The Darkest Hour Volume 2 The Japanese Offensive In The Indian Ocean 1942 The Attack Against Ceylon And The Eastern Fleet

This book presents the Japanese navy offensive in the Indian Ocean area in March-April 1942. Its main goal was to destroy the Royal Navy in the Far East and achieve domination on the Eastern flank of the Pacific War on the eve of the battle of Midway.

In early April 1942, a little-known episode of World War II took place, said by Sir Winston Churchill to be Òthe most dangerous moment of the war,Ó when the Japanese made their only major offensive westwards into the Indian Ocean. Historian Sir Arthur Bryant said, ÒA Japanese naval victory in April 1942 would have given Japan total control of the Indian Ocean, isolated the Middle East and brought down the Churchill government.Ó War in the Far East had erupted with the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, followed in succession by Japanese drives on the Philippines, Indochina, the Java Sea and Singapore. Seemingly unstoppable, the Japanese now had a vast new empire, and having crippled the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, turned their sights on the British Eastern Fleet based at Ceylon. Occupation of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) would not only provide the Japanese a springboard into India but control of the essential convoy routes to Europe and the Western Desert. And aside from the British Eastern Fleet, the Indian Ocean lay undefended. So far the Japanese had suffered no significant losses and the question on everyoneÕs lips was how soon the enemy would appear off India. In April 1942 a Japanese fleet led by six aircraft carriers, four battleships and 30 other ships sailed into the Bay of Bengal. After the war Churchill said that potential disaster was averted by the actions of one pilot, Squadron Leader L.J. Birchall, who in his Catalina flying boat spotted the Japanese warships massing some 350 miles from Ceylon. He was shot down by a Japanese Zero but not before sending a brief radio message back to his base. This gave the islandÕs defense forces time to prepare. In the ferocious battles that followed, the British lost a carrier, two heavy cruisers and many other ships; however, the Japanese eventually turned back, never to sail against India again. John Clancy, whose father survived the sinking of HMS Cornwall during the battle, tells the story of this dramatic but little known campaign in which a major Allied catastrophe was only narrowly averted.

The Darkest Hour presents the Imperial Japanese Navy offensive in the Indian Ocean area in March-April 1942, the main goal of which was to destroy the Royal Navy in the Far East and achieve domination on the eastern flank of the Pacific War on the eve of the Battle of Midway.The bold operation of two Japanese task forces (Kidō Butai and Malay Force) in the Indian Ocean could not be possible without the fall of Singapore in February and the Dutch East Indies in early March 1942. From the strategic point of view, the Japanese offensive in the Indian Ocean was the only moment in the Second World War when the Axis forces could coordinate their efforts to severely threaten the position of the British Empire in the crucial Middle East and India areas.The Darkest Hour describes the strategic planning of both sides in February-March 1942, including the Japanese navy projections on the last steps of the first stage of the Pacific War, and the Royal Navy's hopes to halt the enemy advance without taking any significant risks.The Japanese offensive in the Indian Ocean began in March 1942 with the invasion of the Andaman Islands and Christmas Island. By securing both vital positions, the Japanese navy planned to establish its advanced bases in the eastern part of the Bay of Bengal. In the next step, the invincible Kidō Butai consisting of five aircraft carriers and their escorts, was expected to crush the British bases on Ceylon and once and forever destroy the main core of the Eastern Fleet. The chaos provoked by the Kidō Butai would then become a great opportunity for the Malay Force to cut off the British shipping routes in the western part of the Bay of Bengal.The Darkest Hour is the first systematic attempt to describe the less-well known part of the Pacific War by researching both British and Japanese archive documents and other secondary sources published in many countries, including the United Kingdom, Japan, and India.

An detailed illustrated exploration of the Japanese raid into the Indian Ocean in April 1942 – one of the largest operations conducted by the Imperial Navy during the war. In the wake of Japan's conquest of Burma in early 1942, plans were formed by the Imperial high command to capture Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka) to consolidate Japan's defensive perimeter and disrupt British shipping lanes to India, Australia, and the Middle East. The Imperial Japanese Army, however, could not release sufficient troops for an invasion, and so in response the Japanese Navy developed Operation C, an aggressive raid by the Combined Fleet into the Indian Ocean. The key objective was to destroy the British Eastern Fleet in port. Expert naval historian Mark Stille documents the high point of Japanese naval air power as its carriers struck Ceylon – the heart of British naval power in the East – sinking several Allied ships. He describes the Allied air attempts to destroy Admiral Chuichi Nagumo's force, and the Japanese attacks against British shipping and the cities along the Indian coast. Specially commissioned battlescenes bring to life the sinking of British carrier Hermes, the Bristol Blenheim attacks on the Japanese carrier force, and a Zero vs Hurricane dogfight over Colombo on 5 April. Easy to follow maps and diagrams reveal the strategic situation at the start and end of the campaign, and track the movements of the Japanese carrier task force and the British Eastern Fleet throughout. Details of weaponry, equipment, personnel and the events of the fascinating battles that took place are revealed in over 60 photographs, many of which are from Japanese sources.

The battles of Khalkhyn Gol was the decisive engagement of the undeclared Soviet-Japanese Border Wars fought between the Soviet Union, Mongolia and the Empire of Japan in 1939. This book looks at the impact and retaliation from the Soviet perspective.

During the first half of the 20th Century, the former Czarist Russia and then the former Soviet Union, and the Empire of Japan fought a series of undeclared wars in the Far East. The first of these, fought 1904-1905 over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea, ended in a clear-cut Japanese victory. Following the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, in 1931, Japan turned its interest to nearby Soviet territories. The result was a series of border incidents - starting with the Battle of Lake Khasan in 1938. Maintaining that the border between their proxy-state, Manchukuo, and the Soviet-dominated Mongolian People's Republic was the Khalkhyn Gol (or Khalkha River), the Japanese deployed some of best units of their army to occupy and secure this area. Following a military build-up, a series of bitter clashes took place mid-May and June 1939, after which the Japanese launched an all-out assault in July. Due to heavy casualties, the battle resulted in a stalemate. Concerned about the possibility of facing a two-front war, the Soviets reacted with a major counter-offensive, in August 1939, and defeated the Japanese. While little known in the West, this short but bitter war - known as Nomohan Incident in Japan, or the Battle of Khalkhyn Gol in the Soviet Union - was a crucial overture for the subsequent World War II. Having secured its border in the Far East, the Soviet Union was free to concentrate on war in Europe. Although continuing to underestimate their opponents, the Japanese introduced a major reform of their army. Furthermore, after realizing the massive material disparity vis- -vis the former USSR, Tokyo joined the Axis with Nazi Germany and Italy.

Word Bird experiences hot soup, cold snow, and wet clothes on a snowy winter day.