The Whale Has Wings Vol 3 - Holding the Barrier (3 page)

The second column consisted of lorried infantry and an anti-tank section. This headed towards Songkhla to delay the enemy. It reached a position at Ban Sadao, some ten miles north of the frontier, at dusk, and dug in. The final column was in fact an armoured train, which set off into Thailand until it reached Khlong Ngae in Siam, where it destroyed the 200-foot bridge, and slowly returned south, the Australians destroying the railway and anything else they could reach as it did so.

The airfield at Kota Bharu had always been considered to be by Air Marshal Park to be extremely exposed if there was a Japanese landing on the East coast, and his experience with far-forward RAF bases in the Battle of Britain had made him decide to treat it as an expendable field. Indeed, if it had not been so well positioned to attack an invasion he would have turned it into a flak trap with dummy aircraft. As it was, the number of aircraft had been limited, as was the support for them. Many of the maintenance crews had been evacuated some days ago, along with all non-essential personnel, leaving only enough to patch up a lightly damaged plane sufficiently for it to fly south clear of immediate danger. The airfield (and its satellite fields) was not just set for destruction, but heavily booby-trapped as well. Park was specific that the Japanese would not get anything useful out of the base after he had been forced out of it.

At the start of the invasion, it had been home to three small squadrons - twelve Hudsons, twelve Beaufighters (intended for use as torpedo planes) and twelve Sparrowhawks. During the night and early morning, they had already lost one Beaufighter, three Sparrowhawks and a Hudson, and four more Hudsons had been damaged. Two of these had been patched up and sent south, the other were irreparable in any reasonable time and were positioned as decoys.

The original Japanese plan had been to keep mounting small raids on the airfield as soon as they had landed (having assumed that they would be able to operate fighters almost immediately), but delays meant they would not be in this position until tomorrow. As a result, it was decided to send a heavy raid of 24 Ki-21 bombers escorted by twelve Ki-43 'Oscar' fighters to close down the base temporarily.  They did not want to do too much damage as the Japanese wanted to use the base themselves (while their intelligence had informed them that the British intended to destroy it, they were not aware of how comprehensive Park's instructions had been). The bombers were loaded with 100lb bombs, the intention being to destroy as many planes on the ground as possible without causing serious damage to the runways.

Realizing that the base would be attacked, the commander had four Sparrowhawks ready to take off and four of the long-endurance Beaufighters in the air covering the airfield when the raid was spotted. The ready planes were scrambled, but as soon as it was realized there would not be time to get any more planes in the air, the pilots were ordered to abandon them and take cover. The first to attack the raid were the Beaufighters. Orbiting at altitude, they were able to dive down onto the bombers, who were approaching quite low, presumably for accuracy of bombing.  The heavy armament of the British planes resulted in five of the Ki-21 'Sallys' destroyed or plunging into the jungle. As they turned to come around again, they were intercepted by six of the protecting Oscars. The resulting fight showed that the Japanese fighters were, like the Zero, very manoeuvrable, but also very lightly armed - rather the opposite of the Beaufighter. However, the veteran Japanese pilots were more skilled than the defenders and the net result was two Oscars shot down for three Beaufighters. The combat also stopped the Beaufighters intercepting any more of the bombers.

The Sparrowhawks had to climb up to the attacking force, and in fact engaged it from slightly below. The remaining six Oscars turned to intercept them, but in a closing engagement the four cannon and durability of the British planes were a considerable advantage, the Oscars being unable to exploit their agility, and two Oscars were shot down for the loss of one Sparrowhawk damaged. The fighters then carried on into the bombers, shooting down three of them (one more Sparrowhawk being damaged by their defensive fire). This left, however, some sixteen bombers about to bomb the airbase. The Sparrowhawks were prevented from re-engaging the bombers by the fighter escort, who managed to lure one of the remaining planes into a dogfight, resulting in it being shot down by the Japanese pilot. The other Sparrowhawk pilot declined to get into a turning fight, and instead used his superior speed to get into a position for a straight attack, shooting down one more Oscar before he was forced to break off.

The remaining bombers unloaded onto the airfield and one of the satellite fields, the accuracy of the Japanese bombing being commendably precise. A considerable number of the airfield buildings were damaged or destroyed, and some aircraft destroyed - three Hudsons and two Beaufighters were left in flames as the bombers curved away to the north. The AA fire was mostly ineffective, only one bomber being shot down.

As a result of the raid the airfield was left with a number of craters, although the satellite field was still operational. However, the number of aircraft left operational had been reduced considerably. There had been six planes out on patrol over the sea at the time of the raid - three Hudsons and three torpedo-armed Beaufighters. Given the damage, the planes in the air were sent south, as was the remaining Hudson. This left the field with only six Sparrowhawks and three Beaufighters.

At the same time as the troops headed into Siam to delay the Japanese attack, a number of groups of SOE-trained men had also entered the country. Their tasks included aiding the regular troops when possible, destroying railway lines and preparing bridges for demolition for when the Japanese reached them, and to seize transport. In addition, they were to occupy the crossroads at Yala and the airfield at Phuket Island. Another group boarded an old coaster and sailed to the port of Tonkah, where three Italian ships had been hiding from the Royal Navy. Their job was to seize the port and destroy the ships, but on their approach the Italians scuttled the ships, although the force remained occupying the port.

Dec 8th-9th

The British and Australian governments had already declared war against the Japanese Empire; today so would the American, Canadian and Free French, as well as a number of other countries. While the Japanese invasion had hardly been unexpected, until yesterday it had not been known exactly what pattern it would take; the destruction of much of the US Fleet at Pearl Harbor had certainly not been allowed for by the planners. The US Navy planning department was frantically trying to sort out which of the pre-war plans were still viable, which would have to be abandoned and which needed to be changed. In the meantime preliminary orders were sent to the US carriers in the Atlantic to head for port to refuel and replenish ready for deployment in the Pacific Ocean, as were the modern fast battleships (the older, slower battleships would stay where they were for the meantime). At Pearl Harbor they were still working on the damage from the attack, as well as trying to rescue men trapped in some of the sunken battleships.

The British had been less surprised, an assault on Malaya had always been the obvious focus of a Japanese attack on them. Fortunately, due to the lull in the Mediterranean, the forces in place had been reinforced and strengthened, and the preparations were a considerable improvement on what had been the case only a few months before. However, the plans were not complete, and additional troops and supplies were still on their way. It now depended on how well and how fast additional resources could be made available. One obvious area was a temporary stopping of the supplies to Russia; luckily, the Russian winter offensive seemed to be going quite well. The British were delivering some 100 Hurricanes and a similar number of tanks a month; the shipments currently in Persia were stopped, arrangements being made to ship the tanks to East India, and the Hurricanes to Ceylon, in the first instance. Pilots would have to be found for the fighters, and they would also go to Ceylon before being deployed operationally. Additional forces would have to come from the Mediterranean in the first instance, followed by more convoys from Britain. It was fortunate that, with a limited amount of risk, convoys could be sent through the Mediterranean, and Admiral Cunningham was informed to start preparations to escort them through the most dangerous part of their passage. Admiral Somerville was also told to arrange an escort for the convoy carrying the 18th British Division, expected to arrive at Singapore on the 20th December.

At sea off Malaya, the situation was starting to become more complex. While the initial invasion convoys had now unloaded (or been sunk by the British), a new convoy was heading for the coast. This was spotted by a Hudson at around 0900, and was escorted by seven 'cruisers and destroyers' as the report made out. This was Admiral Kurita's Escort Force. While Force Z was still too far south to intercept, the convoy was well within range of the RAF torpedo planes based at Gong Kedah. The twelve Beaufighters there were briefed for the attack as the Hudson returned south.

The weather was still poor and only one of the two groups of Beaufighters managed to find the convoy, which was escorted by two of the cruisers and four Zeros. In the poor conditions, the Beaufighters failed to spot the fighters, and elected to attack the cruiser Mikuma. The poor weather also helped conceal them from the fighters, who only realized the cruiser was under attack when they saw the splashes from her main armament lifting huge plumes of water into the air. As a result the first three torpedo planes were able to drop without any interference except the cruisers own AA, which the pilots later reported as 'reasonable', and all three dropped successfully at quite close range. The heavy cruiser managed to evade two of the torpedoes, but one of them hit her amidships. The large cruiser slowed as one of her machinery spaces filled with water, but was still under control and able to manoeuvre. The second flight was far less successful, as the diving Zeros shot one of them down before they realised they were there, and damaged another, which turned away trailing smoke from one of its engines. The third plane tried to press on with its attack, but the attention of the Zeros made this impossible, and it too was shot down.

Meanwhile the planes that had dropped turned to engage the fighters. One of the Zeros was shot down (the Japanese pilots seeming as surprised as their Army compatriots that torpedo planes would voluntarily engage them), and the rest of the fight turned into confusion. All three of the Beaufighters were damaged, but the Japanese planes seemed to have used up their 20mm ammunition in their first attacks, and their machine guns did not do sufficient damage to the sturdy Beaufighters to disable them. On their part, the Beaufighters found it almost impossible to get at the Zeros due to their manoeuvrability, although in the few instances that they did, one of the Japanese fighters was caught in the stream of cannon-fire and came apart in the air. The bombers finally retreated having only managed to cause moderate damage to the cruiser.

On the western coast, a reconnaissance mission of four Sparrowhawks from Alor Star (this was also considered an airfield at risk of being too close to a Japanese attack, like Kota Bharu) spotted a column of about a dozen light tanks heading south from the Japanese landings at Singora. They attacked the column with their 20mm cannon, noticing a Japanese soldier waving a flag at them (it was assumed he had miss-identified the planes as Japanese, something that was to occur fairly frequently on both sides with the single-engined fighters), and left five of them burning before returning to base.

The Japanese were obviously starting to push south from their landings, and later that morning a column, again headed by tanks, was seen to approach the Ledge. The Australian commander watched the approach with interest, noting that the Japanese did not seem to be paying as close attention to possible opposition as he would have, and once the column had reached an opportune point ordered the charges detonated to block the road. This also buried at least three tanks and quite a few men under the collapse, and the blocked road would take considerable time to clear (so much so in fact that the Japanese decided to bypass this route, as it could not be cleared in fast enough).

An attack was also made on the airfield at Victoria point, on the southern tip of Burma, which was in range of Singora. A force of Ki-27 Nate fighters strafed the airfield, causing little damage as the only 'aircraft' on the field being decoys. A further force of some 80 Sally bombers from French Indo-China was forced to turn back due to thick cloud. Their escorting fighters refuelled at Singora, then flew south to strafe Penang Island and Butterworth airfield.

Penang was only occupied by a number of biplane trainers, which the Japanese duly shot up. Butterworth was now occupied by a squadron of Sparrowhawks and a number of Blenheim bombers and the four planes on patrol dived on the attacking fighters as soon as they started their strafing runs (detection of planes was still causing problems in the poor weather). The ten Oscars were concentrating on the airfield and their attack destroyed two of the Sparrowhawks on the ground, as well as one of the Blenheims. The defending fighters seemed to take the Japanese by surprise, and shot down three in their first diving attack. The Oscars then broke off to try and get the Sparrowhawks into a turning fight. This succeeded with two of the planes, but the other two declined, and instead broke off to make another attack on the Oscars. The attackers shot down both the Sparrowhawks they had lured into a dogfight, one Oscar being damaged (it was later seen to crash as it tried to make it back to Siam), but the remaining Sparrowhawks shot down two more Oscars, although one was damaged and had to land at Butterworth.

Having been informed of the bombing of another convoy and its escort east of Siam, Admiral Holland intended to move Force Z north so he could intercept it. That afternoon a report was received from one of the T-class boats operating off French Indo China, to the effect that a large Japanese fleet, including two carriers and at least one battleship as well as a number of cruisers had been spotted. Given the location of Japanese bombers in Siam and French Indo China, this was too large a force for Force Z to engage with a reasonable chance of success, and Holland was ordered to turn south and wait for reinforcements. The spotted force was in fact the Distant Cover Force under Admiral Kondo, who had instructed his ships to concentrate on him after Force Z had been spotted and reported by a Japanese submarine.

The next Japanese attack was against the airfield at Kuantan. This airfield had been hurriedly improved over the last few months, as it was the northernmost east coast field involved in the radar net. As a result it was home to eight Hudsons used for naval reconnaissance as well as a Sparrowhawk squadron. A number of ancillary and training aircraft had been sent south out of the way to Singapore at first light. The Japanese did not seem to be aware that there were fighters based at the field, as at 1100 the radar detected nine G3M Nells approaching from the north. The field was keeping four Sparrowhawks in the air (the Japanese having already shown a distressing tendency to target the RAF's airfields), and four more were scrambled. The result was a catastrophe for the Japanese bombers, all nine being shot down with only two of the defending fighters slightly damaged.

As a result of the attacks in the northwest, it was decided to evacuate all non-essential aircraft from Butterworth;  due to their proximity to the invasion, Kota Bharu and Alor Star were designated emergency fields only, and preparations were made for demolition if the Japanese advanced south.  The Japanese seemed to have been spending the day bringing their aircraft south onto the fields in Siam, as the only other major event was the interception of a flight of six Blenheims, escorted by four Sparrowhawks, out of Butterworth intending to attack the Japanese and to delay their anticipated move towards Jitra. The raid failed to find its targets in the poor weather, and was bounced by Japanese fighters as they returned to their base. Apparently, the fighters were escorts for a formation of Sally bombers, who attacked the airfield even as the returning planes were under attack by twelve Nate fighters. The escorting Sparrowhawks attempted to intercept the fighters, but the Japanese had surprise on their side, and shot down two in the initial engagement. The remaining two Sparrowhawks shot down one Nate before being mobbed and shot down.  Four of the fighters had attacked the Blenhiems, who attempted to fight them off. Two Blenheims were shot down, and one damaged, although they did shoot down one of the attackers. The Japanese bombers also damaged the airfield (although again they were only using light bombs, presumably hoping to preserve the runway for their own use), destroying a Sparrowhawk and a Blenheim on the ground, as well as three training Buffaloes which had not yet been evacuated. The only Japanese bomber casualty was one Sally shot down by the base AA defences

In the Philippines, the Americans were taking stock of their remaining planes. Fortunately for them, a planned strike from Formosa had to be cancelled due to the weather. Indeed the USAAF started to prepare their B-17's for a strike against the Formosan airfields, although with now only 17 planes this was not going to be decisive.

In Hong Kong, the Japanese had started their expected attack with a heavy aerial bombardment, intended to demoralise and weaken the defenders before the actual assault

There was also activity in the Dutch East Indies, as a force of Dutch submarines sortied north. They would base out of Singapore when they returned south, preparations having been made quietly over the last few months to stockpile sufficient supplies for them at the naval base. The Dutch forces in the islands were also on alert, but at the moment, there was no sign of any direct Japanese action against the islands.

In the USA, the President addressed congress, demanding a declaration of war against the Empire of Japan. This was passed by both houses with only one dissenting vote in the Senate. America was still shuddering under the news of the Pearl Harbor attack - although the chance of finding any Japanese ships east of the International Date Line was slim at best, cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles were under their first ever blackout. Prime Minister Churchill was rather more sanguine, as he looked forward to the aid of the USA in the war.

At sea, Admiral Somerville was ordering his submarines to close on the reported enemy positions and to keep track of the fleet assembling off French Indo China. He had already sent a list of additional forces he would like now the Japanese had already attacked to London. Meanwhile a heavy squadron including two battleships and two fleet carriers was heading south down the western side of Malaya, covered by Goshawk fighters operating out of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. While he had no wish to engage the Japanese fleet under their own land-based air if he could avoid it, if they remained where they were he felt they had left themselves open to an attack while their air force was preoccupied in Malaya and the Philippines.

The Japanese command is pleased with the first few days of the war. Pearl Harbor was a major success, the USAAF in the Philippines has been neutralized, and the RAF has taken serious losses. The Japanese themselves had lost some 50 planes in Malaya to combat, plus about 25 more to operational use. They estimated the RAF had lost around 120 planes, and that they will soon have air superiority. In fact, the Japanese pilots are heavily overestimating the number of planes they have shot down. The RAF has in fact lost 47 planes in combat and bombing attacks, plus some 15 in operational incidents. While the RAF pilots are also overestimating, the more experienced Command is reducing the figures to what they feel is a more realistic figure, based on earlier estimates in the Battle of Britain. They were assuming Japanese losses to be around 65-70 planes, which gave them cause for cautious optimism.