Sir John Valentine Carden Survives. Part 2.
- Thread starter allanpcameron
- Start date
Will make for some interesting conversations at the HighCom tables and Negotiation table in general given the British are holding a lot stronger than OTL in the East and the war in general.
Unfortunately, the infrastructure in Malaya is rather unlike that of Britain itself, with just a few, not-terribly-well prepared airfields, and no radar to provide early warning of an incursion.
You could arrange a spotter system like they had in the UK, but without radar, it will hamper efforts unless they had portable sets.
A
Also unless the spotters have radios, as was later done with the Coast Watchers, then by the time information could be passed back it would probably be too late.
Would they not want to keep O’Connor for Command of some of the forces building up in the Med? I know there may be some time before major combat is expected in that theatre but presumably the successful Commanders from Africa would be used in training, preparing and planning for any future offensives in that theatre?
Politics, to replace Percival as CinC they need someone with enough gravitas it does not seem a demotion. He's also already commanded Australian and Indian troops successfully in Africa so will be seen as a good fit.
The trouble is O'Conner should probably be returned to the UK for a chance to rest and pass on what he's learned.
Ramp-Rat
Monthly Donor
The British don’t need a land based radar at this time, though it would be advantageous, and I am sure that it won’t be too long before some sort of land based radar is installed. Simply by placing a destroyer or cruiser in the South China Sea north of Singapore, which is fitted with an air search radar. Enough warning can be transmitted to Singapore. Thus allowing the fighters there to launch and climb to hight, in time to intersect any incoming raid. In addition I doubt that the Japanese are in a position to provide fighter coverage to any raids on Singapore, given the distances involved yet. And as everyone has discovered by this stage of the war, unescorted bombers in daylight against a warned opposition, are easy meat for the defending fighters. I would expect that by now the Japanese will only be launching night raids against Singapore, as the British do not have any night fighters available in theatre. And thus have only AA guns to defend the city and dockyards, however a bomber that is used to bomb Singapore at night, can not be used to bomb the British army in contact with the Japanese army by day.
RR.
RR.
Great update @allanpcameron and thanks for the post thread explanation @Ramp-Rat
IMHO, this task will be much easier than the IOTL formation of the post-war Malayan Union (which was disastrous), since the reputation of the British aren't destroyed by the war. Meanwhile, the fact there will be an administration of all of Malaya that include Singapore during the war will probably means there are chances (if not inevitable) that the post-war Federation of Malaya will include Singapore from the start (IMO this is the latest POD that needed to happened for Singapore to remain part of Malaysia peacefully) .
Now, I wonder if the war administration of British Borneo (if the British will take back Borneo and will include Sarawak in this case) combined with the Malayan war administration. If not, I think it will probably be based in centrally located Brunei (please correct me on this if I am wrong, since I had no idea regarding this)
P/s: I hope there will be an update regarding the Malay Regiment and the local peoples in general, that could perhaps mention a certain Malay person.
Well, almost all of these states are belong to the Federated Malay States and the Straits Settlements (IMO, I feel like the Japanese will advanced and take the northern states that aren't a part of those two (Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah), so I presumed the newly formed administration of the combined area will be will be based in Singapore( (the capital of the SS). Perhaps when the British advanced enough into Thailand that the administration will eventually move to the the capital of the FMS, Kuala Lumpur, since it is more centrally located within Malaya.
IMHO, this task will be much easier than the IOTL formation of the post-war Malayan Union (which was disastrous), since the reputation of the British aren't destroyed by the war. Meanwhile, the fact there will be an administration of all of Malaya that include Singapore during the war will probably means there are chances (if not inevitable) that the post-war Federation of Malaya will include Singapore from the start (IMO this is the latest POD that needed to happened for Singapore to remain part of Malaysia peacefully) .
Now, I wonder if the war administration of British Borneo (if the British will take back Borneo and will include Sarawak in this case) combined with the Malayan war administration. If not, I think it will probably be based in centrally located Brunei (please correct me on this if I am wrong, since I had no idea regarding this)
P/s: I hope there will be an update regarding the Malay Regiment and the local peoples in general, that could perhaps mention a certain Malay person.
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O'Connor would be the wrong choice for the East, Europe remains the most important theatre and Britain needs to keep her best there, also he needs a rest, even the most able commanders begin to make mistakes if they've been on the line for too long.
Right now, there's nothing happening in Europe. Oh there might be a few amphibious operation in the Med eventually, but not for some months, and I don't see O'Connor being the right man there.
Mark1878
Donor
Isn't Wilson too senior ie on the level of Auchinleck and Alexander so a candidate for overall command in the Med if Wavell needs to be made Viceroy of India.
Which makes the next in line Montgomery or a NA Corps leader (and I have lost track of who they are TTL) or Wilson's corps leader in Greece - Blamey - which as the main force is Australian seems possible.
The Jungle is more of an infantry-focused environment when it comes down to it strangely, I think, given Monty and his idea of building up, training and preparation would probably fit in well at the far east at least in a tactical and strategic sense.
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I agree with others that Monty makes a lot of sense for the Far East especially as it will be above all a logistics battle, something Monty was always very good at.
O'Connor should stay in NA mentally recuperating and systemising the lessons learned in the final phases and bringing training standards to a uniform high level in preparation for summer '42 operations.
O'Connor should stay in NA mentally recuperating and systemising the lessons learned in the final phases and bringing training standards to a uniform high level in preparation for summer '42 operations.