WAR AGAINST JAPAN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 11 September 1945, Page 5

WAR AGAINST JAPAN

BRITAIN’S CONTRIBUTION BIG PLAN READY _ London, Sept., 8. Three hundred thousand British troops were employed in the war against Japan and when the enemy surrendered were about to launch a largescale operation against Malaya, said the Lord President of the Council. Mr Herbert Morrison, in a speech at a VP celebration at Lewisham. “Our men in Burma.” he said, "would have advanced into Siam. We were also ready to do our share with the United States in the invasion of Japan itself. "Five divisions, namely, one British, one British Indian, one Australian, one Canadian and one New Zealand, were to be employed as a British Commonwealth force under the command of General MacArthur. This would have meant a redeployment to the Far East of a further 250,000 men from the European theatre. Our force was not limited by the number of men available, but by the fact that our large passenger fleet was transporting United States troops across the North Atlantic. ‘‘The R.A.F. from the battle of Imphal to the fall of Rangoon flew nearly 250 000 sorties, carried 80,000 troops, and delivered 170.000 tons of supplies. "More than 60 per cent of the total strength of the Royal Navy was our contribution to the war in the Far East, a force three times the size of the whole navy in 1939, and it started to move as soon as the threat from the enemy lessened in European waters. “The fleet by last March was operating in Japanese waters, supporting the

American assault on Okinawa. 4000 miles from its base in Sydney. One j hundred and twenty ocean-going ships and tankers supplied the fleet during the operations which, in this case, involved remaining at sea continually for more than two months.

“In the South-East Asia Command, another fleet almost half the size of that in the Pacific, co-operated with ( the army during the spectacular south- ! ward march through Burma. }• "Our submarines throughout the Jap- ! anese war operated, often under very 1 difficult conditions, in the Malacca Strait and the Java Sea. They took heavy toll of Japanese merchant shipping. These intensive operations were in progress up to the moment of surrender when the Royal Navy in force was in at the Japanese kill.”