Cryhavoc101
Donor
This has been an interesting discussion about the merits and failings of the Westlant Whirland. And no doubt if the RAF in Malaysia had a number of them on hand after the start of the Pacific War they would have put them to good use. Especially after the surviving pilots had developed the proper tactics to use against Zeros and Oscars.
But there is the larger question that this thread brings up. How to get anything helpful sent to Malaysia in 1941 when there are more pressing priorities? If somebody had decided to rush the Whirlwinds being kept in Scotland into service there were several other active warzones in 1941 that would have had priority over the quiet peaceful backwater of 1941 Malaysia.
So, how to convince the powers-that-be to direct any modern airplanes of any type to Malaysia before December 1941?
My go to answer is that following the occupation of FIC on 28th July by the Japanese (or even before suring the original invasion of Northern FIC the previous year) the British commonwealth in collusion with the Dutch places Malaya and other areas (Rabaul, Ambon, and Timor for example) under command of the Australians
Now over the years I have gleaned various bits of information - one of which is that a number of British Divisions were held back in the UK (Carl S quoted the following in a post a few months back) and with hindsight this was a mistake IMO
"from 'Britain's Greatest Defeat: Singapore 1942' by Alan Warren gives a deployment of British & Commonwealth Divisions worldwide,7 December 1941:
United Kingdom
29 divisions--6 Armoured Divs,21 Inf Divs,2 Dominion Inf Divs
Middle East
13 divisions--3 Armoured Divs,2 Inf Divs,6 Dominion Inf Divs,2 Indian Divs
Persia-Iraq
3 divisions--3 Indian Divs
Far East
3 divisions--1 Dominion Inf Div,2 Indian Divs
Of the 32 British divisions available at the time only 5 were overseas.
The reliance on Dominion and Indian divisions to carry the burden elsewhere stands out.
IIRC 10-12 of the infantry divisions in the UK were "Home" Div. Relatively static formations & under armed.
I think they had a training function as well as a anti invasion force. That leaves approx ten British inf, two Canadian Inf, & five armored if one of those is considered a training formation."
So my suggestion is to replace the 3 Australian Infantry Divisions of the 2nd Australian Imperial Force with British/Commonwealth Divisions from the UK and allow the 2nd AIF to form the nucleus of the Commonwealth defence of Malaya and DEI
Now none of this is really possible without a better situation for the allies in mid 1941 - so my suggestion is that some or all of the following PODs happen before Mid 41
Op Judgement is conducted by a multi carrier strike group sinking/crippling all of the Italian BBs using several dozen more torpedo carrying Aircraft than the 11 or so that were used OTL
Malta is more heavily reinforced by April 1941
W Force is not sent or delayed to Greece (NA and Australian Governments get wind of the plan and dig their feet in effectively vetoing the plan) and by the time the Germans attack at the beginning of April 1941 only the New Zealand Division has been sent and has only got as far as occupying Crete freeing up the 5th Greek Division (?) for service on the mainland
So none of the Main force Units make it to Greece before the German invasion and do not suffer heavy losses in men and equipment - the 26 Troop ships intended to land W force are instead used to evacuate as many Greek troops as possible back to Crete (where in my perfect little world they are partially re-equipped with Italian kit captured during Op Compass). This bodes ill for the planned Op Mercury in late May.
With the addition of the British 1st Armoured Brigade and the 6th Australian Division as well as logistic assets still in Egypt/Cyrenaica and the Axis forces in North Africa weakened by a greater interdiction effort from Malta, Rommel's Operation Sonnenblume takes place later with slightly less strength and is blunted in Cyrenaica and forced to retreat back to El Agheila
Now OTL the British Commonwealth forces lost in the Greek, Crete and Cyrenaica battles and subsequent attempted counter attacks about 1.5 Divisions worth of troops and several times that in Equipment (Trucks, Artillery, tanks etc), not to mention lots of ships lost or damaged attempting interdiction and then evacuation - and this all had to be made good before anything was going further east than Cairo
But in this TL losses are much lower and the losses to the Axis higher for a 'net positive' situation for the British Commonwealth and allied forces in the region
I feel that that would allow for the Australian Government to press for the release of its soldiers and to take command in Malaya and DEI
Now of course the Aussies had a number of Squadrons fighting in North Africa (I think they had lots of P40s at the time) and they would I expect take those with them as well as 'demand' more fighters from the UK and we might very well see Jack1971's 3 Squadrons of WWs forming a wing get dispatched to Malaya along with the Aussie units.
There - hows that?