The next morning, Scheer was stunned to find that the RB soldiers had been rehearsed in a neat formation and the army pilots were also quite desperate, and the two flight divisions were often surrounded by a large group of pilots of the navy's carrier-based aircraft to listen to explanations on the performance and technical characteristics of the new aircraft -- for them, it was simply a paradise of happiness, and there was endless enthusiasm from top to bottom. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

In the past, the army did not use naval aircraft, and the navy did not use army aircraft, even if it was obviously the same model, it was necessary to deliberately make something different and take a different name (such as the 96 ship battle), but the people below were not so pedantic, whether the aircraft was good or not, and whether the combat performance was strong or not was the most important thing, after the test flight of the BF-219, FW-190, and BF-109 brought back by the navy, all the army pilots were full of praise, thinking that this was the good thing they wanted.

They had seen that the BF-219 was an improved version of the Navy's Zero fighter, but they selectively ignored it. As for the Stuka aircraft of pure German origin, the army aviation is even more admired, and their usual Type 97 light explosive (dive bomber) has a bomb load of only 400 kilograms, which is far from being comparable to the Stuka of at least 1 ton, not to mention that the latter is stronger and more resistant to beating than the 97.

Seeing the joy of the army and aviation, the elite pilots of the navy could only hold back a smile: although the navy's top brass was more generous and promised to distribute the planes in their hands in a balanced manner, the balance in quantity did not mean that the quality was balanced, still less did it mean that Germany's additional aid later was also put on the distribution list. The chief of staff of the fleet, Cao Lu, who was in charge of the allocation of materials, hid all the Comet Change, Tianshan Change, and Joint Attack Aircraft, which he thought were the most outstanding, and planned to leave them for the navy's own use.

As for the main fighters on the list, such as the Zero War Reform and the FW-190, it is the balanced distribution of the army and the navy, as for other aircraft, such as the short-legged BF-109, the Yak, P-40 and other models are happily thrown to the army. Even so, Lu Hang still felt like he had made a fortune.

The same is true for tanks, the combined fleet and the German Marine Brigade have long been clear about the performance of tanks, good or bad, and some little secrets have also been set out, and they know that the same T-34, different batches mean that the quality and combat performance are completely different, so they were carefully selected in advance, and the German No. 3 and No. 4 were picked by the Navy first, and the best quality T-34 was also in the Navy's bag, as for those who looked majestic and did not actually use well the KV series, Matilda, and Churchill, the French B1 heavy tank, Grant Lee, etc., were all left to the army.

The navy is still quite "elegant", because the number of marines is limited, pay attention to the best of the best when selecting, and generally take not too much, and the remaining tanks still look dazzling and varied, which makes Yamashita Fumimi and Nakura Kan extremely grateful. In any case, it would be a great favor for the navy to bring all the tanks to the island of Ceylon for the Indian army to pick first, and as for the navy to take away some of the excellent ones first, they did not know in advance, and they knew that it was completely reasonable to think that it would be more excessive to change the army than the navy.

Although the army and navy have always looked unpleasant, but this time the army admires the navy very much, at least these equipment and materials are all earned by the navy at the expense of their lives, and they are generously distributed to the Indian army, and when the junior officer drives a car that he never dreamed of and hears about the navy's feat of destroying the Panama Canal and bombing New York, he can't help but shout "Navy onboard!" slogan. It looks like it's all in harmony.

Yamashita is ruthless to his enemies, but he is also ruthless enough to himself. In the strategy agreed on yesterday, he decided to launch an offensive campaign against Madras in 10 days, on July 24, and although Scheer expressed doubts that the Japanese officers and men would be able to master the German tanks so quickly, Nagura swore that he would be completely fine in front of him, saying that there was no problem at all - that he would be guaranteed to provide the best and most capable tank brigade.

By the next morning, he was completely convinced, and the officers and men of the Japanese tank division had been pressing the German armored units close to each other from the early morning: often the eyes of several people were fixed on a German tank man, how he maintained, how he repaired, how he restocked, and almost even learned how to - the image of stealing fists was completely on the page.

And you can't find a chance to get angry: you want to sit down, and he quickly moves you a stool; You want to smoke, and before you can pull out the match, the other party has already lit the fire and come over; If you want to repair it, he will be silent and help you hand you tools; As for other hard and tiring work, the RB soldiers rushed to do it. So much so that the people below joked with Scheer, and it seemed that there were thousands of free servants who didn't need money in the troops all at once, which felt a little weird.

To Scheer's surprise, he wanted to talk to Yamashita about the plan in the afternoon, but was told that the other party was in the German camp. When they found him, Yamashita and Nakura were crawling out from under a No. 4 tank with oily faces, surrounded by a large crowd of people and several German maintenance soldiers standing with embarrassed faces.

"Sir, what are you doing here?"

Yamashita Fengwen took a rag and wiped it casually, and said nonchalantly: "I originally came to the scene to observe the drill and daily maintenance of your army, and I happened to see that this tank broke down and needed to be repaired, so I practiced it with my own hands with Nakura-kun, and by the way, I also brought the repair ability of our officers and soldiers to explain the relevant technical essentials to them on the spot. ”

"This ......" Scheer was a little embarrassed, to tell the truth, since he became a colonel-level officer, he has never drilled under the car and maintained or repaired it by himself, and Yamashita Fumi is now doing the most trivial things of ordinary soldiers with the dignity of a general, he is really a little embarrassed.

"Haven't you already sent the corresponding instructors and technical guidance to your army? Do you think they are not qualified? ”

"No, no, no, they are all good teachers and are very respected by our officers and soldiers. However, we don't have much time, so we have to take some unusual measures, and please forgive me for the trouble. ”

Scheer lowered his voice: "Then you don't have to run here yourself, let alone get under the car, right?" ”

"If I don't pay attention to it, how can the whole army feel the pressure? When I came, I told them that if you want to be an army general, you can't do it without hardship. Yamashita said with a smile, "I've heard about your deeds in the Holm Encirclement, if you only hid in the back headquarters at that time and gave orders instead of rushing to the front line to share the weal and sound with the soldiers, I'm afraid they wouldn't be able to hold out for that long, right?" ”

Scheer recalled that it was true, and nodded involuntarily.

"I put forward the slogan of competition in the troops, requiring all the brigades to study and train together, but in the end, only the best units with the strongest fighting will were selected to carry out the Mercedes-Benz landing mission, which is a very rare honor." Yamashita Fengwen smiled and said, "Who will stand out depends on this time." ”

"Okay." Scheer sighed, "I understand what you mean, and I will increase my training." ”

While the Japanese were getting up early in the morning and training in hell, their opponent, Lieutenant General Giffard, commander of the British 11th Army, was in full swing at the Madras headquarters.

"Bastards, they're all a bunch of bastards, and sooner or later they're going to cut off the Indian continent!"

After the loss of Ceylon and almost the entire army group headquarters, the poor Lieutenant General Gifard rebuilt the chain of command in Madras with the help of the city defense forces, and sent a telegram to Mountbatten asking for help, making three demands:

First, the rapid deployment of strong forces to increase the strength of the 11th Army and increase the density of South India's defenses;

Second, mobilize the main force of the US Army and Air Force from the northeast to launch a bombing and suppression of Ceylon, even if it cannot destroy the enemy's defense system, at least they must not be able to comfortably use Ceylon for follow-up operations;

Third, Mountbatten was asked to coordinate with the U.S. Pacific Fleet to provide support as much as possible and cooperate with the army's counteroffensive against Ceylon.

He saw very clearly that Ceylon would be the caretaker of the cage of the Indian subcontinent in the future, and with this stepping stone, the Japanese army could attack and retreat, and completely grasp the initiative. Ceylon was also occupied by blocking shipping routes, cutting off India's ability to receive supplies from South Africa or Australia.

He believed that the dangers and dire prospect of losing Ceylon could be seen by all, but he never expected that these three demands would receive only a limited response: Mountbatten transferred three brigades from Erwin's 14th Army for reinforcement, and the other units refused to be withdrawn because of the threat of Japanese troops in Burma;

The U.S. Army Aviation and the British Royal Air Force added 6 squadrons to the south and sent bombers to bomb the island of Ceylon, but after the arrival of the Japanese naval land-based aviation, they quickly equipped the FW-190 and BF-109, plus the BF-219 of the carrier-based aircraft pilots, the air defense on the island of Ceylon was impenetrable, and constantly shot down British and American planes, and the British and Americans lost more than 30 planes in just one week. And at such a great cost, even the most basic goal - the destruction of the Japanese radar station reactivated on the island of Ceylon could not be achieved.

The pilots thought they had done their best, but in the opinion of Lieutenant General Giffard, these forces were far from sufficient, and he wanted the main force - 6 squadrons were the main force? What a joke!

As for the U.S. fleet, Nimitz's reply was even more polite: "This fleet is attacking the Japanese forces in the Gilbert Islands in an attempt to contain the Combined Fleet, and after the completion of the campaign and the rest is completed, this fleet will assess the follow-up operational needs and consider your request ......"

In Gifard's view, this was simply an attitude of rejection of people thousands of miles away - when the American army had finished fighting Gilbert and then rested and then fought Ceylon, he estimated that the autumn was almost over, and at that time, let alone Ceylon, he was afraid that the whole of South India would not be able to hold it.

He gritted his teeth and scolded: "Send a direct telegram to London, telling Field Marshal Brooke and Prime Minister Churchill that if we do not give strong support to this army, I will not be responsible for the subsequent development of the situation in South India!" (To be continued.) )