"Mr. President, the Japanese army in Burma has begun to attack, this is a telegram from Jiang Haoran that Stilwell has just forwarded." Marshall got straight to the point and handed Roosevelt the telegram in his hand.

Roosevelt took the telegram and hurriedly skimmed it, the expression on his face gradually became solemn, and after reading it, he immediately exclaimed: "How is this possible? We have only taken over the two aircraft carriers for less than five days, how can we sail to the Pacific Ocean to fight the Japanese army, isn't this simply looking for death? ”

The telegram was drawn up by Chiang Haoran, but it was only sent to Roosevelt through Stilwell's hand, and the telegram not only gave a detailed account of the situation in Britain and Dominica at this time, but Jiang Haoran also asked the US government to send two aircraft carriers to the Pacific Ocean to parade and use them to divert the Japanese aircraft carriers, so that the Japanese carrier-based planes could not appear in the skies over Burma, and this created conditions for the 40th Group Army Flying Group and the 14th Air Force to compete for air supremacy in Burma.

The reason why Roosevelt said this at this time was because the launching of the aircraft carrier and the combat conditions of the aircraft carrier were completely different things.

An aircraft carrier is a complex combat system. As a large surface ship, after being delivered for scientific research, testing, and training use, not only all kinds of devices, electronic systems, and weapon systems on the ship need to be debugged, but also various internal systems of the warship need to be run-in, coordination with other ships in the formation needs to be trained, and carrier-based aircraft pilot training and ship-aircraft coordination need to be completed for a long time. Even if it is a very mature aircraft carrier user like the US Navy, even in wartime, it will take at least 2 to 3 months for a new aircraft carrier to form combat effectiveness.

Moreover, the aircraft carriers produced by Jiang Haoran Yangtze River Shipyard are all unarmed, which means that the United States will have to reinstall weapons, and it will take longer. However, Jiang Haoran requested in the telegram that the United States must sail the aircraft carrier to the Pacific Ocean within three days, so Roosevelt was shocked at this time.

Marshall said: "Before I came, I listened to the opinions of experts, and they thought that this thing was absolutely impossible, and that it was almost the same as yours, that is, to kill yourself, but I immediately called General Nimitz again and asked for his opinion, guess what he said?"

Roosevelt said, "What did he say?" ”

Marshall smiled slightly and continued: "General Nimitz said that theoretically it will definitely not work, especially against the Japanese aircraft carriers, it will not become a reality at all, but it can still be done if it is just containment and lure. Because the aircraft carrier has begun to sail on the sea surface in the past few days, at least it shows that the aircraft carrier produced by the Yangtze River Shipyard has no technical problems at all, although it is impossible for the weapons to be fully installed, tested and formed in these few days, but there is still no problem with the aircraft carrier on the carrier-based aircraft, with these two prerequisites, the aircraft carrier can go to the vicinity of the Pacific Ocean, if the covert work is done well, maybe it can also take advantage of the Japanese carrier-based aircraft to fly over Burma, there is no time to care, the director of a successful sneak attack, but no matter what the result is, Once the Japanese army discovers that our carrier-based aircraft appear in their airspace, how can the Japanese army think that our aircraft carriers are already approaching them, and with a hundred of their courage, they will not dare to send their carrier-based aircraft to the Burma battlefield again. ”

"Crazy plan, it's definitely a crazy plan!" Roosevelt praised: "Then what are you waiting for, I will give Nimitz an order, and it will be carried out according to this plan!" ”

616161616161

The next day, at about 8 o'clock in the morning, the sky above the line of Xidang, Yingduo, and Menggong was densely packed with Japanese fighters and bombers, which began to bomb and dive and strafe the fortifications, military points, and supply lines of the expeditionary force, and the rumbling explosions and the roars of machine guns and machine guns were incessant.

Ground forces also went on the offensive.

In the direction of Sidang, the first to bear the brunt of the defensive positions of the 200th Division, enemy shells rained down on the positions.

Fortunately, Jiang Haoran had the foresight and did not enter Xidang, which had a wide field of vision and flat terrain, otherwise with the current air power and ground artillery fire of the Japanese army, the first round of bombardment would have been enough to cause heavy casualties to the expeditionary force.

The defensive position of the 200th Division was between the two mountains, except for the middle thirty or forty meters of the road, which was an open field, the others were in the jungle, and although the enemy's artillery fire was fierce, the casualties brought to the 200th Division were not large.

The enemy's artillery fire was basically concentrated in the middle of the open land of thirty or forty meters, and at this time there were no soldiers on the position, Dai Anlan was not so stupid, and at this time he threw the soldiers in and was bombed. Of course, enemy artillery fire was also aimed at destroying their fortifications. This is the only way to get into Indo.

As soon as the enemy's artillery fire stopped, the infantry immediately began to attack, and as soon as it came up, it was a brigade of 1,000 people, and it was a fierce attack formation.

The officers and men of the 200th Division quickly poured out of the jungle and into positions, erected machine-gun positions in the middle zone, and sappers quickly repaired the fortifications.

The positions at the two corners of the jungle had already opened fire in advance to suppress the enemy's firepower. Suddenly, the light and heavy machine guns on the main position in the middle zone gradually began to roar, the momentum of the Japanese offensive was blocked, the enemy and us began to confront, and the bullets rained down.

The right flank of the 200th Division was Liu Xianwei's airborne brigade, and the left flank was Yu Shao's 96th Division.

Of course, there were dense jungles on the left and right sides, which were not suitable for the advance of the Japanese mechanized troops, and if you wanted to enter Indo, this was the only way to get in.

Ten miles behind the 200th Division, Liao Yaoxiang's 22nd Division was also stepping up the construction of fortifications, and they acted as the second line of defense.

Meng Gong.

Compared with the attack in the direction of Xidang, Meng Gong at this time is definitely a purgatory on earth.

From the north into the south end of the Jianbu Mountain pass to the Menggong, in the middle is a long and narrow valley, more than 100 miles long from north to south, more than 10 kilometers wide from east to west, it is a rare plain in northern Myanmar, the west is up to 1,000 meters of Bujeban Mountain, the ravines are impassable at all, the east is the Innocent River that is rushing and roaring, moreover, most of the two sides of the river valley are cliffs of more than 300 meters, the wall stands thousands of feet, it is steep and difficult to climb, it is a flash flood in the rainy season, the flat land is a vast ocean, the water area of the low-lying place increases several times sharply, Even the vast open land in front of Meng Gong is Zeguo.

Meng Gong is only said to be a natural risk, that is, because after entering Meng Gong, the terrain rises all the way, a mountain beam about three or four hundred meters high stretches from east to west, although it is more than ten kilometers long, but most of them are connected with Bujieban Mountain, forming a cliff, and only less than two miles really need to be defended.

Below is a boundless plain, the terrain is flat, standing on the mountain beam is a wide field of vision, how many troops below to attack, how to arrange the troops, you can see it from afar, and there is no second way to go except for a strong attack.

Although the ridge is not very high, it slopes all the way up, and when the rainy season comes, the raging flood water pours in from the Inovady River, and below is a land of Ze, and the continuous erosion of the flood in previous years makes the entire slope bare, and there is hardly any object to use as shelter.

In view of the unique terrain of Menggong, the Japanese army also knew that it was not easy to attack, so the lineup laid out at the beginning was not small. On the front were three infantry divisions, and although they may have lost nearly half of their strength in previous battles, they still had more than 60,000 troops.

The helicopters of the expeditionary force in the battle of Mina completely destroyed the two field artillery and mountain artillery wings of the 16th Division, but the field artillery and mountain artillery wings of the 38th Division and the 55th Division were complete, and the two divisions gathered hundreds of artillery pieces of various types, and there were nearly 20 gunboats and 40 or 50 cannons on the Inovady River, but this was not counted, the Japanese army still had countless aircraft support in the air, and the lineup was not strong.

Of the hundreds of warships, most of them were transports that transported supplies and soldiers, but there were only about 20 actual gunboats.

From about 8 o'clock in the morning, the Japanese artillery of all kinds fired in unison, and the shells were smashed on the mountain beams as if they did not need money, and more than a dozen fighters and bombers were not willing to be lonely, repeatedly dropping bombs, bombing, and diving and strafing at the mountain beams. Tossed for nearly half an hour, blowing up the entire mountain beam several meters lower.

Although the expeditionary force also had 24 150 heavy howitzers, and after several nights of round-trip transportation by helicopter, the ammunition was also sufficient, but the artillery positions erected in the valley had not yet fired a few shots before they were detected by Japanese planes, and a dense bombardment blew up one of the artillery positions.

Fortunately, the acting army commander Chen Mianwu still had some knowledge, and did not concentrate the heavy artillery in one place, but in the valley by the mountains, scattered in all directions, and the heavy artillery destroyed by the Japanese planes was only four or five, but Chen Mianwu did not dare to open fire again, and there were Japanese planes hovering overhead from time to time, and the remaining 20 guns were cut off and could not be thrown in vain under the Japanese bombs.

The fortifications of the expeditionary force are all temporary civil fortifications, although the largest caliber of the Japanese artillery fire is the 75 mountain artillery and field artillery, but it is more than enough to deal with the civil fortifications, and the bombardment of nearly half an hour has simply made the fortifications of the expeditionary force have no remains, and a serpentine trench on the ridge has almost been filled with collapsed earth and rock.

Responsible for the first round of defensive tasks is the 93rd Division of the Expeditionary Force, the battle of Liangmiao River, almost the 93rd Division casualties of nearly half, in this half hour of bombing, let the 93rd Division of this half of the team reduce another three or four hundred people, a division almost left about 5,000 people, fortunately the division commander Lu Guoquan also realized that the Japanese army is indispensable for bombing, there are not many people on the position, only one battalion.

As soon as the Japanese artillery attack stopped, the top of the mountain was still filled with gunsmoke, and a wing of Japanese troops below had already rushed to the foot of the mountain under the cover of more than 30 tanks.

As soon as the enemy's bombardment stopped, Chen Feng, commander of the 340th Regiment of the 93rd Division, rushed up the ridge with his soldiers.