The Japanese were ready for an all-out war, and their total strength had expanded to more than 2 million. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

If it weren't for the 300,000 troops of the Kwantung Army, which had been wiped out by Fengtian before this, plus the 200,000 troops lost in other battlefields, the total strength of the Japanese army would probably have reached nearly 3 million troops.

Moreover, the follow-up expansion is still in progress, and it is expected that it will be replenished to three million soon.

Since the Japanese will not have any thoughts about the mainland for the time being, then these more than 2 million troops are more than enough to sweep through Southeast Asia.

Once again, the Japanese received an annual loan from the United States, and on the grounds of a shortage of strategic resources, they asked the supplier to ship the resources to the Japanese mainland in advance. This kind of demand is not excessive, and in the face of the demands of large customers, the Americans have continuously transported materials to the Japanese mainland.

This period was the happiest time for American capital, trade with Japan has been going on for several years, and now the market demand on the European continent is growing, and it is believed that there will soon be explosive growth.

At that time, American capital will count the money and count the cramps in its hands, can it not be excited?

From the standpoint of American capital, the bigger this war is fought, the better, and the longer it lasts, the better.

This wish is a good wish, but I am afraid no one can say how long it can last, and the wishful thinking of the Americans is the result of being based on normal thinking, and they never thought that there would be an end of empty bamboo baskets.

There is a variable in this world, and of course Americans can't see this variable because there is such a person as Feng Tian, to be exact, Americans can't control tomorrow, God knows what will happen?

There will only be one hegemon in the Pacific Ocean, and if the Japanese want to dominate the Pacific Ocean, the Americans are destined to be their number one enemy, and the elimination of US military forces in the Pacific Ocean is already ready to be launched.

The strategic layout has been completed, the battle plan has been perfected, the army has been assembled, and the time for the decisive battle has arrived!

In 1940, the Japanese were about to attack the United States military power in the Pacific, much earlier than in history.

Unlike history, the Japanese were heavily armed and no longer limited to the attack on Pearl Harbor, but wanted to completely occupy Honolulu.

Then, after the Japanese naval fleet attacked Pearl Harbor, it would inevitably take advantage of the situation to land and control this strategic point, so that the US military would completely lose the springboard to enter the Pacific Ocean again.

Hehe, the Japanese are ambitious enough, and they still open up two battlefields, and send troops to attack Pearl Harbor and the Philippines at the same time, and must destroy all American military forces in the Pacific in this campaign.

As in history, the commander of the Japanese forces invading the Philippines was Lieutenant General Masaharu Honma, who was an amateur playwright.

The main force of the Japanese army was the 14th Army, which had 2 divisions and 1 brigade. The 3rd Fleet and the 11th Air Fleet of the Navy and the 5th Flight Group of the Army are supporting the operation, with a total of 43 combat ships of various types and more than 500 aircraft.

On February 8, the campaign against the Philippines officially began.

Japanese planes suddenly appeared at the door of the Philippines and successively bombed the US Clark Air Force Base near Manila, blowing up 18 B-17 planes and 55 P-40 planes on the airfield.

In just a few minutes, more than 100 US planes were easily destroyed.

After three consecutive days of air raids, the Japanese basically destroyed MacArthur's air force, and the US Asian fleet had to flee south to the Java Sea in a hurry.

At the same time, the Japanese landed at Apari, Vigan, and Legazpi on 10, 11, and 12 February, occupied the advance airfield, and advanced in the direction of Manila.

The untrained US-Filipino forces resisted in a hurry, and they could not stop the Japanese attack at all.

Four-star Admiral MacArthur was surprised to realize that neither the American Asian fleet nor the poorly trained American and Philippine forces could save the Philippines.

As a result, MacArthur urgently asked General Marshall to bring more troops and planes to the Navy.

When this request went unanswered, MacArthur issued a series of warnings: "Unless reinforcements arrive, the whole of the Western Pacific will fall." Cowardice and Gou An could not defeat an arrogant enemy like the Japanese and the Japanese. ”

However, General Marshall replied that the Navy did not think it was possible.

In the end, MacArthur received only the plane that had been shipped to Brisbane, Australia.

MacArthur had neither an air force nor a navy, so he had no choice but to abandon his wishful thinking of rejecting the enemy at the seashore and pick up the "Orange Initiative" formulated by his predecessor again. The plan provided for the withdrawal of U.S. and Philippine forces to the Bataan Peninsula within the Manila horizon if the enemy's landing could not be stopped.

On February 24, more than 10,000 troops of the Japanese 16th Army advanced towards Manila in three directions.

In contrast, US military vehicles flocked to Bataan from all directions.

Highway 3 out of Manila is crowded with trucks, tractors towing 155-mm guns, trucks loaded with naval guns, large and small cars, ox carts, etc.

The common people, who had fled in panic before the arrival of the Japanese army, flocked to Bataan, some on foot, some in cars or carriages.

On February 26, MacArthur declared Manila an undefended city.

On March 2, 1940, Lieutenant General Honma's troops entered Manila in two columns to celebrate New Year's Day with the victory of the Japanese army.

The Bataan Peninsula is a small peninsula that is only 25 miles long and 20 miles wide. MacArthur concentrated 80,000 U.S. and Filipino troops here in preparation for a protracted war with the Japanese army.

On 10 March, Lieutenant General Honma commanded his troops to begin an attack on Bataan.

The Japanese army originally thought that there were only 25,000 American and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula at most, and as soon as the cannon sounded, they would definitely pull out their feet and run away.

However, after the battle began, the U.S. and Filipino troops not only did not "pull their feet and run," but pounced on the Japanese troops who were scattered by thunderous artillery fire, and it took only 48 hours to annihilate two-thirds of the 65th Brigade that was the main attack, and Lieutenant General Honma had to order the cessation of the attack on Bataan.

The Japanese base camp was quite surprised by the blockage of the Japanese offensive in the Philippines, and had to send the 4th Division, the only general reserve in the country, to the Philippines for reinforcements.

At the beginning of May, about 10,000 Japanese troops fighting in the Philippines contracted malaria and dysentery, and only 3,000 were able to participate in the fighting. MacArthur was unaware of this, and he was anxious that four-fifths of his troops had lost their combat effectiveness to malaria.

At this time, the U.S. government, in order to prevent General MacArthur from being captured by the Japanese, ordered him to hand over his troops to Lieutenant General Wainwright and let him go to Australia to serve as commander-in-chief of the newly formed Allied forces in the southwest Pacific region.

At the end of May, Japanese reinforcements arrived in the Philippines. At 10 o'clock in the morning of June 3, the Japanese army began a general attack on the Bataan Peninsula. Under the strong attack of the Japanese army, the hungry and panicked US and Philippine troops were in a mess and fled one after another, some taking small roads, some over mountains and mountains, and some running along the coastal road.

On 8 June, Commander Wainwright ordered a retreat. Under the powerful Japanese offensive, only a few officers and men of the navy retreated to the small island of Herod in Cori. On June 9, Maj. Gen. Edward King surrendered with more than 750,000 Bataan troops, the largest surrender in U.S. history.

Then, the Japanese bombarded the island of Herod with heavy artillery fire, and the 150,000 American and Filipino troops on the island relied on deep ditches and high fortifications to hold on. After shelling and bombardment, the Japanese destroyed the artillery positions of the American army on the island of Herod, blew up the water supply facilities, and interrupted the water supply.

On May 3, General Wainwright King radioed an order to U.S. and Filipino forces throughout the Philippines to stop resisting, and those who refused to surrender were punished as deserters. Despite this, only 7,000 of Mindanao's 360,000 soldiers surrendered to the Japanese army, and the rest refused to obey orders and went up the mountains with weapons to fight guerrillas.

The fall of the Philippines deprived the US military of a political-military base in the Far East, which was of great strategic importance, and had a tremendous impact on the entire war situation in the Pacific theater.

The main forces of the 4th Japanese Air Fleet and the South China Sea Detachment, under the cover of Japanese aircraft taking off from the Mariana Islands, launched an attack on Guam. Guam is a small island in the Mariana Islands that is a naval base for the U.S. military.

The U.S. forces guarding Guam consisted of only 360 Marines. Despite stubborn resistance, due to the disparity in strength between the enemy and us, we could not stop the frantic attack of the 5,000 Japanese army and were forced to surrender.

On the same day of the attack on Guam, the Japanese South Sea Force and the Naval Mine Force, under the cover of Japanese planes taking off from the Marshall Islands, launched an attack on Wake Island. Wake Island is another important naval base of the U.S. military, and is known as an unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Central Pacific.

After the battle began, the landing force under the command of Rear Admiral Ooka carried out a landing battle under the cover of fighters. Immediately, the US military coastal artillery stationed on the island counterattacked. And when the Japanese troops came ashore, only 4 aircraft were used. In the course of the battle, the U.S. artillery battery was resourceful and brave, sinking two Japanese destroyers in one fell swoop, and the Japanese commander Rear Admiral Ooka was forced to flee with the ship.

At this time, the Japanese base camp sent two more air carriers from the 1st Air Fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor to support. On August 20, Rear Admiral Ooka conducted a second landing operation on Wake Island under the cover of superior aerial firepower.

On the 22nd, the Japanese landed successfully, and the American troops on Wake Island decided to surrender after fierce resistance.

In the afternoon, Rear Admiral Ogaoka, dressed in a crisp white naval uniform, attended the surrender ceremony. In the name of Emperor Hirohito, he changed the name of Wake Island to "Bird Island" during the ceremony.

In this naval battle, more than 800 Japanese soldiers died; More than 1,500 U.S. troops were taken prisoner and 120 died.

President Roosevelt, in his citation, praised the team for its "heroic and historic defensive battle."

Hehe, a failed army should also be rewarded, it is nothing more than to boost morale.