January 20th, 1943
Salween Front - During the night of the 19th, the 55th Japanese Division, led by its 144th Regiment, infiltrates the defensive position of the 14th Indian Division. Further north, the 12th Japanese Division does the same against the 8th Indian Division and the 71st, supported by the 2nd Thai Division, against the 1st Burmese Division.
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Burmese coast, west of the Irrawaddy delta, 06:45 - The Japanese (and Thai) squadron
passed during the night through the patrols of the Royal Navy (and the Royal Australian Navy), which were waiting for it further north. The Allied command did not imagine that the enemy would try to land a hundred kilometers south of Rangoon, near the village of Daw Nyein. It is there, west of Cape Negra (which borders the Bay of Bengal to the west and the Gulf of Martaban to the east), in the middle of the Irrawaddy delta, that the fleet carrying the 27th Japanese Division is heading.
The landing operations start slowly, while the three Thai coast guards open fire on the hypothetical defenders. In fact, the 13th Indian Brigade, followed within a few hours by the 13th British Brigade, just alerted thanks to the Daw Nyein police station, rushes to the threatened sector.
08:00 - The first RAF reconnaissance flights fly over the enemy fleet. They are delayed by air attacks on all the British airfields in the area, which trigger violent air battles. Both Spitfire Vs and Kittyhawks have trouble with the Ki-44s. However, the first re-engined Indian Hurricanes hold their own, unlike the standard Hurricanes. Fortunately, the majority of the enemy fighters are still composed of Ki-43s and the Japanese bombers are still relatively vulnerable.
08:30 - As the Japanese units patrol the open sea and the first soldiers land, a torpedo boat appears and skims the coast. The torpedo boats Phuket and Patani give the alarm and all the small arms of the fleet started to spit. In front of these fireworks, the launch launches its torpedoes at random and leaves without asking for more.
09:00 - Two explosions shake the line of Japanese transports. It is the Tigris!
The night before, to avoid any mistake in the target, its commander, Lt-Cdr George Colvin, had headed southeast of Rangoon as the destroyers were heading northeast.
In the morning, he found himself ideally placed, about ten nautical miles from Daw Nyein.
Taking advantage of the confusion created by the skirmish against the speedboat, the submarine just placed two torpedoes on one of the larger cargo ships, loaded with artillery and ammunition. The submarine hunters on the screen immediately activate, but can only force the Tigris to tiptoe away. All day long, it tries to return, but the frantic activity of the escorts prevents it from doing so.
Meanwhile, in Rangoon, the Navy staff regains some composure and Commander Alvord Rosenthal of the Nestor, who led the improvised flotilla, is ordered to engage his adversary "in conditions that will inflict significant damage to the enemy transports". On the Nestor, we receive information on the composition of the Japanese fleet (and Thai, but the participation of the Thais was unknown at that time). About thirty transports escorted by four cruisers and a dozen destroyers! Only one decision to make: attack... but under cover of night. Otherwise, one against three, the destroyers of His Majesty would be sunk gloriously without inflicting the slightest damage to the transports! However, in the absence of a port and specialized ships, the Japanese would take much longer than a day to unload the contents of their transports.
09:30 - The first Japanese units to land come into contact with elements of the 13th Indian Brigade. The Indians hold on, especially since the Japanese are having difficulty getting the naval artillery support they requested from the Thais.
10:00 - Coming from the north, a group of four Spitfire Vb flies over the landing beaches and immediately runs into a patrol of six Ki-43s coming from Moulmein. Both sides call for help and very quickly an aerial battle develops over the beaches.
10:15 - As the fighters battle for control of the sky at higher altitudes, a raid of six Beaufort IIs commanded by Wing Cdr. Patrick Gibbs appears over the water. Formerly of Coastal Command in England recently transferred to Burma*, WingCo Gibbs commands the 221st Group bombers. He is the one who requested that, in the absence of Beaufighter torpedo bombers, some Beauforts should be sent to Burma - he gets satisfaction thanks to the fact that there is a factory in Australia that manufactures this type of aircraft!
The Japanese flak is unleashed, but without much efficiency and, on stationary targets, three of the torpedoes fired by Gibbs' men are hit! Two small cargo ships are sunk. The biggest ship hit, which was carrying artillery, runs aground to avoid sinking about half a mile from the coast. In spite of this grounding, most of the guns it contained could not be disembarked. Three Beauforts are hit, one of which crashes on landing.
The rest of the day is marked by a very high level of air activity. The Japanese fighters try to keep the Allied bombers away, especially since a good number of them are engaged on the eastern front... Because it is on this side that the most violent ground fighting is taking place today.
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Salween Front - In the south, the regiments of the 55th Japanese Division, supported by powerful artillery and aviation, have managed to cross the Salween and are pushing the 14th Indian Division. The latter have to withdraw in a somewhat disorderly fashion.
The situation is better on the 8th Indian Division front. The veterans of the 17th and 18th Brigades, in particular, rudely block the attempts of the 12th Japanese Division. But General Harvey understands that he risks being overwhelmed or even surrounded if he loses contact with the 14th Indian Division. He decides to withdraw carefully in the northern sector while launching an attack towards the south to flank the Japanese advance.
In the north of the front, the situation quickly becomes complex.
On the right wing of the 1st Burma Division, the 55th Indian Brigade manages to pull back while maintaining contact with the 8th Indian Division, on its right.
Further north, in the face of the Japanese 71st Division's attack, the 1st Burmese Brigade retreats in in disarray. However, unlike the debacle of early 1942, the troops do not disintigrate: purges and arrests in independence circles played their part. Better still, the Japanese air raids of the previous months on Rangoon and the rumors coming from Malaysia and Singapore, thanks to the evacuation of wounded people, made the Burmese people what kind of independence the Tokyo masters were promising them.
Finally, at the northern end of the front, the first operations of the Japanese 71st Division seem to be successful. But soon the situation turns into a nightmare.
The enemy seems to be retreating, swallowed up by the jungle, but suddenly counter-attacks, taking advantage of the terrain to set up multiple ambushes that ended in hand-to-hand combat. To "Banzai" are answered by African war cries. These new adversaries are visibly more comfortable in the jungle than the city dwellers who are in the majority in the Japanese units!
Much later, the veterans of the 71st would evoke fighters resembling the black demons of the Japanese myths, emerging from the ground, from the trees, from the jungle itself to take the souls of their companions...
The Belgian Congo Public Force rejects attack after attack, inflicting heavy losses on the assailants. It is only when General Gilliaert notices that the Burmese on his right had retreated and that on his left the 2nd Thai Division seems to be advancing, that he decides to order a withdrawal of a few kilometers.
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Battle of Cape Negrais
Burmese coast, west of the Irrawaddy delta, 22:30 - The Japanese transports are arranged for the night in two lines of a dozen boats parallel to the shore: the line closest to the coast is made up of ships in the process of unloading, which continue to unload equipment and supplies, the line farther away is made up of the troop transports, which have been completely unloaded during the day. The three Thai coastguards and the Katori form a third line. The Japanese destroyers are patrolling on the offshore side,
the Japanese torpedo boats on the south side and the Thai torpedo boats on the north side.
It is a part of this system which is slowly revealed on the radar screen of the Nestor, at the head of the line of Australian destroyers. They took advantage of the day to make a large loop that led them to the south of the landing site and are now approaching on a northerly course, at 15 knots.
Commander Rosenthal's plan is to sneak in close to the coast towards the transport anchorage, taking advantage of the time when the torpedo boats on guard on that side are farthest away. And he is about to succeed when the Otori, leader of the torpedo boats, decides to return to the coast a little earlier than planned: its radar detector (installed shortly before operation Pedestal) has spotted an enemy presence somewhere in the vicinity... The Nestor's radar detected the approach of the Japanese, but the Australians still thought they were out of sight when the lookouts of the torpedo boats spot them. The commander of the Otori, while signalling the arrival of undesirables, makes a mistake: he orders his formation to accelerate - not having any Long Lances, he wants to get closer so he could use his torpedoes more effectively. But the sudden change in speed is detected by the Nestor's radar and the bow wakes of the torpedo boats are spotted by the Australian lookouts.
Rosenthal, knowing that they had been detected, immediately orders them to increase their speed to 30 knots and to open fire with their guns on the Japanese line, which he ideally steers to the T. There are 22 120mm guns (six on the Nestor and four on each of the Q class) that open the ball, and most of them target the unfortunate Otori. The latter is soon in flames and helpless, throwing confusion among his three teammates, while the five Australians leap towards the transports.
The Nestor and its four followers engage between the two lines of transports, switching between shells and torpedoes when the target seems to deserve it.
Meanwhile, the Japanese destroyers and the Katori try to come to the rescue, but it is difficult to launch torpedoes into the middle of their own transports. The destroyers narrowly avoid attacking the Thai coastguard, which withdraw off the coast, apparently believing that this episode is not their concern. The most extreme confusion reigns very quickly; several transports are hit and some of them start to blaze but the glow of the flames does not help to find their way.
Having run at high speed through the line of transports, the Australians arrive at the north of the anchorage, where they are greeted by Thai torpedo boats and are in turn barred from the T - but between them, the Thais only have a dozen 100 mm guns.
It is at this moment that the Hagikaze, the first of the Japanese destroyers, appears behind the Australians. No longer hindered by the transports, it immediately fires a salvo of eight LongLances, just as the Australians abruptly turn to starboard to take a course parallel to that of the Thais who are blocking their passage. The Japanese torpedoes have a success: two of them hit the Nestor, which breaks in two and sinks quickly, but two others (or even three) hit the Phuket, the first of the Thai line, which literally vanishes into thin air.
The three other Thai torpedo boats immediately drift northwards, while the four surviving Australians try to escape by running off to the north-east. The Japanese destroyers are about to pursue them, when a huge explosion seems to silence everyone: it is the Sri Ayudhya! Believing to be in a safe place (according to the instructions received in great secret from the Thai authorities), he literally threw himself into the clutches of the Tigris, which had been on the prowl since the day before. At least three of the torpedoes in a salvo of four hit the Thai flagship, which explodes - this time, no one will be able to salvage it. Uncertain about what just happened, Rear Admiral Sentaro calls back his entire staff and everyone tries to take stock.
The situation is very poor. His fleet lost two torpedo boats (one Japanese, one Thai), the Sri Ayudhya and six transports, three of which sank while three others are devoured by the flames. Four others are also hit, but the damage suffered can be brought under control.
On the Australian side, the loss of the only Nestor is deplored, along with Commander Rosenthal and almost all the crew. The Nestor is the only Royal Australian Navy ship never to have touched an Australian port. The four Q class ships are all hit, but not seriously.
However, they spent most of their torpedoes, and they will not find any more at Rangoon**.
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And the night is not over! From midnight to sunrise, the Indian and Belgian Battles harass the bridgehead, guided by the glow of the burning freighters...
* Transfer at his request, following the failure of the English torpedo bombers during the Cerberus affair...and, it is said, sentimental problems.
** The four Q-class ships will eventually reach Australia in early February. The Admiralty will then add the HMAS Quiberon to replace the Nestor.
