Introduction

Eastern Fleet is the latest installment in Avalanche Press's first rate Second World War at Sea series. The game deals with a little known naval campaign of the Second World War. In 1942, after the sinking of the battleships Repulse and Prince of Wales, and the fall of Singapore, a skeletal Royal Navy force faced the might of the Imperial Japanese Navy with the fate of India hanging in the balance. As the Japanese juggernaut rolled through Southeast Asia, there was little left to the British and her allies to oppose the Japanese. With American forces occupied elsewhere, the Royal Navy alone stood in harm’s way.

Background

Of all the branches of Britain's armed forces, the Royal Navy suffered the most in the years following the First World War. Much of the proud fleet of dreadnoughts found their way to the breakers yards as economic and technological realities of the inter-war years became clear: dreadnoughts, though mighty ships, were vulnerable to many other weapons, including submarines and eventually aircraft. Further hampering the Royal Navy were the terms of the Washington Naval Conference of 1922. By signing the agreement Britain abandoned the traditional policy of maintaining a fleet as large as the next two major powers combined and accepted restrictions on the number of ships and total tonnage for each class. This had the effect of making the United States the world's leading naval power. Just as harmful was the British government's commitment to the "ten year rule" which held that Britain's armed forces should be funded on the assumption that no major war would be fought in the next ten years. In effect, spending on modernization and maintaining the armed forces was cut in hopes of stimulating the rest of the economy. For the Royal Navy, the impact was disastrous. Complicating the matter still more was the onset of the depression and further reductions in military funding during the lean years of the early 1930s. At the root of all these problems was a steadfast belief in disarmament and the ability of bodies like the League of Nations to maintain peace in the world. However noble this attitude was, by the start of the 1930s, it had left Britain unprepared for the coming conflict.

Faced by the growing strength of Germany in Europe and Japan in the Far East, when Britain did begin to rearm in 1936, the Royal Navy was only a shell of its former greatness. It lacked modern aircraft carriers, battleships and cruisers. The destroyer fleet was also limited. Worse, the reductions of earlier years had so weakened the armament and shipbuilding industries that fleet expansion was necessarily slow. Finally, the Royal Navy was no longer the primary focus of defense spending; fear of the German Luftwaffe brought the needs of the Royal Air Force to the forefront.

With the beginning of the war in Europe, the Royal Navy focused on safeguarding the sea-lanes, and defeating the German and Italian surface fleets in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. These tasks stretched the Royal Navy nearly to the breaking point. Little remained to oppose the Japanese when they entered the war in December 1941. Only over-confidence was in abundance, and the loss of Repulse and Prince of Wales quickly dispelled any thoughts of the superiority of the Royal Navy. Instead, there came the realization that Britain could do little against Japan, especially in the face of threats far closer to home.

Eastern Fleet covers the period in 1942 when Japanese forces were rapidly advancing toward India by land and sea, notably the strong raid undertaken by the primary Japanese carrier strike force in March and April 1942. Against this force, the same ships that had attacked Pearl Harbor, the British assembled a ragtag fleet under the command of Admiral James Sommerville. At Sommerville's disposal was a single modern battleship, HMS Warspite, and the carriers, Formidable and Indomitable. As well, he had four slow First World War dreadnoughts of the R-class: Resolution, Revenge, Ramilles and Royal Sovereign, and supporting cruisers and destroyers. Only by luck was Sommerville able to avoid the total destruction of the Eastern Fleet. Sommerville rather belatedly withdrew his old dreadnoughts to Africa while retaining a token force in the Indian Ocean. After sinking some transports and the old British carrier Hermes, and bombing a number of port facilities, the Japanese withdrew. They would not return to the Indian Ocean in such force again while the British would only gradually attempt to rebuild their naval presence in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

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