2013 King Hall Conference Proceedings

1. Lessons Learnt?
How the Great War shaped
Japanese Naval Planning
COL Tim Gellel

2. Japan’s entry into the Great
War
1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance
RN’s dilemma …
• RN needed IJN help needed to defeat German East Asia Squadron,
capture Tsingtao
… IJN’s opportunity
• To remove German threat
• To dominate Yellow Sea and maritime approaches to Peking
11 Aug: To Britain - will seize Tsingtao, with/without your cooperation.
15 Aug: Surrender Tsingtao ultimatum to Germany
23 Aug: Declared war on Germany, Tsingtao siege commenced.
25 Aug: Declared war on Austria-Hungary

3. Tsingtao and Japan
Port Arthur
Peking
Bohai Gulf
Hakko-ho
Weihaiwei
Sasebo
Yellow Sea
Tsingtao

4. 2 Sep
Lungkou
Tsingtao
0
50km
Weihaiwei
18 Sep

5. IJN at Tsingtao – Land, Air, Sea
Naval Artillery Landing Force
• 4 x 5cm, 4 x 12cm guns, 494
men
Seaplane Tender Wakamiya Maru
• 4 Maurice Farman Floatplanes
• First naval air attack on land
targets
• First naval air attacks on ships
• First night bombing raid
2nd Fleet
• Blockade, landing, sweeping
1st Fleet
• Distant covering force, blockade

6. The German Pacific Possessions
Oct: IJN seized:
• Marianas (Saipan),
• Carolines (Truk, Yap, Kusaie, Ponape, Palau, Angaur)
• Marshalls (Jaluit)
IJN occupation suggested by British Admiralty
• Australia lacked capacity
• Mahan warned of American “outrage”
Japan not initially committed to possession
• offered Yap to Australia …
• … but retracted that offer after Tokyo riots

7. Indo-Pacific Patrols

8. ASW in the Mediterranean
1917:
Feb: unrestricted sub warfare
• GBR, FRA request IJN destroyers,
recognise Japan’s Pacific mandate
Apr: 2nd Special Service Fleet Arrives
Malta
May: U-63 sinks SS Transylvania,
Jun: Austrian U-27 sinks Sakaki
• 92 crew: 59 KIA, 24 WIA
• 2nd Special Service Fleet expands
By Nov 1918:
• escorted 787 ships, 700,000 troops
• but sank no U-boats
1919: escort 7 German U-boat prizes

9. Dreadnought “Phoney War”
1914: 17 pre-/semi-dreadnoughts
1918: 8 new 14-inch dreadnoughts
• “8-8 Fleet” Plan
Dreadnoughts’ contribution minimal
• 1914: Kongō to Tsingtao, Midway
• 1916: 3 battlecruisers on China patrol
• IJN rejected British requests for battlecruisers
Jutland
• “served as the basis for years of study by the [Naval General] staff
and staff college”
• Confirmed IJN faith in battleship

10. From Victor to Victim
IJN Great War commitment significant …
• Tsingtao, Indian and Pacific Oceans, Mediterranean, Siberia
… but selective,
• Dreadnoughts absent, cruisers did not engage/sink enemy ships
driven by (national) self-interest ...
• Eliminated rival naval threats
• Expanded Japanese territory
• War-prize U-boats boost IJN sub development
… but small compensation for ensuing humiliations
• 1919: Britain opposes Japan’s Racial Equality Proposal at Versailles
• 1922: forced return of Tsingtao
• 1922: withdrawal from Siberia; Britain annuls Treaty, rejects 10:10:7
ratio in Washington Conference

11. Lessons Learnt
IJN continued airpower lead
• Dec 1941–Jun 1942 IJN carrier ops Pacific, Indian Oceans
• Dec 1941: HMS Prince of Wales, Repulse sunk by airpower
• Jan 1942: IJN paratroopers seize Menado
Jutland did not invalidate …
• IJN precept of decisive naval battle, and the battleship’s starring role
… but confirmed
• “fleet in being” and “decisive battle” doctrines
IJN overlooked offensive use of own submarines…
• 187 IJN subs only sank 171 vessels
… while ignoring defensive ASW
• Under-investment in destroyers and ASW weapons
• By 1942 merchantmen losses outstripped production
• By 1945 90% of merchantmen sunk

13. Summary