Japanese invasion of Australia in WWII
- Thread starter Alex1guy
- Start date
RamscoopRaider
Donor
You do realize you are pretty much talking about an Asian Sea Mammal That Must Not Be Named don't you?
It is damn close to ASB, if not ASB
It is damn close to ASB, if not ASB
Well, an invasion might be possible as long as it isn't required to be successful.
Cook
Banned
It’s not actually.
An invasion and occupation of Darwin and its surrounds down as far as Katherine was proposed by General Yamashita shortly before the fall of Singapore and would have followed up on the bombing of Darwin on February 19, 1942. The troops were available in the region, most notably being those used instead to secure Timor and there were no Australian forces available for its defence.
Yamashita argued that Darwin could be considered as part of the East Indies Archipelago and necessary to secure Japan’s new south-east Asian acquisitions from air and sea attack. He was correct in this; the Australian, British and US high commands had all separately drawn the same conclusions. Darwin was counted as part of the Malay Barrier for strategic purposes, not as part of the main Australian command. Darwin at the time was not linked to the rest of Australia by land route and much of the Top End was impassable for half the year.
Furthermore, Japanese long range bombers based in Darwin could have hit targets in Queensland and Western Australia at a time when there were no front-line fighter aircraft in Australia and only 17 anti-aircraft gun installations in the entire country.
1942: Australia’s Greatest Peril by Bob Wurth and
An Awkward Truth: The Bombing of Darwin, February 1942 by Peter Grose both cover the period concerned in great detail.
Pacific Fury by Peter Thompson is also invaluable here.
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RamscoopRaider
Donor
Okay so I was wrong, everything I remember reading about this gave me the conclusion that this is an Asian Sea Mammal
Sort of in the reverse, the Japanese didn't have the land forces powerful enough to conquer Australia, they were relatively fine navally.
The Japanese actually considered attempting such an invasion, but the Army estimated that some ten divisions would be required and they simply did not have such a force available. In truth trying to keep such a force supplied at that distance from Japan would have been well nigh impossible, if their experience on Guadalcanal is anything to go by.
That gives me a funny idea! What if ASB's caused the Japanese Navy to loan ships to the Germans in order to complete the UNMENTIONABLE SEA MAMMAL!
!
Cook
Banned
Landings near Daly River Station, cutting inland to Adelaide River and approaching Darwin from the South. Yamashita proposed using at most a single division in the invasion, most of which would be withdrawn leaving a brigade to garrison the area. It wouldn’t have required anywhere near that large a force in reality; there was nothing to stop them at the time and the Japanese had overwhelming air superiority.
Lest you think this would have been a small area of operations, Adelaide River is over 100km from Darwin. But any operations south of Katherine would not have been necessary; there was no permanent roads south and during the wet season all land travel to the rest of Australia was impossible.
Had the Japanese known just how vulnerable Darwin was following their use of ‘a hammer to crack an egg’ on February 19, 1942 they would undoubtedly have quickly thrown together an invasion force.
These were not intended to occupy the continent, just the region around Darwin, securing the harbour and the airfields necessary to defend Darwin and the Dutch East Indies and isolate and harass Australia. Landings along the west coast at Broome were also proposed.
The Japanese had detailed knowledge of the waters of Northern Australia and of the settlements and their defences. Prior to the outbreak of war they’d had an extensive intelligence gathering network in the region.
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They thought they could conquer China, but not an entire continent with seven million inhabitants?
China is close, the people are poorly armed, and they're familiar with the terrain. Australia is far away, a lot of the people are armed, and they're not really familiar with most of the terrain. Also, they weren't at war when they started in China, so they didn't have other commitments, and they weren't intending to take the whole of China I don't think.
So assuming Yamashita lead such an Invasion and succeeded in securing Darwin and the surrounding area, how would it effect the war? It is a Deepwater Port, but I don't know how that would compare with its status then. Also how long until the Allies would retake the area?
La Rouge Beret
Donor
An interesting TL would be where the IJN and the IJA invade and secure the area around Darwin in conjunction with a successful occupation of Guadalcanal.
Cook
Banned
Aside from anything else you can pretty much kiss goodbye to General Macarthur’s escape from the Philippines in March ’42. (Hmmm
) The B-17s sent to evacuate him left from Batchelor airfield, there was no other airfield remotely within range. Wolfpaw
Banned
Damn. Seems like this could really turn the Pacific War on its head.Aside from anything else you can pretty much kiss goodbye to General Macarthur’s escape from the Philippines in March ’42. (Hmmm
How long do you think the Japanese could've held Darwin? I assume they'll put a lot into it since they can use it to harass the rest of Australia in a very bad way. I suppose it'd also significantly up their chances of taking New Guinea, which in itself would be pretty unfortunate for the Allies.
Wolfpaw
Banned
Indeed. And I'm sure the Japanese won't hesitate to terror-bomb the hell out of Sydney and Melbourne, to say nothing of any other civilian centers they can reach.