The British Empire and Commonwealth’s war effort against Imperial Japan during World War II

The British Empire and Commonwealth’s war effort against Imperial Japan during World War II

Here are a few more interesting and obscure facts regarding the British Empire and Commonwealth’s war effort against Imperial Japan during World War II:

The Ground War:

Although the members of the British Fourteenth Army regularly referred to themselves as the Forgotten Army, a truly forgotten formation may have been the British Twelfth Army, which took over from Fourteenth Army in carrying out the final mopping up operations in Burma during the last few months of the campaign. 

During its short period of operations, Twelfth Army claimed 9,843 Japanese soldiers killed and 1,474 taken prisoner while guerilla and irregular formations claimed at least as many killed. Other Japanese losses included 35 assorted artillery pieces and six tankettes. Against this, British IV Corps, which was Twelfth Army’s primary fighting formation, suffered 435 killed, 1,452 wounded and 14 missing during roughly the same period.

The final major operation undertaken by the Australian army was the invasion of Borneo during which Australian forces landed at Tarakan Island, Brunei Bay and Balikpapan from May through July 1945. During these operations the Australians captured two naval bases, seven important airfields, the immensely rich Seria and Miri oil fields, various oil refineries and vast quantities of equipment. Personnel losses during this fighting included 4,559 confirmed Japanese dead, 625 more presumed dead, 1,194 killed by guerilla forces and 545 taken prisoner for an Australian cost of 460 men killed and 1,486 wounded.

The Naval War:

In addition to the substantial activities carried out by the British Eastern, East Indies and Pacific Fleets during the last year and a half of the war, a number of Australian and New Zealand warships saw action against the Japanese while operating in conjunction with the United States Navy. An example of this was the New Zealand light cruiser Leander, which participated in the battle of Kolombangara in July 1943 where it helped sink the Japanese light cruiser Jintsū, but was itself heavily damaged during the engagement. Another example was the Australian heavy cruiser Shropshire and destroyer Arunta, which helped sink the battleship Yamashiro during the battle of the Surigao Strait in October 1944.

In May 1945 the Royal Navy scored a major success when the destroyers Saumarez, Venus, Vigilant, Virago and Verulam intercepted and engaged the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro and the destroyer Kamikaze at the entrance of the Malacca Strait in the Indian Ocean. Despite being heavily outgunned by their Japanese opponents, the British destroyers executed a well-coordinated pincer attack that scored at least six torpedo hits on the hapless Haguro thus resulting in its destruction. 

On the British side, Saumarez sustained some damage with two men killed and three wounded, but the remaining British destroyers escaped the battle unscathed. This would prove to be the last major surface engagement of the war.

The Air War:

One of the only bright spots that occurred during Britain’s failed defence of Burma in 1942 was the air battle over Rangoon. During a two-and-a-half-month period, the Japanese air force launched a series of air raids against Rangoon utilising some 400 bombers and fighters. Opposing these raids was an initial force of 21 American P-40 and 16 British Buffalo fighters followed by a reinforcement of 30 more British Hurricanes and a squadron of Blenheim light bombers. These American and British fighters were able to effectively challenge the Japanese raids and claimed the destruction of at least 123 Japanese aircraft in aerial combat while the bombers destroyed a further 58 aircraft on the ground.

Of the various aircraft types that joined Eastern Air Command in 1943 and 1944, none was more important than the Supermarine Spitfires Mk Vs and Mk VIIIs. As one example of their impact, with the arrival of these Spitfires, Japan’s high-flying Ki-46 Dinah reconnaissance aircraft, which were largely impervious to Hurricane interception, suddenly found themselves vulnerable. This was amply demonstrated in November 1943 when Indian-based Spitfires promptly shot down three Dinahs in just a nine-day period. Over the next 15 months these Spitfires accounted for a further 17 Dinahs destroyed thus severely degrading the latter’s ability to collect photographic intelligence.

Pictured here are Australian troops landing at Tarakan Island in May 1945. Lieutenant Junior Grade C.F. Watermann, USNR, CPU-8, May 1, 1945, public domain. Also pictured is the British destroyer Saumarez, which led the attack that destroyed the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro in the last major surface engagement of the war. 

Royal Navy official photographer, public domain. Finally pictured is a Supermarine Spitfire Mk VIII of No. 155 Squadron about to take off from Tabingaung, Burma in January 1945. Ashley (Plt Off), Royal Air Force official photographer, public domain. For more information on this and other related topics, see Forgotten War, the British Empire and Commonwealth’s Epic Struggle Against Imperial Japan, 1941-1945.