Air Raids On Penang
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Air Raids On Penang
Between 1944 and 1945, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) and the Royal Air Force (RAF) conducted bombing and mining missions against Japanese occupation of Malaya, Japanese-occupied Penang. Carried out by long-range bombers based in British Raj, India, the raids aimed to disrupt maritime shipping in the northern Strait of Malacca and the use of Swettenham Pier, Penang's harbour as an Axis powers, Axis submarine base. While these Allied aerial missions effectively disrupted Japanese military logistics in the region, they also resulted in considerable damage to the urban landscape of George Town, Penang, George Town, Penang's capital city. Background In November 1944, the Royal Air Force, RAF's Strategic Air Force, based in India, was reconstituted to full operational strength with the return of the Seventh Bombardment Group and several squadrons equipped with Consolidated B-24 Liberators. The operations of the Strategic Air Force were subsequently expanded to include stra ...
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Pacific War
The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast Asia, the Pacific Ocean, Pacific and Indian Oceans, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theatre of the war, including the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II, Pacific Ocean theatre, the South West Pacific theater of World War II, South West Pacific theatre, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the brief Soviet–Japanese War, and included some of the Largest naval battle in history, largest naval battles in history. War between Japan and the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China had begun in 1937, with hostilities dating back to Japanese invasion of Manchuria, Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931, but the Pacific War is more widely accepted to have started in 1941, when the United States and United Kingdom entered the ...
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Operation Matterhorn
Operation Matterhorn was a military operation of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in World War II for strategic bombing of Japan by Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers based in India, Ceylon, and China. Targets included industrial facilities in Japan and in Japanese-controlled China and Southeast Asia. The B-29s were based in India but staged through bases around Chengdu in China's Sichuan province. Since the Japanese had cut the Burma Road in 1942, the only line of communications with China was over "the Hump", as the air ferry route to China over the Himalayas was called. All the fuel, ammunition and supplies used by American forces in China had to be flown in. To control the B-29s, the Joint Chiefs of Staff created the Twentieth Air Force under the command of General Henry H. Arnold, the chief of the USAAF, in Washington, DC. The role of the China Burma India Theater (CBI) commander, Lieutenant general (United States), Lieutenant General Joseph W. Stilwell, was rest ...
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Boeing B-29 Superfortress
The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is a retired American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, the Superfortress was designed for high-altitude strategic bombing, but also excelled in low-altitude night incendiary bombing, and in dropping naval mines to blockade Japan. B-29s dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only aircraft ever to drop nuclear weapons in combat. One of the largest aircraft of World War II, the B-29 was designed with state-of-the-art technology, which included a pressurized cabin, dual-wheeled tricycle landing gear, and an analog computer-controlled fire-control system that allowed one gunner and a fire-control officer to direct four remote machine gun turrets. The $3 and a half dollar cost of design and production (equivalent to $6769 billion in 400), fa ...
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Jakarta
Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and an autonomous region at the provincial level. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's List of islands by population, most populous island, Jakarta is the List of cities in ASEAN by population, largest metropole in Southeast Asia and serves as the diplomatic capital of ASEAN. The Special Region has a status equivalent to that of a Provinces of Indonesia, province and is bordered by two other provinces: West Java to the south and east; and Banten to the west. Its coastline faces the Java Sea to the north, and it shares a maritime border with Lampung to the west. Jakarta metropolitan area, Jakarta's metropolitan area is List of ASEAN country subdivisions by GDP, ASEAN's second largest economy after Singapore. In 2023, the city's Gros ...
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Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, which is part of Oceania. Southeast Asia is bordered to the north by East Asia, to the west by South Asia and the Bay of Bengal, to the east by Oceania and the Pacific Ocean, and to the south by Australia (continent), Australia and the Indian Ocean. Apart from the British Indian Ocean Territory and two out of Atolls of the Maldives, 26 atolls of the Maldives in South Asia, Maritime Southeast Asia is the only other subregion of Asia that lies partly within the Southern Hemisphere. Mainland Southeast Asia is entirely in the Northern Hemisphere. Timor-Leste and the southern portion of Indonesia are the parts of Southeast Asia that lie south of the equator. The region lies near the intersection of Plate tectonics, ...
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Regia Marina
The , ) (RM) or Royal Italian Navy was the navy of the Kingdom of Italy () from 1861 to 1946. In 1946, with the birth of the Italian Republic (''Repubblica Italiana''), the changed its name to '' Marina Militare'' ("Military Navy"). Origins The was established on 17 March 1861 following the proclamation of the formation of the Kingdom of Italy. Just as the Kingdom was a unification of various states in the Italian peninsula, so the was formed from the navies of those states, though the main constituents were the navies of the former kingdoms of Sardinia and Naples. The new Navy inherited a substantial number of ships, both sail- and steam-powered, and the long naval traditions of its constituents, especially those of Sardinia and Naples, but also suffered from some major handicaps. Firstly, it suffered from a lack of uniformity and cohesion; the was a heterogeneous mix of equipment, standards and practice, and even saw hostility between the officers from the various f ...
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Monsun Gruppe
''Gruppe Monsun'' or Monsoon Group was a force of German U-boats (submarines) that operated in the Pacific and Indian Oceans during World War II. Although similar naming conventions were used for temporary groupings of submarines in the Atlantic, the longer duration of Indian Ocean patrols caused the name to be permanently associated with the relatively small number of U-boats operating out of Penang (primarily its capital, George Town). After 1944, the U-boats of the ''Monsun Gruppe'' were operationally placed under the authority of the Southeast Asia U-boat Region. The Indian Ocean was the only place where German and Japanese forces fought in the same theatre. To avoid incidents between Germans and Japanese, attacks on other submarines were strictly forbidden. Altogether 41 U-boats of all types including transports were sent; many of these were lost and few returned to Europe. Indian Ocean trade routes The Indian Ocean was strategically important, containing India, and the ...
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8th Submarine Squadron (Imperial Japanese Navy)
The 8th Submarine Squadron of the Imperial Japanese Navy was based at Swettenham Pier, Penang, British Malaya, Malaya, until late 1944 during World War II. Its mission was to disrupt Allied supply lines in aid of Nazi Germany. History The squadron was raised at Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands on March 10, 1942, and was part of the 6th Fleet (Imperial Japanese Navy), 6th Fleet. On March 27 the German naval high command asked the Japanese to attack Allied convoys in the Indian Ocean. The Japanese agreed on April 8 and shortly afterward, the IJN's 8th Submarine Squadron, 1st Division, was withdrawn from Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands and sent to Penang, Malaya. At Penang the squadron shared the base at Swettenham Pier with BETASOM, Italian and Monsun Gruppe, German submarines. The squadrons flying boats were based at the RAF Glugor seaplane base, which had originally been developed by the British. With its capture in 1941 the Japanese 101st Naval Construction Office (Imperial Ja ...
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The London Gazette
''The London Gazette'', known generally as ''The Gazette'', is one of the official journals of record or government gazettes of the Government of the United Kingdom, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, in which certain statutory notices are required to be published. Other official newspapers of the UK government are '' The Edinburgh Gazette'' and '' The Belfast Gazette'', which, apart from reproducing certain materials of nationwide interest published in ''The London Gazette'', also contain publications specific to Scotland and Northern Ireland, respectively. In turn, ''The London Gazette'' carries not only notices of UK-wide interest, but also those relating specifically to entities or people in England and Wales. However, certain notices that are only of specific interest to Scotland or Northern Ireland are also required to be published in ''The London Gazette''. The ''London'', ''Edinburgh'' and ''Belfast Gazettes'' are published by ...
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Thailand In World War II
Thailand officially adopted a neutral position during World War II until the five hour-long Japanese invasion of Thailand on 8 December 1941, which led to an armistice and military alliance treaty between Thailand and the Empire of Japan in mid-December 1941. At the start of the Pacific War, the Japanese Empire pressured the Thai government to allow the passage of Japanese troops to invade British-held Malaya and Burma. After the invasion, Thailand capitulated. The Thai government under Plaek Phibunsongkhram considered it profitable to co-operate with the Japanese war efforts, since Thailand saw Japan – who promised to help Thailand regain some of the Indochinese territories (in today's Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam) which had been lost to France – as an ally against Western imperialism. Following added pressure from the start of the Allied bombings of Bangkok due to the alliance with Japan, Thailand declared war on the United Kingdom and the United States and annexed te ...
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Japanese Occupation Of Burma
The Japanese occupation of Burma was the period between 1942 and 1945 during World War II, when Burma was occupied by the Empire of Japan. The Japanese had assisted formation of the Burma Independence Army, and trained the Thirty Comrades, who were the founders of the modern Armed Forces (''Tatmadaw''). The Burmese hoped to gain support of the Japanese in expelling the British, so that Burma could become independent.Micheal Clodfelter. Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Reference to Casualty and Other Figures, 1500–2000. 2nd Ed. 2002 . p. 556Werner Gruhl, Imperial Japan's World War Two, 1931–1945 Transaction 2007 (Werner Gruhl is former chief of NASA's Cost and Economic Analysis Branch with a lifetime interest in the study of the First and Second World Wars.) In 1942, Japan invaded Burma and, on 1 August 1943, nominally declared the colony independent as the '' State of Burma''. A pro-Japanese government led by Ba Maw was installed. However, many Burmese began ...
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