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- Thread starter Blackleaf
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The Canadians in Hong Kong were later criticised for being cowards, for not putting up much of a fight and for surrendering too easily.
There were 250 Americans in the Eagles Squadrons - out of a total RAF manpower of 250,000. You do the maths.
And out of those 250, the RAF recognises just SEVEN who actually took part in the Battle of Britain.
The figures are there in black and white, recorded for posterity.
As I've already pointed out before (and yet it's something people keep forgetting), the British had been fighting the war since it started in September 1939. Unlike the Yanks, we were there right from the start. By the time the Yanks arrived in the war as fresh as daisies, the British had already spent over two years fighting, having lost thousands of men and equipment. We were already war weary and suffering from loss of manpower and equipment through battle when the Yanks were just starting out in the Pacific against the Japanese as fresh as daisies. You have to remember that. In the Battle of Midway, the Yanks had only been in the war for about six months. The British had been in it for almost three years at that point.
Britain had two aircraft carriers sitting idle in port in Madagascar. The US asked for the assistance of one of the aircraft carriers. The request was denied, and both carriers continued to sit idle in port. I have long wondered if this decision by the British was a reaction to the drubbing they took at the hands of Admiral Nagumo in command of Kido Buntai in the waters off Ceylon.
Indian Ocean raid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wiki recognizes 11... the RAF recognizes 3 Squadrons and 250. Brits are so slow.
As the brit general said... the Americans were the vanguard of the RAF and the RAFs loss will be the 8th USAAFs gain.
The brits were doing nothing but retreating. First from the Germans then the Japanese.
And the Japanese drove the brits right out of the Pacific and they didn't return until 1945... when it was over.
Another major battle the brits wanted nothing to do with.
They couldn't even defend Australia. The brits took many the ANZACS leaving their homelands unprotected. Typical.
That's a laugh... The Canucks that you begged to fight your battles for you are being called cowards by the yellow-bellies that were 'caught unawares' by an entire army 'sneaking up on them'?
Yep... What you wrote above is the battle-cry of a loser.... Find a way to blame anyone else for your massive inadequacies each and every time (and trust me, there are far too many to count)
BL is talking out his azz Tax. The brits sent the Canadians to be sacrificed to give the appearance that they were doing something. They used the Canadians as fodder in Hong Kong while refusing to send their own reinforcements to their doomed colony. No wonder why Canada refused to send any more of their soldiers to Hong Kong than they already had. Canada knew the brits were leaving them to fend for themselves and no support was coming.
Have you got any evidence of this? Madagascar was under Vichy French control until the British (of course) invaded it, took it and handed it over to the Free French. But I can find no evidence of a port in Madagascar in which British ships were sitting.
So the Yanks needed the British to bail them out.
Don't forget that it was also a drubbing for the Dutch, Australians and Yanks.
Also, this is the BRITISH we are talking about. The British are not the sort of people to cowardly keep their warships in port just because they suffered some little defeat 3,000 miles away. The British are the people who kept calm and carried on during the Blitz, for Heaven's sake, when people made of less sterner stuff, like the Canadians and Americans, would have demonstrated mass panic and riots. It takes a lot more than a little defeat in Ceylon to rattle the British.
Yeah. When the British lose a battle in WWII it's "British incompetence".
When the Canadians lose a battle in WWII it's "Canadian valour" and somehow still the fault of the British.
In fact, the Canadians "defending" Hong Kong were seen by the British - and possibly others - as nothing more than a rag-tag bunch of rowdy, cowardly colonists, not good for very much, who surrendered too easily. In fact, even modern historians have written books dedicated to the Canadian cowardice in the Battle of Hong Kong. Just after the Battle, Major General Christopher Maltby was highly critical of the Canadians who took part in the defence of Hong Kong. He claimed that the Canadians were cowards, losing their nerves at vital moments. He mentioned the incident in which the Canadians were ordered to hold Repulse BaY Hotel at "all costs". He claimed that the Canadians were actually drinking and that they had no intention of taking any further military action. Even their commander, Major Charles Young, was drunk and that he had to be replaced by a British officer who proceeded to send the Canadians to the front line. On the line, officers of the Royal Rifles of Canada stood by whilst the men were arguing that fighting should END!. Maltby then claimed that they were then withdrawn and replaced by more reliable troops.
Dieppe was also very similar to Hong Kong, with the Canadians in that campaign being an inexperienced, rag-tag crew. The only Allied success story in the Dieppe Raid was by the battle-hardened British commandos against the coast artillery batteries near Varengeville and Berneval.
The RAF recognises seven Yanks who took part in the Battle of Britain.
Are you for real?
Oh, I forgot, you're American. That means you've been taught from an early age that WWII was an entirely Americans vs Axis powers campaign and that America was at the vanguard of everything and that America won the war singlehandedly.
That's why it comes as a shock for you when people like me come along and easily, without breaking sweat, reveal the truth.
To say that the Americans were the "vanguard" of the RAF is one of the silliest, silliest things I have ever read, even for you.
The RAF's manpower during WWII was 250,000. The RAF itself recognises only SEVEN Yanks who took part in the Battle of Britain. Seven out of 250,000 - that's 0.0028%.
We were doing more than you between 1939 and 1942.
As I've already mentioned. The British were overstretched. By the time the Yankee Doodle Dandies belatedly entered the conflict after being taken by surprise at Pearl Harbour, the British had already seen over two years of war, and had seen action across the globe. Unlike the Yanks, we were busy actually defending our own country from the Nazis whilst suffering the Blitz and fighting Rommel in North Africa. These operations in Britain, in Continental Europe, in North Africa and elsewhere had already depleted our manpower and resources by the time your trigger-happy lot came wading in as fresh as daisies. Like I've already said, this is something you keep forgetting. Your lot may have been as fresh as daisies in 1942 when you entered the conflict in the Pacific, but the British weren't. You're also a typical Yank. You only see WWII as being a Pacific affair against the Japanese. You keep forgetting that the Europeans had the Nazis right on their doorsteps to worry about more than what was happening in the Pacific.
We were involved in several major battles before the Yanks even entered the conflict.
The British were too busy defending Britain and taking part in other operations around the world. We were too busy in that little operation to kick the Nazis out of Europe. The Australians had to defend themselves. Why did we have to do it?
Don't forget that very few Australians fought in Europe during the war, so the same is true the other way around. Only around 30 Australians fought in the RAF in the Battle of Britain, for example - but that's still over four times more than the number of Yanks who did the same.
Yeah. Sure it did. And even when Yankeeland was taking part in the odd little aerial battle over the Pacific, it wasn't fighting for its life as a sovereign nation as Britain was in the summer of 1940. We were fighting to stave off invasion by the most repugnant regime in history, and we did that whilst alone. Nobody else was taking the fight to Germany at the time.
Again, one word can be used to describe it: overstretch.
The Americans had only been in the war for six months during the Battle of Midway. SIX MONTHS. The British, however, had been in it for almost THREE YEARS then and, unlike the Yanks, had already suffered huge amounts of losses in manpower and equipment, as can be expected after three years. We were vastly outnumbered in men and equipment by the Japanese in the Pacific Theatre of World War II as a result. Men and equipment aren't infinite resources. The British had to use a lot of men and arms in fending off the threat posed to them by Germany. Britain, in common with other European powers like the French and Russians, had more to worry about on their own doorsteps with the Nazis than what was happening on the Pacific. It's the same with Singapore. Britain was being asked to fight a war half a world away whilst the battles in Europe and North Africa sapped up Britain's military strength. As a result the Japanese had hundreds of tanks and the British had none in Singapore. Britain didn't even have any warships defending Singapore, because they were all needed in Europe. This is not "disgraceful", as you disgracefully put it. This is the British being bogged down in battles on their own doorstep and in North Africa whilst, at the same time, being asked to then defend a colony thousands of miles way. The overstretch is something the British probably had in mind when the fresh as daisies Yanks wanted to borrow one of their carriers, yet it's something you and your little mates on here have obviously forgotten about.
To put it simply, the Yanks had it far easier in the Far East than the British did.
What reinforcements?
Of course not. The US sank four Japanese carries at Midway.
Wiki does... the RAF recognized 250.
The US squadrons were the vanguard of the RAF according to the RAF.
I didn't say it... the RAF General said it!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z2fVNnI6ms
PWNED
EXACTLY! The Briddish sent in the Canadians and left them to wither on the vine in Hong Kong.