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The British Pacific Fleet (BPF) was a Royal Navy formation that saw action against Japan during the Second World War.It was formed from aircraft carriers, other surface warships, submarines and supply vessels of the RN and British Commonwealth navies in November 1944.
The British Pacific Fleet operated as a separate unit; its objective was to strike airfields on the chain of islands between Formosa and Okinawa, to prevent the Japanese from reinforcing Okinawa. After an intense seven-day bombardment, the main landings on Okinawa took place on 1 April 1945, on the Hagushi beaches on the island's west coast. [189]
The British outnumbered the Japanese but much of the water for the island was drawn from reservoirs on the mainland. The British destroyed the causeway, forcing the Japanese into an improvised crossing of the Johore Strait. Singapore was considered so important that Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered Percival to fight to the last man.
The British Pacific Fleet operated as a separate unit from the American task forces in the Okinawa operation. Its job was to strike airfields on the chain of islands between Formosa and Okinawa, to prevent the Japanese reinforcing the defences of Okinawa from that direction. British forces made a significant contribution to the success of the ...
The surprise attack crippled most of the U.S. Pacific Fleet's battleships and started a war between the two nations. Attacks on British Empire possessions in the Pacific, beginning with almost simultaneous attacks on British Malay and Hong Kong, also brought the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and the Dutch East Indies into the conflict.
In the Pacific Ocean theater, Japanese forces fought primarily against the United States Navy, the U.S. Army, which had 6 Corps and 21 Divisions, and the U.S. Marine Corps, which had only 6 Divisions. The United Kingdom (British Pacific Fleet), New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and other Allied nations, also contributed forces.
On the same morning as the attack on Pearl Harbor, forces of the Empire of Japan attacked the British Crown colony of Hong Kong around the same time that Japan declared war on Great Britain. The Hong Kong garrison consisted of British , Indian and Canadian units, also the Auxiliary Defence Units and Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps (HKVDC).
The British fleet base was moved forward from Kilindini back to Ceylon, but it was still lacking carrier aircraft and strong amphibious forces needed to mount offensive actions. The Japanese, concerned about American threats in the Central Pacific, did not do more than send a few submarines into the Indian Ocean during the second half of 1943. [98]