January 25, 1942: Japanese set up puppet government in Thailand, which declares war on US and UK. Japanese land at Lae, New Guinea. Australia orders full mobilization; all white male British subjects 18-45 years are eligible for conscription.
It's worth noting that conscription was not popular in Australia. The Australians were justifiably freighted that the Japanese would land on Australia and outright conquer it, a thought that seems fantastical today, but which is less extreme than one might imagine. Japan's population grossly outnumbered Australia's and Australia, for the most part, is only populated on its coasts. Japan was, at the time, expanding its conquests massively, and on this day were making landings in New Guinea and Borneo. As noted, their puppet government in Thailand declared war on the US and UK.
Nonetheless, Australians, who have always had a strong contrarian streak, didn't like the idea of conscription and at first Australian conscripts only served in Australia itself, matching a pattern that was true for Canada, at first. Late war Canadians conscripts could be sent overseas, and Australian ones ended up fighting in the Pacific. The quality of Australian conscript combat troops was notably poorer than their volunteer troops, with morale really being the reason why.
The United Kingdom, New Zealand and South Africa reciprocated Thailand's declaration of war. Thailand's ambassador to the US refuses to deliver the declaration and defects, going on to form a Free Thai government in exile.
Japanese submarines shelled Marine Corps positions at Midway unsuccessfully, and submerged due to counterfire.
Uruguay severed diplomatic relations with Germany, Italy and Japan.
The Red Army surrounded the Germans at Kholm. The Germans overran British lines, including armor, at Msus.
No comments:
Post a Comment