1942: Invasion Burma

 

 

DESCRIPTION

This FSO will recreate the invasion of Burma in 1942. Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore, and the Dutch East Indies have already fallen but the Americans in the Phillipines are still holding out versus the Japanese. While the Japanese now have set their sites on Burma.

There were two reasons for the Japanese invasion of Burma. Firstly the Japanese knew it would serve them well if they cut overland access to China from Burma via the famed Burma Road. Along this road a steady stream of military aid was being transported from Rangoon, over the mountains of the 'Hump' and into Nationalist China, but if this supply route was closed, the Japanese could deprive Chiang Kai Shek's Kuomintang (Nationalist Chinese) armies of their life-blood, permitting the Japanese to conquer all China.

'The troops were raw, lacked combat experience, and were inadequately trained ...'

Furthermore, possession of Burma would place the Japanese at the gate of India, where they believed general insurrection against the British Raj would be ignited once their troops had established themselves in Assam, within reach of Calcutta. To this end they cultivated the services of the dissident Bengali politician Chandra Bose, who recruited thousands of Indian troops captured in Singapore into his Indian National Army - to fight the British.

Only 1 squadron of the Flying Tigers, some obsolete Buffalo Brewster fighters, Blenheim bombers and Hurricane MKIIBs rushed to the Burma are in place to try to slow the Japanese tide of conquest.

Entering Burma from Thailand, the Japanese quickly captured Rangoon, cutting off the Burma Road at source, and depriving the Chinese of their only convenient supply base and port of entry. In response, General Sir Archibald Wavell, in supreme command of the Far Eastern theatre, formed two scratch divisions, the 1st Burma and 17th Indian, into Burma corps (Burcorps).

He ordered his commanders, against their better judgement, to defend well forward. They, however, were aware, as he was not, of the deficiencies of their commands. The troops were raw, lacked combat experience, and were inadequately trained and equipped to take on the aggressive and bold invaders.

Apart from two experienced light tank regiments and an infantry battalion brought in from the Middle East, whose presence in the long retreat up-country undoubtedly saved Burma Corps from total destruction, no other reinforcements reached Burma Command. (The British 18th Division, destined for Burma, was redirected to Singapore on Churchill's orders, reaching it just in time to march into Japanese prison camps.)

Operating a scorched-earth policy as it went, Burcorps, now under command of Lieutenant General William Slim, fell back up the Irrawaddy river, accompanied by tens of thousands of wretched Indian refugees, harassed and murdered by the Burmese population as they struggled to gain Indian soil. In May 1942 the retreat finally ended, and the shattered remnants of Burcorps began to prepare for return to Burma.

1. Only 15 P40Bs are allowed per frame



2. B5N2 pilots get a second life in an aircraft assigned to them by their CiC (it can be any of the available Japanese plane types).



3. No bomber formations



4. No torpedoes may be used by TBM-3s or JU88s. B5N2s can use torpedoes.



5. 50/50 rule is NOT being used.



6. A minimum and maximum number will be assigned to each aircraft type. The CiC of each side must deploy the designated minimum per aircraft type and can not more than the maximum per aircraft type. Outside of that the CiCs can deploy the aircraft types anyway the want (i.e. can have squads fly 2 or more aircraft types and in split they wish).



7. If both CiCs agree they may have the setup CM end the frame early. This is usually done if one side wipes out the other side (i.e. 60 versus 5).



8. Dead pilots may gun bombers. They may not man the guns of airfields or ships.



9. If ships are used in a frame each side can maneuver the ships as long as they stay in their containment area.



10. All targets must be attacked within the first hour of the event.

 

For more information on the Invasion of Burma and later campaigns in this theater (which are not covered in this FSO). Click on http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/animations/wwtwo_map_burma/index.shtml  

 


- 

• Prev
• Next