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The voluntary withdrawal of the 6th Marine Division of the 5th Amphibious Army of the US Army did not mean the end of a series of intrigues and tricks of the Japanese army. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Since the entire port area of the port of Cologne was about to be affected by the fire, the officers and men of the Marine Corps who had retreated here quickly appealed to the US Navy's Second Atlantic Fleet for help and escaped from this ghost place as soon as possible.

The entire Second Fleet was also shocked by what was happening in the city of Cologne.

No one could have imagined that in this civilized age, someone would destroy a city in order to destroy an opponent, and the image of the Japanese, at this time, was already linked to the devil.

Battleships, light and heavy cruisers, destroyers, aircraft carriers, and transports under the Second Fleet anchored or entered the docks, and sailors and medical personnel on board came to land to actively rescue the sick and wounded.

You must know that on the battlefield, a wounded soldier often needs to occupy two or three unwounded soldiers, and the resources consumed are also very huge, relying only on the strength of the Sixth Marine Division itself, it is no longer enough to save itself, a large number of burned wounded and sick people tossed and turned on the ground in the port, screaming bitterly, causing more sailors to be unbearable and take the initiative to get off the ship to participate in the rescue.

The fire near the harbor was approaching, and the smoke in the sky was getting thicker, and the naval commander of the Second Fleet did not see any safety hazards in such a situation, so he turned a blind eye to the many sailors who were on duty in the rescue.

As the sky gradually darkened, the officers and men of the Second Fleet turned on the lighting facilities of all the ships in order to speed up the rescue of people, and the US Navy anchorage in the port of Cologne was as bright as day for a while.

That's what the Japanese army needs!

At a quarter past 10 p.m., five waves and nearly 100 warplanes suddenly appeared over the Limon Gulf in the Caribbean Sea.

Despite the surrounding fires. But the American warship with the lights on full. It was still very conspicuous and quickly became a live target for Japanese fighters.

The Japanese carrier-based fighters involved in the escort did not open fire, and the dive bombers fired their might, followed by the attack of torpedo planes.

It wasn't until the overwhelming number of bombs fell and the huge explosions on the armor, turrets, and bridges sounded that the US Navy's air defense sirens sounded.

It turned out that the radar attendants on several warships with radar early warning systems had all disembarked to participate in the rescue of Paoze. The immediate consequence is that there is no time to prepare and react.

At this time, there was no one in most of the combat posts on the US warship, and in the stunned gaze of the ship, one battleship after another burst into flames amid the huge explosion. However, the fatal threat still came from the torpedoes, one after another dragging the white line, rushing towards their respective targets, due to panic, or because there was no one at all in the station, a machine gun for mine protection. Nothing happened.

Some people may say that this is the time to avoid it. However, a battleship is not a car, and it is very difficult to start again once stopped. Therefore, the only thing the captains of the warships of the US Navy's Second Atlantic Fleet could do at the moment was to desperately give the order to "meet the collision."

"Boom"

"Boom"

"Boom, boom, boom......"

Successive and violent explosions were heard, and one after another battleships won the bid under the accurate blows of torpedoes fired by the Japanese naval aviation.

The torpedo attack technology of the Japanese naval aviation was not covered, out of a total of forty torpedoes, only two of them failed to hit the target due to technical failures, and all of the rest. The whole port. The explosions were heard one after another, and the US Navy officers and men jumped into the sea like dumplings to take shelter, but many were swallowed up in the huge waves set off by the explosion and the sinking of the ship.

After a quarter of an hour of continuous air raids, seeing that there were no more targets worth striking on the sea, the Japanese naval aviation returned to their homes satisfied.

At that time, more than 80 carrier-based planes on the aircraft carriers of the Second Atlantic Fleet sank into the sea with the ships before they could take off to meet the enemy. The battleships and light and heavy cruisers were all destroyed, and only two destroyers escaped the attack because of the small target, and after the emergency start, they escaped from the harbor and escaped into the night.

What happened in the bay of Cologne Port made the officers and men of the 6th Marine Division who had not yet boarded the ship feel like they were mourned, and the sailors and medical personnel who left their posts to participate in the rescue wept bitterly and regretted their choice.

The fire continued to burn, and the harbor looked like it was about to be consumed by the flames that were approaching it.

At 1 a.m., the downpour suddenly came, and at 7 a.m. the next morning, when the clouds cleared, and the U.S. officers and soldiers who had taken shelter in various parts of the harbor walked out of the buildings, they found that the surrounding area of the harbor had been controlled by the Japanese army, and the sun flag could be seen everywhere.

At this time, the American army was sleepy and lacking, almost all the equipment and heavy weight were lost in the city of Cologne, and there were still thousands of wounded and sick people in need of treatment, and they were no longer able to maintain the situation of the war.

At a quarter past seven, about a squadron of Japanese troops waving white flags entered the port area and handed over a handwritten letter from Lieutenant General Anda 23 to Brigadier General Danrigou Porter, commander of the 6th Division.

In the letter, Lieutenant General Anda 23 highly praised the dedication and stubborn will to fight of the US military, but at this moment the US army was already in a desperate situation, and if it continued to resist, there was no point except to add casualties, and in order to alleviate the suffering of the families of the officers and men on both sides, Anda 23, in the name of the commander-in-chief of the Japanese American Dispatch Army, hoped that the US troops would lay down their arms, and the Japanese army would guarantee that they would give due preferential treatment in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.

After consulting with his subordinates, Brigadier General Potter called Washington to explain the situation, and an hour later handed over the flag to Chief of Staff Yoshihara, who had come to surrender.

Relieved after the surrender, the U.S. officers and men laid down their arms in the designated area according to the instructions of the Japanese army, and then carried the wounded and sick to a Japanese settlement in the town of Fort Gulik near Lake Gatun. It was once a U.S. military base, with well-equipped barracks large enough to accommodate the 9,700 U.S. troops now including sailors and the sick and wounded.

Watching from afar as the American troops themselves walked into Fort Gulik, Lieutenant General Anda 23 was overjoyed and immediately reported to Tokyo.

After receiving the good news, Ishihara immediately drove into the palace to report the good news to Emperor Hirohito, and then in the telegraph room of the Imperial Garden. All officers and men of the 19th Army were commended. Generals who do not have a noble title are awarded a noble title, and those who have a noble title are all promoted.

However, at this time, Ishihara's mood was not as happy as he imagined, it turned out that before this, he had received two good and bad news that could not be made public.

The good news is that last night, taking advantage of the heavy rain in Central America, the Japanese landed in Ensenada on the Baja California Peninsula and quietly occupied this natural Mexican port near the U.S. border. Work has begun on repairing the military airfield in the south of the port, which was riddled with holes after being intensively bombed by the Japanese army, and was voluntarily abandoned by the US military, so as to meet the needs of taking off and landing B-17 bombers.

Baja California was a relatively closed world for Mexico at this time.

Although the port of Ensenada is only more than 120 kilometers away from the city of San Diego on the west coast of the United States, it is all mountainous and inaccessible, and it is separated from the hinterland of Mexico by the Gulf of California and the Altal Desert.

The U.S. military has deployed a large number of troops on the west coast, and the Third Army, nicknamed the "Ghost Army" and "American Hammer," is stationed on the line from Los Angeles and San Diego to Phoenix. Formed in December of the previous year, the corps has five infantry divisions and three armored divisions under its command, and is a powerful strategic mobile force in the United States. It is not believed that the Japanese army dared to land on the California Peninsula.

As a matter of fact, the Japanese army's intention in occupying Ensenada was not to use it as a stepping point to attack the United States, but to make full use of its proximity to the US mainland to bomb important cities in the western part of the United States at close range, so as to give the Americans a huge psychological deterrent. Presently. The bombers captured in Panama have already moved to Guatemala and will be stationed when the airfield in Ensenada is repaired.

The bad news received from Tokyo was that the Allied forces did not back down because of the opening of the Japanese theater in Central America, and they followed the example of the Japanese army, and joined forces by sea and land to attack from the flanks of the Japanese army in the western Indian Ocean coastal area. It seriously threatened the retreat and supply safety of the Japanese army, and caused great damage to the strategic deployment of the Japanese army in South Africa.

At the same time that Anda 23 burned Cologne, the 1st Panzer Corps of the United States Army, also under the leadership of General Patton, launched a landing operation in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

The situation at that time was that once the Japanese recaptured the beachhead, the landing of the 1st Panzer Division would fall into the encirclement of the Japanese and be wiped out by the Japanese reinforcements from all directions, repeating the tragic scene of the British 7th Panzer Division.

However, the 1st Panzer Division successfully withstood the pressure, and with the assistance of the 11th Airborne Division of the US Army, which was attached to the 1st Panzer Corps, and naval artillery support, it successfully gained a firm foothold.

The battle lasted from morning to sunset, and the fierce counterattack of the Japanese gradually became weak, and the 1st Panzer Division and the 11th Airborne Division seized the time to expand their positions, but the Japanese could not resist and finally retreated to the city.

With the landing of the 34th and 36th Divisions, Patton's forces were suddenly sufficient.

Patton is a witty and brave general, and his most notable characteristics are his bravery and speed! He believed that in order to ensure the smooth operation, all commanders and soldiers must be aware of the various types of fighters, and should have a strong will to create as many fighters as possible.

In this landing battle, Patton barely allowed his troops to rest, and immediately threw himself into the attack on the city of Port Elizabeth, outflanking the city from the front and the left and right flanks.

In the ensuing street fighting, the Japanese and American forces engaged in a fierce battle.

Taking advantage of their familiarity with the terrain, the Japanese army launched more than 20 counterattacks, while the American army relied on powerful armored troops and artillery to fight tenaciously, killing the Japanese corpses all over the field, and the entire city was almost stained red with blood.

After a night of fighting, the Japanese lost control of Port Elizabeth, and the remnants had to retreat to the north-west at Sparts Hill. In this battle, the Japanese army killed more than 5,400 people, wounded more than 3,000 people, and suffered heavy losses in artillery, transport vehicles, guns and ammunition, but this was not what Ishihara feared.

In Ishihara's view, it was clear that the war should have been led by the army, and the navy also played a key role, which meant that the Allies had discovered the weakness of the Japanese army and were no longer confined to a single branch of the army. At present, the main force of the Japanese navy is still in the Pacific region, and if it wants to support the Indian Ocean, the ports of East London, Durban, and Maritz may be conquered by the Allies at any time using similar tactics. In that case, the danger of more than 100,000 Japanese troops in South Africa would be cut off from Madagascar.

Under these circumstances, after Ishihara came out of the palace, he went to the Military Command Department, and consulted with the Minister of Military Orders, Nagano Shushen, behind closed doors, and after returning to the base camp, he issued an order for all the troops stranded on the South African continent to retreat to the island of Madagascar one after another, and strive to hold out in the western Indian Ocean region for another six months to a year, when the world pattern may undergo earth-shattering changes.