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Chapter 1781 The Attacking Navy

At 9 a.m. on the 22nd, Karachi time, the first aircraft carrier task force of the South China Navy appeared in the middle of the wide Gulf of Oman between Persia and the Arabian Peninsula. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

At this time, in the port of Muscat, south of the Gulf of Oman, ships docked in the port were faintly visible through the thin morning mist drifting from the direction of the Indian Ocean.

During these stormy days, the transport ships of the Indian Ocean Fleet of the *** Navy, under the cover of night, traveled between the port cities of Persia and southern Iraq and Muscat, rescued a large number of troops, and then transferred these troops from Muscat to the island of Madagascar.

At this time, the commander of the Indian Ocean Front of the *** Army, General Kotaro Nakamura, was already on his way to the southern Indian Ocean, and the commander of the 18th Independent Infantry Brigade of the Japanese Army, Major General Shinji Ito, remained at the port.

Since the main force of the fleet had been transferred south, only two destroyers and more than a dozen patrol gunboats captured from Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq and Persia remained in the port. Not early, the two destroyers had already begun to start a fire, and thick smoke rose from the chimneys erected high.

On the sea 100 nautical miles north of Muscat Port, the sun shone on the South China Navy flag flying high on the aircraft carrier "Huashan", shining brightly, and Vice Admiral Zhao Lei, commander of the fleet, issued a telegram order to all ships: The fleet is heading south at full speed, targeting Muscat Port!

The aircraft carriers "Huashan," "Taishan," and "Hengshan," the heavy cruisers "Li Jing," "Li Ji," "Guo Ziyi," and "Qin Qiong," plus six light cruisers and 18 destroyers, as well as all the naval officers and men on the submarines and transport ships, all began to move.

The pilots on the aircraft carrier had already been given a map of the flight route and a map of the port of Muscat when the fleet sailed out of the Karachi military port, and they knew the bombing targets well. This is the first time that the carrier-based aircraft of the South China Navy has actually carried out a combat mission, and everyone is very excited.

Due to the harsh weather in the Indian Ocean region in the past few days, and the fact that most of the Japanese army's retreat operations were carried out under the cover of night, so far, the South China side did not know that the Japanese army had retreated on a large scale, and the naval officers and men of the task force were ambitious and prepared to annihilate all the naval fleets left in the western Indian Ocean region.

The first wave took off from the deck of the "Huashan" with eight O1-A reconnaissance planes, six of which searched for the front and two for the flanks and rear.

Before entering the port of Muscat, they sent back a telegram stating that no ships had been found on the route.

Half an hour after the reconnaissance planes took off, the first wave of eighty planes all took off and began to fly in formation to their destinations, including twenty F1-A carrier-based fighters, thirty S1-A carrier-based bombers, and thirty T1 torpedo bombers.

At a quarter past ten in the morning, the group flew over the port of Muscat, but the pilots were surprised to find that there were not many ships docked in the harbor.

......

"What? The human fleet vanished out of thin air......"

After Zhao Lei heard the report, his face was depressed. In the command room of the aircraft carrier "Huashan", which was renamed "Barr", pacing back and forth, after a while, he turned his head and asked angrily: "Why is there no relevant news from the intelligence department, could it be that we attacked this time and punched the cotton?" ”

"The weather has not been very good in the past few days, with continuous rain in southern and southeastern Persia, winds generally above seven or eight levels, and the climate at southern airports such as Bandar Abbas is extremely bad, and land-based fighters cannot take off for reconnaissance at all. From the 15th to the present, a week has passed, and the nose of *** person is smarter than that of a dog, and it is estimated that he found that something was wrong and quietly slipped away! Colonel Ouyang Mo, the operational staff officer of the fleet, explained.

Zhao Lei sighed repeatedly, and the chief of staff of the fleet, Rear Admiral Chateauroux of French origin, stood in front of the large chart, looked at it for a while, and suddenly suggested:

"Commander, since the warships of the *** Navy have now left the Persian Gulf, it is better for us to take advantage of the lack of enemy forces and the sudden bombardment of our army to cope with it, and our fleet is suddenly approaching the port of Muscat, and the naval guns suppress the defensive fortresses of the port, and then the marines who accompany the fleet will land on the beaches on the east and west sides of the port!

"Originally, our goal was to raid the Japanese Indian Ocean Fleet, destroy its naval combat capability as much as possible, and then enter Bandar Abbas, completely *** the Strait of Hormuz, and the army will deal with the *** defenders of Muscat Port. But now that the main force of the Japanese fleet has fled, and it is estimated that the army has also withdrawn a lot, should we seize this rare opportunity to completely pull out the nail in the northeast corner of the Arabian Peninsula?

"After all, the port of Muscat was developed earlier, the port is more complete, and the radiation area is larger. The port of Muscat is the home port of our fleet, echoing Karachi on the northern shore of the Arabian Sea, so that the view is more extensive, and if a radar base station is established in Oman, it will also ensure the security of the territorial waters and airspace of the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. ”

Zhao Lei nodded: "Judging from the current situation, the main force of the Japanese army withdrawn from Persia and southern Iraq must have slipped away, and there will not be too many combat troops left, but you can try a landing operation." ”

Speaking of this, Zhao Lei walked to the command platform and issued a new combat order to the communications staff officer: "The second wave of attack aircraft is now taking off, and the focus is on bombing the coastal fortresses of Muscat Port!" The fleet is accelerating again, the goal is still the port of Muscat, forward! ”

......

In the sky above the port of Muscat, the aircraft group did not return in vain because of the scarcity of Japanese warships, the neat air formation automatically dispersed, and one after another carrier-based aircraft began to look for their respective targets, and battleships, anti-aircraft batteries, anti-aircraft machine gun positions, coal bunkers, and oil depots were the prey of these carrier-based aircraft.

The S1-A carrier-based bomber is a dive bomber, mainly armed with a bombshell of no more than 800 kg and a 50 kg bomb or depth charge under the wing of each side hanging below the center line of the fuselage.

A pilot pilots a fighter plane and flies quickly towards a Japanese destroyer. Now that there were too many monks and too little porridge, he was determined to get ahead of the curve and sink one of the only two Japanese warships.

The plane flew over one of the destroyers, and the bombardier sitting in the rear gently pressed the bomb drop button with the thumb of his right hand, and the plane lightened, and the nose of the plane was pulled up, and the S1-A carrier-based aircraft roared over the mast of the destroyer, and a violent explosion immediately broke out on the deck of the battleship below.

"Huh!?"

The pilot, together with the bombardier, looked back to check the results of the battle, and found that although the superstructure of the poor destroyer had been hit by a bomb, and the billowing smoke soon enveloped the entire battleship, its hull was not seriously damaged, and it was still driving at high speed, ready to flee from the dangerous port, and could not help but be very disappointed.

However, at this time, they can no longer attack it, because this destroyer has been targeted by more than a dozen aircraft at the same time, and the biggest threat to it is the T1 torpedo bomber, this carrier-based aircraft carries a 1288 kg aviation torpedo, once hit, the thin-skinned destroyer made by *** can not resist at all, and the only end is to sink.

I have to admit that the operation skills of the navy sailors are very good, the destroyer that was blown up with billowing smoke, swinging left and right, just dodged the attack of four torpedoes, but the end of being encircled and suppressed was to be hit by the fifth and sixth in succession, of which the sixth torpedo blew through the front ammunition depot of the destroyer with a displacement of more than 3,000 tons, and after a violent explosion, it bowed down and plunged into the bottom of the sea, leaving only a lone mast on the sea.

At this time, the crowd on the dock surged, and many army and navy officers and soldiers who stayed in Muscat Harbor were rushing to their anti-aircraft gun emplacements, anti-aircraft machine gun positions or fortified gun emplacements, as well as some indigenous workers from the Lanyin Islands and Malaya, scattering and fleeing.

An F1-A carrier-based fighter flew over the pier, and a small team of *** army garrison troops marching in a neat queue under the leadership of Jun Cao became victims, and four 12.7 caliber aviation machine guns fired wildly, soon leaving several rows of neat corpses there.

At this time, several S1-A carrier-based bombers discovered the oil depot area near the dock and threw the aerial bombs on the planes on these buildings with unmistakable accuracy, and the violent explosion immediately caused a sky-high fire, and many Japanese soldiers who were near the oil depot were instantly engulfed in flames, and a terrible scream came from the fire.

In the harbor, another destroyer also rose from the heavy blow, rising thick black smoke. The destroyer accelerated to flee to the port, five or six torpedo planes began to surround it, one after another powerful torpedoes, with waves and bubbles, rushed towards the Japanese destroyer, the front and rear left and right roads were ***, the bow, amidships and stern of the Japanese destroyer were hit by four torpedoes in succession, and in the violent explosion, the Japanese sailors did not have time to make a choice and sank into the port with the battleship.

The coastal defense fortresses, anti-aircraft artillery positions, and anti-aircraft machine gun positions in the port of Muscat were also heavily hit.

Due to the suddenness of the incident, there was no one in many positions at all, so the carrier-based aircraft group pulled out these nails one by one without paying any price.

Half an hour later, the air raid ended, and the eighty aircraft involved in the first wave of strikes, intact in regrouping over the port of Muscat, and then, under the command of radio signals, flew north. Since these carrier-based aircraft are all equipped with autopilots, many pilots can even spare their hands and drink a bottled drink to relieve their nervous and excited mood.

The port of Muscat was a mess, full of disorganized dead and wounded, and those transports, repair ships, etc., were not directly attacked, but were affected by violent explosions, and many looked emaciated, or smoked, or had broken masts, or reclined on their berths.

The scene on the wharf was also horrific, all eight oil depots were bombed, four of them suffered heavy losses, many charred corpses lying on the ground nearby, exuding a disgusting smell, and the road leading to the dock berths and anti-aircraft positions was littered with the corpses of hundreds of Japanese soldiers.

Rear Admiral Shinji Ito, who was temporarily acting for the naval base, has not yet understood what this is all about.

It is important to know that at the southern end of the Strait of Hormuz, at Ras Al Khaimah, the Japanese army has deployed an air defense observation post, and on the land leading to Muscat along the coast of the Gulf of Oman, there are also eight similar air defense observation posts, all of which are connected to the headquarters by telephone lines, in order to prevent air raids by the South China Air Force.

However, up to now, he had not received any air raid warnings, and he did not believe that the South Chinese fighters had flown over the vast Gulf of Oman from Persia and Baluchistan in India.

"Where did those damn Nanhua planes come from?"

Shinji Ito, who was very uncomfortable in his heart, quickly asked the staff officers to report the situation here to the Front Army, the Southern Army and the base camp, and then walked back to the window again, looking at the messy port. At this time, on the port wharf, many soldiers and medics were busy, fire trucks were also actively extinguishing fires, and many tugboats and fire boats were shuttling in and out of the harbor, and dozens of water columns were spraying at those ships that were still burning.

......

, Tokyo Gyoen.

During this time, everyone from the emperor and cabinet members to ordinary people were immersed in the great joy of defeating the world's largest power, the United States.

Every day, the radio is playing good news, and the major newspapers are one after another, and the army is invincible and invincible from the Philippine Islands in the western Pacific Ocean to Panama in Central America on the east coast of the Pacific Ocean, especially the destruction of the Pacific Fleet of the United States Navy and the successful capture of Oahu Island and the blowing up of the Panama Canal. Achieving a final victory in the war is already a foregone conclusion.

Because of his excitement, Emperor Hirohito repeatedly summoned the Chief of Staff Ishihara Wanji and the Minister of Military Orders Nagano Shusei to commend them in terms of material and lordship.

The fact that the navy and navy were advancing hand in hand in the Pacific region greatly eased the tension between the two armies, and in Hirohito's heart, the army and navy, which had been competing for military expenditure, had never been so harmonious, and the top leaders of the two armies contributed to it.

Today, however, is an exception.

When the news of the air raids on the Philippines, the heavy losses of the army air forces, and the attack on the port of Muscat in the Gulf of Oman came, Hirohito's face lost his smile, especially when he heard that the South China side dispatched so many warplanes to participate in the attack on the Luzon airport, and then thought of the air raids on the mainland and North Korea, Ryukyu and Taiwan three years ago.

This was the first defeat of the Japanese army after launching the Pacific War, so the headquarters meeting was urgently convened. Hirohito sat on the main seat, his face gloomy all the time, which made the members of the cabinet and the officers of the General Staff Headquarters, the Military Command Department, and the Ministry of the Army and the Navy who attended the meeting feel cold.

Ishihara saw that the atmosphere at the venue was depressing, and many people looked at him with mocking eyes, and his heart moved, and he took the initiative to stand up and bow and apologize:

"Your Majesty, gentlemen, the responsibility for today's series of failures lies with Ishihara! Prior to this, although the South Chinese army had frequent incidents in the Persian Gulf region, which led to the forced withdrawal of our Indian Ocean Front to the south of the island of Madagascar, Ishihara still believed that it was a great thing to be able to leave the Middle East, the land of right and wrong, and the empire to concentrate on the development of Asia and the Pacific region, which would help us shrink our forces, and at the same time expand the area of defense of the South Chinese army, and at the same time create a dirt relationship between the South Chinese army and its allies because of the relationship of interests!

"According to the predictions of the intelligence department, the South Chinese side will not be able to digest the areas they occupy, especially the Middle East, which is full of ethnic and religious complexities and deserts, and it will not be possible to do it at this time, and it is simply impossible to do anything to Southeast Asia and Burma and India at this time! I didn't expect them to be so bold and reckless today to launch such a sudden air strike on the Empire, which is indeed extremely shocking and incomprehensible!

However, Ishihara would like to reassure His Majesty the Emperor and the princes of the base camp that in Ishihara's view, this should be a one-time action by the South Chinese side to express friendship with the U.S. government and try to relieve the threat of the U.S. Far East Army, and it does not involve other regions. Before the war in the Middle East subsided, the South Chinese army was simply unable to engage our army, so this air raid was just an idol phenomenon, and it would not turn into a full-scale war!

"Therefore, what we have to do now is to increase the ground attack in Manila, as long as it approaches the airfield for South China fighters to take off and land, then the threat of its air force will be resolved, and it is impossible for them to fly back and forth for more than 1,000 kilometers, and there is so much fuel consumption, right? We don't have to worry too much at all! ”

Ishihara's words reassured Hirohito a little.

Hirohito thought for a moment and asked, "Ishihara Qingjia, can you predict whether the air force of Nanhua will carry out air strikes on the imperial mainland!" Three years ago, Nanhua's air force dropped leaflets over Tokyo, and now that so much time has passed, its aviation technology must be more sophisticated, and the empire is not more dangerous? What if they threw bombs at the palace? ”

"Your Majesty, the minister doesn't dare to guarantee it!"

Ignoring Hirohito's ugly complexion, Ishihara bowed again and replied respectfully, "However, this is an important reason why the army and navy colleagues under the command of the minister launched the Pacific War. Whether it is the empire itself, Manchuria, or the Philippines and the Lanyin Islands, they are too close to China and South China, and if they risk their lives to carry out bombing, His Majesty and the members of the royal family will be in danger.

"Therefore, the only solution is to capture Australia...... It was a brand new continent of nearly 8 million square kilometers, rich in minerals, developed industry and commerce, and stable geological conditions, which were not at all comparable to the empire's mainland with frequent earthquakes. Crucially, it is far from all continents and has a wide strategic depth, and as long as the empire can take root on it, it will be able to operate it into an insurmountable and impregnable barrier in less than ten years!

"After the empire takes New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand, the Pacific islands are connected by the imperial navy into a perfect whole, as long as you slowly figure it out, the empire can be invincible, please Your Majesty Mingjian!"

Hirohito nodded thoughtfully.

Prime Minister Fumihiro Konoe asked, "Ishihara-kun, are you sure that the South China side is only trying to rescue the US troops encircled in the Manila area, and not has other intentions?" ”

"That's for sure!"

Ishihara replied confidently: "Relying on the air force alone, the ground forces cannot cross the South China Sea of more than 1,000 kilometers, after all, those heavy artillery, tanks, armored vehicles, and trucks cannot be transported by aircraft with a limited load, and must rely on the ships of the navy." The ground forces of the Anjia Army, which are not equipped with heavy weapons, are not at all the opponents of the Imperial Army, and the navy of South China is worthy of the attention of the Imperial Navy?

"So there's no need to panic at all, we just need to continue with our previous strategy, first taking the Philippine Islands, New Guinea, New Ireland and the Solomon Islands, and then attacking the Australian mainland. When Australia and New Zealand are in the bag, the emperor team can attack, retreat and defend, and they are all alive. ”

Major General Minoru Maeda, Chief of Intelligence of the Military Command Department, stood up, bowed, and asked, "May I ask Ishihara-senpai, where did the air force that suddenly appeared in the port of Muscat come from?" In addition, traces of the U.S. fleet have also been found in the South China Sea, intercepting imperial merchant ships and striking lone warships. ”

"It's easy!"

Ishihara Wan'er looked at him deeply, and said with a serious face: "The South China Air Force that attacked the port of Muscat naturally set off from the southern and southeastern regions of Persia. Across the northern part of the Gulf of Oman, from Baluchistan in the east to Bandar Abbas in the west, even the farthest point is less than 1,000 kilometers from the port of Muscat, far less than the distance from mainland South China to the Philippine archipelago. Now that the South Chinese side is able to attack Luzon on such a large scale, what is it strange to attack the port of Muscat from an airfield near the northern coast of the Gulf of Oman?

"As for the U.S. fleet in the South China Sea, I guess it is from the southern seaport of Australia to sneak into the South China Sea from the Sulawesi Sea, and its role is to harass the Empire's sea transportation routes, and at the same time, with the cooperation of the South China Air Force, it will attack the Empire's naval fleet in Manila Bay at any time. At present, the air raid of Nanhua has been successful, and their fleet does not have to take any more risks, but if the situation is critical, they will definitely strike with all their strength to save MacArthur and other Far Eastern Army generals!

"Therefore, after taking the Philippine Islands in the future, we must deploy a strong army air force and submarine force in the area east of the South China Sea to deal with this part of the US fleet and trap it firmly in the South China Sea. For the Empire, Taiwan, Hainan Island, the Philippine Islands, and the Lanyin Islands are a perfect chain of islands, and as long as we don't make mistakes, this fleet will not play any role. ”

"Yo Xi!"

All the participants were stunned.

"Besides—"

Ishihara said without astonishment: "Since the Suez Canal and the Red Sea are still in the hands of the British, and their Mediterranean fleet can enter the Arabian Sea at any time to attack the Empire's naval and army bases on the Arabian Peninsula, I speculate that after this wave of South China Air Force sorties, I am afraid that the British warships will appear in Muscat next." ”

"Ishihara-kun, are you saying that Nanhua has coordinated with the Americans and the British to advance and retreat together?"

After receiving Ishihara's affirmative reply, Haixiang and Kawagu Shiro asked a little nervously: "Ishihara-kun, what should our navy do in the Indian Ocean region?" ”

"Do nothing for now!"

Ishihara's eyes swept over the faces of the many ministers and navy generals who were listening to his answer with bated breath, and he smiled and suggested to Kazukawa Koshiro:

"The Imperial Navy can only fully cooperate with the Army in the Pacific War at present, which is already related to the life and death of the Empire, and the safety of His Majesty the Emperor and the Imperial Family, so we must go all out!

Speaking of this, Ishihara Waner deliberately raised his voice: "Gentlemen, since the war with the United States, we have no way out, we can only strive forward, continue to forge ahead, and only by taking Australia and New Zealand can we take care of the war in other places......"

Ishihara Waner talked eloquently, everyone listened attentively, this base camp meeting was once again reduced to a stage for Ishihara Waner to perform alone, but everyone has adapted to this scene, after all, for the genius Ishihara God of War, there is nothing he can't solve. Hideki Tojo, Sadaichi Suzuki, Hyotaro Kimura, Eiichiro Sanada and others who attended the meeting frowned, obviously disagreeing with Ishihara's strategy, but seeing that most people were happy and convinced by Ishihara's Waner, they could only hide their dissatisfaction deep in their hearts.

Senior General Nagano Shusei, the Minister of Military Orders, who was an ally of Ishihara, asked, "May I ask Ishihara-kun, the Indian Ocean Fleet is equipped with old warships equipped with captured Dutch and Far Eastern Republic navies, is it necessary for us to send some new warships over?" ”

Ishihara nodded and smiled appreciatively at Nagano Xiu, and then said: "At present, the deployment of the navy is very good, with a small fleet and a large number of transport ships, mobile operations, and the operation of various islands into unsinkable aircraft carriers, which will greatly delay the counterattack time of the British!"

"As for our army, I have discussed with Itagaki-kun and agreed that the situation in the Middle East has been completely eroded, and we must unswervingly choose to give up and focus on the defense of the island chain of Madagascar and Ceylon, and as for the army that is blocked in southern Syria, I will order them to actively cooperate with the actions of the German-Italian coalition in North Africa, fight westward with all their might, and open the passage to Egypt, saying that there may not be a miracle."

Hirohito's smile finally returned to his face, apparently very satisfied with Ishihara's reply.

At present, there is no shortage of war planners and executors in the army, but there is a lack of generals who are politically and militarily far-sighted. Ishihara did not blindly use troops in the Middle East and the Indian Ocean, but actively led the war to the South Pacific, and met the needs of the empire's development by occupying Australia to ensure the safety of the imperial family, which greatly catered to Hirohito's taste.

According to Ishihara's plan, as long as the navy of *** always maintains its current strength, then Australia's defense will inevitably be impregnable.

With less than 400,000 square kilometers on the mainland, and nearly 8 million square kilometers in Australia, and China's North China, Northeast China, the Far East, Shandong, the Ryukyus, Taiwan, Hainan Island, and Korea, the Philippine Islands, the Lanyin Islands, Malaya, Burma, and the East Indies, a vast maritime empire has taken shape, and Hirohito is basking in great joy beyond the exploits of his ancestors and predecessors.

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