132 - The Japanese Raid Australia and the British Raid France - WW2 - March 6, 1942

And how many are surrounded right now?

Are you sure you're winning? Cause that sounds like an awful lot.

March 6, 1942 We've seen also sorts of tech developments

so far this war, on all sides. New tanks, new subs, new guns, anything to get the advantage

over the enemy. This week something new enters service, but this week, it's new electronics.

I'm Indy Neidell; this is World War Two.

At the end of last week the Battle of the Java Sea began, and over several days into this week

the Japanese sank pretty much the entire Allied fleet that opposed

them. The Japanese were also advancing in the Dutch East Indies and in Burma.

The march through Burma continues this week.

On the 2nd, the Japanese cross the Sittang River in force. Allied India Commander Archie Wavell

meets Chinese Nationalist Leader Chiang Kai-shek that day and promises to try to hold Rangoon, the

capital. Chiang will get his 5th army to Toungoo as soon as it can so Wavell can concentrate force

around Rangoon. On the 5th, General Harold Alexander arrives in Rangoon to take charge

and orders counterattacks. He led the British 1st division in France and at Dunkirk in 1940.

Alexander is to hold Rangoon but not allow the destruction of his army. If he has to,

he should just hold North Burma so they can maybe build a road there from India.

General Iida's Japanese troops have now had a week to recover

and get their logistics in order for the advance on Rangoon.

He actually plans to capture it by marching rather than by fighting, though. What I

mean by that is that his 55th Division will attack through Pegu, and this would occupy

British attention while his 33rd division would swing around and reach Rangoon from the north.

So Alexander arrives in Rangoon the 5th, and sends the 48th Indian Brigade,

backed by the 7th armored and 63 Indian brigades, to stop the enemy at Pegu. He realizes

as the week ends that he's been outflanked and must abandon Rangoon; not only that,

but the Japanese have cut off his route of retreat, although he does not yet know that.

Concerning India itself, on February 28th, Indian Nationalist Leader Subhas Chandra Bose

broadcasts on Free India Radio from Berlin

about India's desire for independence, and thus his readiness to cooperate with Germany.

German Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels writes in his diary, "In London there

is boundless wrath about the appeal of Bose, whose present abode is fortunately not known."

And what about India, anyhow? Obviously, with the Japanese in Burma

heading for Rangoon a lot of eyes have to be on the sub-continent.

Gerhard Weinberg has a couple of observations about that in "A World at Arms"- great book:

"A rallying of the peoples of India to the Allied side was precluded by the British policy

of avoiding or postponing major concessions to Indian nationalist aspirations, especially in the

area of defense… It is safe to argue that the key stumbling block was the British Prime Minister.

Churchill had originally broken with the conservative party over concessions which the

party wished to make to Indian self-government, he had… resisted all further changes on this issue."