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Chapter 1724: An Yi's doubts

General Wavell, the commander-in-chief of India, learned from a special channel that the Burmese army and the An Jia army were fighting east of Mandalay, and the troops used by both sides exceeded ten divisions, and the Japanese army was deploying troops, and the scale of the war was likely to expand sharply in the future, and India may be spared because of this. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

At present, the British army has deployed the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th Infantry Divisions, the 14th, 17th, 19th, 20th, and 34th Anglo-Indian Divisions, and the 31st and 32nd Armored Divisions on the India-Burma border.

In the face of the unusual threat posed by the Japanese army, in addition to frequently asking the United States for help, the British government has obviously tried to tear down the western wall and make up for the eastern wall in terms of troop deployment, successively transferring troops from North Africa and the Middle East to supplement the Burma-Indian border, and transferring independent brigades or mechanized brigades from East Africa, South Africa, Egypt, and other places to enhance its strength in resisting the Japanese invasion.

However, even so, in the face of the combat effectiveness displayed by the Japanese army in the capture of Malaya and Burma, the British army still felt that the situation was not optimistic.

No one knew that just when the British *** team was retreating to show their sincerity for peace, the commander of the Burmese and Indian Front, General Ishikawa Koichi, quietly made a move.

In the early morning of 1 March, Ishikawa Koichi received the news that the Anjia Army had not taken a step forward after entering the Meimu defensive line, but had rapidly withdrawn his troops, and immediately issued a secret order to Lieutenant General Iida Shojiro, commander of the Right Wing Army and commander of the 15th Army, to immediately attack and advance in the direction of Imphal, India.

The Right Wing Army was under the jurisdiction of the 15th Army and the 33rd Army, of which the 15th Army was composed of the 15th, 29th, 31st, and 33rd Divisions, and the 33rd Army was composed of the 18th, 53rd, and 56th Divisions.

These seven divisions are basically first-class and second-class divisions, plus the four divisions of the Lanyin Army, which are the main force of material and baggage troops, with a total strength of 350,000.

In order to echo the right-flank offensive, the left flank corps of the Burmese and Indian Army will launch the Battle of Rakhine immediately after the Battle of Imphal begins.

The Left Wing Army was under the jurisdiction of the Fourteenth Army and the Twenty-eighth Army, and the commander of the 28th Army, Kawabe Shozo, served as the commander of the Left Wing Army. The former commander of the 14th Army was the commander of the Front Army, Koichi Ishikawa, but at this time the 14th Army was already served by Masaharu Honma, the "poet general" who fought alongside Koichi Ishikawa, and the army consisted of the 6th, 26th, and 48th divisions.

The commander of the 28th Army, Kawabe Shozo, the commander of the North China Garrison Army Brigade who fled back alone after being chased by the An Jiajun in the Battle of Wanping the year before last, was transferred to the Korean Army as the chief of operations for more than a month because of the too ugly defeat, and then returned to China to serve as the head of the education director department headquarters for half a year under the operation of the network. Because almost all the Japanese troops were disgraced in the face of the An Jia Army, the eldest brother did not talk about the second brother, and the defeat of Kawabe Shozo was not so difficult to accept, so he became the commander of the 12th Division in June last year, and entered the Southern Army at the beginning of the year and served as the commander of the 28th Army.

The 28th Army is under the jurisdiction of the 2nd, 12th, 54th, and 55th Divisions, and like the 14th Army, almost all of them are first-class and second-class divisions, equipped with tanks, armored vehicles and other mechanized units that are rarely seen in the general Japanese military sequence.

In addition to these two armies, Ishikawa Koichi also had four divisions in his hands, the 1st, 7th, 8th, and 23rd, as units directly under the front army. The base camp and the Southern Army Command also promised that once the door to India was opened, the newly formed Fifth Tank Division would also be assigned to the Burmese-Indian Front.

At the same time as Ishikawa Koichi was actively acting, Admiral Yamamoto Go**, commander of the *** Navy Combined Fleet, was not idle, and dispatched troops to actively encircle and annihilate the newly formed Z Fleet of the British, and coincidentally, this powerful maritime strike force actually launched an operation with Ishikawa Hiroshi for a day.

The Navy's aircraft carrier task force is commanded by Nagumo Tadaichi, and its air force includes six aircraft carriers, including "Akagi", "Soryu", "Flying Dragon", "Giryu", "Yuryu", and "Sanglong", as well as 335 carrier-based aircraft, as well as four battleships and two heavy cruisers, and its mission is to cover aircraft carriers, attack enemy ships, and attack ships, aircraft, and base facilities on the Ceylon side, and attack Ceylon and crush the British fleet.

The Malayan flotilla, commanded by Jizaburo Ozawa, with 1 light aircraft carrier, 1 heavy cruiser and 1 light cruiser as the main force, disrupted the sea communication between Madras and Kolkata, India, and in the northern part of the Indian Ocean, with two heavy cruisers and one light cruiser as the main force, disrupted the sea communication south of Calcutta; In the southern part of the Indian Ocean, 2 heavy cruisers and 1 destroyer were the main forces to disrupt the sea communications north of Madras.

Commander Takagi of the Lanyin Fleet dispatched 1 battleship, 1 heavy cruiser, 2 light cruisers, and 5 destroyers to cover four light aircraft carriers converted from freighters, to raid the British naval base on the Chagos Islands, and after ensuring that a brigade of the army accompanying the trip controlled Diego Garcia Island, the central hub of the Indian Ocean, he immediately turned north, searched and advanced to the Maldives Islands, and cooperated with the task force to annihilate the British Navy's Z Fleet.

On the 20th of last month, Nagumo Tadaichi's aircraft carrier task force departed from the port of Singapore to attack Ceylon. Having experienced the excellent record of fighting aircraft against battleships in the Battle of Singapore, Nagumo Tadaichi had more expectations for aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft, and he hoped that this sortie would give full play to the characteristics of his own carrier-based aircraft and strive to completely bury the British fleet at the port of Colombo in Ceylon, the anchorage of the British fleet.

Admiral Somerville, commander of the British Far East Fleet, has indeed lived up to the high hopes of Chamberlain and Churchill, and since he led the fleet into the Indian Ocean, he has been steadily and steadily, step by step, and has also sent reconnaissance planes to relevant important sea areas in a timely manner.

At the same time, the commander-in-chief of the Ceylon region, Admiral Leighton, was also organizing defensive forces, but the British army in Ceylon at this time had limited troops, and the Colombo base garrison had only more than 3,000 men, as well as a squadron of Blackburn "Roc" fighters, a squadron of Wolverhampton "Challenger" fighters, and a squadron of A25 fighters.

There is also a flying squadron at Trincomalee airport, equipped with 60 G1 and G2 fighters attacking from China. On top of that, there are a few old biplanes. The reconnaissance aircraft consisted of only 7 biplane seaplanes, while the offensive armament consisted of 14 Blenheim bombers and a squadron of Mackerel and Swordfish biplane attack aircraft. In the face of nearly 500 carrier-based aircraft encircled by the Japanese army, these forces were simply not enough to fight.

On 27 February, Samoville received a warning from the U.S. intelligence service that a fleet was heading for Colombo, and in order to preserve his strength, he immediately ordered the fleet to withdraw from Colombo overnight and sail to the reef-covered Maldives Islands, about 600 nautical miles south of Ceylon.

On 1 March, just after dawn, 72 Zero, 36 99 and 53 97 ships took off from the decks of six aircraft carriers about 200 nautical miles south of Ceylon and flew toward the coast of Ceylon. When he was about to reach the target, the Japanese flight commander Fuchida Mitsuo Nakasa spotted 12 unescorted British "Swordfish" biplane attack planes flying at a low altitude, and Fuchida immediately ordered the Zero Fighter Group to attack.

The Zero War is worthy of being the most advanced carrier-based fighter of this era, and there is almost no suspense, and all the "Swordfish" biplane attack planes that encountered a surprise attack were shot down.

Sensing that his fleet might be intercepted by British fighters, Fuchida decided to lead the attack planes on a detour from north Colombo to the target due to the accidental discovery of enemy aircraft. When the Japanese planes arrived in Colombo, they found that there were no British planes over the area, and there was not a single plane at the airport southeast of Colombo. Fuchida's fighters bombed the airfield with 97 Ship Bombers (horizontal bombers), while 99 Ship Bombers (dive bombers) and other aircraft attacked the ships in the harbor.

Although the British had evacuated most of the ships in the harbor to other ports or smaller anchorages in advance, there were more than 30 ships of various types in the inland waters of the harbor. The destroyer "Tanidos" anchored in the harbor with the auxiliary cruiser "Hecht" and 1 merchant ship were sunk.

After receiving the news of the Japanese air attack on Colombo, Samorville estimated that most of the Japanese carrier-based planes left the ship to attack Colombo, and the defense of the aircraft carrier must be empty, and immediately decided to seize this great opportunity to launch an attack, he ordered the fleet to stop advancing, and successively sent eight reconnaissance planes to search for the Japanese fleet in several directions.

The British Navy heavy cruisers "Dorset" and "Cornwall", which had departed from the port of Colombo the day before yesterday to escort the British fleet from Trincomalee, had now received an order from Samerville to meet the fleet at the rendezvous point this afternoon, but at nine o'clock in the morning a new order was received to go to the new rendezvous point.

An hour later, the "Dorset" received a report on the situation of the battle, saying that the enemy's aircraft carrier formation was approaching from the easterly direction of the two ships. In order to meet the main forces of the fleet as soon as possible, the "Dorset" and "Cornwall" increased their speed to 28 knots, which was already the maximum speed of the two heavy cruisers.

At the same time, at half past ten, Fuchida Nakasa of the *** Naval Air Force reported to the flagship "Akagi": "We have completed the task and there is no need to send a second wave of attack forces. ”

And at this moment, the search aircraft sent by the Nagumo fleet reported to the "Akagi": "Two enemy heavy cruisers have been spotted sailing south!" After receiving the report, Fuchida immediately ordered the group to return home, when it was suddenly intercepted by 51 British fighters from Colombo.

However, the Blackburn Roc and Wolverhampton Challenger were not as fast and agile as the Zero, and they all fell without causing any damage to the opponent, but the A25 had the ability to return fire, shooting down five Zeros and three bombers at the cost of fifteen all battle losses.

In the Indian Ocean in March, the sky is cloudless, except for a slight mist at the zenith, and the visibility in the sky is very high.

At about half past eleven, the "Cornwall" re-patrolled and discovered that an aircraft was following about 15 kilometers from the stern, but it had lost track before it could identify friend or foe, and the "Cornwall" immediately informed the "Dorset" of the situation.

At about one o'clock in the afternoon, two more planes appeared above the "Dorset", a Royal Navy "Guanbiyan" fighter in the bow direction and a Japanese plane in the stern direction. In the light of these unusual circumstances, the Captain of the "Dorset" judged that it was very likely that the Navy was waiting at the Royal Navy's predetermined assembly point, and in order to prevent the follow-up ships from continuing to break into the enemy's encirclement, after consulting with the captain of the "Cornwall", the "Dorset" broke the radio silence, issued a warning to the Far East Fleet of the British Navy, and asked for air support.

After returning to the aircraft carrier, Fuchida Nakasa learned from Minoru Genda that the two British heavy cruisers were "Cornwall" and "Dorset", but they were not allowed to attack, because Nagumo Tadaichi had already sent Takashi Ekusa to lead 80 99 ships to attack. A few minutes later, Ekusa reported to the flagship that "enemy ships were found."

Only a quarter of an hour later, the "Cornwall" was hit by 17 bombs, the hull was blown into two parts, and immediately capsized. The "Dorset" was in slightly better condition, but it was also hit by 8 bombs, and due to the complete destruction of the ship's power system, the Japanese bombs ignited the fuel on the ship, and the entire battleship was shrouded in a cloud of smoke, and when looking back from the bridge, only flames and smoke could be seen. Seeing that the situation was irreversible, Captain Egor deserved to give the order to abandon the ship.

Although most of the lifeboats on the "Dorset" were intact, and many of the crew members were able to escape from the heavy cruiser, they were soon shattered by the machine guns in the nose of the 99 ships -- before the war, the commander of the Combined Fleet, Admiral Iseichi Yamamoto, had already stressed that there could be no mercy in the war, that the British Navy's crew was more valuable than their warships, and that every skilled crew member could not be cultivated overnight, and that the British would have to spend a great deal of effort to cultivate one more person to destroy. The best case scenario is to wipe out all the crews and make them lose their talents, so that even if there are advanced warships, there are no qualified crew members to operate, so that it will be much easier for the Imperial Navy to engage the opponent in the future.

The "Dorset" began to sink immediately after the "Cornwall", and the stern was the first to be submerged, and in a short time the top of its mast disappeared from view, leaving only a trail of oil and floating debris on the surface. Two imposing heavy cruisers, accompanied by 42 officers and 1,520 soldiers, disappeared forever in this strange part of the Indian Ocean.

Upon learning of the sinking of his heavy cruiser, Summerville was taken aback. At this time, after nearly ten hours of searching, the British fleet, which did not pick up the shadow of the Japanese aircraft carrier, found that there were *** reconnaissance planes around. In order to avoid suffering even greater losses, Samoville had to give the order to "stop the pursuit and immediately go to the Maldives islands."

On March 3, a British biplane seaplane found 3 battleships and 1 aircraft carrier sailing northwest of Ceylon 640 kilometers east of Ceylon.

A day later, at 7 o'clock in the morning, the British airfield and port in Trincomalee were suddenly attacked, the Japanese army dispatched 75 Zero and 91 97 ships to attack, 60 G1 and G2 fighters docked at the airport were blown up one by one before they could take off, and two light cruisers, five destroyers and 15 merchant ships anchored in the port were attacked and silent.

Admiral Leighton was so angry that he ordered nine "Blenheim" bombers, which had only a simple runway hidden in Jaffna at the northern tip of Ceylon, to go out without fighter planes, and after reaching the target airspace, they launched a horizontal bombardment of the Japanese aircraft carrier from an altitude of 4,000 meters.

When the British bombers withdrew, they were attacked by 20 Zero fighters patrolling over the aircraft carrier group, four bombers were shot down, and the remaining five were wiped out when they encountered a group of attack planes that had just returned from an attack on Trincomalee on the way home. The British assault, although it did not have any results, was the greatest threat to their warships from the war with the Japanese.

While Fuchida was attacking the port of Trincomalee, the British warships that had been evacuated the night before were only 100 kilometers south of the port, including the aircraft carrier Athletic, which had left the port in the early hours of the morning. Due to the haste of the evacuation, 12 "Sailfish" torpedo planes remained on the shore and did not accompany them, and the "Athletic God" at this time can be said to be unarmed.

At nine o'clock in the morning, Nagumo Tadaichi's water reconnaissance plane spotted the "Athletic God" and suddenly saw such a large piece of fat, Nanyun was overjoyed, and immediately ordered Eguso Shaozo, who was preparing for the second wave of attacks on the ships in Trincomalee Port, to lead 85 dive bombers and 9 escort planes to attack the "Athletic God" in Zero Battle.

At 9:30, the British intercepted the Japanese army's communication signal at the wireless listening station in Ceylon, learned that the "Athletic" had been discovered, and immediately ordered to send fighter planes to reinforcements, but because the telephone line was damaged, the order was delayed, and in the process of the attack on the "Athletic", not a single fighter went to the rescue.

The Japanese aircraft group quickly surrounded the "Athletic" and dived in a group of three, and the aircraft carrier of the cup was hit by five heavy bombs and caught fire, and sank in the Indian Ocean ten minutes later. After that, the Japanese attack group turned to attack the escorting destroyer "Vampire", which was sunk in five minutes, and on the way back, the Japanese dive bomber group also sank four British merchant ships and one patrol boat.

At a time when the British Eastern Fleet was suffering heavy losses, Commander Ozawa's broken engagement in the Bay of Bengal caused chaos in local shipping, and he led a light aircraft carrier, five heavy cruisers, and the Malayan Fleet, which was the main force of one light cruiser, and one light cruiser, sank 35 ships in successive operations, and Japanese submarines also sank 8 ships off the west coast of India, and British shipping in the Indian Ocean was forced to stop altogether.

After achieving major victories, Nagumo Tadaichi received an order from the base camp that in order to echo the Imphal and Rakhine campaigns begun by the army, he must continue to lead the fleet south, completely annihilate the British Far East Fleet, and wait for the opportunity to send a landing force to occupy Ceylon and pry open the gateway to western India.

As early as 27 March last month, the Navy's Lanyin Fleet occupied the British Navy's naval base on Diego Garcia Island with almost no effort, and immediately turned north to search and advance toward the Maldives Islands; at 7 o'clock in the morning of 5 March, before the morning mist had cleared, a reconnaissance plane taken off from the "Qingfeng," one of the fleet's four light aircraft carriers, discovered the traces of the British Eastern Fleet at Addu Atoll in the Maldives Islands.

At this time, Admiral Summerville was considering whether to lead the fleet to Mombasa Island in Kenya on the east coast of Africa, and now that the fleet's "Athletic" aircraft carrier, two heavy cruisers, and a large number of destroyers had suffered a catastrophe, it was obviously not enough to reverse the current disadvantage with only five battleships and two light aircraft carriers that were seriously lacking carrier-based aircraft.

The current British battleships have not yet been equipped with radars, and the Japanese reconnaissance planes have not been spotted. When the Japanese pilots saw the British Navy hiding among the pearl-like archipelagos, they immediately returned home and reported the situation.

At this time, Takagi, the commander of the Ranin fleet, was in contact with Nagumo Tadaichi, and when he heard that the communications officer had come in to report this astonishing news, he was overjoyed and immediately proposed to Nagumo Tadaichi to completely annihilate the British Navy's Eastern Fleet.

The task force under the command of Nagumo Zhong is now on the island of Malé in the Maldives archipelago, and the fleet has frequently sent reconnaissance planes to investigate the movements of the British Navy, but it has found nothing.

Soon, the first wave of aircraft groups on six aircraft carriers began to depart. This wave of aircraft is composed of 70 Zero Battles, 52 99 Ship Bombardment, and 66 97 Ship Attack, plus 30 Zero Combat planes departing from the southern seas, 36 99 Ship Attack and 32 97 Ship Attack, and the powerful attack of nearly 300 fighters is absolutely not something that ordinary warships can resist.

At nine o'clock in the morning, the group appeared over the British Navy ship group, and the careless British realized that the situation was not good, and the mournful air defense sirens quickly sounded.

Most of the British naval ships were hit by a hail of bombs before they could be launched, and the first to be attacked were the aircraft carriers "Brilliant" and "Dreadsome", which were small aircraft carriers with a capacity of 36 carrier-based aircraft, and the number of carrier-based aircraft was now seriously insufficient due to continuous combat attrition. Previously, the two aircraft carriers had already sent reconnaissance planes to the east and west seas, but they did not find a group of Japanese planes attacking from the north and south, and the fighters and bombers were sent out of the hangar by elevators, and all of them were parked on the deck, and they were hit by a dense number of bombs at the first time, igniting a raging fire.

The "Brilliant" class aircraft carriers have an armored flight deck, which is sufficient to resist the attack of 450 kg of bombs, and has a very strong survivability, while the Japanese army's 250 kg bombs are like scratching their boots, and the two aircraft carriers have not suffered serious blows except for the destruction of the carrier-based aircraft and the burning of the decks.

However, the 97 ships that bombed horizontally carried a large number of torpedoes, and one by one the torpedoes were thrown into the sea at close range, and several of them hit one part, and even the strongest turtle shell would be broken, and at 9:22 a.m., the hull of the "Guanghui" was broken in two and sank into the sea. Three minutes later, the Dreadsome also let out a roar and plunged headlong into the sea.

The sinking of two aircraft carriers was only the beginning of the destruction, and although from time to time planes were hit, towing thick smoke and falling into the sea, the British battleships suffered more damage. With naval aviation firmly in the air, British warships could not evade the swarms of fighters.

At 9:36 a.m., the turret of the battleship "Resolve" was blown up by a bomb dropped by a dive bomber, and then the armor-piercing shell dropped directly from the turret burst into the ammunition compartment below, causing a martyrdom, and the entire battleship "Resolve" became a huge furnace, constantly burning and exploding, so that the structure of the battleship was completely destroyed, and it disappeared from the sea without a trace in a few minutes.

At 9:48 a.m., the battleship "Revenge" could no longer help the British Royal Navy to take revenge, and after enjoying the hospitality of nearly 20 bombs, the ship's fire batteries were all destroyed, and the last three torpedoes, which fell at close range, sent it directly to the bottom of the sea.

At 9:59, the "Sovereign" sank.

At 10:16, the "Ramilis" capsized.

At 11:23 a.m., the battleship "War Weyer," the flagship of the British Royal Navy's Eastern Fleet, was hit by a torpedo dropped by the 97 ships 15 nautical miles west of the anchorage, and unwillingly sank into the sea.

The entire naval battle ended at two o'clock in the afternoon, and the entire British fleet, including more than 300 officers and 21,000 sailors, 5 battleships, 2 aircraft carriers, 3 cruisers, 4 destroyers, and 12 supply ships were completely annihilated, and the entire British Oriental Navy was devastated, and there was no force in the Indian Ocean that could threaten the Japanese landing operation against India at any time.

......

Nanhua, Xinjing.

When the day after the end of the naval battle, An Yi was shocked when he received the news from the intelligence department that the *** Navy had completely annihilated the British Navy in the Battle of the Maldives.

Although I can't remember whether the *** Navy has achieved such brilliant achievements against the British Navy in real history, it is certain that it will never be so easy and enjoyable to win as this time.

The development of the situation in the country is completely incomprehensible.

When did you ever hear that there was such a person as Ishihara Waner as the supreme commander of the army? Since this wise and demonic guy ascended to the throne of chief of staff, he immediately changed the direction of the Japanese army's attack, skillfully seized the fleeting favorable opportunity, sought the Lanyin Islands and the Far East, and laid a solid foundation for the Japanese army's economic independence under the United States.

I heard that this guy has made a fool of the Americans, and most of the dollars he borrowed from the United States at the end of the previous year were used to order second-hand cruise ships and merchant ships. Due to the economic downturn, which has led to a severe contraction of the global freight and passenger market, it is easy to conclude transactions under various names, and this alone has added three million tons of freight to China.

This person's eloquence is also really good, and somehow he reached an agreement with the head of the Navy's military command, Nagano Shusui, the sea minister and Kawakoshiro, and the commander of the combined fleet, Yamamoto Isoroku, completely ignoring the obstruction of the "giant ship artillery" faction in the navy, forcibly canceled the construction of three "Yamato" class battleships, and all resources were prioritized for vigorously developing aircraft carriers, submarines, and carrier-based aircraft, opening aviation schools in various places, allowing pilots with advanced piloting technology to retire and enter aviation schools, and training naval and army aviation. The measures are jaw-dropping.

Many 20,000-ton merchant ships and cruise ships purchased from the United States have been quickly transformed into light aircraft carriers and entered active service, such as the "Qilong", "Yulong" and "Sanglong" aircraft carriers in the current special task force of the Navy, which are transformed into large fast cruise ships with strong power, and the fastest speed can reach 25 knots, while the "Feng" class aircraft carriers of the Malay fleet and the Lanyin fleet are transformed with cargo ships, and the maximum speed is only a pitiful 19 knots.

The success of the Navy is like being cheated on, and how to look at it makes people feel awkward.

Now An Yi is very worried, due to his own appearance, and the increasing interference in history, the butterfly effect has formed a huge storm, and many histories have completely deviated from the original track, if the Allies lose the power of resistance before the United States enters the war, will it cause the United States to fall to the Axis powers?