As far as I’m concerned, it’s certainly of interest. Ta!
Here’s another piece of history of British armour in the Pacific. The link goes to the history site of the 7th armoured brigade.
There’s a piece about Burma.
http://www.desertrat.brigades.btinternet.co.uk/7thAB1942.htm#JapBurma
Some pic’s of the Honeys in the Jungle would be cool,…
Cheers,
Joppe
Maybe a bit off topic, and maybe already mentioned, but here is a site to the use of M-3
Stuarts in New Guinea in 1942-43 by Australia. Might be of interest as they were marked and dealed with just like the British tanks.
http://anzacsteel.hobbyvista.com/Armoured%20Vehicles/m3inactionph_1.htm
Cheers,
Joppe
I never imagined this thread would make more than two pages and we’re on page five…
Great posting and links! Thanks.
A few links
Jungle Armour: British and Indian Army Shermans in the Far East (Colour and Markings Series) is written by Dennis Oliver and apart from many previously unpublished photos also includes many full-color profiles on both Indian and British Shermans
Little pics of some Shermans
http://www.ww2incolor.com/other/hrphot_04c-11.html
http://www.wewerethere.defencedynamics.mod.uk/ww2/india_1.html
http://www.wewerethere.defencedynamics.mod.uk/ww2/india_4.html
Found this one quite interesting for units and the Vehicles they had
Slightly off topic, I wear a Kiwi fearn on my No.2s dress after my regiment served as part of the 2nd NZ division in africa and we were the first unit in the division to break through the enemy’s lines at the second battle of El Alamein, we also still have Kiwi fearn’s stenciled on our vehicles.
Back on topic; as the Pacific theatre had a very humid weather system and with monsoons etc, what sort of effect did this have on the AFVs? I’d be interested to know what the attriton rate was for breakdowns/rust etc in that theatre compared to Europe and Africa.
British and Japanese Military Leadership in the Far Eastern War, 1941-45
By Brian Bond, Kyōichi Tachikawa
“At the time of the first Arakan campaign, over the winter of 1942-43, the British command, despite the advice of the Armoured Corps, ignored previous lessons and made pitiful use of tanks in ‘penny-packets’, without proper coordination with the infantry, losing them to no avail. By 1944, fired by the example of the Australians in the New Guinea campaign, Slim, by then commanding the Fourteenth Army, was determined that they should be used properly, and considerable training and experimentation in combined arms and tactics had been undertaken. At Imphal, the 23rd Indian Division had focussed on training with armour…”
Page 101.
I’m going to break this post up into small chunks, as my flippin’ work computer crashed after fifteen minutes of frantic typing! :evil:
Singapore:
The British had the 100th Independent Squadron, RAC in Singapore, equipped with Mk IV and Mk VI Light Tanks. These were no match for the weight of Japanese armour sent against them, however. The Malays also had a squadron of Lanchester Armoured Cars, while the Indian 3rd Light Cavalry were equipped with Marmon-Herrington Armoured Cars. However, the 3rd LC do not seem to have managed to get the M-Hs unloaded from their ship and fought instead as motorised infantry. The Australians however, managed to get their hands on some India Pattern MkII Wheeled Armoured Carriers.
Hong Kong:
No tanks, but the HKVDC had a very active squadron of Lanchester armoured cars and a squadron of Carriers (the Indians and Royal Scots also had some Carriers), against which the invading Japanese had very little defence, having lost the bulk of their antitank guns during the landing.
Burma (1942 - the Japanese Invasion):
There were initially no tanks in Burma, though the Burma Auxiliary Force had a squadron of antiquated Rolls Royce India Pattern Armoured Cars. However, the 7th Armoured Brigade soon arrived in Rangoon (straight from North Africa) and performed sterling service throughout the long retreat to the Chindwin. The brigade was equipped with two regiments of Stuart, plus a 25pdr battery and an antitank battery, though it was hampered by a near-complete lack of 37mm HE ammo and the fact that the thirsty Stuarts required rather specialised aviation fuel.
7th Armoured Brigade made short work of their initial armoured opposition at Pegu (five Type 95 Ha Go light tanks of the Japanese 2nd Armoured Regiment that had survived the long march from Thailand), though the balance was redressed once the Japanese gained air superiority and was tipped even further when they took Rangoon and landed their reinforcement army, which included the 1st & 14th Tank Regiments, plus a number of independent tankette companies and armoured cavalry squadrons. The Japanese also rapidly made use of captured Stuarts.
7th Armoured Brigade managed to reach the Chindwin with over seventy Stuarts, but only managed to successfully ferry one of them across the river. This surviving Stuart, named ‘The Revenge of Scotland’ actually returned across the Chindwin in 1945, minus its turret, as the command tank for an Indian Light Cavalry Regiment. The remaining tanks were ‘scuttled’ reasonably successfully, with only a few being recovered by the Japanese. Five of these recovered Stuarts later fought at Imphal in 1944, where they formed the 5th Company of the Japanese 14th Tank Regiment (along with a freshly-captured 3rd Carabiniers’ Lee).
Burma 1942/43 - the First Arakan Campaign:
A single regiment of Valentines from 50th Indian Tank Brigade (I think it was 150th RAC?) was involved in Irwin’s disastrous Arakan offensive. Only a single half-squadron saw any action.
India/Burma 1943-45:
With the elevation of Slim to command 14th Army, three Indian Armoured Brigades were placed in direct support. These details are from memory, but the full details are available on that Fire & Fury Games link above (which I wrote, but can’t access here from work):
50th Indian Tank Brigade supported XV Corps on the Arakan Coast, though was never committed to battle as a unified brigade due to the very difficult, swampy nature of the Arakan coastal strip. It had a regiment each of Stuart, Lee and Sherman, with each regiment being committed to battle in rotation - Lee/Grants in the Second Arakan Campaign, Shermans in the Third Arakan Campaign and Stuarts in between. XV Corps also had the use of the 81st West African Recce Regiment (Carriers and LRCs) under direct command while 81st Div was engaged on light infantry operations in the Kaladan Valley.
254th Indian Armoured Brigade supported IV Corps at Imphal and was equipped with (if I recall) two regiments of Lee/Grant and a regiment of Stuarts. IV Corps also had at least one regiment of armoured cars at all times, though other regiments came and went (equipped with Daimlers, Humbers or occasionally both, as well as Dingos and dismountable elements in Carriers and/or Jeeps). There were also armoured replacement squadrons (each of 5 tanks) at the Dimapur depot, which were rushed into action when the Japanese cut the Imphal-Dimapur road at Kohima.
255th Indian Armoured Brigade was assigned to XXXIII Corps, which spent a long time sitting around in India (with the amphibious assualt divisions - 2nd & 36th), waiting for the planned Operation ‘Dracula’ - the reconquest of Malaya. However, ‘Dracula’ never came and XXXIII Corps was transferred to the Imphal theatre of operations, to spearhead the pursuit of the defeated Japanese armies into Burma. The brigade had two Sherman regiments and an armoured car/recce regiment.
After disastrous beginnings, the British/Indian armour supporting 14th Army proved itself time and time again. Its finest hour came in 1945, when 255th Indian Armoured Brigade and 17th Indian Division launched their ‘Blitzkrieg’ actross the Irrawaddy and thrust deep into the central Burmese plain, taking the city of Meiktila, cutting the Japanese Burma Area Army in two and then launching armoured operations out from the city, defeating each of the counter-attacking Japanese divisions in detail, one after the other, in a battle of ‘interior lines’ reminiscent of Frederick the Great or Napoleon at their best.
Re Priests: There were at least two regiments of Priests operating in Burma in 1945. they had originally been part of XXXIII Corps and the assault force for the projected Opetration ‘Dracula’. I’ll check, but I think they were allocated one each to the AGRAs supprting IV and XXXIII Corps.
Re Other armoured oddities: Each armoured brigade also had a troop of bridgelayers. These were most probably Valentines, though one source suggests Covenanter bridgelayers. Each brigade also had a mysterious ‘Valentine Scorpion Troop’ that may well have been an unknown Scorpion flail conversion of the Valentine, though one source suggests that they were flamethrower tanks. I’ve been totally unable to establish the facts and have found no references either to flail or flame tanks in action.
Re markings: As far as I can tell, the three brigades conformed to the standard 1944-45 armoured brigade AoS marking system of 50, 51, 52 and 53, with 54 being allocated to the supporting motor battalions of the Bombay Grenadiers. AoS’s were normally red, though I’ve also come across white underlining to indicate Army troops, white overlining to indicate Corps troops and even an unusual AoS marking of red-over-yellow (Deccan Horse, 255th Armoured Brigade 1943). Allied Stars were applied in 1945 to reduce the incidence mainly of friendly fire by aircraft and were often VERY large - sometimes filling the entire side of a Lee or Sherman. I presume that this must have been due to oversized stencils, as stars painted on the smaller surfaces of Carriers, Stuarts and armoured cars often had their points ‘cropped’ by the edges of the vehicle!
My recollection, without consulting references, is that the Commonwealth forces in Malaya had no tanks against about 200 Japanese tanks in Malaya.
Your post might be consistent with there being no Commonwealth tanks during the Malayan fighting, or perhaps debate about what amounts to a tank, or the tanks you mention being on Singapore at the end when they were virtually useless.
Did the 100th Ind. Sqn. actually fight their tanks in Malaya, or were they confined to Singapore?
Did they fight their tanks on Singapore?
That’s a very good question and one I don’t know the answer to. It certainly would seem that they stayed on Singapore.
PS I recently came across a different squadron number for the same unit (32nd iirc).
Australia: As someone has mentioned above, they used Matildas during the latter half of the war with Japan. These included the ‘Frog’ flamethrower variant and the truly terrifying ‘Hedgehog’ which was fitted with a naval depth-charge dispersing multiple-mortar! They also operated Stuarts toward the end of the war and had Churchill regiments training in Australia, though were never used in anger.
New Zealand: When the NZ 3rd Division was committed to the Pacific during mopping up operations in 1945, the division included the 3rd NZ Independent Tank Squadron, equipped with Valentines. Troops were organised as two 2pdr tanks and one 3-inch close support tank.
Something else worth mentioning is that the British Army sent its entire stocks of 37mm and 2pdr Canister rounds for use in the Far East (the US 37mm Canister round could be fired through a 2pdr). These rounds equipped Australian and New Zealand tanks in the Pacific, as well as British/Indian units.
Re Dodge WC-51/52:
Dodge Weapons Carriers were widely used by the British/Indian 14th Army in Burma, alongside Jeeps and CMP 15cwts. Dodge WCs were often classified as ‘15 cwt’ in official returns, so it’s easy to miss them, but they were definitely there and appear a great deal in photos. For example, 153 (Gurkha) Para Bn war diary records how it commandeered twenty Dodge 15 cwts in order to get itself to the Brigade concentration position at Sangshak.
Very cool information all! Thanks very much!
Cheers,
Joppe
(the US 37mm Canister round could be fired through a 2pdr)
Really?
the 2pdr is a 40mm gun and considerably more powerful than the US 37mm, firing a heavier shot quite a bit faster out the muzzle. So the cartridge case is going to be bigger. IIRC the most powerful of the small AT guns that began the war. Round was a 40×304 mm. R(immed)
37MM m3? fixed round was 37×223 mm. Rimmed.
I doubt the case would have sealed the breach even when fired! Extraction?
I note that posters have identified that M4’s were used in Burma, and would have been much more effective at dealing with bunkers, which came in interlocking systems. ?
I don’t doubt that M3’s were used on bunkers but the M4 would have been better.
With a traversing 75mm in a thicker turret - wouldn’t have to have moved so often to engage each bunker, less work for the infantry to prepare hull-down positions, and in protecting the crew.
I hate bunker systems. Bastard things, too often found by walking IN to them.
Good point Timbo. that nugget came from one of Bryan Perrett’s books and as you say, is probably bollocks. In any case, it’s a moot point, as virtually everything out east, aside from the odd Daimler armoured car, Matilda and Valentine was using 37mm rather than 2pdr.
Yes, three regiments of Shermans served in Burma - two in 255th Indian Tank Brigade and one in 50th Indian Tank Brigade. One Lee squadron was also converted to Sherman when it transferred temporarily from 254th Indian Tank Brigade at Imphal to the Arakan.
Nevertheless, the four regiments of Lee/Grants (and the two regiments of Stuarts) in the Burma campaign gave sterling service and the Japanese had very little answer to them.
‘Inspired by the Australian example?’ Is Bond an Australian author by any chance?
Slim was advocating decisive masses of armour when he commanded I Burma Corps in 1942 an again when he commanded XV Corps from 1942 to 1943. However, he was parachuted in to an awful situation in 1942, so the the desired result was often difficult to achieve (though 7th Armoured Brigade did their best). Irwin sidelined Slim in First Arakan during the winter of 1942-43, so only a single half-squadron of Valentines was used (to Slim’s recorded disgust).
When Slim took over 14th Army in 1943, armour and air co-operation were very high on the training agenda. To be honest, I’m not even sure that Slim was even aware of what had been happening tactically in PNG.
(incidentally, I forgot to mention earlier that the Australians used Stuarts early on in PNG - at Buna).
I’ve done more digging on Priests in Burma and have determined that only one regiment - 18 Field Regiment - was deployed to 14th Army. The other Priest Regiment remained in India. 18 Fd Regt was attached to 2nd Division (along with the reserve squadrons of 254th Tank Brigade) and first saw action at Kohima. Its Sherman OP tanks also gave support with their own 75mm guns. Once Kohima was relieved, the regiment again saw action at Imphal and supported the assault crossing of the Irrawaddy (now atatched to 255th Tank Brigade) before joining the armoured ‘blitzkrieg’ to Meiktila.
I’ve written this since last posting on here. It might be useful:
http://www.fireandfury.com/orbats/burmaarmypaintingguide.pdf
He was acutely aware of it and used it to inspire himself and his troops in the face of previously unstoppable Japanese assaults and advances, as this shows.
“Australian troops had, at Milne Bay in New Guinea, inflicted on the Japanese their first undoubted defeat on land. If the Australians, in conditions very like ours, had done it, so could we. Some of us may forget that of all the Allies it was the Australian soldiers who first broke the spell of the invincibility of the Japanese Army; those of us who were in Burma have cause to remember.”
Field Marshal W. Slim, Defeat into Victory, (London, 1956), pp.187-8