|
The British Eastern Fleet (also known after 1944 as the East Indies Fleet and the Far East Fleet) was a fleet of the Royal Navy which existed between 1941 and 1971. In 1904, the British First Sea Lord, Sir John Fisher, ordered that in the event of war the three main commands in the Far East, the East Indies Squadron, the China Squadron, and the Australian Squadron, should all come under one command called the Eastern Fleet based in Singapore. The Commander-in-Chief on the China Station would then take command. During the First World War, the squadrons retained their distinct identities and 'Eastern Fleet' was used only as a general term. The three-squadron structure continued until the Second World War and the beginning of hostilities with the Empire of Japan, when the Eastern Fleet was formally constituted on 8 December 1941, amalgamating the East Indies Squadron and the China Squadron.〔Jackson, p. 289〕 During the war, it included many ships and personnel from other navies, including those of the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand , and the United States. With the creation of the British Pacific Fleet in 1944, the Eastern Fleet became the East Indies Fleet until the end of the war, when it became the Far East Fleet and operated in all Far East areas, including parts of the Pacific Ocean. ==Background== Until the Second World War, the Indian Ocean had been a British "lake". It was ringed by significant British and Commonwealth possessions and much of the strategic supplies needed in peace and war had to pass across it: i.e. Persian oil, Malayan rubber, Indian tea, Australian and New Zealand foodstuffs. Britain also utilised Australian and New Zealand manpower; hence, safe passage for British cargo ships was critical.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title= Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Indian Ocean and the Maritime Balance of Power in Historical Perspective )〕 At the outbreak of war, Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'' used auxiliary cruisers (converted merchant ships) and the "pocket battleship" to threaten the sea lanes and tie down the Royal Navy. In mid-1940, Italy declared war and their vessels based in Italian East Africa posed a threat to the supply routes through the Red Sea. Worse was to come when the Japanese declared war in December 1941 and, after Pearl Harbor, the sinking of the battleship and battlecruiser , and the occupation of Malaya, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies, there was an aggressive threat from the east.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Pearl Harbor Attack )〕 This threat became a reality during the Indian Ocean raid when an overwhelming Japanese naval force operated in the eastern Indian Ocean, sinking an aircraft carrier, other warships and disrupting freight traffic along the Indian east coast. At this stage, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, General Sir Alan Brooke wrote:〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Citizens of London by Lynne Olson )〕 ''We were hanging by our eyelids! Australia and India were threatened by the Japanese, we had temporarily lost control of the Indian Ocean, the Germans were threatening Iran and our oil, Auchinleck was in precarious straits in the desert, and the submarine sinkings were heavy.'' 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Eastern Fleet」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|