Japanese Navy vs RN Circa 1940

Surely the technical aspect of who has what ships or planes needs to be viewed within a strategic context?

Japan is fighting in her own backyard , so to speak. This gives her several advantages. Supply lines from Japan to "wherever the fighting is" are bound to be shorter than Britain to ditto. But , conversely, Britain could hope to , relatively easily, cut off Japan's supply lines, even mount a traditional close blockade. Whereas Japan has no way of seriously interfering with British production or economy (they might be able to interdict the SEA bases of course)

For Japan such a war is REALLY important - life or death for the Japanese Empire. Whereas for Britain it's just a colonial war. So Japan is probably going to be willing to throw a LOT more effort into the fight, make a lot more sacrifices.

But on the other hand, the strategic advantage of Britain is immense. Look at it this way - it would be very feasible to imagine that, if the battles went against Japan, Britain could end up bombarding/bombing Japanese cities , even mounting an invasion (unwise, to be sure, but not unimaginable). But the idea of Japan doing the reverse, and bombarding or bombing Britain, let alone an invasion, is, frankly, ASB territory.

So Japan HAS to win. Which will be an enormous motivation for her. But Britain can't really lose.

Which would predicate a negotiated peace. The war would probably much more resemble one from the 18C or early 19C than a WWn.

That makes the IJN a bargaining counter - whether it wins battles or not is less important than how much it can extract in the way of "pay me off and I'll go away and stop being a nuisance" concessions from Britain.

It would be illogical for the Japanese to seek major fleet engagements. The British only have to win once - but the Japanese would have to win every time. Much more sensible to maintain a guerre de course, and attacks on lightly defended territories - even if they had to be quickly evacuated.

BTW what part are the Dutch East Indies playing?
 
Surely the technical aspect of who has what ships or planes needs to be viewed within a strategic context?

Japan is fighting in her own backyard , so to speak. This gives her several advantages. Supply lines from Japan to "wherever the fighting is" are bound to be shorter than Britain to ditto. But , conversely, Britain could hope to , relatively easily, cut off Japan's supply lines, even mount a traditional close blockade. Whereas Japan has no way of seriously interfering with British production or economy (they might be able to interdict the SEA bases of course)

For Japan such a war is REALLY important - life or death for the Japanese Empire. Whereas for Britain it's just a colonial war. So Japan is probably going to be willing to throw a LOT more effort into the fight, make a lot more sacrifices.

But on the other hand, the strategic advantage of Britain is immense. Look at it this way - it would be very feasible to imagine that, if the battles went against Japan, Britain could end up bombarding/bombing Japanese cities , even mounting an invasion (unwise, to be sure, but not unimaginable). But the idea of Japan doing the reverse, and bombarding or bombing Britain, let alone an invasion, is, frankly, ASB territory.

So Japan HAS to win. Which will be an enormous motivation for her. But Britain can't really lose.

Which would predicate a negotiated peace. The war would probably much more resemble one from the 18C or early 19C than a WWn.

That makes the IJN a bargaining counter - whether it wins battles or not is less important than how much it can extract in the way of "pay me off and I'll go away and stop being a nuisance" concessions from Britain.

It would be illogical for the Japanese to seek major fleet engagements. The British only have to win once - but the Japanese would have to win every time. Much more sensible to maintain a guerre de course, and attacks on lightly defended territories - even if they had to be quickly evacuated.

BTW what part are the Dutch East Indies playing?

JedidiahStott

Very good analysis and I agree with it other than the last sections. A negotiated peace is a definite possibility and probably a likelihood but not certain. Doubt if Britain is going to produce the bomb in time or launch an invasion of Japan but presuming it starts getting the upper hand China could be liberated pretty quickly, with very heavy Japanese losses.From that point on Britain has bases within striking distance of Japan, both air and naval and things can get very, very bad for the Japanese.

I also agree it makes sense for the Japanese to keep a force in being. However that's taking the western view of a long war. Japan is dominated by the military with an emphasis on winning a quick victory and sapping the opponents will to fight. Also they know their economic/industrial inferiority so a quick war is their own way of winning and making the gains they want.

I think the anwser to the last question is their one of the main battlefields.:(

Steve
 
Bottom line: The most likely RN vs IJN battle is a night fight between cruisers and such a thing can go in any direction as the ones in the Solomons showed.

Question: How much emphasis did the RN put on night fighting? As little as the USN? And how well were their ships equipped with radar?

Actually, Royal Navy put a lot of attention to night fighting, after not too good performance in WWI. Matapan didn't come out of nowhere. So, I think RN in this conflict would have similiar ability for night fighting as IJN.

Which makes possible for a really awesome battle culminating with Japanese & British battleships slugging at 5000m.:cool:
 
Actually, Royal Navy put a lot of attention to night fighting, after not too good performance in WWI. Matapan didn't come out of nowhere. So, I think RN in this conflict would have similiar ability for night fighting as IJN.

Which makes possible for a really awesome battle culminating with Japanese & British battleships slugging at 5000m.:cool:

Tizoc

Both sides had put a lot of effort into night fighting and on the newer British ships gunnery radar was entering service, so potentially a very bloody encounter [or 5, 10, 50]. Doubt it would get down to 5km however, at least not in open water or unless one side got very slack.

Steve
 
The defence of the region was largely left in the hands of submarines, cheaper than battleships yet able to kill them (admittedly it often took a lot to sink them, but at least render them unserviceable). They had developed effective Wolfpack tactics and trained for taking on Japanese capital units for years, in addition to having good local knowledge.

Without the withdrawal of the submarines in 1940 for the Mediterranean, but with the addition of submarines (a force of 30-40 was proposed in the 1930s as needed to secure the British position), they could pretty much secure bottlenecks to the Philippines, Malaya, Indonesia etc as well as operate in the Sea of Jaoan. The Japanese were rather weak and rather careless when it came to ASW.

Add to that cruiser and destroyer squadrons for raiding and coastal defence, backed by a defence fighter cover in Singapore/Malaya, it'd be quite a block to Japanese invasion and supply forces.
 
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