The huge black smoke screen over Pearl Harbor symbolized the tactical victory of the Japanese and the tragedy of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and although the death and destruction were not over, the U.S. officers and men continued to fight the fire. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

The boats dodged the flames and searched for survivors in the half-water, half-oil harbor, the Oahu Military Medical Hospital struggled to rescue hundreds of burned and mutilated sailors, and only about 30 of the more than 400 sailors who sank into the harbor with the capsized Oklahoma were saved.

The only lucky aircraft carrier in the Pacific Fleet, the USS Saratoga, was not on site and went to San Diego.

Other ships were unlucky, including two aircraft carriers still burning in the fire, and countless people joined in the operation to extinguish the flames.

However, what the Pacific Fleet did not expect was that this was only an appetizer for the Japanese army, and a more fierce attack began.

A new round of strikes began, and Japanese planes swooped down like locusts to bomb in turn, and Japanese troops took advantage of the chaos at Pearl Harbor and began to land.

Undoubtedly, the Pacific Fleet is hopeless, and the pearls of the Pacific Ocean no longer belong to the United States.

Radio waves traveled across the vast Pacific Ocean to bring the news of the tragedy to the United States, telling their president that the Pacific Fleet had been destroyed, Pearl Harbor had fallen, and that all American officers and men would be killed on the island.

This day will undoubtedly be a tragic day for Americans.

"But whether we are in the port or not, each of us will always remember this moment." On February 8, 1940, the President of the United States delivered his historic speech to Congress, which then passed the President's declaration of war against Japan.

Subsequently, the British government declared war on Japan.

On the 9th, the Chinese Nationalist Government, which had been fighting Japan for 10 years, officially declared war on Japan.

Later, Free France, Australia, Canada, and other countries declared war on Japan.

On the 11th, Qinggao's Germany first declared war on the United States, and the United States was dragged into the war ahead of schedule.

It remains to be seen whether the powerful state apparatus of the United States will be set in motion and deal a heavy blow to the Axis powers, as in that lifetime.

But there is one point, unlike the background of another life, for other reasons, the United States has already sold two York-class aircraft carriers, then the United States only has one York-class aircraft carrier, which will certainly greatly reduce the military strength of the US Navy.

In contrast, the Japanese have a large number of aircraft carrier formations, and with such a huge disparity in maritime power, can the Americans defeat the Japanese and Japanese?

It no longer matters whether they can defeat the Japanese army, because the United States has no choice, and they have been forced into the whirlpool of World War II by the Japanese and become participants in this world war.

While the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and Philippine Island, fighting continued on other battlefields, and Burma was another important target for the Japanese to hunt south.

The British defenders in Burma had only one Burmese division, one Indian division, one Australian brigade and two battalions of British troops, totaling about 35,000 men.

The Japanese plan to attack Burma was to wait for an opportunity to invade India in order to join forces with Germany in the Middle East.

In mid-July, the advance party of the Japanese 15th Army entered Tanah Salin and attacked three airfields, cutting off the passage from Burma to Malaya and preventing British support for Malaya.

At the same time, the Japanese army crossed Thailand and launched an attack on the Burmese town of Mawlamyine, and occupied Mawlamyine on the 31st. Then, the Japanese army marched north in two routes, and the Japanese army occupied Yangon on the western route.

In early September, the Japanese army on the eastern route moved north along the Irrawaddy River and launched an attack on Mandalay, an important city in Burma.

In mid-September, the Japanese first routed the 60,000 British troops defending south of Mandalay and seized the Anqiang oil fields.

The Japanese then attempted to continue their offensive northward, but unfortunately found traces of the Northland Volunteers in the Lashio area.

The fear of the Japanese capital Beidi Volunteers was unforgettable, and they immediately stopped their advance and quickly reported the situation to the top of the city.

The Northland Volunteers counterattacked the British Empire, and the Japanese high-level knew for a long time that in order to prevent the Northland Volunteers from joining the war group, the Japanese Japanese army must avoid friction with the Northland Volunteers, which was already a general consensus on the Japanese side.

When the news reached the Japanese War Department, Prince Zaihito said: "The civil war on the mainland has broken out, although the Northland Volunteers are not involved in it for the time being, probably because Feng Tian has other ideas.

At least until the current battle situation is clear, Feng Tian doesn't plan to make a move too soon.

However, sooner or later, the final battle will be sealed.

If there is an exchange of fire with the Northland Volunteers at this time, I am afraid that it will attract Feng Tian's attention to the Imperial army, which will have disastrous consequences. Therefore, the Imperial army must avoid friction with the Northland Volunteers. ”

The Minister of War, Hayashi Mijuro, agreed very much with this point of view, nodded, and said, "Shout, the Imperial Army must avoid the Northland Volunteers, and our target is India. Immediately ordered the Imperial army to halt its northward advance and continue the pursuit of the British. ”

The Japanese War Department quickly issued an order, and the army avoided the Northland Volunteers and continued to pursue the British army.

In the case of the Japanese army's desperate pursuit, the British army went through a lot of hardships and withdrew to the city of Imphal in India at the cost of more than 10,000 casualties.

Having completed the task of clearance, the Japanese army occupied the coastal areas of Burma and opened the door to westward advance.

The Japanese army swept through Southeast Asia, successively occupying Thailand, Malaya, the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Burma, and a number of strategically important islands and cities in the Pacific Ocean, ruling an area of 3.8 million square kilometers.

Before the southward advance, Prime Minister Fumihiro Konoe threatened that Japan was the "liberator" of Asia, and that the purpose of the Japanese army's southward march was to establish "a new order of coexistence and co-prosperity in Greater East Asia."

However, after the Japanese occupied Indochina, Thailand, Malaya, the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies and Burma, they immediately showed their hideous features and imposed extremely barbaric and cruel fascist rule.

The Japanese government imposed a military alliance on the Thai government, making Thailand a vassal of Japanese imperialism and a bridgehead and logistics supply base for Japan's aggression against other countries in Southeast Asia.

In addition to importing large quantities of rice, rubber, and tin by unfair means, the Japanese government often used so-called military stamps, including Thai banknotes printed and issued by themselves, to buy food and other supplies, resulting in rising prices and economic collapse.

The Dutch East Indies were the focus of the Japanese government in establishing a "new order" in Southeast Asia. Because the Dutch East Indies were rich in natural and human resources, which could be used for wars of aggression.

In order to complete its colonial rule, less than two weeks after its establishment, the Japanese military government announced a ban on all political activities, the dissolution of all political parties, and even the prohibition of discussing the existing administrative structures, hoisting the national flag, and singing local songs.

In order to Japanize the area, the Japanese military authorities forced schools at all levels to replace the Dutch language with Japanese; Abolish the A.D. era and change it to the Japanese year. Every morning, residents have to bow down to Tokyo, and even set the clock back an hour and a half to use Tokyo Standard Time.

Economically, the Japanese plundered the property of the Dutch and other allied nationals.

In addition to the factories, mines, and plantations that were managed by the Ministry of Military Administration or transferred to the Japanese Japanese Company, large amounts of money and other property were confiscated by the Japanese people. The disruption of the East Indies' foreign trade caused a severe shortage of food supplies on the island.

In order to make use of the abundant local human resources, the Japanese government organized a "labor team" to recruit a large number of Javanese laborers. According to Japanese statistics, 270,000 Javanese were sent overseas to work on construction projects. Only a small fraction of these unfortunate people made it home alive.

After the surrender of the American troops on the island of Herod in the Philippines, the Japanese army successfully occupied the whole of the Philippines.

On the third day of their entry into Manila, martial law was prohibited, all anti-Japanese words and deeds were strictly prohibited, the death penalty was imposed on anyone who took action against the Japanese army, and the threat of ten Filipino hostages would be executed if a Japanese was harmed.

Politically, the Japanese government disbanded various political organizations in the Philippines and began to organize the "New Philippine Service Association" to forcibly establish a joint guarantee system and exercise strict control over the Filipino people.

The Japanese demanded that the members of the association report to the Japanese authorities when they found strangers and denounce those who sympathized with the resistance, otherwise all those who lived nearby would be consecuted.

Economically, the Japanese army's goal was to transform the Philippines from an agricultural vassal of the United States into an agricultural vassal of the Japanese.

Most of the rice produced in the Philippines was supplied to the Japanese invasion army, and the Filipino people had to feed their hunger with bran vegetables.

During the Japanese occupation, a large number of people died of starvation.

The angry Filipino people denounced the so-called "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" advocated by the Japanese government as the "Greater East Asia Co-Poverty Sphere."

In terms of education, the Japanese people adopted their usual policy of closing all elementary and middle schools and universities until the Japanese language was a subject before they had the strength to censor the curriculum and textbooks and remove the content that they considered unfavorable.

Almost as in the Philippines, after the Japanese army occupied all of Burma, the commander of the Japanese army, Shojiro Iida, declared martial law and relied on force to implement a "new order in Greater East Asia."

The Japanese army first confiscated the property of the British colonists, shipped the preserved technical equipment and raw materials directly to the Japanese and Japanese countries, issued occupation banknotes with no material guarantees, and requisitioned large quantities of rice and other foodstuffs to Japan through sea transportation.

In addition, the Japanese also used recruitment and forced recruitment to force a large number of Burmese laborers to work in the construction of airfields and roads. On the Thai-Burma railway alone, about 30,000 people were tortured to death.

In Europe, the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 marked the beginning of World War II.

On 3 September, Britain and France declared war on Germany, and the Dominions and colonies of the British Empire joined the Anglo-French alliance (on 3 September, Australia, New Zealand, and India joined; On 6 September, the Union of South Africa joined; On September 10, Canada and others joined).

With little preparation for war and a huge disparity in strength between the two sides, Poland was soon occupied by the Germans and the country perished.

On September 17, Soviet troops marched into Poland and occupied Western Ukraine and Western Belarus.

On 28 September, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a treaty of "demarcation", which determined the areas to be occupied by both sides in Poland.

From the outbreak of the war to May 1940, Britain and France pursued a pre-war foreign policy in an attempt to direct the scourge of German aggression to the Soviet Union. Germany, on the other hand, took advantage of the strategic break to actively prepare for an attack on the countries of Western Europe.

On April 9, 1940, German regiments invaded Denmark and occupied its territory without a declaration of war. At the same time, the invasion of Norway began.

With the assistance of the pro-fascists led by Gisling (the so-called "Fifth Column"), the German fighting operation in Norway ended with the occupation of the entire territory after two months.

Long before the end of the Norwegian campaign, the German military and political leaders began to implement the "Yellow Plan", which provided for a blitzkrieg against France via Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

The offensive began at dawn on May 10, 1940, with an intensive air assault on the airfield and an airborne landing.

The main assault of the German army detoured the "Maginot Line" from the north through the Ardennes Mountain, and traversed northern France, and the French high command, which had a defensive strategy, deployed heavy troops in the "Maginot Line" without establishing a strategic reserve in depth.

The German tank corps, after breaking through the defenses in the Sedan area, reached the English Channel on 20 May.

On 14 May, the Dutch armed forces surrendered.

The Belgian army, the British Expeditionary Force, and a French army, were divided in the Flanders Plain.

On 28 May, the Belgian army surrendered. The British and a French army were blockaded in the Dunkirk area and, after abandoning all heavy military-technical equipment, withdrew to Britain.

In early June, the Germans broke through the hastily established defensive lines of the French army on the Somme and Aisne rivers.

On June 10, the French government abandoned Paris.

On 22 June 1940, the military campaign ended with the signing of the French surrender, the so-called Armistice of Compiègne (1940).

On June 10, 1940, Italy entered the war against Britain and France.

In August, the Italian army invaded British Somalia, Kenya and Sudan, and in mid-September, invaded Egypt from Libya in an attempt to advance Suez.

The Greek army broke the attempt of the Italian army to advance from Albania to Greece and attack. From January to May 1941, the British Imperial Army expelled the Italian army from British Somalia, Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Italian Somalia, and Eritrea, and the Italian fleet suffered heavy losses in the Mediterranean.

At the beginning of 1941, the German army formed an "African Army", which was commanded by General Rommel and drove to North Africa.

The German-Italian forces switched to the offensive on March 31 and reached the borders of Libya and Egypt in the second half of April.

On June 22, 1941, fascist Germany tore up the treaty and invaded the Soviet Union.

On the 22nd and 24th, Churchill and Roosevelt, on behalf of the British and American governments, respectively issued statements and concluded agreements to support the Soviet Union's struggle against fascist aggression.

Whether in the East or in the West, global wars are irreversible.