"Urgent report, suspected US aircraft carrier fleet, 1 regular aircraft carrier, 4 light aircraft carriers, 1 battleship, 4 cruisers, and several destroyers and freighters...... The distance is about 300 km, the course is due north, and the speed is 21 knots. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info"

"What? Spotting the Mi Army aircraft carrier fleet? Less than 300 km from the main island? Report now! Ask for tactical guidance! ”

In the early morning of May 1, an Atlantic condor under the jurisdiction of the British Indian Ocean Territory spotted the Spruance fleet advancing at high speed, but it was completely too late, Spruance led the fleet to advance overnight, sending a huge attack group to deal with the Japanese troops in the former British Indian Ocean Territory and the Maldives, and in another hour, tons of bombs would fall on the Japanese troops.

The Indian Ocean Theater was the last theater established by the Japanese Navy, with Admiral Kusaka as its commander, stationed in Ceylon, and its main jurisdiction was the Indian Ocean islands and mainland ports. According to the agreement reached by the army and navy, the island of Ceylon is completely controlled by the navy, and the important ports of India and Burma are also naval stations. The entire theater is bordered by the Arabian Sea in the west and the Strait of Malacca in the east, and is the largest area among the navy's theaters. In addition to Ceylon, it also includes the island of Andaman Island, the Indian Islands (including the Maldives), etc.

Horikichi had the idea of promoting any of Kusaka as generals and put them on the list, but in the end it was not approved without any suspense, although there was an element of obstruction by King Bo Gong of Fushimi Palace, but it was also closely related to the lack of qualifications, even if any of Kusaka was ranked high in the 37th issue, according to the situation at the time, it seemed a bit too much to mention the admiral in the 37th issue.

However, after the personnel refresh of the navy, especially after Horikichi covered the sky with one hand, a large number of diehards were swept away, not to mention the admiral, even the vice admiral was much empty, and there was no resistance to promotion, and in late February, three admirals were promoted in a row, and the 37th Kusaka Yi, Inoue Narumi and Ozawa Jizaburo became admirals in the same batch.

Kusaka's appointment is easy to understand in combination with Horikichi's background, and Inoue Narumi is also easy to understand, Horiyoshi also needs the cooperation of the Navy Ministry to carry out reforms, and besides, he has always regarded Inoue Narumi as his own - the fighting skills are a little worse, but his mind is still very clear, to some extent a little more sober than Yamamoto Isoroku. As for Ozawa, everyone hangs up as a general in Germany, and if he doesn't give a general in China, he can't say it, and he can really force him not to come back in Germany for the rest of his life?

After learning that Inoue Narumi had become a general, Yamamoto Fifty-six sighed: "It's good to follow Horikichi, the admirals have all got it for you." ”

Inoue Narumi smiled slightly: "Didn't the commander's marshal admiral also worship the gift of Chief Horikichi?" ”

"yes, yes." Yamamoto Fifty-six sighed, "If he is in a hurry, he even dares to change the emperor, so what's the matter with getting a few admirals?" ”

On the day of the rebellion, Takijiro Onishi, who took the lead in responding and assisting in the stabilization of the Navy Ministry, was promoted to deputy chief of the military command department, Vice Admiral Kiichi Hasegawa, who had served as the captain of four different aircraft carriers, was promoted to the new head of the aviation headquarters, and Ryunosuke Kusaka was promoted to chief of staff of the Combined Fleet; Minoru Genda was promoted to Dazuo and officially became the chief of staff of the First Air Battle; Keiji Shibasaki, who had made great contributions, was officially appointed commander of the Marine Corps (concurrently serving as the commander of the 1st Brigade), Horikichi organized two more Marine Brigades, and the commander of the 2nd Marine Brigade served by Rear Admiral Minoru Ota immediately arrived in the Indian Ocean Theater at the same time as the Army, while the 3rd Brigade remained in China to continue training.

The Japanese Marine Brigade was modeled after the German Marine Brigade but slightly strengthened in strength and firepower. The German Marine Brigade had only a little more than 6,000 men and nearly 7,000 Japanese troops, and at the same time it had distinctive characteristics in terms of weaponry -- a full set of non-national weapons, and all kinds of weapons were taken from the strengths of the United States and Germany: both the 12.7mm American imperialist heirloom Browning and the MG42; both the Iron Fist and the American Army's recoilless guns; the No. 4 tank and 12 Tiger tanks attached; and both barrel cars and jeeps. Except for soft equipment such as quilts, flags, and coats, Japan's own equipment is almost identical to all light and heavy weapons, and even radio stations and walkie-talkies have been supplied from the United States. Fortunately, Japan captured a lot of them, and at the same time, they were able to buy a large number of ordinary weapons and ammunition of the American army from the Germans, so there was no problem at all with the consumption of these brigades.

Many people think that such a Marine Brigade will not have a problem against a US infantry division, and Hori Yoshikichi plans to build six such Marine Brigades -- after Musashi broke diplomatic relations, the shelves of the 4th, 5th, and 6th Brigades also began to be built, but the most elite is recognized as the 1st Brigade. However, the 1st Brigade will also have the heaviest mission, and they will be tasked with landing on Midway and taking out the American defenders together with the 3rd Brigade.

At 6 o'clock in the evening Tokyo time, the news that the Indies had fallen into the hands of the US military and that the US aircraft carrier fleet had broken through into the Indian Ocean reached Tokyo, causing Hori to be angry and deeply worried.

At present, there are almost no strong forces in the Indian Ocean direction, except for the escort formation commanded by Keno Kurita and the Eighth Fleet on alert in the Malacca direction, and after the Indian Ocean Islands are captured, it means that the Maldives, which is more than 800 kilometers apart in 2-3 days, will soon not be able to hold on, and Ceylon to the Maldives is only a road of more than 1,000 kilometers. If Ceylon is captured, it will really shake the ground and destroy the entire national strategy - although there are many Indian armies, there is no navy and can only be bullied by opponents.

After thinking for a moment, Horikichi gave the order to convene an emergency operational meeting, and since he was now both the chief of the military command department and the commander of the combined fleet, the way of holding the meeting was unique, not only the staff system of the military command department, but also the fleet staff system.

Kusaka Ryunosuke first introduced the battle situation on the front line, and then said: "Gentlemen, this is the situation, the commander has summoned you to discuss, what is the intention of the enemy's move?" Broken Relations? Counterattack? Landing? ”

Everyone fell into deep thought, everyone knows that the Indian Ocean Navy is weak, so at the beginning, it focused on relying on a few islands to strengthen its aviation forces, but now the reinforcement has not yet been seen, and the US military has already attacked first, and it is quite a feeling of being caught off guard.

"First of all, we can rule out the broken diplomatic relations, the more capable the broken diplomatic fleet, the better, I have not heard that the broken diplomatic fleet also carries a large number of ships with it; Secondly, it is absolutely not interesting for the US military to want to counterattack, 1 fleet aircraft carrier and 4 light air carriers are at best more than 200 aircraft, while our army has more than 300 aircraft on the island of Ceylon, and its strength is not weak. The other side has to cover the operation and land, and this force is not enough to use; In the case of a counteroffensive, our army has a marine brigade on the island of Ceylon, and the German army has a marine brigade, and the firepower and combat power are extremely strong, unless the enemy sends more than 100,000 troops, I think it is unlikely. Chiaki Matsuda, the first staff officer of the Combined Fleet, was the first to express his opinion.

This idea was unanimously agreed upon, and in the end, there were two possibilities, the first was to provide support for the remnants of the British army in India; The second is to contain the offensive of its own side, harass and destroy the relevant weak links, and the reason is similar to the original Australian and New Zealand attack and disturbance.

"Tsukahara-kun, Tsunoda-kun, Nishimura-kun, Shima-kun!" Horikichi named four people.

Tsukahara 243 and the others immediately stood up and prepared to receive the task.

"Since the U.S. military is so rampant, it must be eliminated first, and the Battle of Midway is postponed." Horikichi said in an unquestionable tone, "At present, the transformation of the two light air carriers Chitose and Chiyoda has been completed, and they will be incorporated into the Indian dispatch fleet and under the overall command of Tsukahara-kun. ”

According to Horikichi's dispatch, India sent the best of the fleet, and the battle sequence was as follows:

Tsukahara concurrently served as the commander of the First Voyage Battle, with the three aircraft carriers Shozuru, Taiho, and Chitose as the main force, and Shima Kiyohide led two battleships and heavy cruiser formations of Yamato and Kirishima to cooperate;

The Second Air War was led by Tsunoda as the commander, with the three aircraft carriers Zuizuru, Zuiho, and Chiyoda as the main force, and Nishimura Shoji with two battleships Musashi and King Kong and heavy cruiser formations cooperating.

"After the complete Indian Ocean encirclement and suppression campaign, Chitose, Chiyoda, and some cruisers were left to form the Tenth Fleet, which was placed under the commander of the Indian Ocean Theater, and the commander of the training air fleet, Teraoka Shinhei, served as the commander to maintain law and order in the Indian Ocean."

Tsukahara reminded: "In this case, the warships of the Second Battle of Midway may not be enough. ”

Horikichi nodded: "That's true, but the Ship Administration Headquarters has reported to me that in late June, the battleship Shinano, the aircraft carrier Yunlong, and the aircraft carrier Bayane (Japanese modification) can all be commissioned, and I intend to wait for these three warships to enter service and launch the Battle of Midway in early August." ”

"Do you want to wait for Amagi and Katsuragi to enter service before going into battle?" The two aircraft carriers mentioned by Vice Admiral Takijiro Nishi, vice secretary of the Military Command Department, are both Yunlong-class aircraft carriers and will be delivered in August and September respectively.

Horikichi shook his head: "There is news from Europe, the Royal Navy has been wiped out, the German army plans to land in the United Kingdom, and the US regular aircraft carriers are currently only 1-2, which cannot be recovered in the short term, and we must seize the favorable opportunity to deter them and force the United States to negotiate peace as soon as possible, otherwise once Britain surrenders, the possibility of peace between Germany and the United States will be greatly enhanced." The army has also held an emergency meeting in the past two days, urging Yamashita to speed up his efforts and quickly take over the entire territory of India. ”

Everyone's hearts are in their hearts, once the European war subsides, it will indeed be a bit difficult for Japan's small body to carry the United States alone.

"It is not that Japan and the United States cannot make peace, but we must let the United States see our determination and strength in order to have better conditions. I expect that the period between August and September of this year will be the time when the gap between the Japanese and American navies will be the greatest, and the combined fleet must seize the opportunity to lay the foundation for victory, and the first step in victory will be to destroy the enemy Indian fleet. ”

"Obey the commander's orders!"

ps: I'm also a part-time worker, and the employees of the same department just left, state-owned enterprises, and there is always a little bit of humanistic care......