"What, the combined fleet to attack Ceylon? The airfields were all destroyed? Hell, wasn't it an intelligence report that they were back home? Queen Victoria's great-grandson, Lieutenant General Mountbatten, who was just in his early 40s and was too young to be commensurate with his rank, was dumbfounded when he received the telegram, and only after a long time did he squeeze out a sentence, "The Japanese don't want their own transport fleet?" Why attack Ceylon? ”

Major General Evans, the chief of staff on the side, couldn't stand it, and coughed and said: "Your Excellency, now is not to consider whether the behavior of the Japanese army is logical, but how to help Ceylon. Pen %Fun %Pavilion www.biquge.info"

"Aid? What to help them? Mountbatten roared, "All the possessions of the Eastern Fleet are not as large as a Japanese battleship, and then the number of planes is not enough, and the damn airfield was destroyed by the Japanese......"

Despite Mountbatten's truth, Evans was unusually frustrated.

After thinking for a long time, Mountbatten held back two sentences: "Send a telegram to Hawkins and ask him to resolutely hold on, if the coastal area can't be stopped, he will retreat inland, he has 50,000 horses and tanks, no matter how powerful the Japanese warships are, they can't get ashore, so he can't even deal with that bit of marines, right?" In addition, he sent a telegram to General Stilwell, requesting that the American Army Air Force move south to reinforce Ceylon. ”

"Do you want the Royal Air Force in the south to come to the aid first? There are at least 3 more squadrons there. ”

"Yes, yes, yes! Yeah! Mountbatten, who was clearly in a panic, nodded busily, "In addition, Admiral Nimitz in the Pacific direction also sent a telegram asking the American fleet to assist ......."

Upon hearing the news that Mountbatten had succeeded Admiral Wavell as commander-in-chief of the Southeast Asian theater, Hoffman commented bitterly: "Churchill has finally sent the man who has been cut off from the Indian subcontinent. ”

Zeitzler and Keitel were initially unimpressed by this statement, always thinking that the Führer was exaggerating, but when they heard that the Battle of Dieppe was commanded by Mountbatten, Zeitzler, who was on the other side, finally couldn't help laughing: "It's this idiot!" That guy didn't know how to command, and he didn't care about casualties, he just stuffed the landing force ashore, and the supporting fire of the British destroyers didn't know where to dump, which made us scramble at first, and when the 6th Panzer Division launched a counterattack, the enemy was immediately crushed...... What's even funnier is that the Canadians have suffered more than 80% casualties after landing, and they are still scurrying like headless flies. ”

"The Japanese are so lucky." Keitel said enviously.

"We're not out of luck." Hoffman smiled, "When the British Empire loses India, will Churchill still be able to stay in the position of prime minister?" Will Britain still have the will to resist? ”

When Mountbatten took up the post, many people opposed it, and the chief of the British Imperial General Staff, Brooke, made it clear: "...... No matter how you look at Lord Mountbatten, he doesn't look like a person who can command the whole situation." But in the end, Churchill could not resist the opinion, and he thought that the appointment was appropriate: first, Mountbatten had royal blood, which was very important in the land of India; Second, Mountbatten's father was the First Lord of the Navy, Mountbatten joined the Royal Navy at the age of 13, and his qualifications are reasonable, and he has a strong desire to defend India; Third, because General Wilson, whom Brooke recommended, suffered a great defeat in the Middle East, it seems unreasonable to immediately become the commander of the Southeast Asian theater.

It's just that no one expected that this appointment would be politically appropriate, but militarily it would be a complete disaster.

When Mountbatten sent a telegram for help, Hawkins and all the British troops stationed near the harbor were trembling under the heavy artillery fire of the Japanese battleships, and those coastal fortifications did not play much role at all, and were directly destroyed by several times the artillery fire of the battleships, and the shelling fleet bullied Colombo and Trincomalee that there were no large-caliber shore guns, or had been destroyed by aerial bombs, so they simply got closer, and the entire artillery attack line extended to the depth of the port. No matter which of those battleship main gun shells with a caliber of more than ten inches fell, they were tens or even hundreds of meters deep. The British and Indian officers and soldiers who had no time to react were either killed by shrapnel or were shocked to death by the huge shock wave.

The whole city was like a hornet's nest, full of officers and soldiers and civilians scurrying around, and there was rubble and broken limbs flying everywhere.

"Good news, sir! Good news! "A confidential staff officer suddenly rushed into the command tower," Chief Fuchida found an enemy light aircraft carrier and several merchant ships in the harbor, which were covered with aircraft, but they were motionless at the berth. ”

"The destroyers rushed up and captured them immediately, and the enemy must not be allowed to fly the planes." Grass deer either immediately ordered.

"Destroyers provide close cover, let the boats go, they have a shallow draft and are faster! By the way, let the landing force take control of the port area as soon as possible. Horiyoshi smiled, "Everyone, we are lucky, the Americans are very generous now, not only sending planes, but also aircraft carriers!" ”

Everyone in the Command Tower burst into laughter.

This aircraft carrier was none other than the Borg, and the US Navy officers and men on it never imagined that they would decide to temporarily avoid the limelight of the Combined Fleet in the port of Trincomalee for the sake of safety, and they did not expect to run into such an unfortunate thing as a Japanese attack. Originally, there were still a few fighters on the aircraft carrier, but the warship was currently at anchor, and there was no suitable wind to allow the planes to fly - if you wanted to fly, you had to go to the sea outside the port, but when the shells of the shelling fleet flew like raindrops, trying to leave the port was basically tantamount to looking for death, so the captain had to order the ship to be abandoned and open the sea valve.

At dawn, the Japanese carrier-based planes did not have time to attack the port warships because they were going to attack the airfields and coastal fortifications of the two cities. When the second attack wave arrived, Mitsuo Fuchida was overjoyed to find that an aircraft carrier was parked in the harbor, and the enemy officers and soldiers on it were scrambling to flee for their lives. He deduced that the enemy had ordered the sinking of the sea, and now it was up to him to see who was faster.

After another 40 minutes, Hawkins was utterly desperate when the offshore lookout post reported a large number of landing ships rushing towards the beach south of the harbor, hunting and fluttering the swastika.

"The Germans are coming, too?" He secretly complained, but now he couldn't spare his hands to deal with it, and there were not many fortifications in the place where the Germans planned to land, and most of this little shore fire was wiped out by the Japanese destroyers covering by close fire.

When he saw the war report, he laughed at the Americans' vulnerability in the Panamanian direction, but he didn't expect it to be directly fulfilled on his own, and then he found that his own performance was not much better. The first No. 4 tank slowly disembarked from the landing ship, landed on the offshore pitch, and then began to move first, followed by the second, third, and then the landing boat carrying the infantry began to release the infantry.

In order to ensure the success of the first attack, Scheer also used a waterway amphibious Tiger tank in the first wave of the attack - deliberately not giving people a way to live. The last time the Panama campaign began, due to the fire of American aircraft and artillery, the brigade commander brigade suffered a lot of losses, but this time the resistance was too weak, and it was almost the same as the usual training.

Horikichi put down his binoculars and asked, "Were there any of our people who landed in the first wave?" ”

"Yes! There was a total of about one brigade, including 8 tanks and infantry, but I was reluctant to use the Tiger pose, and only got on the 4th ......"

Horiyoshi nodded with satisfaction: "This is a good training opportunity, don't be reluctant!" The Tiger style is used to buy it, in case there is a loss, it is a big deal to buy it with the Germans, the key is to follow the Germans and learn how people use armor to fight in a surprise war, and then the army will be surprised! ”

At 11:15, all the armored units in the Trincomalee direction landed successfully, and all but three were unharmed due to mechanical problems. After getting on land and getting rid of the soft sand, the power of the tanks was fully exerted, especially the 12 Tigers at the beginning, which were like entering a no-man's land, and a large number of troops marched towards the port area.

On the other side, with the close fire support of the destroyer, the four S-boats successfully covered the Japanese officers and men to board the Borg and quickly closed the sea valve, but most of the hull had sunk in the sea, and the hangar was also soaked in water, except for the transport planes and fighters on the deck, which were still lying on it for a long time, and even the fixed steel cables did not have time to destroy and push into the sea.

By noon, Hawkins had obviously lost control of his subordinates, and there were Indian soldiers running around everywhere, unable to organize an effective counterattack and blockade, and the situation was already very obvious, this time it was a joint Japanese and German attack, and the target was aimed at the port, not only Trincomalee, but also Colombo direction. Unwilling to accept defeat, he was determined to struggle to the end, shouting into the phone: "Pull out our tank troops, the 50th Tank Brigade attack, go and repel the enemy forces in front of you!" ”

The 50th Tank Brigade was the only formed armoured unit of the Ceylon defenders, composed entirely of purely British officers and soldiers, deployed in the center of the island, largely uncared for by large-caliber naval guns or aircraft.

The poor British never dreamed that they could hit the Tiger on the island of Ceylon, and before the British tank could enter the firing range and take a position, the Tiger 1,500 meters away had already begun to fire, and basically 3 guns were sure to hit one.

"Tiger style, it's tiger style." The headset is calling in horror.

"Go around to the side, to the side."

However, with Japanese fighters circling in the air and a large group of No. 4 on the side, a detour was not ideal, and the British tanks that dared to drive along the coastline were torn to pieces by the fire of destroyers who supported them at close range.

By the afternoon, a jaw-dropping scene had emerged, the German-Japanese landing force of less than 6,000 men had beaten tens of thousands of British troops, and drove them out of the harbor like ducks, and whenever it encountered a more difficult point of fire, the landing force directly called for aircraft support and let the dive bombers deal with it - the most difficult fortifications were stopped with a 250-kilogram aerial bomb. (To be continued.) )