“And to use that,” said Brooke, “we’ll have to hold Batavia. You can be sure the Japanese know that, and Java will be next on their list. So even if we hold Singapore, those troops will just sit there, and with dwindling supplies, and no further air cover. After we lose that, the convoys won’t get through in any case. We can’t cover them from Batavia, which is 550 miles from Singapore.”
“Then where do we stand? When do we dig in our heels and tell the other fellow no more. I had hoped we could do that with Singapore, and now you tell me it was all for nothing.”
“Not entirely,” said Brooke. “We’ve taught them a lesson on Singapore. We’ve shown them they aren’t invincible—they can be stopped. Yet now we must learn the hard lesson they are teaching us—that control of the sea is the essential element in all of these maneuverings. That’s what we’ve built this Empire with—the Royal Navy. The Army can’t go anywhere without them, and that is the simple fact of the matter. It comes down to sea power, and control of the air space over those seas. The Japanese have gone and knocked the Yanks off their bar stool at Pearl Harbor, and it may be a good long while before they get up off the floor. In the meantime, the Japanese Navy is the undisputed master of the Pacific, and if we’re going to stop them anywhere, we’ll have to pose a credible threat to that sea power.”
Churchill shook his head, regretfully. “I wanted to send a pair of heavy warships to Singapore, but this Russian Captain let slip they would go down in a Japanese air attack. A hard lesson indeed, General Brooke, but we’re learning it. Our battleships have taken the hard knocks of late in this dirty business off the Canary Islands. So now it’s down to cruisers and aircraft carriers. We’ll be forced to fight the way we should have been fighting all along—by projecting air power at sea.”
“Correct,” said Brooke. “Admiral Tovey knows it. I had a discussion with him when he was in London a while back. He wants to send Somerville to the Pacific, and with three aircraft carriers, and he wants a new dive bomber.”
“That’s the way the Japanese have pulled off their parlor tricks,” said Churchill.
“Indeed,” said Brooke. “I noted Wavell leaned on that rather heavily. He wants to try and salvage something from our stand on Singapore—the Army we sent there to do the job. At the moment, the Dutch are sitting with about 25,000 troops on Java, mostly native units. The Aussies have a brigade there, and there’s a battalion of Yanks in the mix as well. Wavell wants to pull out of Singapore while we still can, and get those troops to Java. To do so we’ll have to be quick. In another week to ten days the Dutch will be pushed right off Sumatra. The Japanese have already taken Airfield P1 near Palembang. They haven’t found P2 yet, but they will in good time. The 18th Division might just slip away from Singapore if we act quickly, but just barely. Otherwise, I’m afraid those troops are as good as lost. In another two weeks we’ll never be able to get them out, nor will we be able to keep them supplied.”
“And the civilians?” said Churchill with a look of anguish. “That is the other side of the moral issue here. There’s a million people on that island. Do we just abandon them? Do we just leave them to the mercy of the Japanese? You know what they did at Hong Kong.”
“Only too well,” said Brooke. “Yet it comes down to losing Singapore now, or losing it later. It’s only a question of time. Mister Prime Minister, we put up the good fight, but our enemy is smarter than all that. Mark my words—they’ll take Java before spring, and then hop their way east towards Australia, whether we still hold Singapore or not.”
Chapter 9
“My god man,” said Churchill, “you make it seem as though we haven’t a shred of hope in any of this.”
“Forgive me if I sound jaded.” Brooke stood there with complete poise, in spite of the gloomy mood that hung over the scene. “I’m a realist. I won’t stir honey into your tea here, because the day I stop telling you what I truly believe, is the day I will be of no further use to you. As to Java, yes, I have my doubts about trying to reinforce it now. Assuming the 18th Division does get to Java safely, I would make arrangements to pull it off in due course. We could use it in Burma. If nothing else, such a maneuver might buy us time. We just might slow them down enough to let the Yanks get back on their feet. You know damn well that we can’t beat the Japanese in the Pacific alone. We’re just hanging on by our fingernails in the west. We need the Americans, and we need Australia. That’s the long view of it all; the hard view. A million souls sit there in Singapore to pay the price for the tens of millions that will fall into the darkness if we lose this war.”
The ticking of a clock on the wall seemed unbearably loud as Brooke waited. Then, slowly, Churchill drew back a chair and sat down. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigar, lighting it with quiet, methodical movements, his eyes fixed on the flame as it began to scorch and burn the tip.
“We can do both at once,” he said. “Make quiet arrangements for the withdrawal of the 18th Division and the Australian and New Zealand Brigades to Java. Mister Curtin will likely want those troops back on Australian soil, and I agree that the 18th Division would be better posted in Burma. Montgomery won’t like it, but we don’t have to tell him anything until the orders have been sent. Get discrete word to the Governor that he should see to the arrangement of daily convoys to move as many civilians as possible off the island. The Indian divisions and the Malaya Brigade, along with all the Fortress troops, will stand the line. We will hold Singapore as long as we possibly can, but make it seem that contingencies compel us to reinforce the Dutch, particularly with the threat that an early enemy occupation of the Malay Barrier Islands would pose to Australia.”
“You realize that by dividing our forces we risk both ends of this equation,” said Brooke.
“True, but I once told the Australian Prime Minister that as long as we hold Singapore, the Japanese would not dare to attack his homeland, and that should they do so, we would respond by sending a battle fleet. It was only on the assurance that Singapore would be held that the Australian government agreed to join us in North Africa and the Middle East. Those troops were a godsend. Without them we could not have held the line there. We owe them. So now we must fight, as best we can, to retain some footing from which we can restore what we have lost when stronger forces become available. In the short run, I have finally scraped together that battlefleet I promised. Somerville’s job will be to project as much air cover over the area as possible, enough to cover these withdrawals and deter a Japanese invasion of Java. If need be I’ll send a full squadron of Spitfires over there. This is the least we can do, and all we can do for the moment. As for Java… How long can we hold there? Will we be having this same conversation in another two weeks?”
“Everything depends on Somerville. If he can cover Batavia, deter or prevent a Japanese landing on Java, then we might have the time to get our shirts tucked in and make a stand there as we did on Singapore. In this light, I’m of a mind we should leave Montgomery in the Pacific until the question of Java is settled. I told you the Japanese never needed Singapore, except to deny it to us. What they do need, however, is Java. If we do try and hold them off, expect a fight there, and for all the other islands leading east to Timor and Darwin. As for Somerville’s prospects of forestalling an invasion, I very much doubt that. He would have to take his carriers through the Sunda Strait and into the Java Sea to oppose any landing on the north coast. That would be dangerous. He’d find himself boxed in, and if the Japanese move planes to Sumatra, he’d be under their land based air power.”