122 - Heinz Guderian's Christmas and the fall of Hong Kong - WW2 - December 26, 1941

by Panzer
Intro
Yeah, we changed the defense plan… back to the original one, yeah… so we need all the supplies
where they were originally supposed to go… they’re on the beaches? Oooh, that doesn’t sound good.
December 26, 1941
He’s been one of the most visible characters of the whole war so far, in both western and eastern
Europe, and his theories are the basis for how tanks are used in general, but this Christmas,
Heinz Guderian gets a present he didn’t expect. This Christmas he loses his job.
I’m Indy Neidell; this is World War Two.
Last weeks news
Last week, the Japanese offensives all over Southeast Asia continued to take ground, the
Soviets continued to push back the Germans in the center of the Eastern Front, Erwin Rommel ordered
a withdrawal from Cyrenaica in North Africa, and the Allies lost a bunch of ships at sea all over.
A milestone of a conference happens this week, the Arcadia Conference.
This begins the 22nd and is the first official
meeting of British and American military and political leaders,
since the US is now also at war. They will set up a combined Anglo-American general staff
to coordinate the fight against Japan and to plane for an eventual joint invasion of Europe.
The first day of the conference they agree to open an aerial supply route to China,
but British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s meeting with American President Franklin Roosevelt
on the 24th scares the heck out of American High Command. See, Christmas morning a British memo
on what the two talked about goes around the War Department. Apparently, Roosevelt has agreed
A British memo on what the two talked about
that reinforcements to the Philippines should be diverted to Singapore if they can’t get through.
US Secretary of War Henry Stimson is livid that the President would make such an
enormous decision without even consulting his command, and also what the popular reaction
will be when they think the President is literally writing off the Philippines and
that holding part of the British Empire is more important. Roosevelt and Churchill deny all this,
although Churchill does wire Australia the evening of the 24th to say Roosevelt has made that pledge.
Roosevelt says the paper going around is nonsense, but Stimson is aware that it is in fact accurate.
Singapore might need some real help pretty soon, however.
Singapore
Though, by the 23rd, the 11th Indian division has stopped its withdrawal from the Japanese
behind the Perak River. And David Murry-Lyon is relieved of his
command of it by Arthur Percival. He is replaced by Archibald Paris.
Over the next few days there’s going to be defense and strategy issues here. Japan commands the sea
and can land anywhere on Malaya, so there’s not much point defending north of Johore
except maybe for delaying actions, so Winston Churchill wants to defend at
Johore and on Singapore Island. This would mean giving up Singapore as a naval base
since Japan’s command of the skies would make it unusable. But Percival sees his major task
as protecting Singapore as a naval base, which means fighting his battles on the Malay Peninsula.