Re: UK treatment of China in WW2

On Jun 4, 6:38 am, "Doug" wrote:
It's amazing how little support Britain seemed to want to give China in WW2.

Initially, the British were more interested in avoiding war with Japan
at a time when they had problems enough closer to home with Germany
and Italy.

Later on, they considered that the Chinese were completely worthless
and that scare Commowealth resources would be better-used boosting up
the defense of India etc. They didn't mind support to China as long as
it didn't come out of their own share of Allied resources.

Considering the Chinese casualties in the Pacific were more than twice as
great as all the other allies combined, you would think Britain would've
been more appreciative of the Chinese effort.

Chinese casualties largely meant Japanese military successes and
atrocities against civilians rather than effective Chinese resistance,
though.

Even the United States, which had been one of China's few sincere
supporters, ended up deciding that the country was not going to be a
factor in defeating Japan after all. China was propped up both as a
token of Allied solidarity and because large numbers of Japanese
troops were tied up there, but that was all.

What seems particularly
screwed up about British policies in the Pacific theater was their
unbeleivable reluctance to re-open the Burma road.

You mean their reluctance to risk open conflict with Japan at a time
when they had lost all their European allies and were at war with
Germany and Italy?

Unbelievable indeed...

Was the UK trying to use the US to reconquer it's imperial territories in
the Far-East?

No.

Futhermore, why did the UK/Churchill want to invade Rhodes and the Balkans
(a proposal which set off Marshall)?

To secure the Middle East.

In a (vain) hope to bring Turkey on as a belligerent.

As a way to draw Germany to a fight in conditions where it couldn't
deploy effective combat power.

As a memory of "what might have been" in that area during WWI, both
the failed Dardanelles expedition and the late start of the Armee
d'Orient.

Because Britain had traditionally been interested in who controled
Greece i.e. the southern access of the straits.

Note that a good case could be made for attacking in that area, just
no longer by the time when the Allies had sufficient combat power to
contemplate it. Blame British defeats in North Africa for letting the
opportunity slip, if it ever existed...


LC

.

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