How did they do this without tanks and how did the jungles not chew them up and spit out the bones?
How did they do this without tanks and how did the jungles not chew them up and spit out the bones?
How did they do this without tanks and how did the jungles not chew them up and spit out the bones?
a shit load of naval artillery
I dont ever recall hearing about Jap use of naval artillery. Any sources or references? Im genuinely curious as to how naval artillery can be used to turn the tide. I know the Americans used them to bombard a beach before landing and thats it.
sorry bro i literally made that up i dont know anything about ww2 tactics
They used it a lot. Some of the action in the waters of Guadalcanal happened because the japanese tried to shell Henderson airfield a bunch of times. They also used it in taking the Philippines, Wake etc
Artillery is artillery, it explodes the enemy with impunity. With the added implication that if naval artillery is present is virtually it's guaranteed that they are there in huge numbers and there's no counter battery fire available. Of course, for the majority of the war the artillery (and air superiority) was not in Japan's favor and along with lopsided numerical ratios of men was responsible for Japan's consistent defeat in the island hopping campaign. Industrial warfare is brutal for the side with less resources.
Lots of incompetence and complacency. However America had the industrial depth and culture to absorb losses, recover, fire the incompetent (apart from MacArthur) and learn lessons.
they've bombed Shanghai with their ships before the infantry attack
Unironically genetic superiority.
The Japanese would march while starving to death and eat locals along the way. Any other group would mutiny under those conditions, just as no other group has individual soldiers fighting for a regime that ended decades ago like Japan had after WW2. The Japanese were a unique people. I wonder if it will ever be reawoken.
Alot easier to conquer territory when you're ok with killing whole populations
>killing whole populations
Japs weren’t people until August 6th and 9th, 1945, so it works out (Black person)
A mandate from kamisama
JITENSHAAAAAA
They landed infantry on or near the ports, seized them, and then dug in until the colonial land and naval forces were too weakened by logistical issues to offer much resistance
>How did they do this without tanks
With their feet.
>and how did the jungles not chew them up and spit out the bones?
They didn't rely on the mechanization that jungles gum up.
Southeast Asia was barely armed with white colonizers only placing token forces that will eventually not be able to survive a full invasion if it happened.
Outside of the Philippines which had their army re-established 8-10 years before WW2, all the other countries were basically treated as cannon fodder and this led to local Southeast Asians not caring in defending their territory until Japs went apeshit with warcrimes.
Partisans in Vietnam, Burma and Indonesia who operated outside of their main colonizer were the direct result of Jap mass warcrimes. This eventually led to their respective wars of independence after WW2.
The outbreak of the war in Europe also cannibalized whatever forces they have in the region. Both the Bongs, Dutchies and America only started seriously rearming their Asiatic forces after Czechoslovakia was taken.
The correct answer. All the countries Japan took over were western colonies with disarmed populations.
In an ironic twist of irony, as Japan started losing the war, japanese authorities promoted formation of independent governments and gave freedom to many modern asian states and the black population of the USA.
Fascinating stuff.
tldr: Japan ended slavery in the US by bombing Pearl Harbor.
I recall reading that the Japanese did invade Thailand with tanks, landing on a few beaches. Wiki seems to agree (at least mentioned one battle they deployed 10 tanks), but the sources are questionable.
What would have happened if they had ignored the Philippines, Hawaii and other American possession and simply declared war on the British Empire and the Netherlands that were already at war with Germany.
At what point would the Americans have gotten involved?
I know what happened in most of those places but I still don't get how things went so horribly wrong in Fortress Singapore. What sort of people did the Brits have in charge of that shitshow?
>but I still don't get how things went so horribly wrong in Fortress Singapore
singapore was indefinsible, but they felt they couldnt give it up without a fight to preserve the honor of the british empire
they thought the japanese would launch a risky amphibious invasion and direclty into singapores guns, which would result in heavy losses on the japanese even if they took the island
but the japanese didnt take the bait and used their positional advantage to simply outflank the defenses and engage the british in a land assault, which meant their heavy guns were literally not pointed at the japanese
genuine mixture of racism, hubris, and placing honor over reason on the side of the british
the smart thing to do would have been to abandon singapore and engage the japanese somewhere easier, but they just couldnt have that
By actually giving a shit about keeping their men alive in such an unhealthy environment, unlike the japs losing over a million to non-combat losses.
Because they attacked countries either unprepared (China, USA) or incompetent (UK)