South-East Asian theatre of World War II

Although Japan declared war on the United States and the British Empire, the declaration was not delivered until after the attacks began. On 8 December, the United Kingdom,^[a][1] the United States,^[b][2] Canada,^[3] and the Netherlands^[4] declared war on Japan, followed by China^[5] and Australia^[6] the next day.

Initial Japanese successes

The Allies suffered many defeats in the first half of the war. Two major British warships,

On 29 December 1943, political control of the islands was theoretically passed to the Azad Hind government of Subhas Chandra Bose. Bose visited Port Blair to raise the tricolour flag of the Indian National Army. After Bose's departure the Japanese remained in effective control of the Andamans, and the sovereignty of the Arzi Hukumat-e Hind was largely fictional.^[14] The islands themselves were renamed "Shaheed" and "Swaraj", meaning "martyr" and "self-rule" respectively. Bose placed the islands under the governorship of Lt Col. A. D. Loganathan, and had limited involvement with the administration of the territory.

Burma Campaign

• The retreat of the Burma Corps
• The formation of the
  British Fourteenth Army
  (The "Forgotten Army")
• The
  Arakan Campaign
• The Japanese attack on India
• The Allied counter offensives
  • Road to
    Rangoon
  • Brigadier Orde Wingate and the Chindits

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2008)

US forces in the China Burma India Theatre

• Northern Combat Area Command (NCAC)
• Flying Tigers
• Fourteenth Air Force
• Tenth Air Force
• Twentieth Air Force (Operation Matterhorn)
• The Allied logistical airlift from India into China over the Hump
• The Ledo Road
• Merrill's Marauders

One of the major logistical efforts of the war was "flying the Hump" over the Himalayas and the building of the Ledo Road from India to China as a replacement for the Burma Road.

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2008)

Air war in South East Asia

• RAF Far East Air Force
• RAF Third Tactical Air Force
• Bombing of South-East Asia (1944–45)

RAF battle honours:

• CEYLON 1942

Qualification: For operations against Japanese aircraft and naval units by squadrons based in Ceylon during the Japanese attacks of April 1942.

• BURMA 1944–1945

Qualification: For operations during the 14th Army's advance from Imphal to Rangoon, the coastal amphibious assaults, and the Battle of Pegu Yomas, August 1944 to August 1945.

Indian Ocean naval campaigns 1942–1945

The earliest successes were gained by mine laying and submarine warfare. The Japanese minesweeping capability was never great, and when confronted with new types of mines they did not adapt quickly. Japanese shipping was driven from the Burmese coast using this type of warfare. British submarines based in British Ceylon operated against Japanese shipping.

It was only after the war in Europe was clearly coming to an end that large British forces were dispatched to the Indian Ocean again. Following the neutralisation of the German fleet in late 1943 and early 1944, forces from the Home Fleet were released, and the success of Operation Overlord in June meant even more craft could be sent, including precious amphibious assault shipping.

During late 1944, as more British aircraft carriers came into the area a series of strikes were flown against oil targets in Sumatra, such as Operation Meridian. USS Saratoga was lent for the first attack by the United States. The oil installations were heavily damaged by the attacks, aggravating the Japanese fuel shortages due to the American blockade. The final attack was flown as the carriers were heading for Sydney to become the British Pacific Fleet.

After the departure of the main battle forces the Indian Ocean was left with escort carriers and older battleships as the mainstay of its naval forces. Nevertheless, during those months important operations were launched in the recapture of Burma, including landings on Ramree and Akyab and near Rangoon.

Command structures

Allied command structure

At the start of the war the British forces in the area fell under at least three separate commands. General Sir

A month after the outbreak of war with Japan on 7 December 1941, the Allied governments jointly appointed General Wavell as Supreme Allied Commander of all "American-British-Dutch-Australian" (ABDA) forces in South East Asia and the Pacific, from Burma to the Dutch East Indies.

However, advances made by the Japanese over the next month split the ABDA forces in two. On 23 February 1942, with Malaya lost and the Allied position in

In August 1943 the Allies formed a new South East Asian Command to take over strategic responsibilities for the theatre. The reorganisation of the theatre command took about two months. On 4 October Winston Churchill appointed Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten supreme Allied commander of the South East Asia Command (SEAC). The American General Joseph Stilwell was the first deputy supreme Allied commander. On 15 November, Auchinleck handed over responsibility for the conduct of operations against the Japanese in the theatre to Mountbatten.

The initial land forces operational area for SEAC included India, Burma, British Ceylon and Malaya. Operations were also mounted in Japanese-occupied Sumatra, Thailand and French Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos).

Initially SEAC commanded:

• British Eastern Fleet
  (based in Ceylon)
• British Army in Ceylon (Ceylon Army); and theoretically, Northern Combat Area Command under the command of Joseph Stilwell.^[17]
• Air HQ India (New Delhi)
• China Burma India Theater
  (CBI), (all US forces in theatre; HQ in New Delhi).

On 12 November 1944 Eleventh Army Group was redesignated by Allied Land Forces South East Asia (ALFSEA) still under SEAC, as it was felt that an inter-Allied command was better than the purely British headquarters. Command problems with General Stilwell and his interactions with the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff had precipitated the change. It combined Commonwealth and US forces,^{[citation needed]} with its headquarters at Kandy. On 1 December ALFSEA HQ moved to Barrackpore, India.

On 15 August 1945 responsibility for the rest of the Dutch East Indies was transferred from the South West Pacific Area to SEAC.

SEAC was disbanded on 30 November 1946.

Japanese command structure

The

• Burma National Army
• Thai Phayap Army
• Korean Liberation Army
• Military history of Britain during World War II#The Far East
• Second Sino-Japanese War
• Kantogun

Footnotes

Notes