The war goes on.
Chapter XX: The War in Asia, the Middle Eastern Theatre and the Siege of Gibraltar, December 1953-July 1954.
On Monday December 14th 1953, Beijing issued a longwinded ultimatum that listed all the slights China had had to endure over the past one hundred years before proclaiming the end of the “century of humiliation” and moving on to China’s actual demands. The Republic of China demanded that Britain and France returned all the territorial concessions they’d obtained in China through, in the ultimatum’s wording, “extortion through military aggression or threats thereof and unfair economic concessions granted by previous Chinese governments under duress.” The document delivered to the British and French embassies demanded that the two great powers reply affirmatively within 72 hours or “face the vengeance of the Chinese people.”
President of China and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek was encouraged by the terrific success of his Soviet ally in the European theatre. The West had been thrown into disarray with the Red Army advancing into Europe like a bull in a china shop, which presented them with a long term military crisis. The British and French couldn’t spare any forces for a serious confrontation with China, but still refused to yield to Chinese demands contrary to the Kuomintang regime’s expectations. Chiang believed they would still cave once push came to shove and was slightly surprised when this didn’t happen, but launched a highly successful military operation after the ultimatum expired. The Battle of Hong Kong became the symbol of China’s resurgence: 75.000 Chinese troops faced a garrison of only 15.000 men and the Crown Colony fell in just three days. The other concessions fell much quicker as their garrisons had been reduced to the bare minimum to send troops to Europe.
Chiang had presented the West with a fait accompli and he believed that would be the end of it as Europe was preoccupied. Contrary to expectations, Great Britain, France and Germany declared war on China as doing nothing in the face of this aggression would send the message that it was alright to take Western colonies. Taking this lying down could sent the message to colonial peoples that their European masters were in a weak position that they could take advantage of to demand concessions or, God forbid, independence.
China now became part of a world war that spanned Eurasia. While Chiang didn’t expect a war with the colonial powers, he was intimidated by the prospect as he knew the British and the French had nothing to back it up with. Opportunistic as he was, he chose to exploit this as best he could by launching a land grab in Southeast Asia. As Europe went into its first Christmas in wartime, the old continent was treated to the news of a Chinese invasion of French Indochina. France had 50.000 troops stationed there, 38.000 of which were colonials and only 12.000 French. On Christmas day 1953, 300.000 troops invaded the northern region of Tonkin and 60.000 Thai troops invaded from the west. Resistance collapsed within three days and French Indochina was partitioned by the victors in the Treaty of Canton. Cambodia and Laos were directly annexed by Thailand while Vietnam became a Chinese satellite state.
In the Chinese city of Kunming in Yunnan Province the exiled Nationalist Party of Vietnam (Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng, VNQDD) led by Vu Hong Khanh proclaimed the Republic of Vietnam on January 1st 1954. It promptly received diplomatic recognition from the USSR, China, Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic, Iran, Korea, the People’s Republic of Poland, Romania and Serbia. The VNQDD was closely modelled on the Chinese Kuomintang and had assassinated French officials and their collaborators in the past, before launching a mutiny in 1930 in the hopes of igniting a nationwide anti-French revolt. The VNQDD had subsequently been crushed by the French and regrouped in Yunnan Province in China, receiving weapons and training there from KMT ruled China and biding its time. Though it was leftist, it appealed mostly to intellectuals and teachers rather than peasants and industrial workers. Being thrust into power revitalized the VNQDD as party leader Khanh became President of Vietnam. He presided over a government of national unity with the Communist Party of Vietnam as his junior partner, based on China’s alliance with Moscow. The leader of the Vietnamese communists, Ho Chi Minh, was made Vice President for that reason. One of the first acts of this new republic, a country of 32 million people, was to declare war on its former colonial overlord France. The Republic of Vietnam Army was created from 25.000 soldiers that had defected from French service and it rapidly swelled as conscription was introduced while the Vietnam’s Chinese allies provided weapons and training.
The Republic of China Army, the new name of the National Revolutionary Army since 1944, had transformed in the decade since the Sino-Soviet victory over Japan into a formidable force: it had reorganized along Soviet lines and adopted Deep Operations doctrine. Initially, China had received thousands of BT-5, BT-7 and T-26 tanks as the Red Army replaced them with the T-34, allowing them to practice with a large tank force with the assistance of Soviet trainers. After the T-34’s mass production had reached the required levels, China began purchasing them to become the mainstay of their tank arm. With Soviet assistance, they built a gigantic production complex near Beijing so they could produce their own. Similarly, Chinese factories produced Soviet designed aircraft, communications equipment, trucks, aircraft, artillery, machine guns and SVT-40 battle rifles in large quantities for a mechanized force. The Republic of China Army at its peak would number 20 million men, making it the only military in the world to exceed the Red Army in terms of sheer manpower. A decade of peace had prepared the Republic of China for war.
China didn’t stop at conquering French Indochina, but continued inexorably as it mobilized for what it called “the war of Asian liberation.” In early January 1954, Chinese forces concentrated and increased in strength in Thailand, reaching a strength of nearly 500.000 men while millions more were mobilized in the vast expanses of China. The “Southeast Asia Theatre Army” was split into the “Burma Theatre Army” and the “Malay Theatre Army”, which numbered a quarter of a million men each and had a few Thai divisions for support. The British had 75.000 men in Burma and 175.000 in Malaya. With a superiority in terms of manpower, tanks, artillery and aircraft the Chinese overran Burma in seven weeks and Malay in four weeks, reaching Singapore.
Singapore was defended by the mighty guns of a squadron of Royal Navy battleships and battlecruisers while aircraft carriers provided around the clock air cover. On March 7th, ten weeks after the invasion of Malay had been launched and six after the beginning of the Siege of Singapore, the Royal Navy evacuated the last troops and the city fell. The sultanates of Malaya were gently coerced into forming the Malayan Confederation and declaring war on their former British colonizers. By that time, Chinese forces had already rushed through Burma and had established an independent Burmese republic before moving on to India.
Vastly numerically superior Chinese forces defeated the British Indian Army at Kohima and Imphal and advanced despite the extremely challenging terrain provided by the mountainous Himalayan northeast of India. In the spring of 1954 Chinese strength on the Indian Front swelled to more than one million men and their forces advanced across the mountains despite fierce resistance and serious casualties. Nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose proclaimed the Republic of India as soon as his 80.000 strong “Indian National Army” set foot on Indian soil. Bose chose Dacca as his temporary capital as the war continued, though it became more and more clear Bose’s army and its Chinese backers wouldn’t advance much further. The Chinese were halted just east of the old capital of Calcutta. Nepal and Bhutan were also occupied.
The British Indian Army upon reaching its full strength would number 2.5 million, a number that the British hoped to increase massively by the controversial proposal of conscription. India was a subcontinent with 400 million people living in it. This was a vast manpower pool that, if the British could mobilize it, could give the West an army big enough to reverse the victories of the Soviets and the Chinese. The response of Indian leaders to this idea was exactly what one could expect: they were irate at first at the thought of their countrymen being drafted to fight for continued British colonial rule over India without even being consulted in the matter. The controversy resulted in widespread protests and calls to resist being drafted, but soon there were also those who recognized this as both a necessity and an opportunity. India had to fight because becoming a Chinese puppet was not an acceptable alternative to British rule, and yet British rule wasn’t what they wanted either.
The price for India going along with this would be a concrete British promise to grant independence at a to be agreed upon date in the near future. This time Indian leaders wouldn’t settle for increased suffrage, more autonomy, more elected members to the Imperial Legislative Council and some vague commitment to independence at an undefined point. Nehru, Gandhi, Jinah and the others threatened with strikes and massive resistance to conscription and with Chinese forces on the Ganges the British could hardly deal with such instability. This left Whitehall no choice but to agree despite the heated debates in parliament and the opposition by the Tories that threatened to create a rupture in wartime cooperation.
Great Britain promised independence, using a tried and proven design to still ensure a link would remain between it and its former colony. It was agreed that a new Government of India act would be prepared so it could be passed once the war was over. This act would grant India dominion status as the first non-white dominion in the British Empire, giving the country self-governance and thereby de facto independence in the same way as countries like Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Dominion status would make India equal to Britain and in no way subordinate in its domestic or external affairs, though still part of the Commonwealth through an allegiance to the Crown. The country’s new name would be the Indian Empire as the monarch of Britain would also still hold the title Emperor or Empress of India. Given that Britain’s monarchy was purely a constitutional one, this had no effect on India’s self-rule. The Viceroy that acted in the place of the British monarch would become a purely ceremonial head of state once the new Government of India Act went into effect. The Indian Empire’s financial, industrial and military assistance would prove crucial in the war, sending ten million men to fight, and the country would emerge from the conflict as the fourth largest industrial power. In due time India would become the leading nation of the Empire.
Before India’s weight could be felt, Great Britain faced another crisis in the Middle East in the spring of 1954. He demanded that the Iranian government be allowed to audit the documents of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and wanted to break open the last agreement, which was supposed to last sixty years. Britain refused on both points as yielding would show weakness, which could in turn encourage other countries in the British sphere of influence to get ideas. Faced with British obstinacy, the parliament (Majlis) voted to nationalize Iran’s oil and expel foreign corporate representatives from the country. Shah Mohammad Reza openly backed the move and his popularity was boosted immensely among his subjects, but the British on the other hand were outraged.
In Westminster the proper response to Iran’s unilateral action was hotly debated. In Labour circles there was a strong argument that Britain should do nothing at all as the country couldn’t spare any troops for a pseudo-colonial adventure on the Persian Gulf. With no military means available in the region, even the Iranians with their mediocre army could help themselves to any territory they’d wand to annex. First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill – who had returned to his old post for the second and last time in 1951 after four years of absence, after the Tories returned to power – voiced the position of the Conservative Party the best. He said: “If we do nothing, we’ll let everyone think they can steal from us and end up the beggar of Europe rather than the head of a sprawling global Empire on which the sun never sets. The Shah must be made to understand that, if he doesn’t back down, this means war.”
A middle ground was found. Britain had affected regime change before in its long history as a colonial power and it decided to do so again by staging a coup d’état. MI6 devised Operation Achilles, which envisaged using elements of the Imperial Iranian Army to establish a military dictatorship that would disband the Majles, renegotiate the oil concession, accept copious British bribes to do so, and isolate the Shah by establishing a regency under his brother Prince Gholam Reza. The coup failed as Shah Mohammad Reza wasn’t where intelligence had said he would be, preventing his capture early on by the plotters and enabling him to countermand their orders and broadcast a declaration over the radio. As a result most of the armed forces and the population closed ranks behind him, which caused the coup attempt to collapse and the plotters to be arrested and executed. The Shah’s brother, Prince Gholam Reza, was put under house arrest.
Iran responded to this coup by declaring war on Britain and, much as Labour had feared, British interests in the region came under immediate assault. Iran supported a successful coup in neighbouring Iraq by elements of the military and a movement called the Ba’ath Party, which espoused Arab nationalist, Arab socialist, anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist positions. After seizing control and overthrowing the monarchy, Colonel Abdul Salam Arif, an independent with pan-Arabist sympathies, became President and nationalized Iraqi oil following Iran’s example. French Syria, British ruled Transjordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were all at risk of falling prey to Arif’s ambitions to create an Arab Federation. As the Soviets sent support forces, the Middle East became another front in the war. France and Britain sent forces here, with the majority of them coming from the British Indian Army as no-one could afford to remove troops from the European theatre of the war.
In May 1954, the war in Europe resumed as the Red Army launched the spring offensive that was intended to deal the decisive blow by advancing to the Rhine, which would’ve crushed Germany and thereby any hope that the Soviets could be dislodged from their conquests. It was not to be. With its mobilization complete and colonial forces arriving from Morocco, Algeria and other colonies French troop strength on the German Front had doubled. During the same period the BEF had grown to 1.5 million men as Britain continued to field more and more new divisions thanks to conscription. Furthermore, Canadian and Anzac forces arrived that operated under the aegis of the BEF. The disparity in numbers between the Red Army and the West wasn’t that big anymore. Besides that, the logistical issues surrounding supplying such a colossal force so far from home remained. Moreover, it overextended itself by getting involved in the Middle East too.
The Soviet spring offensive between May and July was a tactical success in the sense that new territory was conquered, but a strategic failure as the Red Army got nowhere near the Rhine. Soviet and Czechoslovak forces made serious inroads into Bavaria by conquering Nuremberg and Regensburg. In Austria they crossed the Danube and took Vienna, after which the advanced westward before they grinded to a halt in the Alps where they encountered determined resistance. Stalin was disappointed with this outcome, but he was also pragmatic and he recognized the Soviet Union still had the upper hand in the war and the ability to make this war even more difficult for his enemies.
Red Spain had remained neutral on Moscow’s instructions so far, but that was about to change. In July 1954, Spain declared war on France and launched an offensive across the Pyrenees mountain range into Roussillon, a region that had been disputed by France and Spain for more than a century until Louis XIII had settled the matter in France’s favour in 1641. A lingering Catalan identity remained in the mid twentieth century and this was used to justify Spanish aggression. Despite Soviet investments and assistance, Spain had remained a medium power and its army was professional and competent but not very large.
The fiery temper of the Spanish translated to a rapid advance in the first few days of their offensive and the capture of Perpignan in southern France while in the far south they besieged Gibraltar. The Spanish were contained in southern France by three army corps, tying down some troops but not enough to affect the main front in Germany while Gibraltar held out against a Spanish siege in which the Rock was shelled and bombed around the clock. The Spanish were quickly thrown back across the Pyrenees. The Royal Navy and the French Navy imposed a naval blockade on Spain intended to simply starve it into submission. Their navies also made sure Gibraltar received reinforcements and supplies so it could hold out indefinitely.
