar to OTL, it can at least be more organized, they would have time to possibly destroy stuff that can't be moved, and the Japanese may just lack the capability to exploit a landing even if the British can't force them out.
That could easily throw the Japanese 18th Division advance off by several days.
1 submarine, a decent spread of torpedoes, and the Kota Bharu invasion force could be stopped dead in their tracks before even getting close enough to swim to shore. Even if a decent sized force still lands, they could end up landing more piecemeal, and likely without a lot of equipment. Combined with higher casualties, that's begging for a situation where even if British forces have to fall back similar to OTL, it can at least be more organized, they would have time to possibly destroy stuff that can't be moved, and the Japanese may just lack the capability to exploit a landing even if the British can't force them out.
That could easily throw the Japanese 18th Division advance off by several days.
I don't think anyone believes the British will repel the Japanese invasion, but delaying or holding them is just as good.
The Japanese must win fast to get the oil supplies they desperately need.
The clock is running and every day the resistance continues, is a day closer to a Japanese collapse.
Kota Bharu landings OTL used roughly 1/4 of the Japanese 18th Division, which then was largely responsible for advancing along the eastern side of Malaya. Historically the token British defenders actually inflicted more losses then they suffered, the Japanese just had a bigger and better force.
Put a sub in the right place to sink a couple of the transports before they're close enough to shore and in deep enough water that salvaging anything is impossible, even if most Japanese troops still survive and reach land, you could easily be looking at a force that's still too big for the British to remove, but also one that lacks the ability to do anything. Basically turn the Kota Bharu landings into a Japanese equivalent of Anzio.
Fatboy Coxy
Monthly Donor
Ok I'm back, with a big thank you to Prague and its citizens for such an active and enjoyable stag, and for all your good wishes. Having said that I was glad to get back into me old bed late last night, absolutely cream crackered! Defo a premier venue for a stag, load of different bars and clubs to try, and I found a real gem of a beer, Czech Dark Lager, see https://www.hopculture.com/czech-dark-lager/ and https://beerandbrewing.com/tmave-pivo-the-czech-republics-uncommon-dark-lager/ as examples, although there are others too. If your doing ten pints plus in a day, these are an enjoyable drink, was able to keep standing, and having lined the stomach with some lovely Czech grub, had no real complaints from the internal man. Oh, and one of the guns I fired was an SMLE, which was good, being as I'll be writing about them. So I'll catch up on replies now, and give you a new post in the morning.