Rubber shipments 1941

[Jerry Asher]

I am tracking shipping movements from January 1941- through December 1941from French Indo China, Thailand, and Malaya.
I have only limited information and would appreciate being referred to sites that would expand my knowledge. The published "MAGIC" Background to Pearl Harbor" provides bare hints at the scale of it all.

The Russian Mikoyan is listed as arriving at Bangkok on Sept 15th, and that bothered the Japanese. And the "Esso" tied to the German firm of Carlowitz & Co. is recorded as scheduled to arrive at Shanghai with rubber from Thailand on November 20th. Japanese Kanju Maru left Saigon on November 3rd, with the Seikai Maru, Melbourne Maru, HIbari Maru, and Sidney Maru to follow.

Clearly I have a long way to go-- Note I have no sailings from Malaya at all. I really would appreciate being pointed to any sight that can help.

[cstunts]

Hello,

Wish I could be of more help on your specific question, but I do know that the Dutch M/S Bloemfontein took on about 10,000 tons of rubber when she left Surabaja, Java in late January, 1942 (after the 20th or so), and which she transported back to the U.S.

This was after her very odd voyage from Australia into Java transporting the so-called "Lost Battalion" (2nd BN/131st FA) and arriving on Jan. 11, 1942 in one of the more bizarre episodes in the short, unhappy life of ABDA.

For what little it's worth...

[Jerry Asher]

Thanks Cstunts: hope all your research is going well and still is fun. You can see I go off on tangents, although I do feel I have the naval/maritime world of French Indochina July-Dec 1941 in very good order. Since I posted found a note I had on the SS President Harrison made a run to Singapore to pick up rubber sometime after July 23rd. Also US Radio Direction picked up the Hibari Maru on November 25, 26 and 28th although that citation only confirms that she was at sea and not what her cargo was. You still working on South China waters?

[cstunts]

Hello,

Thanks for your reply, and interest.
Main area of focus remains Asiatic Fleet/ABDA/NEI, as before.

Research is going well, and actual writing even better, with another book deal in the offing, I hope (fingers crossed).
Never know until the contract is signed!

Obviously the Allies wanted to get as much rubber out of the Far East as they could once the Japanese southern advance became imminent, etc.

[Alsaceone]

Hope this helps you in your quest. I was looking for the sources of rubber that General Motors and Ford Motor Company was sending to Germany when I came across this source. I'll pass on anything relevant from time to time from my research files.

Quotas of rubber assigned to Germany by Vichy France from its Asian Colonies could not always be shipped due to the lack of shipping available. Japan proved unwilling to assist Germany initially, even making the trip between French-Indochina and Vladivostok, from where the rubber would be shipped to Germany by rail. After March 1941 Japan finally was persuaded to help Germany and the shipments began in earnest, reaching its peak just prior to the German invasion of the Soviet Union.

The amount of rubber that Japan sent via the Trans Siberian Railway to Germany is said to have been enough for Germany’s tire production in the following years. After Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union resulted in the shut down of a land route into Europe for Asian trade, Japan began sending rubber to Germany in freighters through the Arctic passage during the long winter nights of the 1941-42 winter.

Once Japan invaded and occupied the rubber producing European colonies in Asia, it refused to honor the European signed agreements with Germany. Japan then insisted that Germany would have to sign a new rubber quota agreement with it as the newly controlling power over southeast Asia.. Hitler had to step in and grant Japan a “Lend-Lease” type deal of free use of German patents and technology to get the rubber supply back in gear. Japan began to send transport submarines containing rubber to German occupied Europe.
Reference: Japan and Germany in the Modern World, by Bern Martin Page; p276-277
Berghahn Books, August 1995; ISBN: 10: 1571818588

[Jerry Asher]

Many thanks: Artic voyages of 1941-42 would have had to be an adventure. Bollinger only one I am aware of writing about same and his focus is on "Stalin's" slave ships. Data on sub deliveries ought to be easier to track---Many thanks.

[steverodgers801]

The rubber Germany received allowed it to make synthetic rubber which extended the amount Germany had.

[Juha]

After Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union resulted in the shut down of a land route into Europe for Asian trade, Japan began sending rubber to Germany in freighters through the Arctic passage during the long winter nights of the 1941-42 winter.

I really doubt that, in fact I cannot believe it. the routes north of USSR or Canada were unnavigable during winter.

[Jon G.]

...I really would appreciate being pointed to any sight that can help.

I don't have any data on hand to help you, unfortunately, but relevant issues of Far Eastern Survey might well have some answers to what you are looking for. Anyone with a JSTOR subscription (many libraries have one) should be able to skim through this periodical. Chronologicaly, I think you should start somewhere around Vol. 10 or 11.

The rubber Germany received allowed it to make synthetic rubber which extended the amount Germany had.

Yes, natural rubber was an irreplaceable ingredient in 1940s-era synthetic rubber.

Here is another rubber thread:

Natural rubber versus synthetic rubber?
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 6&t=144816

After Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union resulted in the shut down of a land route into Europe for Asian trade, Japan began sending rubber to Germany in freighters through the Arctic passage during the long winter nights of the 1941-42 winter.

I really doubt that, in fact I cannot believe it. the routes north of USSR or Canada were unnavigable during winter.

I have never heard of these shipments before, either, but would be interested to know more.

Note, BTW, that long winter night is singular when you are that far north. Depending on just how far north you are, you may have to endure several months of polar night before you see the sun again.

[Juha]

Yes, during long period in winter the sun stayed under horizon that far in north. And when German aux. cruiser Orion passed through NE passage during late summer 40, the best time and more or less only time to do it, it needed help from Soviet icebreakers. During winter without icerbreakers to help, no way. I doubt that it was possible to even Soviet icebreakers of that era to make the passage during the winter or in early spring.

[Juha]

If you want to read on navigation through NE Passage in late summer 40 see: http://www.bismarck-class.dk/hilfskreuzer/komet.html

[Alsaceone]

I agree that the report of Japan sending rubber shipments through the Arctic seas during winter, particularly that winter, sounds incredulous, but I gave the source to check. If they did make it through then there must be records of Japanese ships arriving in German controlled ports during that time period in Norway, Denmark or Germany itself.

As far as the original question about rubber shipments in 1941 I give you another source to check out: To Have and Have Not: Southeast Asia raw material and the origins of the Pacific War
Jonathan Marshall
University California Press, Berkeley
1995; ISBN 0-520-08823-9

Good hunting,

Bill

[Jerry Asher]

Thank you Bill.

[Polar bear]

hi,

After Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union resulted in the shut down of a land route into Europe for Asian trade, Japan began sending rubber to Germany in freighters through the Arctic passage during the long winter nights of the 1941-42 winter.

I really doubt that, in fact I cannot believe it. the routes north of USSR or Canada were unnavigable during winter.

I have never heard of these shipments before, either, but would be interested to know more.

They did not exist. The North-East-passage was not only unnavigable, but simply unusable (GE and the USSR were at war!)

Erase the "through the Arctic passage" in your sentence. All rubber shipment was done in German and Italian blockade runners, beginning in the Fall of 1941. The "long winter nights" favoured the last part of the breaktrough towards the ports in the Bay of Biscay.

greetings, the pb

[Alsaceone]

Thanks Polar Bear. I duly noted what you and Juha say about the Arctic route into my own research notes. I believe the information I quoted from may have been mistranslated by a researcher or a perhaps a typo made it through the editing.