readx; Soong Meiling continued: "Our friendship with the United States was established during the most difficult years of the Anti-Japanese War. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info has come over the years. Seeing that the victory was achieved, for the sake of supporting the use of the Y troops, they parted ways with them, which was not cost-effective. After the war, when the world political structure was rebuilt, there were many places for American friends to speak! For example, the punishment of the defeated country, the status of Manchuria, etc., and the question of the Communist Party"

Song Meiling still wanted to say something. However, enough is enough. Chiang Kai-shek's eyes rolled, and he had already calculated the account. He nodded gratefully at Madame and said:

"You're right. I'll take care of the rest, so you can rest. ”

"Okay!" Meiling went upstairs like a spring breeze. Chiang Kai-shek reached out and picked up the phone and dictated the order to He Yingqin, Minister of Military Affairs:

"Force Y should quickly cross the Nu River and go into battle."

Finally, he also emphasized: "The decision to join the Y force was made without any external pressure. This must be made clear to the Americans and the British. ”

"Yes." He Yingqin replied.

Chiang Kai-shek was obviously very annoyed by the crushing defeat of the expeditionary force in Burma: more than half of the three elite armies were killed and wounded, and their weapons and equipment were lost; Rangoon not only did not survive, but almost let Yue himself enter Kunming, and it was obvious that the British and Yankees completely overshadowed themselves.

What is even more worrying is that the situation in the domestic battlefield is not optimistic, the army launched an attack at the same time in several southern provinces with 500,000 troops, and the commanders of various major theaters have called Yucheng: There is an urgent shortage of materials and supplies!

The occupation of Burma cut off the Yunnan-Burma Highway, the only way for the Allies to assist China in their fight against Burma. At this time, China in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression fell into an embattled situation -- strategic materials could not be transported in, and export materials could not be shipped out.

According to the war report published by the intercepted Tokyo radio station, the statistics of the trophies captured in the pursuit of the Yunnan-Burma Highway are as follows:

A total of 1,570 barrels of gasoline, 1,000 barrels of engine oil, 500 bags of rice, and 280 guan of salt were seized in Wan Town, on the Chinese border. 310 barrels of gasoline and 1,100 barrels of engine oil were seized in the covering.

In addition, 900 car tires, 900 boxes of howitzer shells and 600 boxes of rapid-fire shells were seized in Mangshi. 550 barrels of gasoline, 1,100 barrels of diesel, 250 tires, 700 bags of rice, and 10,000 bags of cement were seized in Longling. In addition, there are a large number of metal materials such as copper, iron, zinc, tungsten, etc.

Together with the seizures of U.S. aid in Lashio and Yangon, the cumulative total is more than 100,000 tons, of which more than 20,000 barrels of gasoline alone

The defeat in Burma, the US authorities were also surprised, at the right time the major battlefields are in a difficult stage of stalemate, although the Allies have a slight advantage in the local area, but they cannot completely win in a short period of time, therefore, it is particularly important for the Chinese [***] team to be able to hold back a large number of troops - whether it is Roosevelt, Churchill or Stalin, no one wants thousands of little devils to pounce on their battlefield after China's victory!

Therefore, the Allies agreed that the United States urgently dispatched 100 transport planes to China to deliver supplies to make up for the loss of the Yunnan-Burma highway. Of course, the specifics were left to Stilwell.

Although Chiang Kai-shek didn't like Stilwell, he was begging for someone by himself at this time, and there was no way to do it.

Stilwell was again ordered to Chongqing, and the stubborn American, believing that the responsibility for the failure of the expeditionary force lay solely with the Chinese generals, made four suggestions in an official document to Chiang Kai-shek as a condition for the United States to guarantee an emergency airlift:

1. Shoot Zhang Zhen, commander of the 66th Army, and Gan Lichu, commander of the 6th Army, and investigate the criminal responsibility of all officers who derelict their duties. 2. Transporting eight to ten divisions to India by air to form an army stationed in India; Thirty divisions were reorganized and trained in Yunnan, and an expeditionary force was again formed, and after the end of the rainy season in 1943, they joined forces to counterattack Burma. 3. The United States shall be responsible for providing all funding and combat equipment for the above-mentioned units. 4. All commanders at and above the regimental level shall be US [***] officers.

Of course, Chiang Kai-shek didn't do it, and he had a big quarrel with Stilwell, thinking: You, a staff officer, actually want to directly command my troops?

The lawsuit went all the way to Roosevelt, who also had a headache, promising to increase the air supply to China from 1,500 tons per month to 6,000 tons per month, and suggesting that Chiang Kai-shek make some concessions.

Later, Chiang Kai-shek gave Roosevelt a face and removed Zhang Zhen and Gan Li from their initial positions; The Indian Army was based on Sun Liren's new 38th Division and the 5th Army, and then airlifted the 4th to 5th Divisions from China, and the command was in Stilwell's hands. But the plan to organize a second expeditionary force in Yunnan is temporarily shelved, unless Stilwell can really bring in 6,000 tons of supplies every month!

An agreement was finally reached, and Stilwell worked passionately again. Open up air routes and transport supplies to China, and you can get the command of the [***] team. When the time comes, the decisive battle against Myanmar will be just around the corner!

Just as Chiang Kai-shek and Stilwell were haggling over the question of command, the Battle of Midway broke out in the Pacific.

Located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Midway is an important U.S. naval base and the northwest barrier of the Hawaiian Islands. On April 18, 1942, after the U.S. Doolittle Air Force attacked Tokyo, he believed that the threat came from Midway, so he decided to carry out the Battle of Midway. The Chinese army attempted to seize Midway and forced the U.S. military to retreat to Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast; Decoy and annihilate the U.S. Pacific Fleet to ensure the security of the U.S. homeland. The main direction of attack of the campaign was Midway, with the Aleutian Islands as a secondary direction. In order to carry out this campaign, the Combined Fleet mobilized more than 200 ships, including transport ships and auxiliary ships, including 8 aircraft carriers, more than 400 carrier-based aircraft, 11 battleships, 23 cruisers, 56 destroyers, and 24 submarines, under the unified command of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Combined Fleet. From 26 to 29 May, the formations set sail from the mainland and were scheduled to launch an attack on Midway Island on 4 June.

In mid-May, the U.S. military learned of the Ayaben's attempt to attack the midway bird by deciphering the Navy's coded telegrams. Admiral Nimitz, commander-in-chief of the US Pacific Theater and commander-in-chief of the US Pacific Fleet, gathered three aircraft carriers, more than 230 carrier-based aircraft, and about 40 other combat ships to form the 16th Task Force, commanded by Rear Admiral Spruance. and the 17th Task Force, commanded by Rear Admiral Fletcher. Spread out in the waters northeast of Midway, stealthily standby. At the same time, 19 submarines were deployed in the waters near Midway Island to monitor the ship's movements.

On 3 June, Vice Admiral Hosoxuan Shuziro led two aircraft carriers, 82 carrier-based aircraft, and 29 other combat ships of the Northern Formation to launch an assault on Holland Harbor in the Aleutian Islands. In the early morning of 4 July, Vice Admiral Nagumo Tadaichi led four aircraft carriers, more than 260 carrier-based aircraft, and 17 other combat ships of the 1st Mobile Formation into the 240-nautical-mile sea area northwest of Midway Island, and at 4:30 a.m. dispatched 108 planes of the first wave to Midway Island. The US military on the island raised the alarm, and the planes took to the air to meet the enemy, and a fierce battle began. The bombers attacked the airfield and destroyed some ground facilities. Due to the strengthening of the island's defenses, the airfield runway was not destroyed. During this period, Nagumo's mobile formation was repeatedly reconnoitred, harassed, and attacked by US shore-based aircraft.

Nagumo then decided to attack Midway again. At 7:15 a.m., the US shore-based torpedo planes ended their attack, but Nagumo ordered the second wave of aircraft modified bombs, which had been loaded with torpedoes and were ready to attack the US aircraft carriers, to attack Midway. At 7:28 a.m., a military reconnaissance plane reported the discovery of the US fleet. At this time, the US task force waiting in the waters northeast of Midway was approaching the mobile formation, and had already dispatched more than 200 planes of the first and second waves. At 8:20 a.m., the reconnaissance plane reported that the US fleet appeared to have one aircraft carrier. Nagumo then ordered the first wave of planes attacking Midway and the fighters on combat patrol duty to return home, then led the fleet north to avoid attack and redeployed the attack on the enemy fleet. At about 9:20 a.m. and 10:26 a.m., as the second wave of planes of the Japanese Army was unloading bombs and rehanging torpedoes, American carrier-based torpedo planes and dive bombers attacked Nagumo's aircraft carrier one after another. Although some fighters from the side took to the skies to meet them, it was too late.

The army lost 4 aircraft carriers, "Akagi", "Kaga", "Soryu", "Flying Dragon", 1 heavy cruiser, 285 aircraft, and 3,500 personnel; The US military lost one aircraft carrier "Yorktown," one destroyer, about 150 aircraft, and 307 personnel. In view of the heavy losses of the 1st Mobile Formation, Yamamoto ordered the cessation of the Midway operation on the 5th and led the Combined Fleet to withdraw westward. Taking advantage of the situation, the US forces sent carrier-based aircraft to attack three times on 6 June, sinking one heavy cruiser and damaging several cruisers and destroyers.

The war had a turning point for the Pacific theater: the U.S. military lost only 1 aircraft carrier, 1 destroyer, and 147 aircraft, and 307 people were killed; However, the navy lost 4 large aircraft carriers, 1 cruiser, 330 aircraft, hundreds of experienced pilots and 3,700 crew members, and the navy has since failed.

American historians call the U.S. Navy's victory at the Battle of Midway "a triumph of intelligence." U.S. intelligence officers deciphered the Navy's plan in advance, which was the most important reason for the Navy's defeat.

He said that he had suffered a crushing defeat at Midway and had completely lost the sea, so he had to transfer a large number of backbone divisions and regiments in the Chinese battlefield to the south one after another and throw them into the Southeast Asian battlefield.

However, the situation on the African battlefield at this moment is very grim, the desert fox Rommel is racing all the way, trying to sweep North Africa, so as to enter the Middle East and attack India, at that time, the Burmese army will be flanked with it, and the Germans and himself will be able to meet in India!

It seemed that China had to be sacrificed, and after thinking about it, Roosevelt rerouted the group of transport planes that had already flown to China to the Middle East to save the British Egyptian Corps, which was on the verge of collapse.

Chiang Kai-shek was greatly enraged, Stilwell lost face, Roosevelt was helpless, and personally wrote a letter to Chiang Kai-shek to explain the reasons for the tension in the Middle East, and issued an order to approve the official integration of the unofficial U.S. Air Force Volunteer Corps into the U.S. Air Force sequence. Colonel Chennault was promoted to Major General of the Air Force.

Chennault is a well-informed US military pilot, because his surname is upright, and he is not in the United States. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he served as an adviser in the Chinese Air Force and was entrusted by Chiang Kai-shek to return to China to seek American assistance. Two of Roosevelt's aides, moved by Chennault's lobbying, presented Chennault's plan for the creation of a volunteer air force in front of Roosevelt. Roosevelt decided to provide military aid to China in order to drag his book in China. Chennault eventually got 100 P-40 fighters, and Roosevelt signed an order allowing reserve officers and soldiers who had retired from Army and Navy Aviation to join the "Flying Tigers." By the time Chennault returned to China, 68 planes, 110 pilots and other logisticians had arrived. Later, Chiang Kai-shek announced the formal establishment of the American Volunteer Brigade of the Chinese Air Force and appointed "Colonel Chennault as the commander of the brigade." Because the members liked to draw a two-winged tiger on the outside of the right side of the cockpit of their plane, this brigade was also called the "Flying Tigers."

While Stilwell and Chennault were busy opening air routes, China's first lady, Soong Meiling, took the initiative to share her husband's worries and visited the United States as her personal envoy to seek greater help.

In late October 1942, she flew across the Pacific Ocean to the United States, attracting the attention of the government and the public.

In the face of the crowd of reporters, Soong Meiling gracefully stated the purpose of the trip in authentic American English:

"I am here to seek friendship between China and the United States. I believe that God will not allow two great nations to separate each other. Soong Meiling's appropriate words won widespread support from the American people.

In the first week of her visit to the United States, Soong Meiling was invited to give a speech to the U.S. Congress, which was the most critical, important and arduous event, because the results of the speech would directly affect the passage of the amendment and loan plan for China's aid materials.

"Gentlemen, I have not come here to beg or to gain some cheap sympathy, but I have traveled across the ocean on behalf of a great nation to seek friendship and support from another, whether moral or material, which will satisfy and gratify me. I would also like to tell you, gentlemen, that my country is being subjected to a brutal aggression by a barbaric people, and that this aggression has been going on for a full decade. And that barbarian nation not so long ago brazenly attacked your great country, and it is this common enemy that binds the destinies of our two countries together."

She counted the various criminal acts of the aggressors and the hardships of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and when she talked about the emotional points, she could not help but burst into tears, and the Congress was silent. Congressman Truman, who later became president of the United States, commented: "I have never heard such a gripping speech. Madame Chiang almost brought tears to my eyes. ”

At the end of the speech, hundreds of members of parliament stood and applauded for several minutes.

Soong Meiling's visit to the United States was a complete success, and she won a large amount of material support for China's anti-Japanese war. And if these materials want to be transported to China, they must rely on "air routes".

Stilwell and Chennault in China have been busy, and they decided to open an air corridor on top of China Airlines' original Kunming-Kolkata route. The air corridor runs 880 kilometers from Assam in India to airports such as East Bengal to airports such as Kunming, Chenggong, Yangjie, Yanglin, Yunnanyi and Zhanyi in Yunnan, China.

He was not stupid, and when he discovered that the United States was providing air assistance, he immediately transferred the fighter squadron of the Army's 5th Flying Division to Myitkyina, Burma, to intercept the US transport plane group on this route.

He said that his "Zero" fighters were cruising at high altitudes in northern Burma day and night, and whenever they found planes flying from India to China, they would follow them fiercely and bite them, while the US fighters were basically transferred to the North African theater, so the escort capability of the 10th Air Force stationed in India was not very strong. Chennault's Flying Tigers, on the other hand, were mainly in the Chinese theater of war, and their strength was quite weak, and they could only occasionally escort transport planes, and they could not compete with the Yuben fighter group at all.

On one occasion, the Second Transport Group of the US Airlift Command stationed at Tingjiang Airport in India was ordered to carry out an airlift mission, and 14 transport planes, escorted by 10 fighters, were suddenly attacked by more than 30 "Zero" fighters while flying through the jungle of Burma. With the exception of one transport plane that escaped under the cover of escort aircraft, the remaining 13 were shot down or hit a mountain, and none of the crew survived.

Since then, the Allied transport aircraft group has been ambushed by the planes and suffered heavy losses.

Allied pilots had even more nightmarish encounters: if the plane was shot down, there was little hope of survival – if not tortured to death by Japanese captives, or in the horrific primeval forests of northern Burma.

The U.S. Airlift Command dispatched many rescue teams to the mountainous areas of northern Burma, and these detachments often returned empty-handed, and their search was like looking for a needle in a haystack with little success. Sometimes they found a parachute in a large tree, sometimes they found relics abandoned by the Americans in caves, but they were never able to find a survivor. All they found was the white bones that had been gnawed away by beasts, leeches, and giant ants not far away.

A statistical report released by the United States [***] said: "Among the crew members who were shot down or wrecked for other reasons on the India-China route, only 2 percent survived." ”

Establishing a new route to ensure the safety of aircraft and crews was an urgent task for Stilwell and the U.S. Airlift Command.

Bond and Wang Chenghuang, the head of the US side, must make a decision in the shortest possible time.

After the two quickly worked out a plan to fly over the inaccessible iceberg and snow peaks with an average altitude of 4,000-7,000 meters, Wang Chenghuang submitted the plan to the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Transportation, and reported it to the "Pan American" headquarters, and the plan was in charge of Bond.

The Ministry of Communications can't wait for Wang Chenghuang to drill in front of the sword mountain and sea of fire, how can he take care of "whether it will work", and the plan of General Manager Wang Chenghuang will be approved in one word, okay!

On the contrary, the headquarters of "Pan American" was full of worries and apprehensions about Bond's submission of the route plan, and the military was completely opposed. The telegram sent by Yang to Song Ziwen was completely consistent: no airtight cabin, no alternate landing airport, no full navigation, no accurate weather forecast, and two C-47s that could only output more than 1,000 horsepower propeller engines each and a maximum speed of 274 kilometers were used to fly over that moat, which human beings are unable to do at present.

No, it won't work anyway!

(To be continued)