South-East Asian theatre of World War II
The
China- Burma- India (CBI) Theatre of World War II was the name given to the campaigns of the
Pacific War in
India,
Burma,
Thailand,
Indochina,
Malaya and
Singapore.
At the start of the war the British had two commands with responsibilities for possessions in the theatre.
India Command under General Sir
Archibald Wavell the Commander-in-Chief (CinC) of the
Army of India and the
Far East Command, first under Air Chief Marshal
Robert Brooke-Popham and then from December 23, 1941 commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir
Henry Royds Pownall.
India Command was responsible for India, Ceylon, and for some of the time Burma. The Far East Command based in Singapore was responsible for Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore and other British Far East possessions including, for some of the time, Burma.
A month after the outbreak of war with
Japan on
December 7,
1941, the
Allied governments jointly appointed the British Commander-in-Chief (CinC) of the
Army of India, General Sir
Archibald Wavell, as Supreme Allied Commander of all "
American-British-Dutch-Australian" (ABDA) forces in South East Asia and the Pacific, from Burma to the
Dutch East Indies.
However, advances made by the Japanese over the next month split the ABDA forces in two. After transferring the forces in Burma to the India Command, on
February 25,
1942 Wavell resigned as commander of the ABDA and resumed his position of CinC of the Army of India. Responsibility for the
South West Pacific Area passed to US General
Douglas MacArthur as
Supreme Allied Commander South West Pacific.
From February 1942 until November 1943 the India Command was responsible for the South East Asian Theatre. General Wavell was made
Viceroy of India and General
Claude Auchinleck became Commander-in-Chief of the India Command on the 20th June, 1943. In August 1943 the Allies formed a new South East Asian Command to take over strategic responsibilities for the theatre.
The reorganisation of the theatre command took about two months. On
October 4 Winston Churchill appointed Admiral Lord
Louis Mountbatten supreme Allied commander of the
South East Asia Command (SEAC). The American General
Joseph Stilwell was the first deputy supreme Allied commander. On
November 15, Auchinleck handed over responsibility for the conduct of operations against the Japanese in the theatre to Mountbatten.
The initial land forces operational area for SEAC included
India,
Burma,
Ceylon and
Malaya. Operations were also mounted in Japanese-occupied
Sumatra,
Thailand and
French Indochina.
Initially SEAC commanded:
*
British Eastern Fleet (based in Ceylon)
*
British 11th Army Group (Commonwealth land forces; HQ in New Delhi)
*Air HQ India (New Delhi)
*
China Burma India Theater (CBI), (all US forces in theatre; HQ in New Delhi).
In October 1944, CBI was split into US Forces China Theater (USFCT) and India-Burma Theater (USFIBT).
On
November 12,
1944 Eleventh Army Group redesignated by Allied Land Forces South East Asia (ALFSEA) combining Commonwealth and US forces, with an HQ at Kandy. On
December 1 ALFSEA HQ moved to Barrackpore, India.
On
August 15,
1945 responsibility for the rest of the
Dutch East Indies was transferred from the South West Pacific Area to SEAC.
SEAC was disbanded on
November 30,
1946.
11th Army Group
British 11th Army Group ( November
1943 –
November 12 1944) was on paper the main Commonwealth army force in South East Asia which directed
*
British Fourteenth Army*
British Army in Ceylon (Ceylon Army)
*
Northern Combat Area Command under the command of
Joseph Stilwell.
On
November 12 1944 the 11th Army Group was redesignated
Allied Land Forces South East Asia , still under SEAC, because it was felt that an inter-Allied command was better than the purely British headquarters. Command problems with General Stilwell and his interactions with the U.S.
Joint Chiefs of Staff had precipitated the change.
The
Imperial Japanese Army Unit controlling all army land and air units was the
Southern Expeditionary Army headquartered in
Saigon,
Indochina. It was commanded by General Count
Hisaichi Terauchi (called Juichi), who commanded it from 1941 to 1945. The Japanese also deployed the
South Seas Force, a combined force of Army and
Special Naval Landing Force personnel. The Southern Army consisted of 11 infantry divisions, 6 independent infantry brigades, and 6 tank regiments, plus artillery and support troops. Its major field commands were the 14th Army, the 15th Army, the 16th Army and the 25th Army. The Japanese extensively used
bicycle infantry, which allowed them quick movement over vast distances.
The Allies suffered many disastrous defeats in the first six months of the war. Two major British warships,
HMS Repulse and
HMS Prince of Wales were
sunk by a Japanese air attack off
Malaya on
December 10,
1941. Following the
invasion, the government of
Thailand formally allied itself with
Japan on
December 21.
Hong Kong fell on
December 25. January saw the invasions of
Burma and the
Dutch East Indies and the capture of
Manila and
Kuala Lumpur.
The Japanese Southern Army's 1st Parachute Brigade was used with good effect in the seizure of
Sumatra (see
Battle of Palembang).
Malaya and Singapore
Japanese forces met stiff resistance from
III Corps of the
Indian Army, the
Australian 8th Division and British units during the
Battle of Malaya, but Japan's superiority in air power, tanks and infantry tactics drove the Allied units back. After being driven out of Malaya, Allied forces in
Singapore, under the command of Lieutenant General
Arthur Percival, surrendered to the Japanese on
February 15,
1942; about 130,000 Allied troops became prisoners of war. The
fall of Singapore was the largest surrender in British military history.
The Japanese Indian Ocean raid
The Japanese
Indian Ocean raid was a naval sortie by the Fast Carrier Strike Force of the Imperial Japanese Navy from
31 March to
10 April 1942 against Allied shipping and bases in the Indian Ocean. Following the destruction of the ABDACOM forces in the battles around
Java in February and March, the Japanese sortied into the Indian Ocean to destroy British seapower there and support the invasion of
Burma. The raid was only partially successful. It did not succeed in destroying Allied naval power in the Indian Ocean but it did force the British fleet to relocate to
Kilindini in east Africa.
Japanese occupation of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
main article Invasion and Occupation of the Andaman Islands during World War IIThe
Andaman and Nicobar Islands (8,293 sq km on 139 islands), are a group of islands situated in the
Bay of Bengal at about 780 miles from
Kolkata, 740 miles from
Chennai and 120 miles from
Cape Nargis in
Burma. On
March 23 1942 a Japanese invasion force seize the islands and occupied them until the end of the war.
On
December 29, 1943, political control of the islands was theoretically passed to the
Azad Hind government of
Subhas Chandra Bose. Bose visited
Port Blair to raise the tricolour flag of the
Indian National Army. After Bose's departure the Japanese remained in effective control of the Andamans, and the sovereignty of the
Arzi Hukumat-e Hind was largely fictional
[ C.A. Bayly & T. Harper Forgotten Armies. The Fall of British Asia 1941-5 (London) 2004 p325 ]. The islands themselves were renamed "Shaheed" and "Swaraj", meaning "martyr" and "self-rule" respectively. Bose placed the islands under the governorship of one
Lieutenant-Colonel Loganathan, and had limited involvement with the administration of the territory.
See the
Burma Campaign for details on:
*The retreat of
Burcorps*The formation of the
British Fourteenth Army (The "Forgotten Army")
*The
Arakan campaign
*The Japanese attack on
India*The Allied counter offensives
** Road to
Rangoon** Brigadier
Orde Wingate and the
Chindits*
China Burma India Theater of World War II is the main article
*
Northern Combat Area Command (NCAC)
*
Flying Tigers*
Fourteenth Air Force*
Tenth Air Force*
Twentieth Air Force (
Operation Matterhorn)
*The Allied
logisitical airlift from India in to China over
the Hump*The
Ledo Road*
Merrill's MaraudersOne of the major logistical efforts of the war was "flying
the Hump" over the Himalayas and the building of the
Ledo Road from India to China as a replacement for the
Burma Road.
See
RAF Far East Air Force,
RAF Third Tactical Air ForceBattle honours
CEYLON 1942Qualification: For operations against Japanese aircraft and naval units by squadrons based in Ceylon during the Japanese attacks of April 1942.
BURMA 1944-1945Qualification: For operations during the 14th Army's advance from Imphal to Rangoon, the coastal amphibious assaults, and the Battle of Pegu Yomas, August 1944 to August 1945.
Indian Ocean retreat
Following the
Japanese Indian Ocean raid in eary 1942, the
British Eastern Fleet retreated to
Kilindini near
Mombasa in
Kenya, as their more forward fleet anchorages could not be adequately protected from Japanese attack. The fleet in the Indian Ocean was then gradually reduced to little more than a convoy escort force as other commitments called for the more powerful ships. From May 1942, it was also used in the
invasion of Madagascar — an operation aimed at thwarting any attempt by Japan to use bases on the
Vichy French controlled territory.
Indian Ocean Strike
The earliest successes were gained by mine laying and submarine warfare. The Japanese minesweeping capability was never great, and when confronted with new types of mines they did not adapt quickly. Japanese shipping was driven from the Burmese coast using this type of warfare. British submarines based in Ceylon operated against Japanese shipping.
It was only after the war in Europe was clearly coming to an end that large British forces were dispatched to the Indian Ocean again. Following the neutralisation of the German fleet in late 1943 and early 1944, forces from the Home Fleet were released, and the success of Operation Overlord in June meant even more craft could be sent, including precious amphibious assault shipping.
During late 1944, as more British aircraft carriers came into the area a series of strikes were flown against oil targets in Sumatra to prepare British carriers for the upcoming operations in the Pacific. The USS
Saratoga was lent for the first attack by the United States. The oil installations were heavily damaged by the attacks, aggravating the Japanese fuel shortages due to the American blockade. The final attack was flown as the carriers were heading for Sydney to become the British Pacific Fleet.
After the departure of the main battle forces the Indian Ocean was left with escort carriers and older battleships as the mainstay of its naval forces. Nevertheless, during those months important operations were launched in the recapture of Burma, including landings on Ramree and Akyab and near Rangoon.
*
British Indian Army*
Indian National Army*
Military history of Britain during World War II#The Far East*
Pacific War*
Pacific Theater of Operations*
Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)*
Guandong Army*
Defeat Into Victory by Field Marshal William Slim is the definitive account of the Burma campaign.
*
Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons Official Report, Jan. 27, 1942. on the Far Eastern theatre and A.B.D.A*
STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR COALITION WARFARE 1941-1942: Chapter VI: ARMY DEPLOYMENT AND THE WAR AGAINST JAPAN December 1941-March 1942 *
Australian War Memorial: Remembering 1942 The fall of Singapore, 15 February 1942 *http://www.national-army-museum.ac.uk/pages/Second-war/far-east.html
*
BBC Article on the Burma Campaign*
Forgotten Warriors: China-Burma-India
