Malaya What If

[Simon Darkshade]

Gentlemen while I am glad to have provoked a lively and interesting debate, I have to say one thing, my post that was a reply to one from our esteemed author. Wasn’t meant to be taken seriously, it was very much tongue in cheek, and meant to be seen humorously, which I believe some missed.

I absolutely missed an humourous component to it, save for the emoticon at the end. My error, as I no longer have a sense of humour. When we mix the serious and the non-serious, people can sometimes get lost.

Having said that, there is an issue with the accuracy of what isn't written off as a jocular flourish.

The only part of my post that was in anyway accurate was the comment about Churchill, while by the standards of the day he would have been regarded as a heavy drinker, which was perfectly acceptable then.

Your comment was that he was an 'old drunk'. By the standards of the 1940s, he was not a particularly heavy or light drinker in actual terms. Now, these move a bit beyond the persona that he happily cultivated.

How much of our modern consensus of the inevitability of Allied victory in WWII is due to information after the fact?

Others have pointed out the mathematical and logistical brick wall the Axis was facing...so I guess their only chance is resolve? I suppose they have to call this bluff: "I have, myself, full confidence, that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made -...

www.alternatehistory.com

I go into detail in that post, but the summary is: 12-14 standard drinks, by the Australian measure, over the course of a day from ~1000 to 0200. This was interspersed with three substantive meals and an afternoon nap. I think the crucial parts are that his consumption was spread out over a fairly substantial amount of time through the day, not focused in one intense Stalinesque bacchanalian piss-up.

Churchill's Day:

0730: Wake, take breakfast in bed, work on correspondence in bed
1030-1100: Arise, bath, Johnnie Walker and soda #1
1300-1500: Lunch with 1 imperial pint of Pol Roger plus brandy
1700: Johnnie Walker and soda #2 and nap
1830: Arise, have another bath and dress for dinner
2000-2300: Dinner with 1 imperial pint of Pol Roger plus brandy
2300-After Midnight: Johnnie Walker and soda #3

Pre lunch: Consumption of a Johnnie Walker Red mouthwash would not even get an 8 year old drunk.

Post lunch, taken at 1300: With 5-6 standard drinks under the belt, he'd be sitting somewhere between 0.6 and 0.8 BAC. A no-no to drive in the modern sense, but not really noticeable for someone who (a) was accustomed to drinking for decades; and (b) had imbibed said alcohol with a three course meal. If he finished drinking for the day at ~1430, then he'd be completely stone cold 0% BAC sober by 1900-2000, based on the generally accepted human capacity to metabolise 1 standard drink /hour.

Pre dinner: Another Johnnie Red mouthwash at teatime won't have anything but a statistical effect. He then has a nap. Whilst this won't necessarily do anything to BAC, it will refresh a person and remove the general effects of a lunch with champers.

Dinner: This might get him over the limit to drive, but he wasn't going to drive, operate machinery, or any of that guff. It is nighttime, for goodness sake, and critically assessing the minutiae of sobriety post dinner would take down a lot of casualties.

By modern standards, he would have been regarded as an alcoholic,

The modern standards of alcoholism would be 'an impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use despite adverse social, occupational, or health consequences' where the person 'does not know when or how to stop drinking. They spend a lot of time thinking about alcohol, and they cannot control how much they consume, even if it is causing serious problems at home, work, and financially.'

What is an alcoholic? How to treat alcoholism

Alcoholism, now called alcohol use disorder (AUD), refers to an addiction to alcohol. A person with this condition can no longer control their consumption of alcohol and they will become ill if they try to stop suddenly. AUD is a serious and life-threatening condition, but treatment and support...

www.medicalnewstoday.com

Sir, that definition does not fit Winston Churchill.

there can be no doubt that he would have failed any test, to drive, operate machinery, or in a modern office discharge his duties.

RR.

To quote my own words from the other thread, 'never drove in any case, let alone going for a bit of a flex after dinner when he'd had a skinful.' Similarly, he never operated machinery, being a Victorian gentleman. Those don't matter in his case.

Failed a test to 'in a modern office discharge his duties' is a carefully written phrase, but ultimately depends on the meaning of 'office'. A modern, anodyne office environment where people work in cubicles which they decorate with pictures of cats? Undoubtably, given modern zero alcohol policies. A political office? Arguably there would be no substantive issue.

I chopped off the last bit about Hitler as it wasn't relevant, but trying to characterise Mr. Churchill's consumption of alcohol as a 'serious personal flaw' in any way comparable to those of Hitler, Stalin or Mussolini is a very, very, very long bow. Indeed, to draw that bow, you'd need fairly strong evidence, which seems to be lacking here in favour of unfounded popular assumptions.

In the absence of substantive evidence, I don't think that what you wrote could be described as accurate./

 

[Fatboy Coxy]

Hi all, regarding my post 2,090, MWI 41091400 The Errand, I feel I need to provide some background and reasoning to that story. When I first starting writing, as my very first post explained, I did it purely for my own enjoyment, and as I researched about the loss of Singapore, and all what came before it, so little trinkets would emerge, that made wonderful stories. This was one of them, first written in April 2019!. when in ignorance of what's to come, I didn't note all my sources. These days, in an effort to manage all the details of this timeline, I have a veritable library of docs and articles, which need constant updating.

So ideally the story format would have finished with me providing references as some others do, ie
It's a long way to Nagasaki, see https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ay-to-nagasaki-the-anglo-japanese-war.487541/
and with lots of photos and maps, see

Remember the Rainbow Redux: An Alternate Royal Canadian Navy

August 11, 2014 Bell of WWI Cruiser HMCS Rainbow recovered from the bottom of the Pacific. Craig Leroy for the Vancouver Sun. This year marked the 100th anniversary of the sinking of HMCS Rainbow at The Battle of the Farallon Islands, Canada's first naval engagement during the First World...

www.alternatehistory.com

but it didn't and doesn't, so I go with just debating the stories and emerging timeline with you all in following posts. Unfortunalty I can be slow to do that, which can make things a bit disjointed. Anyway, enough ramblings, on with the reasoning behind this story.

I first picked it up reading "Far Eastern File", a book written by Peter Elphick, which is a bit of a catch all for nit bits of the Intelligence War in the Far East, which I find fasinating. On page 189, he wrote "Reports that, in August 1941, two Japanese submarines were seen berthed alongside the wharf at Endau owned by a Japanese iron-ore mining company". And then "The submarines were seen to land several men and some crates of equipment. It would have been easy for them to evade detection by the few patrol boats the Royal Navy had in the area". Now a lot of his info is very hard to verify, despite his best efforts, and so there is an element of doubt. However, I felt sure I'd also seen a small one liner regarding a JIN submarine landing someone important at Endau about the same time. On returning to the excellent site, combinedfleet, to confirm that, see http://www.combinedfleet.com/kaigun.htm, which I strongly recommend, I am unable to find any reference.

Looking at the Endau river on Google Maps, it looks just about big enough for a 98m submarine to turn in, I know there were significant Japanese mining interests in Endau, and the British did lack sufficent patrol craft, which all made the story possible. And lastly, I feel this is a timely piece, in posts there had been a sense of the growing British strength is going to make this whole 'save Malaya from the Japanese' timeline, a cakewalk, and it's not. We can all marvel at the ineptitude of Japanese logistics, lack of provisions for a long war, and the unbelievably bad relations between the IJA and IJN, but they were still a very formidable foe, with first class pilots, a light infantry force with good offensive doctrine, and a professional navy.

And Special Branch have a real job on their hands managing Japanese espionage.

 

[Fatboy Coxy]

You slap a D Notice on the local media, radio and print, forbidding any reporting on what’s happening.
RR.

Hi Ramp-Rat, interesting view you take, but turning it around somewhat, you may slap a D Notice, or whatever it was back in the day to avoid making it known to the world how weak you are, either in military strength or political will. I have written that the British authorities are taking a harder line with Japanese activities, but they are not looking for direct confrontation.

 

[Fatboy Coxy]

Sadly while Matador was militarily a good plan, politically it had a number of problems, and exsposing the extent of the Japanese infultration of Malaya, is not going to negate the outcry if the British invade Thailand would incur. Unless the Japanese have effectively taken over Thailand, Thailand is still a neutral country, and it wouldn’t look good on the international stage, small though it is at this time. And post war there will be plenty of people to take Britain to task for this event. ITTL mini Matador to destroy the ledge and the bridges north of boarder, after the Japanese have attacked Hong Kong, will be about all that can be undertaken. I am of the opinion that ITTL, the British have done enough to prevent the Japanese from succeeding in their invasion of Malaya. But not enough to succeed if they were to invade Thailand, in pursuit of implementing Operation Matador.

RR.

Britain has a non-aggression pact with Thailand, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo...s concluded as part,effective on the same day.

 

[Fatboy Coxy]

Hi JasTysoe, Nevarinemex and Simon Darkshade, interesting debate on Naval big guns. I'm far from a authority on Naval Ship design, I always visit Naval History Forums, see
http://www.kbismarck.org/forum/index.php, or NavWaeps Forums, see https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/warships1discussionboards/, for my questions, but I also like Drachinifel, see https://www.youtube.com/@Drachinifel.

Here he is explaining the problems associated with the practical use of the big guns,

 

[Fatboy Coxy]

1941, Tuesday 16 September;

They sat under the veranda of the officer’s mess, a drink in hand, cooling down, shaded from the heat of the day. The aircraft they had arrived in, a Lockheed 12, was parked well away from the runway, close to a maintenance hangar. Having flown in mid-morning they were killing some time, waiting for lunch, after which Maj Gen Hendrick van Oyen, Commander of the ML–KNIL would be discussing the ongoing training programs that Kalidjati (Kalijati) Airfield were running with the local commanders. Later he would be picked up by car and driven to the nearby town of Soebang (Subang) for a civic dinner with local dignitaries, staying there for the night.

The ML-KNIL was undergoing massive changes as its expansion program accelerated, the large numbers of American built planes ordered by the Netherland Purchasing Commission (NPC) were beginning to arrive, with others in transit, and yet many, many, more still to be built. Indeed, the Commission had already ordered nearly $200 million dollars’ worth of war material, aircraft taking a large slice of that, and more spending was to come. The numbers were impressive, of the 108 Ryan STM-2 trainers that had been ordered, 60 for the ML and 48, 24 equipped with floats, for the MLD, many had already arrived. Lockheed were becoming a favoured supplier, first ordering 36 Lockheed 12 passenger transports, 16 to be equipped as bomber training aircraft and then 29 Lockheed 18 Lodestars, again as passenger transports. In June the NPC had placed an order with North American for 162 Mitchell B-25C twin engined bombers, delivery from February 1942, to replace the aging and obsolete Glenn Martin 139WH bombers

Next on the list was fighter aircraft, and the first fighter sqn had already been formed late 1940 with 24 Curtis P36 Mohawks, which were beset by engine problems, so service levels were poor. The fall of Holland had produced a small windfall in the transfer of 24 Curtis-Wright CW-21B Interceptors, which had quickly formed a second fighter squadron, these were plagued with structural problems with the undercarriage, service levels were adequate at best. But more promising was the Brewster Buffalo, 144 model B-339C/Ds, the first had already arrived and he’d been able to form another fighter squadron with them, but was struggling to find the personnel for a second, and by the end of the year would have more aircraft than pilots.

This highlighted the acute problem of manpower, the personnel numbers required to crew and maintain all these aircraft were multiplying, all of whom needed training. However, the fall of Holland to the German invasion had seriously impacted on not only recruitment, but training as well. Yesterday van Oyen had been at Andir Airfield, Bandoeng (Bandung), the main base for all aircraft maintenance, where new technical schools had been created, training the mechanics, riggers and fitters required for all the new aircraft to come. Most of these recruits were indigenous, at least half Javanese, the original Dutch mechanics had generally been promoted with the newly trained working under their supervision. But still they needed more, and yesterday had seen the passing out of 17 new fitters, and 14 riggers. In another lifetime, probably half would have been failed, but needs must, and had passed, with a year’s probation.

Just as challenging was training new aircrew, which is why he was here at Kalidjati Airfield, about 10 miles outside of Soebang, where the majority of flight training was done. Back in May, and following on from the British example in Malaya, he’d created the Vrijwilleg Vlieger Corps, VVC, to train pilots aged 17-20 as a reserve. Flying clubs at all the major towns and cities were provided with Tiger Moths, bought from Australia, instructors from both the Army and Navy were provided, and flying lessons were heavily subsidised. In addition, here at Kalidjati, transfers from army units were taught to fly, right the way through from beginner to an advanced instructor. He’d moved some of the flight training away, so multi engine training was now done at Singosari airfield, on the outskirts of Malang, nevertheless, the chronic shortages of aircrew had seen pilots from the KNILM, the NEI civilian airline, transferred in to join the few experienced flyers leading the newly trained, along with a couple who had BoB experience with the RAF.

The alternating roar of an aero engine broke van Oyen from his musings, and looking up, he could see a Tiger Moth trainer coming in to land, the pilot struggling to manage his speed, the plane yawing and rolling, as he attempted to line it up with the runway. Clearly the novice pilot had control, his instructor showing belief in him. “Three to one he prangs it” said a captain in van Oyen’s party, “it’s a racing cert he will” replied another. “That’s enough” snapped van Oyen, as he privately wished the plane down safely, admiration for the determination of the young novice and the guts of his instructor. The plane came closer, steadied and landed, the wheels touching down heavily before a small bunny hop and then ran on down the runway to a stop.

Van Oyen breathed a sigh of relief, and shook his head, thinking of the conversations coming this afternoon. They would be looking at more ways to cut the time given to the various flying courses, in an effort to speed up the training program and progress more aircrew through. He couldn’t fault the commitment of the new recruits nor the dedication the instructors gave to their training, but just like his counterpart, Captain G G Bozuwa of the MLD, he was desperately falling short on aircrew.

With the Tiger Moth safely down and off the runway, a Koolhoven F.K.51 basic trainer moved to the end of the runway, and waited for the control tower to signal permission to take-off, while a Ryan STM-2 stood ready to go afterwards. A number of other Ryan’s were being readied, instructors and pupils waiting, some quite anxious as a training flight squad were having their final flight examinations today. Tomorrow, those that passed would be presented with their wings by van Oyen, what they didn’t know was he was expecting a 100% pass rate. The local commander was well aware, and as a consequence his instructors had been giving those in need, additional flying hours to help their chances of passing.

 

[CB13]

Hey FC,

Any chance you can elaborate on the P-36 engine problems? That's new information for me so just hoping to learn about that specific issue.


Matthew.

 

[HJ Tulp]

1941, Tuesday 16 September;

Nice update FC! Just a minor nitpick: OTL the name was the Vrijwillig Vlieger Corps. Below I have added a relevant picture of a VVC member and his instructor.

 

[freelander]

Hi Cryhavoc101, I would point out that Lt W E Steel RNR, who is her commander, was also her master before being requisitioned by the Navy. Being in the Royal Naval Reserve, he came with the ship, so to speak. He is (my timeline), one of a band of brothers, along with the commander of HMS Li Wo, Lt T Wilkinson,, need I say more
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Wilkinson_(VC_1942)

HMS Li Wo - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Some very brave men they must have known that to attack would be a suicide yet they attacked any way

 

[edgeworthy]

Some very brave men they must have known that to attack would be a suicide yet they attacked any way

It does sound like something out of a Boys Own Adventure Story.

Would it surprise anyone to know that there does appear to be a book of naval fiction heavily based on this, by Douglas Reeman?

 

[Fatboy Coxy]

Would Article 2 of the annul the Anglo-Thai Non-aggression Pact? I don't have access to the actual treaty wording.

Anglo-Thai Non-Aggression Pact - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The 1940 Thai air attacks on Indochina would be considered an act of aggression against a third party. They do occur after the Pact has been signed in June 1940.
The British could afford to wait until after The League of Nations ratifies the Pact in June 1941 to respond, preferably in November 1941 ITTL.

While Envoy Peck can rail about "perfidious Albion", will Foggy Bottom raise its voice here? Considering what is about to occur in December 1941, does it cause
that much fallout? Or can it be positioned for use after the war, to protect the monarchy? Marshal Phibun/General Tojo are the fall guys. The Thai King Ananda
is actually a boy in Switzerland and lived out the war there.

History is curious.

Hi Nevarinemex, thats most interesting, and I think you're right

The Franco-Thai war could be a reason to break this pact as you say, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Thai_War

That would allow Britain to be technically right, but quite what American public opinion would make of it all is another matter. FDR is having to tip toe forward in his support of Britain, scoring an own goal would be most unhelpful!

 

[Fatboy Coxy]

Hey FC,
Any chance you can elaborate on the P-36 engine problems? That's new information for me so just hoping to learn about that specific issue.
Matthew.

Hi Matthew, good question, I’ll do my best.

35 Curtis Hawk 75A-7 fighters were ordered in late 1939, the order quickly reduced to 20, these being delivered to the DEI shortly after the German occupation of Holland. They formed the first full fighter squadron in the colony, 1-VIG-IV, commanded by 1/Lt MW van der Poel. By Dec 1941, seven of the twenty fighters were non-operational, (Bloody Shambles Vol 1, P60), the squadron operating with only 13 aircraft.

Bloody Shambles Vol 1 goes on to say (page 66) Of the other Dutch fighters, the Curtis Hawk had seen successful service with a number of air arms, and was a pleasant and manoeuvrable aircraft to fly. However most variants elsewhere that had seen substantial service has been fitted with Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp engines, while the H-75A-7 version operated by the Dutch had a single row Wright Cyclone. Cyclone powered Hawks had an unfortunate history of engine difficulties on every air force in which they served, and the LVA was no exception. Continual troubles with the Cyclone kept a substantial proportion of Hawks in the repair shops at all times, and called for many modifications. Ok, so why engine problems

OK onto the engine in question
The Hawk 75A-7 was equipped with the Cyclone 1,200 hp engine.
http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/P/-/P-36_Hawk.htm

it could have been one of these two
http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/R/-/R-1820_aircraft_engine.htm
or
http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/R/-/R-1830_aircraft_engine.htm

But the R-1830 has 14 cylinders in two rows, so going on the text in Bloody Shores, I'll say its the R-1820.

Now we know that the Curtiss-Wright Corporation had problems with their engines
See Defective engines sold to U.S. military in World War II
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss-Wright

While we also know about the British version of the Brewster Buffalo having engine problems, using rebuilt commercial engines, which were incidentally also built by Curtis Wright, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster_F2A_Buffalo

And I begin to wonder if the Dutch also received second hand or poorly built engines too!

Certainly whenever you discuss the flight performance of either the Hawk 75 (Mohawk in British hands) or the Brewster Buffalo, you have to specify what engine they were fitted with.

The other thing to remember re the Dutch was their air forces were both expanding fast, which included more ground crew, and as I wrote in my latest story, corners were cut to aid that expansion. I would expect aero engine maintenance to suffer as a result.

I have an example of how all this played out in air operations, taken from The Allied Defence of the Malay Barrier 1941-1942, page 134. To intercept the bombers at Soerabaja, eight Curtis Hawks of the ML's 1st Fighter Squadron scrambled from Maospoti airfield. One suffered engine trouble and aborted its take off. A second blew a cylinder shortly after take off, leaving six planes to intercept the Japanese over Madioen.

So, apologies Matthew, no clear answer, but the clues are there!

 

[Fatboy Coxy]

Nice update FC! Just a minor nitpick: OTL the name was the Vrijwillig Vlieger Corps. Below I have added a relevant picture of a VVC member and his instructor.

View attachment 829806

Hi HJ Tulp, I've edited the typo, thank you

Nice photo by the way 👍

 

[CB13]

Hi Matthew, good question, I’ll do my best.

35 Curtis Hawk 75A-7 fighters were ordered in late 1939, the order quickly reduced to 20, these being delivered to the DEI shortly after the German occupation of Holland. They formed the first full fighter squadron in the colony, 1-VIG-IV, commanded by 1/Lt MW van der Poel. By Dec 1941, seven of the twenty fighters were non-operational, (Bloody Shambles Vol 1, P60), the squadron operating with only 13 aircraft.

Bloody Shambles Vol 1 goes on to say (page 66) Of the other Dutch fighters, the Curtis Hawk had seen successful service with a number of air arms, and was a pleasant and manoeuvrable aircraft to fly. However most variants elsewhere that had seen substantial service has been fitted with Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp engines, while the H-75A-7 version operated by the Dutch had a single row Wright Cyclone. Cyclone powered Hawks had an unfortunate history of engine difficulties on every air force in which they served, and the LVA was no exception. Continual troubles with the Cyclone kept a substantial proportion of Hawks in the repair shops at all times, and called for many modifications. Ok, so why engine problems

OK onto the engine in question
The Hawk 75A-7 was equipped with the Cyclone 1,200 hp engine.
http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/P/-/P-36_Hawk.htm

it could have been one of these two
http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/R/-/R-1820_aircraft_engine.htm
or
http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/R/-/R-1830_aircraft_engine.htm

But the R-1830 has 14 cylinders in two rows, so going on the text in Bloody Shores, I'll say its the R-1820.

Now we know that the Curtiss-Wright Corporation had problems with their engines
See Defective engines sold to U.S. military in World War II
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss-Wright

While we also know about the British version of the Brewster Buffalo having engine problems, using rebuilt commercial engines, which were incidentally also built by Curtis Wright, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster_F2A_Buffalo

And I begin to wonder if the Dutch also received second hand or poorly built engines too!

Certainly whenever you discuss the flight performance of either the Hawk 75 (Mohawk in British hands) or the Brewster Buffalo, you have to specify what engine they were fitted with.

The other thing to remember re the Dutch was their air forces were both expanding fast, which included more ground crew, and as I wrote in my latest story, corners were cut to aid that expansion. I would expect aero engine maintenance to suffer as a result.

I have an example of how all this played out in air operations, taken from The Allied Defence of the Malay Barrier 1941-1942, page 134. To intercept the bombers at Soerabaja, eight Curtis Hawks of the ML's 1st Fighter Squadron scrambled from Maospoti airfield. One suffered engine trouble and aborted its take off. A second blew a cylinder shortly after take off, leaving six planes to intercept the Japanese over Madioen.

So, apologies Matthew, no clear answer, but the clues are there!

Brilliant! Read twice and bookmarked too!

And for me (who admittedly is not as well-read as many of you), I didn't realize the difference in reliability between the Wright and Pratt & Whitney engines. The way that Wright was able to license foreign production I thought they were a dependable design. Just trying to put together the jigsaw puzzle pieces we have, I'm wondering while reading that Wiki if it was more an issue of "production facilities" than "design", much like Brewster cutting corners with QC on the Buffalo.....as I don't recall ever hearing mentioned that the foreign built engines (like M25, etc.) had those issues.

 

[Driftless]

Brilliant! Read twice and bookmarked too!

And for me (who admittedly is not as well-read as many of you), I didn't realize the difference in reliability between the Wright and Pratt & Whitney engines. The way that Wright was able to license foreign production I thought they were a dependable design. Just trying to put together the jigsaw puzzle pieces we have, I'm wondering while reading that Wiki if it was more an issue of "production facilities" than "design", much like Brewster cutting corners with QC on the Buffalo.....as I don't recall ever hearing mentioned that the foreign built engines (like M25, etc.) had those issues.

IIRC, the banned and knowledgeable MacPherson held that Wright didn't devote as much money nor engineering resources to refining and improving their designs. No where near as egregious (and criminal) as Brewster, but it showed in the finished product. I don't know if that was a profit-taking management position, or a company running behind the competition and not able to catch up

 

[ArtosStark]

IIRC, the banned and knowledgeable MacPherson held that Wright didn't devote as much money nor engineering resources to refining and improving their designs. No where near as egregious (and criminal) as Brewster, but it showed in the finished product. I don't know if that was a profit-taking management position, or a company running behind the competition and not able to catch up

Quora is always a bit of a “reader beware” kind of source but there is a pretty good summary in this thread there:

What kind of Curtiss Wright engine was found defective in the WW2 and inspired Arthur Miller's "All My Sons"?

Answer: It’s generally believed that the engine was the Wright R-2600 radial, which began production in 1938, but the quantity and rate of production was significantly increased once the USA entered WW2 and once aircraft fitted with the R-2600 (which included the B-25, the A-20, A-31 and A-35 and...

www.quora.com

Specifically:

The problems at Wright led to an investigation of the plant in Lockland, Ohio by the Truman Committee in 1943. The investigation found that Wright had cut serious corners in its manufacturing and quality control in order to maximise production volumes and rates. Record-keeping was poor, employee morale was low, company inspectors were ignored and not properly empowered to enforce the standards they were supposed to be upholding, workers would be criticised for rejecting material that didn’t meet the published standards while out-of-spec material was commonly used to make engine components, quality tests were skipped and results falsified and parts from returned engines salvaged from crashes or failed engines were re-used on supposedly all-new engines without testing or remanufacturing.

The issues with the R-2600 were nearly all due to poor-quality materials being used to make parts and poor-quality assembly, checking and testing at the factory.

The systemic problems at Wright didn’t only affect the R-2600, but it was the worst affected as it was the newest engine and the most powerful, thus requiring the highest material and assembly standards. The smaller R-1820, a long-proven and reliable design dating back to the 1920s, also had reliability issues in the early 1940s due to Wright’s focus on quantity and profits over quality and reliability. One of the factors contributing to the Brewster Buffalo’s poor performance in combat in Burma and Indonesia was that the export-spec aircraft were fitted with R-1820s which were supposed to have been taken secondhand from civilian airliners and remanufactured and uprated to the newer, more powerful specification. But many of these engines were found to in fact be only partially rebuilt and still making their lower airliner-spec power, despite the data plaques on the engines saying otherwise.

 

[Fatboy Coxy]

It does sound like something out of a Boys Own Adventure Story.

Would it surprise anyone to know that there does appear to be a book of naval fiction heavily based on this, by Douglas Reeman?

Hi edgeworthy, Douglas Reeman wrote stories about pretty much every type of warship used by the Royal Navy in WW2, often just giving them a different name, and fictitious opponent.

 

[Fatboy Coxy]

1941, Wednesday 17 September;

1pm and HMS Scorpion nosed into the mouth of the river Trengganu, leading the small line of ships. Following in was the requisitioned Straits Steamship HMS Kuala, the MOWT transport Wusueh, and lastly the Dragonfly class gunboat HMS Grasshopper as the recently formed Eastern Inshore Squadron began fulfilling her commitments. On the bridge of his flagship stood Commodore Charles Stanfield, along with the captain of Scorpion, Lt Cmdr Ashworth, and standing behind them, keen to get a first sight of the town, was Lt Col James Andre, CO of the 1st Malay Battalion.

Finally, the state of Trengganu was being provided with a defence, although strategically it had little importance, and its real security was British control of Kelentan, the state on her northern border. The loss of Kelantan would almost certainly lead to the loss of Trengganu. Nevertheless, a show had to be made, and there were some Japanese commercial interests in the state that would have to be initially occupied in the event of war.

To that end the 1st battalion Malay Regiment had been chosen to perform the garrison duties, with a company at Chukai, a second at Dungun, and the rest of the battalion at the state capital, here in the town of Trengganu, along with the newly formed 1st Malay Engineer Coy. The first Malay light battery had also been sent, deploying a section of two 18 pounders at Dungun, and the other section was on board the Kuala, to deploy here. Lt Col Andre, and others, had lobbied hard for a larger role in the defence of Malaya for the regiment, and their voices had been heard. They were now part of the 9th Indian Division, under Maj Gen Barstow.

Waiting by a small pier was the British Advisor and a Major, Andre’s second in command, who had flown in with a small advance party two days ago. The Short Singapore biplane flying boat which had brought them in was still floating at the seaplane anchorage a little further up the river. These men would be coming aboard as soon as Scorpion dropped anchor. The Major would report on arrangements made for the troop’s accommodation, while because both Stanfield and Andre were invited to dinner tonight with the Sultan of Trengganu, Sulaiman Badrul Alam Shah, it was important the British Advisor briefed them thoroughly on the politics. Trengganu was heavily involved in Malay nationalism and had seen several major civil disturbances, as the British understatedly called them, in the 1920’s and was still a hotbed of activity.

The Wusueh, a 3000-ton ex China Navigation Co ship, tied up at another pier and the Malay troops began to disembark, some to be housed in the nearby police barracks, the rest at a newly constructed camp on the edge of town. The two guns would be sited to command the entrance to the river. Stanfield and his ships would maybe stay a day, but after that it would be a periodical visit by a patrolling ship, or the regular visit of the supply ship only. For Andre, however, tomorrow he would meet the State Police Commissioner and the commander of the local home defence force to discuss how best to provide security for the State’s strategic interests. The Malay Regiment was here to stay.

 

[Parma]

Nice update FC! Just a minor nitpick: OTL the name was the Vrijwillig Vlieger Corps. Below I have added a relevant picture of a VVC member and his instructor.

View attachment 829806

Are you aware if there was some sort of recruiting made in the West? Suriname did had a population of Javanese and the whole overseas posessions, in the West Indies did had, at that time, a considerable European population.
I was just wondering, since the Antilles provided a considarable number of sailors for the Dutch Merchant fleet.

 

[HJ Tulp]

Are you aware if there was some sort of recruiting made in the West? Suriname did had a population of Javanese and the whole overseas posessions, in the West Indies did had, at that time, a considerable European population.
I was just wondering, since the Antilles provided a considarable number of sailors for the Dutch Merchant fleet.

From what I gather there was quite some enthusiasm in Suriname for service in the Princess Irene. The government (and especially the racist bastard Gerbrandy) didn't want to offend white South African conscripts though so they were refused. Quite a few of them did end up Netherlands New Guinea, though as far as I know only in late 1942/1943. With regards to the white population of the West Indies they were subject to conscription.

EDIT: Just to clarify, the Surinamese volunteers seem to mostly have been Creoles and some Indians (maybe).