"This arrangement is safe, but with only 4 Marine Brigades......" Yamashita Fumifumi was a little worried, "Will there be insufficient troops?" ”

"It's not 4, 2 brigades are enough!" Scheer confidently raised two fingers, "The other 2 brigades remain in Ceylon, if your army is ready, send another 1-2 brigades to participate together, the last time the Marine Corps also sent a similar force." Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo”

"1-2 brigades?" Suzuki Sosaku was shocked after listening to the translation, "This adds up to more than 10,000 troops, is it too thin for the South Asian subcontinent?" ”

"The British and Indian officers and men were not so strong in combat, and we only needed 6,000 men to attack the island of Ceylon, and we routed 50,000 enemy troops. The greater the number of people, the more difficult it is to command and coordinate the landing, and the more naval ships are pinned. Scheer patiently explained, "This is not that we underestimate the enemy, but that we have fully summed up the experience of the last operation and fully considered the current enemy situation." ”

From the situation of aerial reconnaissance and combined with the confessions of the captured British and Indian officers and soldiers on Ceylon Island and the documents, materials, and maps in the headquarters, Scheer and others roughly figured out the distribution of India's troops: in the northwest was Admiral Wilson's 10th Army, focusing on the defense of the Iranian front, with about 7-80,000 people; The northeast is where the main force of the Indian garrison is located, not only the group army of Lieutenant General Erwin, but also the Chinese army stationed in India, the US Army Air Force, etc., with a total strength of nearly 300,000, and they are confronted by 4 divisions of the Japanese Burma Front and the rest of the troops; To the south was Lieutenant General Girard's 11th Army, which deployed half of its forces on the island of Ceylon, which was also home to the headquarters of the 11th Army, and the remaining half remained in southern India.

Girard's arrangement was originally for the two parts of the forces to be horns and support each other, but he did not expect that after the Battle of Ceylon was fought, in the face of the overwhelming superiority of the combined fleet's naval and air forces, the forces in southern India would not be able to support the island at all.

Compared with the northeast, the south not only has fewer troops, but also the quality and strength of the army cannot be compared with the northeast, the only difference is that there are fewer important cities in the south, and the total strength of the entire south is 5-60,000 people distributed around a few large cities and port areas, which is the main reason why Scheer decided to land with two brigades, if the enemy army is less, he plans to use only one brigade - after all, Ceylon Island is the most important thing at present.

"It is not excluded that the British side will send air forces and other units to reinforce the Southern Military District after the Ceylon landing battle, but I do not think that such reinforcements will be very large, and it is impossible to increase the number of troops by 1-20,000 troops, and if they are given enough time, the enemy is likely to receive sufficient support, and it will also make it more difficult for us to land.

Yamashita Fengwen nodded: "It's okay to land early, it can be launched as soon as possible, I fully understand the difficulties of the navy, where does General Scheer plan to land?" ”

Scheer's plan was to land in Madras, the capital of Tamil Nadu (now Chennai, India's fourth-largest city), and the rest of the troops, as in Ceylon, would be transferred after taking control of the port.

Yamashita Fengwen had fully entered the role at this time, and after muttering for a long time, he said: "If your army is confident, I completely agree with the above combat plan, and the Indian army will send two brigades to follow your army to experience different amphibious landing tactics -- we will send out a tank brigade and an infantry brigade. ”

Scheer smiled, "That's very good, let's land in Madras and gain a foothold, and then in a few months when the Combined Fleet has time to do another landing campaign." ”

"Let me guess, is it going to land in Visakhapatnam?" After glancing at the map, Yamashita made a point.

"That's right, you're exactly as you thought, it's a rare deep-water port, only 600 kilometers from Kolkata, which can effectively deter northeastern India. If you occupy this place and fight further south, almost half of the Indian subcontinent will be controlled. ”

"Fighting south? I thought I would go north. Suzuki was a little surprised.

"It's closer to Kolkata and the heart of India to the north, but we have different demands......," Sher was a little embarrassed to say this.

"The base camp hopes to open up the situation as soon as possible, so that more troops, larger territory and stronger strength can be invested in the follow-up war, and it can also explain to all aspects, especially to calm the grievances of those troops who have withdrawn from China." Cao Lu thought for a while and added, "As for other special missions, it is also very important, and soon Chandra Bowes will also come to Ceylon, the significance of which is, you know ......"

Although he didn't say it thoroughly, Yamashita Fumimi fully understood: the meaning of the navy was to quickly let the army get the gold in place, and then let the combined fleet pull it to Germany, and then exchange it for a bunch of equipment, and as for Chandra-Bose, he would form an Indian government controlled by the Japanese side, so as to initiate "Indian independence", which would fundamentally shake the colonial system of British India politically and form a virtuous circle.

Yamashita and other high-ranking officers of the dispatch army may have been surprised by this idea before, but now after witnessing the mountains of materials and equipment, the impact of this overnight wealth is too great, and their thoughts immediately changed, and one by one they deeply agreed, nodding their heads again and again.

After determining the strategic policy of the landing campaign, Horiyoshi arranged for Mikawa and Tsunoda to lead a fleet to the Indian Ocean to cooperate with the army, with Mikawa Junichi serving as the commander of the fleet.

After the generals involved in the landing campaign withdrew from the separate discussion, the Combined Fleet officially began to study and make decisions on the Tarawa Campaign, and the troops stationed in Tarawa belonged to the 6th Yokosuka Marine Corps of Matsuo Keiko Daisa and the 7th Sasebo Marine Corps of Takeo Nakasa of Tubei, all under the jurisdiction of the 3rd Special Base Force of the Japanese Navy, and they were their own people for the Combined Fleet, so the Military Command Department also issued an order to be rescued.

"Sir, we can't drag a lot of transport ships to fight, it's too dangerous and ......slow," Kusaka reminded, "The U.S. forces are fierce, and if you pick Tarawa away from our support, I'm afraid the defenders will be more than lucky." ”

Horikichi nodded: "How many days do you think the defenders can hold out?" ”

"Referring to the defense capabilities of other islands, estimate 2-3 weeks, right?"

"This time, the U.S. military took the opportunity to attack, and it won't fight so slowly, I'm afraid it will be difficult to hold on for 1 week." Tsukahara 243 frowned and said, "And there is no way to provide assistance to it - the nearest Marshall Islands is a thousand kilometers."

"What then? Even without a convoy, it would take half a month for the fleet to reach Tarawa no matter how fast it was. Kondo Nobutake was very anxious, "It is easy for such a big horn to rush over, and it is easy to run headlong into the US fleet that is waiting for work, and when the time comes, as soon as they repair the airfield on the island, we will face more difficulties." Moreover, after the fall of the Gilbert Islands, the Marshall Islands are also in danger, and if they are lost again, the absolute defense circle will be destroyed, and then there will be a major earthquake in Tokyo. ”

All the generals exchanged their heads: They have seen the strength of the US military's ability to build projects and repair airfields, and those airfields in the Caribbean Sea were completely repaired in less than three days, and if Tarawa was taken in one week and the combined fleet arrived two weeks later, the US military would certainly be able to make effective use of the land-based airfields -- that would probably be a replica of the small Midway.

"There are two ways to fight." Horikichi said, "The transport fleet and the escort fleet go all the way together, and the combat fleet goes all the way alone, and they don't affect each other. ”

He just said that it was okay for the troops to be divided into two routes, and everyone generally had the same intention, but when he pointed out the direction of the second road, everyone in the headquarters was surprised: in the march route designated by Horiyoshi, Kurita Keno took the transport fleet to Malacca and returned to the mainland, while he led the main force of the fleet south to the Indian Ocean, preparing to make a detour to the west coast of Australia.

"There are two purposes for this: first, we do not know whether the U.S. military really has the intention of occupying the Gilbert Islands by besieging the islands, and if the U.S. military only puts on a siege posture to lure us to the rescue, there is a suspicion of encircling the point to send reinforcements; Second, attacking Australia is not to land or occupy anywhere, what the fleet needs to do is to cut off Australia's supply lines, so that the Americans and Australians can taste the pain of running out of oil and poor supplies......

As soon as the word "broken relations" was mentioned, everyone's eyes lit up as if they were enchanted, and the situation was not much better than the appearance of the army generals after seeing the equipment, and the harvest of the Indian Ocean campaign had nourished their tastes. In the past, the Combined Fleet was thinking about fighting a big war and a decisive battle every day, but now no one mentions these two ideas anymore, but a bunch of people respond to blockades, breaking diplomatic relations, sabotage, and landing battles.

"Perth in Western Australia can fight a dozen, Melbourne in South Australia should fight a dozen, Sydney and Brisbane in Eastern Australia can also fight a dozen, the army has brought so many naval artillery shells and barrels, it is a complete waste not to fight, I'm sorry they have worked hard!" Horikichi smiled, "The Americans have strong coastal defenses, what can Australia have?" If I go and cut off Australia's shipping lines, see what else is left of them? If they put on the posture of landing in New Zealand again, they will be embarrassed to urge the US Pacific Fleet to come back to the rescue, and when the time comes, we can calmly deal with it whether we fight or withdraw...... The most important thing is that by taking advantage of the opportunity of the main fleet to make trouble, the transport fleet can return to the mainland relatively safely -- this is the major thing that I am most concerned about. ”

"But if you don't go to the rescue of Tarawa, the orders of the Military Command Department will not be completed, what will the uneducated bureaucrats in Tokyo think?" Kusaka Ryunosuke worried, "Do you want to send a small fleet?" ”

"No, if you go, you will die." Horikichi flatly refused, "I have a way to deal with Tokyo, you can implement this strategy and make a plan quickly." ”

"Follow the Chief's instructions!" (To be continued.) )