The Sinking That Doomed British Colonies

First of all I believe that some background material is required before we finally arrive at the encounter between the Automedon and the Atlantis, an 8, 000dwt Commerce Raider, which had formerly belonged to the Hansa Line. The story starts in Whitehall where because of Great Britain's failure to be able to meet its commitments in the Far East a meeting had taken place of the War Cabinet. Prior to the meeting the British Royal Navy had severely damaged the French Fleet which was alongside at its base in Algeria, reasons for this action were obvious in as much as the British didn't want the French capacity being taken over by the Germans. But, it did remove French capacity in possibly assisting the British in the Far East should they have chosen that option, as the option was taken away who's to say what would have happened. The British severely underestimated Japan's intentions on the Malay Peninsular and Singapore, all the guns were pointing seawards, there were no tanks and the only planes available were Brewster Buffalos. The Chief of Staff painted a very gloomy picture of not only its land capabilities but also that of the Royal Navy who were severely stretched attempting to patrol both European waters and the Far East with only limited Dutch assistance. The chiefs of Staff declared that Britain was too weak to risk war with Japan and in August of 1940 sent a 28 page report to the Commander in Chief of the Far East, the report was headed as follows: