Singapore Slim v2.0

Hyperion

Banned
Okay... Thanks for the critique Markus. I have bit a few queries:

1) Let's assume that the PoD I designated somehow butterflies away the storm that damaged the HMS Indomitable. What effect will it's deployment have on the Malayan campaign other than the fact that Force Z now has decent air cover?

2) Are defences in Southern Johore plausible too? Like you mentioned earlier, the defences in northen Malaya were meant to prevent the Japs from taking the airfields around the area. I was thinking that a few more airfields could be built in the Johpre area and that a scorched earth policy could be used to render the northen airfields completely useless to the Japs in the event of a breakthrough i.e. cratering runways, wrecking construction vehicles if any, siphoning fuel and ammunition and the like.

3) I also need a rundown on how badly the civil authorities obstructed defence preparations. I feel that it is possible for Slim to be able to negate the ill effects the military suffered due to the incompetence of the government.


What kind of airwing would Indomitable have available.

As the bombers that attacks Prince of Wales and Repulse had no fighter escorts, even Buffaloes should be more than enough, unless they only have like half a dozen or so.

End result, Force Z is forced to retire to India or somewhere, but not before gutting a few squadrons worth of bombers.

Maybe they can launch a night attack and pick off an odd cruiser or two. Not enough to change the situation in the short term, at least for the Brits. But one or two less cruisers early on means less stuff being thrown at the US and Aussies in the Solomons later on.
 
omg... That speech was so boomz... Slim would have done something like that in front of the troops. How do you suppose that he would get to speak in the House? Pre-war I guess?

Ps: I am NOT Ris Low...

You realise that just me and one other guy on the forum got that joke right? :D Good to see another Singaporean here.

I actually meant Churchill would get to make a speech about it, not Slim.

I just read the new Churchill speech in the style of Churchill but I found I was starting to sound like William Shattner. Great speech.

Thank you, good sir.
 

Markus

Banned
Okay... Thanks for the critique Markus. I have bit a few queries:

1) Let's assume that the PoD I designated somehow butterflies away the storm that damaged the HMS Indomitable. What effect will it's deployment have on the Malayan campaign other than the fact that Force Z now has decent air cover?

2) Are defences in Southern Johore plausible too? Like you mentioned earlier, the defences in northen Malaya were meant to prevent the Japs from taking the airfields around the area. I was thinking that a few more airfields could be built in the Johpre area and that a scorched earth policy could be used to render the northen airfields completely useless to the Japs in the event of a breakthrough i.e. cratering runways, wrecking construction vehicles if any, siphoning fuel and ammunition and the like.

3) I also need a rundown on how badly the civil authorities obstructed defence preparations. I feel that it is possible for Slim to be able to negate the ill effects the military suffered due to the incompetence of the government.

1) A six Buffalo CAP could have been provided anyway.

2) The incomplete Kota Tinggi line was in Southern Johore.
In 1937 Lt General Sir William Dobbie gave an assessment to the War Office of how Japan might attack Singapore and the weakness of attack from mainland Malaya. He proposed a defence line in southern Johore, calling it the Kota Tinggi Defence Line. His Chief of Staff at the time was Colonel Arthur Percival.

It was to run from the Johore river through Kota Tinggi towards Kulai and then southwest to Pontian Besar. It would have pill boxes, protected by obstacles, backed by a road grid of lateral roads. This would have had trenches, barbwire defences etc built in short notice in time of war. He was given £60,000 to start construction with pill boxes built along the Johore river and a short way westwards from Kota Tinggi. The roads were to be built by the rubber companies at cost price.

In 1939 Lt Gen Dobbie was compulsory retired, having reached sixty. He had spent £23,000 on the defence works. His replacement was Lt General Sir Lionel Bond, at the same time the work on defences were stopped, the pillboxes were forgotten, the jungle reclaimed them and the roads were never built.

See axishistory for more details and pictures: http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=156035

3) I´ll pm you tomorrow. I need to re-read parts of the official war history for a comprehensive answer. Right now I need to free some beer from a cold and dark place. :D
 
March 15th 1941
HQ Malaya Command
Command House, Singapore

Major General William Joseph Slim had been back in Singapore for barely a week and the amount of reports that told of neglect for Singapore’s defences was piling up on his desk. Abandonment of the Johore line courtesy of his predecessor Sir Lionel Bond, troops ill equipped to handle jungle warfare, refusal of the civilian authorities to construct miscellaneous military structures and the lack of coordination between the RAF and the Army. You name it, they were all there.

Of the reports he received, he found Bond’s cancellation of the construction of the Johore defences most confusing. This was because Bond advocated a close defence of Southern Johore, and the Singapore Island. That would have possibly included a defence line running from Mersing to Muar as the first obstacle to an invasion. Slim had totally no idea as to why Bond cancelled Dobbie’s pet project.

As for the other reports, they were just frightening. No one had followed the recommendations that Slim made in his report to Dobbie regarding the improvement of Singapore’s defences. The exercise conducted by him to prove that the jungle was not neutral probably didn’t get into the heads of anyone. His other recommendation to have training regimes for the garrison to enhance their readiness status was ignored as usual. RAF units in Singapore were still operating second grade aircraft and worse of all, there were no tanks.

A stroll in the city at night in civvies showed him the cause of all the lack of defences. Everyone was in the ‘Business as Usual’ mood. There were parties and orgies all over the place. Rationing and blackout regulations didn’t exist and his soldiers were roaming around the street drunk. He caught a group of them trying to gang rape an unlucky Chinese girl on the streets. Fortunately for the girl, the men scattered on sight of the burly man that was Slim.

Evidently, the government was living in denial that there was a war going on and that there was a titanic life and death struggle on Europe and in the Mediterranean. Britannia’s colonies in the Far East were pretending that no war existed, apart from the odd recruitment drive and advertisements that told her subjects to support the war. When Slim got back to the Command House, he knew that a lot of work had to be done to undo many years worth of damage.
 

terence

Banned
Did the IRA DO bombings like that in the 30's? Where is Percival stationed? Was he in charge of Black and Tans, or something?

?? I don't understand the setting, I don't think. Could you add ... a footnote, say.

On 21st November 1921, IRA assassination squads attempted to eliminate the entire British intelligence network in Dublin. They specifically targeted 35 members of MI5, MI6 and Military intelligence who had been specially drafted in and were wrecking their organisaton.
The hits took place all over Dublin and , being Irish, they bungled it. Fourteen people were killed and six wounded. Only eight of the victims were British agents. The IRA did however manage to kill the wife of one of the agents.
 
I think the Rape mention is little over the top. ?Do You have any evidence that this kind of thing happened, with the British Troops.
If so Slim has a MAJOR discipline problem to solve before He starts anything else.
 
I think the Rape mention is little over the top. ?Do You have any evidence that this kind of thing happened, with the British Troops.
If so Slim has a MAJOR discipline problem to solve before He starts anything else.

Yes... you're right. I added that part as a dig at the way local TV production companies in my country use rape in their scenes as a way to boost their ratings. In OTL, no such thing ever happened amongst the Brits garrisoned in Singapore.

But then again, I think no one got the joke as this is an international forum and there are so little of my countrymen here. I should think that there are other disciplinary problems like corruption as mentioned below:

Moon Over Malaya said:
There was a chap in the Royal Engineers responsible for accepting the tenders from various Chinese, and it was noticed by the other wives that his wife was beginning to be expensively dressed and wearing jewellery, and this got around. This chap was tried by court-martial on twenty seven counts involving thousands of Singapore dollars. Time and again in the evidence for the prosecution it would come up that there’d be a meeting between this chap and the Chinese contractor, and his wife was always present, and she took the money and put it in her handbag. It ended up he was found guilty on all charges and he was cashiered, deprived of his rank and committed to five years hard labour, and he was in Changi jail when the war ended, but his wife escaped and got home and still had all this money.
 
Here's a rough idea of where the story will be heading to...

14th.jpg
 
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