Apparently British commanders believed that the Japanese would make poor pilots because being carried on their mother's back as babies would have impaired their sense of balance.![]()
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As others have said Britain was stretched to breaking point, the pre-war assumption was that France would take the lead in the Med and if war with Japan happened, the Mediterranean Fleet would be sent East, France's implosion caused that plan to go out the window. Even with the forces available a lot could have been done better, apparently they had a 3:1 advantage in men over the Japanese (can anyone confirm that?), a half decent general should have been able to knock that army into shape and unless he was up against an Alexander or Napoleon, Yamashita was good but not that good, he should have been able to make the campaign a meat grinder which even if Singapore still falls much later than IOTL has big implications for the rest of the war. Percival is portrayed as the villain but while he has a large share of the blame he's not the only one. From what I know of him I see parallels with Paulus in Stalingrad, a decent staff officer by all accounts who was put in a position he was totally unsuited for. The responsibility for that lies further up the food chain.
I don't think its fair to Von Paulus to a comparison with that man Percival. The good field marshall wasn't allowed to make decisions about his own army. He knew that to break out was the right thing to do and on several occassions begged Hitler to be allowed to break out. It is true that a stronger man like his predecessor Von Richenau for example would have disobeyed Hitler and broken out but can you really blame a soldier for following orders? Percival OTOH did not have his hands tied and was free to take whatever action he saw fit. Paulus also enjoyed considerable success on the road to Stalingrad including a very difficult opposed landing.
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