On October 10, 1943, Tokyo time, bad news followed. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

The first is that the U.S. fleet has lost its trace. Since the afternoon of 9 October, Japanese reconnaissance planes have not discovered this large broken formation consisting of 3 battleships, 1 heavy aircraft carrier, and 10 cruisers. At present, the main force of the Combined Fleet and the First Mobile Fleet can only meet divisions first, and then divide their troops into three routes (each with a Yamato) to go to the North Pacific to rein in the enemy--it is possible to guess that the US Fleet will retreat from the direction of the North Pacific, but the North Pacific is very large, and once the US fleet loses its trace, it will not be easy to intercept it.

This is followed by the Japanese bases on Amaknak Island (the island where Holland Harbor is located) and Unaralaca Island in the Aleutian Islands, which have been subjected to massive US air strikes in succession!

The U.S. planes that attacked the two islands were shore-based and took off from bases in Alaska. The main participants in the air raids were American B-17 long-range bombers, using the tactics of high-altitude penetration, and they were escorted by a large number of P47D and P51B/C fighters.

It was the first time that the Japanese Army Aviation, stationed on the islands of Amaknak and Unarasca, encountered the P47D and P51B/C, fighters with excellent mid-altitude and high-altitude capabilities, and suffered heavy losses. In particular, the P47D fighter with a turbocharged engine can beat the Japanese Army's proud Hurricane fighter at an altitude of more than 6,000 meters.

In the first wave of air raids, 43 Gahures were shot down by P47D and P51B/C, 41 more Gahures were lost in the second wave, and 51 more Tornado fighters were shot down in the third wave. In less than 2 days of fierce air fighting, 135 of the most advanced Hurricane fighters of the Japanese Army Air Corps stationed in the Aleutian Islands were shot down in the air battle, and 102 pilots were killed!

In addition to using the P47D and P51B/C to fly the high-altitude Hurricane fighters in air combat, the Americans' thousands of sorties of B-17 bombers also dropped several thousand tons of bombs over Japanese airfields, ports, and camps, causing considerable losses. It also forced the ships of the Japanese 5th Fleet to leave Holland Harbor on the night of the 9th and retreat to Attu Island (more than 600 nautical miles from Holland Harbor), another important Japanese stronghold in the Aleutian Islands.

The withdrawal of the fleet also means that the islands of Amaknak and Unaraska will soon be blockaded by the US military, and tens of thousands of Japanese troops on the two islands will fall into the predicament of being cut off from support.

The third piece of bad news came from the South China Sea, where an oil convoy from Sumatra was besieged by at least 15 American submarines on the night of October 9 (Tokyo time)! Six oil tankers, including the 10,000-ton oil tankers Shenkoku Maru and Niei Maru, the 5,000-ton special transport ships (coal carriers) Rokuseimaru and Sanko Maru, and the 14,000-ton hermit and Sakutsu oil tankers were sunk.

In addition, the destroyer Xia Chao, who was responsible for escorting the convoy, and four driving submarines (all with a displacement of 460 tons, mainly used against submarines) (all with a displacement of 460 tons) were sunk, and the commander of the 13th escort group, Ryo Haruyama Nakasa, was killed.

At first glance, the news of a submarine attack on the convoy was not very bad, and in the nearly two years since the outbreak of the Pacific War, similar things have happened repeatedly. But this time the incident turned out to be very serious, not only did it lose five oil tankers and tens of thousands of tons of precious Sumatran crude oil at one time, but the attack took place in the South China Sea, which Japan considers an inland lake!

Moreover, for the first time, the U.S. submarine force also adopted the wolf pack tactics that the Germans were accustomed to, organizing at least 15 submarines to launch a group attack, sinking not only six oil tankers in one fell swoop, but also one escort destroyer and four submarine destroyers.

This submarine attack has sent a very terrible signal -- the scope of US submarines has been greatly expanded, and their combat effectiveness has also been substantially improved.

If Japan wants to secure its own lifeline at sea, it will have to invest more in escort operations.

It is necessary not only to deploy active destroyers with relatively strong combat effectiveness to escort the voyage between the South China Sea and the mainland, but also to deploy a large number of long-range antisubmarine reconnaissance and patrol planes on various important islands in the South China Sea to carry out long-term and large-scale antisubmarine patrols...... However, the Japanese Navy has only about 200 destroyers in active service (including a large number of old ships), of which about 150 destroyers of the first class (about 150) are really capable of fighting power, mainly escorting the main ships of the Combined Fleet, and more than 100 old destroyers of the second and third classes are also mainly used for escort aircraft carrier formations on the Pacific route. The destroyers that can be used to escort ships in the South China Sea are really stretched.

As for the large patrol aircraft, the Japanese naval aviation has the same limited number, and it has to be prioritized for the Pacific theater, and it is not at all possible to spend much on anti-submarine aircraft in the South Seas - this is not a question of whether there are aircraft or not, or whether there is no fuel. If 100 large patrol planes are maintained over the Nanyang Islands for 20 hours a day, it will be hundreds of thousands of gallons a day, hundreds of millions of gallons a year, hundreds of millions of gallons a year, which is equivalent to hundreds of thousands of tons of aviation gasoline...... Yamamoto fifty-six can not change this extra hundreds of thousands of tons of oil!

Allowing U.S. submarines to operate in the Nanyang Islands would cause more tankers to be sunk, and the amount of crude oil available to Japan would be further reduced, making it impossible to sustain the war.

At the same time, fuel is being depleted at a painful rate on the frontal battlefield in the Pacific.

On the one hand, almost all the ships of the Combined Fleet are running around the sea; On the one hand, the Japanese patrol planes in the Pacific Theater were also extremely active at this time, searching for the lost US Broken Fleet and the main force of the US Seventh Fleet with an unprecedented density.

Fuel consumption every day, like the loss of good pilots, is rapidly weakening the sustained combat capability of Japan's sea and air forces.

“…… Although the results of the current engagement in the Pacific are greatly in favor of our side, the consumption is also staggering, the fuel reserves of the navy are being lost at an alarming rate, and the excellent pilots are also losing a lot in the fierce engagement. And the offensive of the US military now seems to show no signs of abating, and it is still one after another. If the navy does not immediately receive additional fuel and pilots, its ability to sustain operations will be greatly reduced, and the battle for the Aleutian Islands will likely be lost. ”

At an emergency meeting at the headquarters held on the afternoon of October 10, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, after reporting on the situation of the few great victories he had just achieved, began to vomit bitterness again.

"Yamamoto-kun," Sugiyama Moto, chief of staff of the Army, who also held the rank of marshal, seemed confused by Yamamoto Isoroku's inconsistent description, and asked, "Did the navy win or defeat?" ”

"Of course we won!" Yamamoto fifty-six replied, "But if such a victory is fought a few more times, the Japanese Empire will be destroyed!" ”

Yes? Can you win a war and destroy a country?

"Yamamoto-kun, please be careful!"

Prime Minister Hideki Tojo hurriedly reminded Yamamoto Isoroku to speak carefully - now is the base camp meeting, how can it be said that Japan is going to die?

"Your Excellency," said Yamamoto Isoroku, "the official is just telling the truth...... During this period of operation, judging from the number of ships lost, our side certainly won a great victory, but the victory was not without a price. And the price of victory is the consumption of fuel and the loss of pilots' lives! If such a victory continues, the Japanese Empire will be ruined because it cannot afford the cost of victory. ”

Because he couldn't afford the victory, he lost his country...... This is probably the most incredible way to lose the country, right?

"There's got to be a solution, right?" Hideki Tojo hurriedly asked. He did not want to report to Emperor Showa one day in the future: Because the officers and men of our navy and army fought bravely and invincible against the enemy, the Japanese Empire could only be destroyed......

"What's the way...... The first is to implement the Jie-1 operation of course! "Second, the navy needs more fuel and pilots, and only when it gets enough fuel and pilots can the Jet-1 operation be victorious." ”

Although the core of the Jie-1 battle plan is to fight a war of attrition by defending the island, it is impossible to win the battle of defending the island by relying on ground forces in any case. If both the Combined Fleet and the Air Force were unable to move due to lack of fuel, the Hawaiian Islands would not be able to hold on to them after all.

Therefore, at today's base camp meeting, Yamamoto once again raised the demand for increasing the supply of fuel to the Navy, and incidentally raised the issue of the shortage of pilots -- Yamamoto wanted to get some skilled pilots from the Army, and if the Army refused to release them, at least more flight divisions would be transferred to the Hawaiian Islands.

"The army can send a few more flying divisions to the Hawaiian Front, but the army's fuel shortage is also very large," Sugiyama Moto, chief of staff of the army, understood the pitiful amount of oil that Yamamoto wanted to use the army, and hurriedly raised objections, "Now the army has 4 tank divisions, 27 aviation divisions, and many automobile and transport fleets (the total tonnage of ships owned by the Japanese army far exceeds that of the navy, and it is really impossible to do without fuel), so a lot of fuel is needed." And the battle against the naked is ready to fight, and it may be launched at any time......"

"Red dew" is the Soviet Union, the Japanese call Russia "Lucia", and red Lucia is of course the Soviet Union. While the Navy was fully preparing for the "Jet-1 Operation", the Japanese Army was also preparing for war with the Soviet Union!

It sounds incredible, but the reality is that in the eyes of a group of Showa staff officers who like to "play big chess", the reason why the United States is now unwilling to make peace with Japan is because the Soviet Union is still resisting. If the Soviet Union completely collapsed, the United States would be at war with the whole world, and it would have to sue for peace with Japan.

In addition, the Japanese Empire was reluctant to become a neighbor of a super-European Community that would span from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Therefore, it was also necessary to send troops to the Far East after the fall of Moscow......