Reverse Monsun : data for a British campaign in the IO

[keltos01]

Far East Campaign
From the outbreak of war in Europe until December 1941, active naval operations in the Far East were on a very minor scale. Much of the Far Eastern submarine force withdrew to the Mediterranean, depriving the Commander-in-Chief Eastern Fleet of any operational striking force. Preparations began towards the end of 1941 for the upcoming attack from the Japanese, which finally occurred in December.
The rapid loss of naval bases such as Hong Kong and Singapore to the Japanese forced the withdrawal of British submarines still located there. The Navy's Eastern Fleet moved to Sri Lanka, whilst the Pacific Fleet operated from Sydney.
Operations remained on a small scale until reinforcements arrived from Europe at the end of 1943, when the Allied position in the Mediterranean improved. The great distances limited the range of the British boats to the Indian Ocean, the waters around Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, and the South China Sea. They could not yet reach the Pacific.
The policy in the Far East was to hold the Japanese in the Malay barrier and then attack in the Pacific. This made it worthwhile to take advantage of the shallow waters around most of Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Malay peninsula. A large mine-laying programme began as nearly all of the modern boats could lay mines from their torpedo tubes. Ammunition for guns was also stored onboard for attacking junks used by the Japanese to transport goods. The Far East offered fewer targets than European theatres and successes were therefore harder to come across. Gunfire was often used to dispatch enemy vessels as they were not large enough to merit a torpedo.

'Tommy Hambly and Co - Well 4 Ever More!' cartoon (RNSM)



The Far East campaign proved successful, with the Allies sinking nearly all of Japan's merchant navy fleet over the course of the war. British losses in the Far East only amounted to three submarines, even with half the Royal Navy submarine service based in this region.

Japanese silk ensign with Japanese handwritten symbols (RNSM)



A Class
The British Admiralty ordered these diesel-electric submarines in 1943 to assist in the Pacific theatre of war, commissioning 16 in total. They replaced the S and T class pre-war submarines, which were too slow and unable to dive deep enough to be suited to the Pacific. They were one of only two new British submarine designs, along with X Craft, produced during the war.
Quick construction, using an entirely welded hull fabricated in sections, meant that each submarine took about eight months to complete. Although only two of the boats were finished before the end of the war, HMS Amphion and Astute, neither of which saw action.
The A class also included features such as air conditioning for the tropical climate. One of the main problems for submarine crews serving in the Far East was the heat and humidity. In submarines not fitted with air conditioning, life onboard in tropical regions could be appalling. The crew often suffered from various skin complaints, such as *****ly heat, ulcers, or cuts which turned septic and stayed so due to the foul conditions. To help this matter, submarines would retire from patrol positions occasionally for a day and spend it on the surface, in order to give the crew a break from working long hours in such high temperatures.

found on :
http://www.seayourhistory.org.uk/con...w/475/625/1/3/