648: Strategic Encirclement
The third thing Han Yunhua reminded Roosevelt was about the Japanese kamikaze team, this death squad can be called a terrorist during World War II, a super human bomb, what bin Laden and what al-Qaeda, compared with the kamikaze of the little Japanese, it is a scumbag, bin Laden hijacked an American airliner and hit the Pentagon, it's a cow, look at the Japanese, they are thousands of pilots, driving inferior planes, full of bombs and crashing into American aircraft carriers, bin Laden's terrorism only makes some Americans afraid, But the Japanese kamikaze made the entire U.S. Navy tremble.1
Han Yunhua still remembers the achievements of the Japanese kamikaze special attack team, and I believe that every military enthusiast should know that the "kamikaze special attack team" achieved remarkable results in the first battle; in the naval battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines, the Japanese kamikaze special attack team sank and damaged many US warships, and the "kamikaze" planes made a total of 2,550 sorties, of which 475 hit the target, sank 43 US ships, including aircraft carriers, and damaged about 370 ships of various types, which greatly shocked the US Navy. In the Battle of Okinawa not long after, they made frequent sorties and achieved greater results. The United States is terrified by Japan's unequal exchange of a fighter plane for a warship, and it is necessary to know how long it will take to build a warship, and how long it will take to build an aircraft that is still an inferior Zero, especially the planes used by the kamikaze attack force are mostly modified from light bombers or fighters, have poor equipment, and have weak attack power, and they completely rely on suicidal methods to crash into enemy warships, so that they can have extraordinary destructive power. Although the various qualities of this fighter are backward, they are simple and fast to manufacture, otherwise it would be difficult for Japanese industry to compete with the powerful industry of the United States.
In order to end this damn war as soon as possible, Han Yunhua felt it necessary to remind the Americans. However, what made Han Yunhua feel depressed was that the Americans did not know who the kamikaze special attack team was, let alone that Japan actually had such a force, and they really didn't know what those super agents and spies of the CIA who had made such a name for themselves in later generations were eating, which really disappointed Han Yunhua.
In fact, Han Yunhua admired the Japanese for coming up with such a new tactic to effectively control the enemy, and you must know that because the suicide plane can fly at high speed, under the control of the pilot, it is equivalent to a precision-guided bomb, and the explosion effect is very good, and if a suicide plane hits the target, it may blow up and sink a US destroyer or even an aircraft carrier. In that era when there was no precision guidance, the Japanese set a precedent, and this became the reason why the Japanese military department used suicide planes to attack on a large scale in the future, and even sometimes Han Yunhua had to wonder if bin Laden was also inspired by the Japanese kamikaze and came up with that shocking hand.
Han Yunhua explained everything about the kamikaze to Roosevelt in detail, of course, the same reason for reminding the US military about the Japanese army's use of biological and chemical weapons, these materials were all learned from the mouths of high-ranking Japanese generals captured by the puppet Manchukuo.
Roosevelt's reminder shocked Roosevelt very much, the Japanese were so frenzied, especially the attack of suicide planes, one can imagine what kind of tragic scene it would be when the Japanese planes that fell from the sky did not drop bombs, but directly crashed into the US ** ship together with the planes and aerial bombs.
While thanking Han Yunhua, Roosevelt also immediately sent a telegram to Nimitz and MacArthur on the Philippine side, relaying Han Yunhua's reminder to the two generals at the front line word for word.
The Japanese did not expect at all that their kamikaze attack team would be informed of this trump card by the Americans before they had even attacked. It is conceivable that when the Japanese suicide planes rushed to the US ** ship in droves, they suddenly found that a large number of counterattack devices were installed on the US warships, and the planes disintegrated in the air, and the fun was really great. …,
In fact, the way to deal with the kamikaze is very simple, as long as you get the hang of it, the kamikaze is actually a herd of sheep to be slaughtered. Due to the gradual unfavorable development of the war to the Japanese army, a large number of experienced pilots of the Japanese army were killed in battle, so that the Japanese army aviation regiment and naval aviation regiment had a great shortage of experienced pilots, and the number of fighters was reduced and fuel was extremely poor. The newly trained pilots lacked experience, and the most important thing was that although the power of the aircraft's Canadian bomb was huge, because the impact could only be hit from top to bottom, it could generally only destroy the ship's superstructure; It could not sink ships as easily as torpedoes, so when Japanese suicide planes crashed into large American warships, the most direct result was to force the American warships to return to port for repairs or to withdraw from the battle if they were injured.
Of course, if the Japanese planes had rammed into a converted merchant ship, the effect would have been another matter. Historically, the Japanese kamikaze team has also rammed Yorktown-class and Essex-class warships, but the best result was only to be heavily damaged and not sunk. Therefore, in the early days of the emergence of this attack method of the Japanese army, it did cause certain losses to the US warships. However, after the US military strengthened its anti-aircraft firepower, there were few successful examples of these attacks. By the end of the war, due to Japan's lack of gasoline, the fuel could only be replaced by alcohol mixture, and the performance of its fighters was far behind that of the US military, and it was even more difficult to cause damage to US warships.
The powerful offensive of the US army in the Philippines has put tremendous pressure on the Japanese army, especially the three-in-one strike of the US army's land, sea and air forces has made the Japanese defense line in the Philippines precarious, and the Japanese army has no choice but to urgently transfer reinforcements from the domestic and Chinese battlefields. At present, the Japanese government has issued the sixth war mobilization order, which is more than one in history, and the Japanese emperor and the generals and lieutenant generals in the base camp have expected the final outcome of the war, but no one has the courage to say it.
Due to the containment of the Philippine side, the Japanese army had to forcibly stop the pace of advancing to the western Sichuan region. More importantly, although the Japanese army occupied Chengdu and Chongqing, but in fact the territory controlled by the Japanese army did not expand much, of course, this refers to the actual territory, nominally the Japanese army basically occupied one-third of China's southwest region, but only occupied a few important strongholds, in the real sense of Chongqing and Sichuan are still in the hands of China's large and small warlords, the Japanese tentacles only extended to the county level, some more remote counties, the Japanese also let it go, and did not send troops to garrison. Therefore, the excessively elongated battle line made the Japanese army's communication line extremely weak, so the squadron in the southwest region took the opportunity to concentrate its forces to attack the Japanese army's communication line and achieved considerable results.
When the Battle of Xuzhou was at its most intense, the Chinese Dispatch Army Headquarters received an order to transfer troops from the base camp, and at the same time, the Japanese troops stationed in Korea also received an order from the base camp, which made Yan Junliu extremely angry.
For the Chinese dispatch army, the enemy on the Chinese battlefield has become extremely tricky, there are wars everywhere, everywhere is asking for help, especially the posture of the people of China on the front in the north of China is enough to surprise the Chinese dispatch army, that is the main decisive battle, if it is left in peacetime, the Japanese army base camp is eager to settle the situation in a war and completely solve the Chinese problem, but now it is not possible, the Chinese battlefield, the Korean battlefield, the India-Burma battlefield, and the Southeast Asian and Philippine battlefields are fighting everywhere, The power of Japan's war machine has been driven to the maximum, and more importantly, once a major rout occurs in one of the battlefields, then there will be a chain reaction, and then the whole of Japan will be affected, so the Japanese army base camp does not dare to take this risk.
December 6, Taierzhuang front. Supplies have not been distributed for 5 days, all the food has been rationed, and each soldier can only get one sushi ball, that is, white rice balls, and then a lunch box of clear soup per person. The people in the vicinity of China have fled, and the Japanese army's policy of feeding the war with war has greatly aroused the fear of the common people in the Middle Ages, so before the war started, the people in the vicinity have all fled, and the rest are all some old, weak, sick and disabled, these people's homes are cleaner than the warehouses of the imperial army, and robbing them is just a waste of time and energy, it is better to hide in the trenches and wait for the people of China to attack again. …,
As usual, the first to go to war was the air force, for the Japanese soldiers, this period was undoubtedly extremely painful, every day to bear the bombing of a large number of Chinese fighters, fortunately the Japanese army mobilized from the southern battlefield of the air force is also powerful, whenever the Chinese fighters appear, soon there will be Japanese planes to intercept, therefore, the appetizer of the daily battle is a fierce air battle, today is no exception.
The 1st Bomber Division and the 1st Fighter Regiment of the Joint Air Force Command were responsible for bombing the Japanese troops, and the 1st Fighter Regiment was responsible for covering, with a total of 166 fighters in the two regiments. The commander of the 1st Bomber Regiment, John King, was a deputy group commander of the 9th Air Wing of the United States, with the rank of major. The commander of the 1st Fighter Regiment responsible for covering is named Xu Daliang, a Nanyang Chinese with a university degree, and can be regarded as a type of talent with the highest level of education in China. Originally, Han Yunhua thought that such a talent would not be put in the army, you must know that now the whole of China is being reformed everywhere, and talents are needed everywhere, but there is no shortage of soldiers, especially middle and lower-level officers, a large number of officers who graduated from military academies every year are added to the army, so Han Yunhua has always wanted to transfer Xu Daliang to the administrative department, but Xu Daliang himself is not happy, he would rather fly a fighter plane to spill blood in the blue sky than go to the administrative unit.
Soon after this group of planes took off, two groups of fighters also took off at the same time, one was going to Henan to bomb the Japanese army's communication lines, and the other was heading straight for the Japanese mainland. During this time, the bombing of the Japanese mainland by the Chinese and American air forces has already shown its effectiveness, and according to the intelligence agencies gathered information, a large number of Japanese citizens have fled to the countryside and mountainous areas, and there are many more people who hope that the government will end this odious war. Soon after the Chinese aircraft group took off, the Japanese North China Front Headquarters received information that Okamura Ninji immediately telephoned the Army Aviation Regiment and demanded that the Army Aviation Regiment immediately send a group of planes to intercept it, so that the Chinese aircraft group must not reach the battlefield.
Responsible for intercepting the Chinese aircraft group is the rebuilt Fifth Air Force of the Japanese Army, which is also an old opponent of the Chinese Air Force, during the Battle of the Northeast, this Air Force was basically destroyed, but the Japanese base camp re-established a new Fifth Air Force after the war and sent it to the Chinese battlefield.
In spite of this, the combat effectiveness of the rebuilt Fifth Air Force is far inferior to that of the previous Fifth Air Force; due to the lack of pilots, more than half of the pilots of the Fifth Air Force are child soldiers who have not yet graduated from aviation schools, and their average age is only 17 years old, and the captains and wing commanders who are responsible for commanding operations are also young people under the age of 30.
Xuecheng, a small city in the southeast of Shandong, is only a small dot on the military map, but today is destined to be the day when Xuecheng becomes famous, because the '12.6' air battle is being fought in Xuecheng.
After receiving the news from the reconnaissance plane, John King and Xu Daliang immediately ordered their troops to prepare for battle and at the same time report the situation to the ground aviation command center.
At the Guisui Aviation Command Center, Political Commissar Deng and Shangguan Qingyun, Lieutenant General James, Major General Mao Limin, Lieutenant General Bayanruf, and others were all nervously listening to the news coming back from the loudspeaker receiver hanging in the command hall.
"Report to the political commissar, more than 90 Japanese fighters have appeared in our field of vision, they have taken the lead in firing at our aircraft group, and our army has counterattacked"
"No. 103 shot down a Japanese plane"
"No. 110 shot down one Japanese plane and damaged three Japanese planes"
"Plane No. 108 shot down a Japanese plane, was hit in the wing by a Japanese wingman, and has now withdrawn from the battlefield and returned to the airfield for repairs"
"No. 145 shot down 2 Japanese planes, was hit by a Japanese pilot fighter hit the fuel tank, the plane caught fire, and the pilot parachuted"
The air battle lasted only 25 minutes, and the Combined Air Force completely annihilated 86 fighters of a Japanese air wing at the cost of 36 fighters being shot down and damaged, and killed the commander of the Japanese air wing, Nagaling Daisa. …,
It was an inspiring visual feast, and despite the extreme danger of the air battle, tens of thousands of people in Xuecheng volunteered to stand on the streets to cheer on the Chinese Air Force. After the air battle, the fleet continued to fly south to provide air support to the Army.
The performance of the Air Force is really good, and it really encourages many people. In particular, the young people who witnessed this air battle were even more enthusiastic, and the number of people in the registration office of the aviation school increased significantly during this time, and many of them were from Xuecheng, Shandong.
The battle on the ground was equally fierce, the squadron used part of its forces to contain the opponent in the front, and the main force detoured to the west, encircling Xuzhou from the flank and rear, and annihilating the main force of the Japanese North China Front. On December 8, the front line of Xiling Mountain garrisoned by the 88th and 28th divisions of the Japanese army was defeated by the squadron, and the Xiling Mountain position was lost. In the south, Wang Jian's headquarters has reached Chaohu, Chizhou and Tongling have all been occupied by the squadron, in addition, with the help of huge air transport capacity, Han Yunhua carried out a large-scale airdrop in Henan and Jiangsu provinces, and 300,000 troops were put into these two battlefields by Han Yunhua.
Han Yunhua was very aware of the strength of the North China Front, and according to the reports of the soldiers on the front line, they found a large number of Japanese soldiers in their teens on the battlefield, and there were more Japanese soldiers over the age of 50, so Han Yunhua judged that although the North China Front Army seemed to be strong, in fact there were not many troops with real combat effectiveness, and the vast majority of them were newly transferred recruits from Japan or troops composed of retired veterans.
I am afraid that the geometry of the combat effectiveness of such a unit is not clear, such a force is really not as good as the mud legs of the previous Eighth Route Army, at least those soldiers of the Eighth Route Army have also not carried out strict military training, but they have a lot of enthusiasm, and they have the courage to work hard.
Han Yunhua believed that the North China Front was right to concentrate its main forces to block the squadron north of Anhui, mainly north of Xuzhou, but they underestimated the creativity of the Chinese. The frog jump tactic is a magic weapon specially designed to deal with this conventional main city advance tactic. The North China Front can gather 400,000 troops in the Xuzhou area, but Han Yunhua does not believe that they can also mobilize 400,000 troops in Jiangsu and Henan.
Okamura Ningji obviously didn't expect Han Yunhua to dare to take such a risk, as one of the few soldiers in Japan who can be called strategists, Okamura Ningji's vision is still good, when the news of the discovery of the squadron on the Jiangsu and Henan fronts reached Xu Beng's headquarters, Okamura Ningji frowned, and immediately sent a telegram to the Chinese Dispatch Army Headquarters and the Japanese army base camp after analyzing the pros and cons, the main content of the telegram was to request a retreat and break through, and at the same time the Chinese Dispatch Army was required to send heavy troops to respond.
However, Okamura Ninji's request was rebuked by the Japanese base camp, which believed that the North China Front was already the last area occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army in the entire Northern Branch, and that once the North China Front withdrew from Anhui and Jiangsu, wouldn't it be announced to the world that the Japanese had abandoned North China, which was unacceptable to the Japanese base camp in any case. As for Okamura Ninji's concerns, the base camp believed that the imperial army was no longer able to completely occupy western Sichuan and other areas in a short period of time, and it was better for the army to withdraw from Sichuan immediately, and ordered the main force of the Navy's Third Fleet to hold the Yangtze River waterway, and then hold the main road out of Sichuan on land, and the main force to return to Jiangsu and Henan.
Although Sichuan is known as the country of abundance, in fact, the roads in most areas of Sichuan are extremely difficult to walk, even the road between Sichuan and Chongqing is extremely rugged, so the Japanese army in Sichuan except for the occupation of Chengdu, other areas are basically unable to occupy, plus the troops are not used to the climate in Sichuan, and a large number of people fell ill, so the Japanese army came up with the plan to withdraw from Sichuan.
But the reality is cruel, it is easy to enter Sichuan, but it is difficult to withdraw, although the Sichuan army in Sichuan is not good in the battle, but the army is indeed the most difficult and the most bloody army in China, after the Japanese army entered Sichuan, although the Sichuan army also resisted, but due to the huge difference in strength, so in the end Chengdu was occupied by the Japanese army, but the Japanese army occupied just an empty city, before the Japanese army arrived in Chengdu, The Sichuan army has united with Sichuan's largest gang, the Pao Brothers, to evacuate all the residents of Chengdu and its vicinity, so the Japanese army in Chengdu not only cannot collect food, but all strategic living materials must be supported through Chongqing.
More importantly, the elusive Sichuan army is more difficult to entangle here than the first guerrillas, in just one month, all the roads in and out of Sichuan have been dug up, and a large number of bridges have been blown up, and it is difficult for the Japanese army to enter and exit Sichuan on foot or by car.