Chapter 560 India Strategy (5)

According to Ishihara Kanji, he was not optimistic about Mutaguchi Renya's offensive strategy. It was too risky, too radical, and completely reckless. If it had been placed in the Philippines when the war just started, it might have been possible to defeat the Philippines with a heavy attack in one breath. Capture MacArthur alive, but now the front line between China, India, and Myanmar is basically stable. The forces of all parties are intertwined and can affect the whole body. The risk is completely outweighed by the gains and losses, and it is almost a certain defeat. At the same time, he also believes that his old friend Seishiro Itagaki must be cheaper than Mutaguchi. He must also be strong. If he were to take command, the war would most likely turn into a war of attrition and continue to be a stalemate. This would be a complete disaster for Japan, which has a supply line of more than 5,000 kilometers and the main force of the combined fleet is absent.

"Wouldn't it be better to go up to Masaharu Honma and lose before even fighting?"

"He won't lose..." Ishihara Wanji said with a smile, "If you can't attack him, and you can't win the defensive battle, you can just commit seppuku."

King Higashikata Minuhiko immediately started laughing, and he understood Ishihara Kanji's intention in an instant: he actually opposed the attack, but he couldn't tell the Burmese army directly, as that would cause too much damage to morale, so Masaharu Honma went up instead, and according to this This guy's personality is definitely to ask for supplies, reinforcements, and equipment at the top of his lungs. He won't attack until these are in place, so there is a lot of room for maneuver in the matter - this is also a uniquely Japanese way of handling things. If the Burmese army really wants to launch an attack if its supplies are in place, Ishihara Wanji will definitely change its troops again.

Everyone looked at the performance of the Burmese army with suspicion, and the discussion was gradually suppressed. When Horikichi's telegram about the adjustment of the Indian strategy arrived, the appointment of Masaharu Honma and the decision to go on the defensive in Burma suddenly became very critical - Chapter 1 The 15th Army contained more than 250,000 troops of the entire 14th Army of India, the Chinese Army in India and the US Army Air Forces. The southern part of India was empty, objectively creating a good opportunity for a raid on Ceylon.

"You have communicated with the navy a long time ago, right?" Afterwards, everyone praised King Azumi Miyazaki for his wise decision-making and trust in employing people, which made him feel a little elated, but he knew that this was entirely due to him completely squandering the treasure. Due to the inertia of "Ishihara's wisdom", after signing the document agreeing to the Indian dispatched troops to attack the next day, he couldn't help but ask Ishihara Wanji.

"No, no... Your Highness, this was an accident."

King Higashikata Minuhiko didn't believe it, and shook his head: "I heard what happened yesterday. It doesn't really matter to have a good relationship with the navy. Admiral Yamamoto is quite interesting and generous. Horikichi is even better. He got it quietly. More than 20,000 German soldiers helped fight the war, and we didn’t have to pay for it, but some people really hated it..."

As for who certain people are, everyone knows very well, but as a member of the royal family, Prince Higashikaru Miyazaki is inconvenient to directly attack Prince Fushimi Miyahiro Kyo, who is also a member of the royal family.

In the early morning of May 24, except for Takeo Kurita who stayed in the Maldives with his escort warships, the main force of the huge combined fleet was mobilized and moved to a position ready to launch an attack. 300 kilometers away, the mobile fleet began to launch fighter planes one after another. Zuihe, equipped with Germany's latest catapult, was the fastest. He-218 dive bombers and Ju-98 attack aircraft took off one after another. The other aircraft were also in an orderly manner. Take off one after another.

After acquiring the Bolzano light aircraft carrier of the Italian Navy, the mobile fleet returned to the organization of 5 aircraft carriers, but it changed from the original 2 large, 1 medium and 2 small to 2 large and 3 small. The overall size of the fleet decreased slightly. But the number of pilots is much higher than after the Panama Battle - the new batch of HNA pilots who were trained on Socotra Island finally joined the formation under devil's training, and the veterans who participated in the Pearl Harbor Battle in the formation fought Nearly 40% remains now. In view of the decrease in experienced pilots, Horikichi and Tsukahara 243 have made up their minds that this is the last battle for these elite pilots, and most of them will be drawn out to train reserve pilots after returning to their homeland.

Due to the tight time schedule and the fear of alerting the enemy, the water reconnaissance only conducted a fleeting survey of key locations and did not have a clear grasp of the enemy's situation. It was vaguely estimated that the number of Ceylon defenders was around 30,000 to 40,000, with Colombo as the core. the west coast and the east coast centered on Trincomalee. After studying the photos for half a day, Lieutenant General Theodore Scheer, the commander of the German Marine Corps Indian Combat Group, proposed a bold operational idea: avoiding the relatively well-defended port area of ​​the enemy and directly attacking the port more than 40 kilometers away. Beach landing.

Since the combined fleet has absolute control of the sea, where to land is not a big problem. The difficulty is what to do after landing. The advantage of this plan is to avoid the obstruction of enemy defenses along the line to the greatest extent, and at the same time, it will not damage the port facilities during fire suppression-these facilities will be of great use in subsequent operations.

Caolu Renyi believed that although this would reduce the difficulty of landing, it would also give the enemy leisurely time to dispatch and assemble their troops, which would easily lead to a stalemate after landing.

"Have you seen clearly? Are there fortifications or anti-tank obstacles like dragon's teeth in the planned landing area?" Scheer asked.

Several water scouts shook their heads.

"That's it!"

In order to avoid repeated battles for the beachhead, he finally decided to adopt a more bold strategy-dividing his troops into two groups, attacking simultaneously, landing separately in Colombo and Trincomalee, and carrying out outflank attacks after landing, so that the British defenders could not respond to each other.

Several generals were worried about the Germans: Although there were 4 German marine brigades, the total strength was only a little over 24,000, and the landing sites were not large. The first wave of landings could only be carried out by one armored battalion at most. and an armored grenadier battalion, which must control a solid beachhead before the artillery can be brought up as well. Even if the British estimate based on the conservative figure of 30,000 to 40,000, the German Marines after landing will need 3,000 to 4,000 men to invest in the first round of attack and block the British counterattack that is ten times their own.

"We have enough troops. My men are definitely elite. If the enemy is still the British I know, it will be no problem. Even twice as many will be enough to fight!"

For fear of causing misunderstanding, Cole explained helpfully: "Lieutenant General Scheer was not bragging. He held on to the Holm encirclement on the Eastern Front for more than 100 days and used more than 5,000 troops to repel 100,000 Soviet troops. Then At that time, the equipment he had on hand was far less advanced than it is now, not to mention overwhelming air and sea superiority, so you can trust him..."

Horikichi nodded: "Since General Scheer is confident and Special Envoy Cole said so, let's follow this method."

Major General Scheer returned to China to rest after the Battle of Holm. Hoffman appreciated him very much. Not only was he promoted to lieutenant general, but he was also awarded the Knight's Cross with Silver Oak Leaves with Double Swords. Finally, he was asked to lead these subordinates together with others. Troops drawn from various army units were transferred to the Marine Corps in an organic form.

This is not idle. Now everyone knows that the Navy is promoted quickly. There is no one above Scheer except General Hughes, the commander of the Marine Corps. This position is equivalent to the level of deputy army commander. As long as the Indian strategy is successfully completed, a senior officer will be promoted in the future. Keep your title so it cannot escape

For Scheer himself, he had experienced such storms and waves as Holm, and he really looked down upon the British.

At dawn, Ceylon was quiet. Even though they had received news that the Japanese army had occupied the Maldives, the luck and inertia of the Ceylon defenders who had transferred to a combat readiness system had not completely disappeared because they believed that Japan's goal was to return to the mainland as soon as possible. Army Commander Lieutenant General Hawkins had just opened his eyes and before he woke up, he suddenly heard a low roar from a distance. Before he could figure out what was going on, there was a strong flash of light outside the window, and then A violent explosion sounded in my ears.

After having experience in night raids in the New York and Panama campaigns, air raids on Trincomalee and Colombo were completely out of the question, not to mention that Mizuo Fuchida had attacked Ceylon once last year, and the defense weaknesses and importance of the two cities were The facilities were clear, and he took the fleet to the airport with familiarity. As the first illumination bomb was dropped, the attack fleet rushed in and dropped pieces of incendiary bombs and aerial bombs on the airport - they did this Having done it many times in the Panama Campaign, I was already familiar with it. I didn’t even need to give many orders, and each aircraft found its target one after another.

"Japanese planes, Japanese planes are coming for air strikes..."

When the adjutant stumbled in, Hawkins was angrily yelling into the microphone, scolding the radar station for not reporting the situation earlier. The poor officer at the radar station was scolded so badly that he didn't dare to defend himself because he didn't know what the problem was: he never thought that these Japanese carrier-based aircraft pilots were flying over the sea at ultra-low altitudes. When it suddenly appeared on the screen, the distance was less than 60 kilometers. The radar soldier hesitated to report it - because Ceylon was humid and warm, the radar often produced inexplicable false alarms. This time, he still did not suspect that the enemy plane was incoming, and only thought that it was another enemy plane. There was a malfunction, and I tried every means to eliminate it. When I finally figured out that it was not a malfunction but that an enemy plane was indeed approaching, the roar of the aircraft could be heard very clearly.

The air raid was just the beginning of the nightmare. Around 6 o'clock, while Hawkins was busy listening to the report on the airport's damage, even more shocking news came: a Japanese fleet appeared on the sea in a mighty manner.

While the coastal defense artillerymen were hurriedly trying to open fire, the Musashi, which was farther away, had already taken the lead and directly used its 460mm caliber main gun to make a key statement. After staying on Socotra Island for several months, it was finally its turn today. Show off your power again!

There was a loud "boom" that scared everyone out of their wits. Hawkins didn't notice anything strange. Next to him, Navy Captain Raymond made the sign of the cross and murmured to himself: "God, this is an 18-inch cannon." , that super battleship is here!"

Hawkins, who was sweating profusely, shouted quickly: "Quick! Quick! Send power to Lord Mountbatten and Lieutenant General George Giffard. Ceylon is under a full-scale attack by the Japanese army. Our army is in danger and urgently needs reinforcements!"

Just as he finished speaking, dozens of landing ships poured out from behind the main ship of the combined fleet and rushed towards the planned landing site...