by Row, David
Jan 5th
Carried away by recent small successes and against the advice of his chief of general staff, General Zhukov, Stalin orders his army to undertake a general offensive along the entire Eastern Front.
U.S. Forces in Australia (USFIA) is redesignated U.S. Army Forces in Australia (USAFIA), and Major General Brett assumes command. Headquarters is located in the MacRobertson Girls High School in Melbourne, Victoria.
The last of the reinforcements planned for Burma before the Japanese attacked, 17th Indian Division, start to arrive in theatre. Also arriving are Hurricanes diverted from the Russian shipments, which have been assembled and then flown in. In fact the current shortage is of pilots, and Middle East command is currently gathering transport planes; the convoy that left Britain last month has dropped off pilots and ground crew in North Africa, from whence they will be flown to Burma. While some spares and other operational equipment were part of the Russian supply, further equipment and stores will have to wait on the convoys.
The steady, if low-level, attacks against Italy in the Mediterranean are causing political problems in Italy. There is considerable pressure on the Italian Government to bring back some of the large Italian forces in Russia to defend Italy and allow them to respond to the Allied attacks. Mussolini refuses to withdraw Italian troops, pointing out it is necessary to support Germany as they had been supporting Italy; a compromise is reached, where Italy will suggest reducing the army in Russia. This actually has a certain amount of support from some German generals, who would rather have their limited logistics supporting German soldiers than what they see as poor-quality Italian ones.
The attack by the Imperial Guards division continues to press the Australian defence. Undeterred by what seem to the defenders to be heavy losses, they are managing to push back the line in a number of places. Blamey responds by bringing forward some of the Indian division held in reserve to help seal off the infiltration attacks the Japanese are using. While this works better in theory than practice - the idea being for the defenders to hold firm when attacked from the rear, while the fresh troops attack the Japanese in their own rear, in practice it tends to result in a number of confused actions with each side surprising each other - it succeeds in blunting the attack. By nightfall, the Japanese have been pushed back to their start lines with considerable losses, the inexperience of the Japanese formations showing.
The British forces in Borneo pause to regroup and bring up supplies (always a difficult task here), allowing the Japanese to reform their perimeter, although they have been pushed back a considerable distance. The Allies are maintaining as strong a reconnaissance as possible, as they think it likely the Japanese will try to reinforce by sea again.
Jan 6th
The Second Marine Brigade (Brigadier General Larsen, USMC) embarked in troop transports SS Lurline, SS Monterey and SS Matsonia, and cargo ship USS Jupiter and ammunition ship USS Lassen sails from San Diego, California, for Pago Pago, American Samoa. The initial escort is provided by Task Force 17 (Rear Admiral Fletcher), formed around aircraft carrier USS Yorktown.
During the night the Japanese land an amphibious force at Brunei Bay, having managed to evade detection in poor weather (at present, the Allies have no radar-equipped search planes able to cover the area off northern Borneo). They land an additional 800 men and supplies for the original detachment, which has been running very short of ammunition after the encounters with the Allied forces.
The Japanese Imperial Guard Division makes a final effort to break through the Australian defence line. This is the first time Imperial troops have encountered what will come to be known as Banzai Charges, as the Imperial Guard manage to force a break in the defence line. Although the local troops are overwhelmed, the experienced Australians refuse to panic, and close up, allowing the Japanese to push through the gap. However there is a full division in reserve behind the line, and while some of it has been used to close off infiltration attacks, the Japanese find themselves facing a full brigade of infantry, with armour attached. The tanks and artillery support from the Australians still in place to either side of the breakthrough allow Blamey to pinch it off, and by the following morning, it is the Japanese who are surrounded, the defence line having reformed, albeit with considerable difficulty. The situation is often confused by the fact that the 'defence line' is in fact nothing of the sort, rather a line of mutually supporting positions.
In order to try and pinch off more landings by the Japanese in Borneo, the light carrier HMAS Brisbane with an escort of the cruisers HMAS Australia and HMAS Hobart, plus escort destroyers, arrives at Singapore. The force is commanded by Admiral Crace, who hopes to conduct sweeps up the Borneo coast to allow his planes to find and sink Japanese supply convoys in the north. The force will be supported by fighters operating from land bases in the south of the country. This is a calculated risk by Somerville, as the air threat in the area would indicate a force of two fleet carriers would be more suitable, but he is reluctant to commit such a high proportion of his air strength when the intentions of the main Japanese fleet are still unknown. It is also looking like more troops will need to be sent to Borneo, and ships are being readied in Singapore to travel under the protection of the RAN force. Four of the RN U-class boats as well as the Dutch submarines are ordered north and northeast of Borneo to target Japanese ships.
Somerville is also wondering what to do with the fairly large number of old US submarines soon to arrive in Singapore from the US Asiatic Fleet. While the base can do much of the maintenance, major equipment failures will be a problem, and a bigger issue is the lack of torpedoes. An urgent request has been made to the USN to deliver at least the torpedoes and ammunition for the deck guns. In the meantime, he is waiting on his suggestion to Admiral Hart to use some of the boats for the Stiletto operations, allowing them to unload most of their torpedoes to allow other boats to go on patrol with larger loadouts. Hart agrees this would be sensible, but has to wait on permission from Washington.
Jan 7th
The siege of Bataan begins as U .S. and Filipino forces complete their withdrawal from the Layac Line.
In Malaya the 8th Indian Division makes an attack on the pocket of the Japanese Imperial Guard trapped behind the Allies defensive lines. Even though the Japanese have little in the way of heavy weapons, it takes the Indians two days to finally snuff out the pocket. Of the 2,000 Japanese troops trapped, only around 100 are captured, all of them injured. The Indians take nearly a 1,000 casualties themselves, despite their advantages in artillery and armour.
Alexander and Blamey are concerned that more attacks of this ferocity could rupture the defence lines and force a withdrawal further south. It is decided to replace the Australian Brigade that has suffered the brunt of the attacks to the rear to regroup and recover, while a brigade of the 18th British division replaces them. The 8th Indian will remain as a reserve formation behind the line to attack and contain any Japanese units that infiltrate or break through the lines. Meanwhile the engineers will start work on a defence line further south, in case it is found necessary to withdraw.
In fact, the British are overestimating the Japanese capability to attack. So far Yamashita has had two divisions gutted and is short of some supplies, in particularly artillery ammunition. Due to the difficulty of moving safely by sea the troops are arriving overland from French Indo China, which takes longer, and he estimates it will take a week to reorder his formations for a new attack. The British are concerned at what they see as a lack of reserves - they have four divisions deployed forward, and a division's worth of forces held back further south, as well as two brigades of the 18th Division, but until the next convoys arrive they have no more available troops and Borneo (and further ahead the Dutch East Indies) is looking at taking an increasing number of men. They are also in need of replacement tanks; due to attrition and breakdowns, the 1st Armoured (which had not started at full strength) is down to about 120 operational tanks. While the tactics to repel the Japanese att
acks have proven successful, the heavy drain they have made in the reserves of artillery shells and machine gun ammunition will need to be addressed before any serious attack can be made.
Intelligence puts the Japanese forces at five divisions in place with another on its way from French Indo China, and possibly more to follow - the estimate is quite accurate, but the British do not realise that currently two of the divisions are tasked to attack Burma, and that two are in no fit state to attack for a while. The Japanese practice of attempting complex interlocking operations with minimal troop strength and logistics has yet to be appreciated by the analysts. The situation in the air is seen as equally balanced. The air defences have made Singapore too hard a target (although if the Japanese can push further south, close enough to escort their daylight attacks with fighters, that will change), and currently the losses on both sides seem fairly even. The RAF feels it now has the measure of the Japanese planes except for the Zero, which continues to cause problems and catch unwary or inexperienced pilots. The need to base aircraft in Singapore and Borneo has stopped any serious attempt at an air offensive for the time being. Alexander orders that Operation Stiletto be advanced as much as possible - his pressing need is to delay the Japanese reinforcements until his supply convoys start to arrive.
Jan 8th
In Baghdad, a court sentences Rashid Ali, who led an anti-British coup last year, to death in absentia.
With more Japanese troops having arrived in Borneo, the British feel they have no alternative but to deploy more of the 18th Division. A further 2,000 men arrive today in a convoy escorted by the RAN task force. The Allies now have fighter cover over the southern part of Borneo, but a lack of suitable airfields (and the proximity of Japanese troops) means that the northern part of the island is uncontested. The Dutch promise to find another 500 men to reinforce their force in the north.
A new attack is made against the existing Japanese positions; this is intended to be a joint attack by Australian and Dutch units, but the lack of practice at joint operations mean that the attacks go in piecemeal. The Australians lose some 200 men, the Dutch around 150, for an estimated loss of some 250 Japanese troops.
Alexander is more doubtful of the possibility of holding Borneo in the long term - if the Dutch East Indies fall it will be easy for the Japanese to put in an overwhelming force. In order to prepare for the worst case, a small group of British and Australian officers is sent to Sumatra, their mission to determine the best way and the forces needed to defend it. This is vital to the defence of Singapore; no matter what happens in the north, if Sumatra falls, it will not be possible to get supply convoys through to Singapore. Alexander is also looking at the possibility of ordering a small spoiling attack from Burma to distract the Japanese from pushing further south into Malaya.
Jan 10th
General Zhukov has launched a powerful offensive against the German "winter line" that runs from Bryansk north through Vyazma to Rzhev. The Red Army, unlike the Germans, has no intention of stopping in place until the warm weather comes, and is forcing Germany into a retreat which, in places, is becoming a rout.
The Russians have taken Mosalsk, on the road to Smolensk, and are threatening to encircle the German base at Mozhaisk. They have also nearly surrounded 100,000 Germans at Demyansk. Field Marshal Ritter Von Leeb asks Hitler for permission to retreat. The Fuhrer refuses.
The USN Bureau of Ships orders that the Cleveland Class light cruiser Amsterdam (CL-59), which is under construction in Camden, New Jersey, be completed as an aircraft carrier (CV). She will be commissioned as USS Independence (CV-22) on 14 January 1943 and be reclassified as a small aircraft carrier (CVL-22) on 15 July 1943. This is the first of nine light cruisers that are completed as small aircraft carriers.
Chapter 9 - The Dutch East Indies
Jan 11th
Map 4 - The Malay Barrier
The invasion of the oil-rich Dutch East begins when the Japanese use paratroopers for the first time. They land on Menado, on Celebes, and take Langoan air base. The Dutch garrison fight hard against the Japanese, who also made an assault by sea from sixteen transports, but were forced to surrender after setting fire to their oilfields. Fighter cover from the Philippines meant that Dutch planes missed spotting the ships. The area is difficult to cover with fighters, as the available airfields are not that close and the Japanese now have ample air bases in the Philippines. The Allied command instead tasks a number of submarines into the area in an attempt to interdict follow-up convoys. Oil is critical to the Japanese, and the Dutch East Indies is the most accessible source of it.
The Japanese invade at two points. The central assault force, consisting of the 56th Regimental Group and the 2nd Kure Special Naval Landing Force (SNLF), with air support from Jolo Island in the Philippines, lands at oil rich Tarakan Island at midnight. The eastern assault force from Davao, Mindanao, consisting of the Sasebo Combined SNLF and the 1st Yokosuka SNLF, invades Celebes Island at Menado and Kema at approximately 0300 hours. A Japanese Naval paratroop force of 334 men is dropped on the airfield just south of Menado and suffers heavy casualties (30 dead and 90 injured). Dutch planes are unable to halt the Japanese, and the small Dutch garrisons are quickly overwhelmed. The Japanese soon put Tarakan and Menado into use as air bases from which to support operations to the south. This landing in Borneo is another threat to be met by the small Allied force on the island.
The Dutch request air support from the Americans, both fighters to be based locally and heavy bomber support (probably from Australia). Currently however the USAAF does not have much in the area. Planning is advanced by Somerville's staff for possible ABDA operations in the DEI area, bearing in mind that unless more fighters are made available it is likely they will be working in a hostile air environment.
The Naval Station Pago Pago in Samoa is shelled by a Japanese submarine.
Operation Paukenschlag ("roll of the kettledrums") descends upon the eastern seaboard of the U.S. like a bolt from the blue. The first group of five German submarines takes up station off the east coast of the United States on this date. Over the next month, these will sink 26 Allied ships; the presence of the enemy off the eastern seaboard takes U.S. Navy antisubmarine forces by surprise. It is far less of a surprise to the Royal Navy, who felt it was only a matter of time before the dense East Coast traffic was attacked, and in fact had repeatedly told the USN this.
The Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) approve U.S. plans to garrison the islands along the proposed ferry route from Hawaii to Australia. Local defence forces are to be based at American Samoa, Bora Bora, Canton Island, Christmas Island, the Fiji Islands and Palmyra Island. The CCS also approves the deployment of a USAAF fighter squadron to New Caledonia Island in the New Hebrides Islands. There has been considerable controversy over this, which is seen by some as abandoning positions in the Malay barrier in order to carry out purely precautionary operations.
On Bataan, the Japanese exert strong pressure against the II Corps, particularly on the west, while taking up positions for a concerted assault. The 51st Division, is hard hit and gives ground, some of which is regained after reserves are committed. In the centre the Japanese push back the outpost line of the 41st Division.
Three USAAF B-17's arrive in Australia after flying a new southern ferry route from Hawaii. It is hoped that this can be built up quickly enough to be able to aid the defence of the DEI.
The Japanese submarine HIJMS I-121 mines Clarence Strait, the body of water connecting Van Diemen Gulf and the Timor Sea, off Australia's Northern Territory, at the approaches to Darwin, the Asiatic Fleet's main logistics base.
The wartime Office of Price Administration said standard frankfurters would be replaced by "victory sausages", consisting of a mixture of meat and soy meal. The true costs of the war are starting to be felt in America.
Jan 13th
Allied troops in Borneo are slowly closing in on the Japanese invasion force, slowed by the poor transport system (despite making all available u
se of small coastal boats), and the need to bring up artillery. The sweep by Admiral Crace's squadron has not detected any shipping on the west coast, and after the landings on the northeast part of the island it is expected that the Japanese will reinforce there under cover of their own fighters. Before withdrawing south the carrier uses its bombers to attack the Japanese supply dumps, still near the coast; while no significant damage is done the raid does make the defenders waste time moving their supplies under better cover.
The Dutch commander on Tarakan Island surrenders to the Japanese and they complete mopping up the island. The Japanese assault force boards ships the next day for the assault on Balikpapan, leaving a small force to defend the island. The assumption is that the Allies cannot attack the island, as they will be unwilling to risk shipping under the Japanese air umbrella. However a battalion of Dutch troops, originally tasked for the earlier invasion, is detached to head north in the hope that something can be done to take the Japanese by surprise.
The Soviet Army has driven deep a salient between the German 2nd Panzer and 4th Armies on the central front southwest of Kaluga; the salient deepens with the capture of Kirov.