The Peace of Amiens

by Nicholas Sumner

  ​Operations Ko-Go and To-Go 1, 2 and 3 were highly successful, but To-Go 4 turned into a disaster. The Japanese were overconfident and were drawn into a trap. In contrast to the usual situation, the Chinese forces opposing them were well-trained, well-rested and well-equipped.

  ​Initially resistance was light, but on 8th October, day five of the operation, forward units of the Japanese 23rd Army advancing toward Kunming encountered Lieutenant General Sun Li-Jen’s New 38th Division at the town of Huaning, some seventy kilometres short of their objective. [131] This unit had been German-trained in the late 1930s and was equipped with a mixture of British Valentine and American M3 Lee tanks, which, while they were obsolescent, were far superior to the Type 97 Chi-Ha, Type 1 Chi-He and Type 2 Ki-To tanks with which the Japanese were equipped.

  ​For two days Sun’s forces repulsed Japanese attacks inflicting heavy losses. Then on 10th October, ‘Double Ten Day’ (a day of national celebration in the Republic of China which commemorates the start of the Wuchang Uprising of 10th October 1911, which led to the overthrow of the Quing Dynasty), Lieutenant General Du Yu-ming’s Chinese 5th Corps attacked from positions west of the Japanese axis of advance retaking the town of Honghe and cutting off the Japanese 104th and 129th Infantry Divisions which were subsequently destroyed. [132]

  ​On 20th October, a Japanese column from 11th Army under General Isamu Yokoyama began an advance from Kweiyang (which had fallen to the Japanese on October 13th) towards Kunming, an eventuality that had been foreseen by General Wei Lihuang whose XI Group Army based in Yunnan was headquartered at Kunming. He had resisted the temptation to follow the retreating remnants of 23rd Army back to Vietnam but withdrawn his forces to defensive positions around Quijing, 100 km east of Kunming.

  ​The battle of Quijing took place on 2nd November and was another sharp defeat for the Japanese who retreated back to Kweiyang after suffering heavy casualties. Wei was unable to pursue them because of logistical issues but the Battles of Huaning and Quijing were significant Chinese victories.

  ​General Wei Lihuang and Lieutenant Generals Sun Li-Jen and Du Yu-ming had all distinguished themselves in the action and were all personally loyal to Chiang Kai Shek. The forces under their command were now the most powerful in Yunnan, and consequently Chiang ordered them to depose Long Yung who was both Nationalist Governor of Yunnan as well as the local warlord and install a more loyal governor.

  ​The Battles of Huaning and Quijing and the removal of Long Yung meant that Chiang was now in complete unopposed control of Yunnan and Sichuan and was being supplied with Anglo-American war materiel. This was in many ways the best position he had been in since 1937. In the second half of 1942, the Kuomintang looked to be a spent force on the verge of annihilation and Chiang himself seemed about to lose power. The events of 1944 prevented internal collapse and laid the foundation of future success. Its significance went beyond the Sino-Japanese conflict however, as it showed both Washington and London that the Chinese, even though under-equipped, under-resourced and lacking in training, were quite capable of defeating the Japanese and very willing to continue the fight.

  From ‘New Air Speed Record Set by Germans’ by Phillip Bell writing in Aviation, No. 1777 Vol XLIII, January 14th, 1943

  Reports have been confirmed that a specially modified Heinkel He 280 aircraft has set a new world speed record of 508.06 mph, beating the previous record of 479.76 mph set by a Napier Heston racer in 1941. The He 280 is of interest to those of us who follow aeronautical developments because it is powered by twin jet engines.

  CHAPTER 24: SUNDAY 23rd june 1945

  Downtown Manhattan does not feel like the heart of a city at war. The morning sun shines on bustling streets and the scent of newly mown grass drifts along the lanes and pathways in Central Park. Captain Mike Brevard has a week’s leave. His ship, the carrier USS Alliance, is under refit at Norfolk Naval Yard after her shakedown cruise and he has taken the train northward to visit his family who live in upstate New York.

  ​When Captain Richards had told him that he was being given a command of his own he had done so with typically brusque humour. “Well Brevard, I’ve got good news and bad news for you, the good news is they’ve given you a cruiser. The bad news is that it’s an aviation cruiser.” He had been so surprised he had hardly known what to say and although he has been Alliance’s captain for more than a year he is still very conscious of the silver eagles of his new rank on the collar of his shirt.

  ​He has four hours to kill between trains and after treating himself to a good breakfast at the restaurant in Grand Central Station he walks a couple of blocks and wanders into a drugstore near Times Square. He buys a Coke and a newspaper, places his hat on the countertop and prepares to while away the time.

  ​The windows of the drugstore are open and the sounds of cars, the shouts of newspaper boys and snatches of a thousand conversations drift in. The headlines in the paper are all concerned with the war. A small column at the bottom of the second page says;

  Miami’s Lights Turned Off

  The city of Miami has finally fallen into line with the other cities of the East Coast by enforcing a blackout from sunset to sunrise.

  Brevard shakes his head and says under his breath ‘One little victory’. Since the declaration of war on May 7th, 1945 German submarines had begun attacking American merchant ships plying their trade on the eastern seaboard. The brilliantly lit cities along the coast had made the task of the U-boats easy. At night they had no difficulty in picking out the silhouettes of ships against the shoreline and most of the cities on the east coast had begun to enforce a blackout. But Miami for some reason took more persuading than the rest and the lights had burned all night while out to sea American sailors had died within sight of those lights.

  ​There is a girl sitting at the counter, she looks over at him and says; “You in the Navy?” Brevard smiles, he is dressed in Navy khakis, he lowers the newspaper and replies;

  ​“Yes ma’am, what was that gave it away?” She laughs.

  ​“What do you do?”

  ​“Well I’m an officer on a warship ma’am.” She is a little plump and looks tired but she has a nice smile and seems impressed at any rate.

  ​“What kind of ship?”

  ​“An aircraft carrier actually, the navy has made me the captain of a carrier. What do you do?”

  ​“I just got a job in a factory, it’s not much of a job but it pays the bills.”

  ​“What does the factory make?”

  “Trucks for the Army, I’m on the night shift, I just got off work ‘couple hours ago. I hate it, it’s so hard to sleep in the day. You got a cigarette?” He reaches into his pocket and finds a pack of Chesterfields. He lights two and gives her one of them. She inhales deeply and says;

  “Thanks.” she pauses for a moment “So who’s going to win the war?” She smiles as she says it, but Brevard doesn’t smile back. He is just deciding to ask her name when he feels the ground shake. A short, sudden jolt, followed by another. As he looks up he realises that the sounds from the street have changed. There is a noise underlying the other noises, a growling mechanical snarl, rising in pitch and intensity, a throbbing hum like the sound of a swarm of wasps only lower in tone and more urgent.

  ​Aircraft. Many aircraft.

  ​He throws the newspaper down onto the counter and jumps off the stool but before he can reach the door he is knocked off his feet as the building is jolted by a massive impact. The girl screams, the lights go off and showers of choking dust fill the air. He picks himself up and runs outside.

  ​In Times Square people are standing in dazed groups looking up at the sky. There is shock and terror in their eyes and the noise, the throbbing hum, has grown to a crescendo, obliterating all other sound except the jarring crump of explosions.

  ​Brevard cannot believe what he is seeing. New York City is under attack. There, above them in the lambent summer sky, the black cross shapes of warplanes, perhaps a hundred, with
bombs spilling from their gaping bellies. A stick of them lands nearby and they are engulfed in the terrible sounds of breaking glass and falling masonry, the crowd scatters in panic, bumping into one another in their haste to escape while the screaming of a child is for a moment the loudest sound he can hear.

  ​One of the bombers is on fire, flames spilling from its wing and a black trail of smoke curls out behind it. He realises that there are smaller aircraft darting between them – fighters! As he watches the burning bomber rolls onto its back and spirals earthwards, a parachute opens, another, then it explodes sending flaming wreckage tumbling through the sky. There is an urgent tugging at his arm, the girl from the drugstore, she is shouting.

  ​“Jesus, don’t just stand there…” He looks at her for a moment but his mind is so engulfed in inchoate rage that he has no words and he pulls his arm from her hand and looks again at the sky. She stares uncomprehending at him, barely able to recognise the affable man she had just been speaking to. He stands like a statue, face turned upwards, his fists clenching and unclenching, fury in his eyes. As the bubbling wail of an air raid siren begins its mournful call she turns and runs for shelter.

  CHAPTER 25: THE BREAKING OF THE PEACE

  From ‘Studies in the Psychology of Institutional Incompetence’ by Christopher Melancamp, Halder and Stratton 1976

  It has been noted that just because a plan might be obviously absurd, delusional or insane; that this did not necessarily disqualify it from pursuit by the Nazis. Operation Sealion, as it was constituted in 1940, the Madagascar Plan and the various iterations of Generalplan Ost all fall in to this category, but perhaps the most ridiculous example of the Nazis hubris and limitless self-belief was Betriebsplan drei (Operational Plan Three).

  ​Given the events of September 1939 to December 1942, Nazi overconfidence is perhaps understandable. Every nation that had stood against Germany had been defeated. This both confirmed and enhanced the Nazis conviction that they were invincible and that it was their destiny to rule the world. In considering the United States, they perceived a wealthy, pampered, decadent society that was racially impure and controlled by Jewish interests; one that would be hard put to effectively oppose the ‘Master Race’. Hitler is reported to have actually repeated the very words he used to describe the state of the USSR before the German attack in 1941; “With one good kick in the door, the whole rotten edifice will come tumbling down.”

  ​German plans for an invasion of the Americas did not begin with the Nazis. Naval planners first considered an attack upon the continental USA in 1897 during that year’s Winterarbeiten. These were theoretical studies and war games intended to examine various potential conflict scenarios and served as the basis for actual war plans. Previously German naval planning had concerned itself principally with operations against the Royal Navy and the United Kingdom. The 1899 Winterarbeiten included detailed studies of the forts protecting the entrance to New York harbour, Fort Hamilton and Fort Tomkins. New York was considered as the primary target and the plan included the shelling of Manhattan by German naval units. This was at a time when, generally speaking, armed forces did not make war upon civilians. The main assault would involve a landing of German troops on Long Island, and an assault on New York City itself the following day.

  ​In early 1942, well before Hitler had declared victory on the eastern front, he ordered the preparation of detailed plans for an attack upon America. One important modification of the previous studies was the plan to take Puerto Rico as a preliminary to the main assault. The idea was to use the island as a staging post in the attack, but also as bait to draw the American fleet into a decisive battle. With the conclusion of operations in Europe and the subjugation of France and the Netherlands, as well as the passive strategic position in which Axis domination of the continent placed Portugal, this plan changed again with the inclusion of staging posts in Dutch Guyana (Suriname), Dakar in Senegal and the Azores.

  ​Use of the Azores first appears in German planning documents dating to 1940. On the 24th of August, Hitler approved the preparation of a draft plan drawn up by Admiral Eric Raider to be named operation Felix. In its first incarnation, Felix was a joint attack on the Azores, the Cape Verde and the Canary Islands as well as Gibraltar and was designed to close the western end of the Mediterranean to Allied shipping. With the inclusion of Spain within the Axis and the Treaty of Leamouth, which had apparently neutralised the threat from Britain, Portugal was in no position to oppose Hitler. President, António Salazar was in some ways sympathetic to the Axis cause. In consequence the plan was changed to encompassing only an annexation of the Azores by Spain.

  ​In November 1940, even as operation Barbarossa was being planned, Hitler also demanded an immediate inquiry into the possibility of mounting air attacks against the east coast cities of the United States using German bombers based in the Azores. [133] An attack on Iceland during the early part of hostilities to secure Germany’s northern flank from a possible American counter thrust was also contemplated.

  From ‘ Britain Takes Back Air Speed Record From Germans’ by Horace Shaw writing in Aviation, No. 1846 Vol XLV, May 11th, 1944

  The world air speed record was regained by Britain on Thursday last, when a Napier Heston Racer Mk III powered by a specially modified Napier Sabre VIII sprint engine developing ‘in excess of 4000 hp’ flew to a speed of 512.41 mph after a brief flight from Heston aerodrome. The aircraft was flown by Wing Commander G.L.G. Richmond who set a record of over 479 mph in 1941. Lord Nuffield, who has sponsored the project was said to be ‘very pleased’.

  From ‘The Hitlerian Wars’ by Jason Corell, Tormeline 1973

  By the autumn of 1942 with the collapse of the Soviet Union already underway and the conclusion of operation Barbarossa in sight, the construction of the new German naval base at Trondheim in Norway was begun. As well as this, construction commenced on the Hamburg-Trondheim autobahn, with its ambitious plans for bridging the Danish belts and the sound between Copenhagen and Malmö in Sweden. In addition to these projects, the French colonial authorities in Dakar, acting under German orders, began improvements to the military facilities there. The aerodrome at Lajes Field in the Azores was enlarged with extended runways and large new hangers and workshops. The flying boat facilities at Horta were also upgraded. The work was financed by Lufthansa who apparently required enhanced facilities for their North and South American routes.

  ​Plans for rapid growth in the size and capabilities of the Kreigsmarine were well in hand by the time Hitler declared the end of major operations on the eastern front. By the close of 1942 the German army had grown to a size of 284 divisions but with the end of hostilities and the return of many conscripted men to civilian life it underwent rapid shrinkage. The Luftwaffe was also reduced in size but by contrast the German Navy was set for a massive escalation in the numbers of major warships it possessed.

  ​In early 1943, the Kreigsmarine possessed ten battleships and battle cruisers, though two were not yet fully worked up and two more were not yet complete. Two of these were war prizes from the French navy. There were also three aircraft carriers with three more completing, nine cruisers, with eight more completing, 47 destroyers and torpedo boats, with 11 more completing and 126 submarines with 17 more completing. In addition to this, eight more very large battleships, two more battle cruisers, three aircraft carriers, 18 cruisers, 91 destroyers and torpedo boats and 114 submarines were planned. (See Appendices)

  ​The shrinkage in the size of the German army and air force as well as the expansion in the size of the Navy were symptoms of Hitler’s desire to attack America. But it is also intriguing to note (and this was typical of the way German military planning was always concerned with ‘the war after next’) is the fact that even as Hitler planned joint operations with the Japanese against the United States, the German armed forces had begun considering the possibility of war with Japan after America had been subjugated.

  From ‘The Path to War in Asia’ by Micha
el Stravinski, Halifax University Press, 2001

  Although generally the Germans did not hold their Japanese allies in high regard, Lieutenant General Hiroshi Oshima, the Japanese Ambassador to Germany, was an exception. The leaders of the Third Reich confided in him to an unprecedented degree. His knowledge of German plans and the status of German operations was very detailed and he faithfully reported all that he knew about them to Tokyo. Unbeknown to either Oshima or the German high command, the Americans had broken the Japanese diplomatic PURPLE code in 1940 while the British had later broken the German Enigma codes. Consequently, many things the Germans and the Japanese believed to be secret were in fact well-known by both the British and the Americans whose intelligence services engaged in a high degree of co-operation even then.

  ​By the autumn of 1943, Japanese plans for an attack south and eastwards from the home islands against the territories of Britain, the Netherlands and the United States had reached an advanced stage. This was in part driven by the need to resolve the war in China. In June 1940 the Japanese had estimated that of the outside supplies reaching Chinese forces: 41% came from Indochina; 31% via the Burma Road; 19% through coastal waters and 2% from the USSR. The Japanese were surprised and dismayed that the collapse of the USSR and the occupation of Indochina did not seem to have had much effect on their campaign in China. It was assumed (correctly) that the Burma Road was now the principal route by which supplies were reaching their opponents.