The main force of the Japanese garrison of the Ryukyu Islands was on the main island of the Ryukyus, where most of the Japanese garrison was deployed. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

As for the garrison strength of other places such as Anmi Oshima, most of them are hidden in caves. The reason for placing the main force on Ryukyu Island is simple: this main island is home to more than 90% of the entire Ryukyus population, and it also has complete facilities such as towns, airports, and ports. There is nothing left on the other islands.

In the eyes of the Japanese, the delicate and expensive soldiers of the Ming Dynasty would not be sent to those desolate islands to drill caves, and the main direction of attack of the Ming Dynasty must be on Ryukyu Island.

Ushijima's garrison included three army standing integrated divisions and five independent divisions. Standing mixed into brigades, twenty-two independent. Infantry and artillery brigades. A Marine Corps, the garrison of the Ryukyu Islands, a single . Heavy artillery units, naval coastal defense units, air defense forces and police.

Japanese police were mobilized from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and other places after the Japanese army captured the Ryukyu Islands. After the Ming counteroffensive, they were also incorporated into the defenders as armed men.

The extremely poor Japanese were so hungry for land and wealth that after the start of the war, almost every land seized would immediately send a large number of officials, policemen and other personnel to 'exercise sovereignty'.

I was driven from the bustling city of Tokyo to Ryukyu Island, and I haven't been in power for a few days. Now they are being integrated into the regular army as cannon fodder, ready to meet the shells. One can imagine what kind of mood and morale these pampered police officers are.

Ushijima had about 300 tanks of various types and thousands of artillery pieces of various calibers, and the total strength of the total force was close to 200,000.

He had enough war supplies and enough food to feed him for two years. There were about 400 warplanes of all kinds on the airfields, and the inshore garrison fleet was equipped with hundreds of small ships, including the Huitian torpedo, which was secretly developed by the Japanese.

Ushijima placed his main force on Ryukyu Island, and only a small number of vigilant troops were stationed on the other islands. Once the Ming Dynasty attacked, those defenders only needed to go into the cave and resist desperately.

All the Japanese wanted was to delay time, and the longer the war dragged on, the more beneficial it would be for the Japanese. Because the assistance of the Americans is constantly increasing, they need time.

On paper, Ushijima's strength is strong. Such an army is no worse than the previous North Korean troops. It's just that the opponent he is about to face is even stronger, so strong that the commander of the army of this scale must be at least at the level of a general, but because no one wants to come, it falls on the head of the unlucky Ushishima Man.

Unlike the impoverished and brainwashed ordinary soldiers who became fanatical, the top brass of the Japanese army was basically a human spirit. Moreover, these military leaders who came to the army non-commissioned officer school and Lu University as a link are all very smart and have a very wide range of contacts.

It's like the top brass of the North Korean dispatch army, which was completely annihilated, and no one chose to commit suicide after the defeat. They left North Korea early and returned to their homeland, using all means to find excuses for themselves. In the end, it didn't work.

North Korea's 100,000 or 200,000 troops are still on the mainland, but the end result is that those commanders have no responsibility. Except for guys like Gu Shoufu, who were not strong-rooted, who were transferred to the reserves, the others just took a short break and returned to work.

Japan in this era did not experience wars against the Qing Dynasty and against Russia. There was no Black Ship Incident, and the results of the Meiji Restoration did not myth the imperial family, and they have always lived in the shadow of the Ming Dynasty. Compared with the Japanese who have become brave for various reasons in another time and space, in Japan in this era, at least the top level has no sense of deciding to die. Because the international situation is completely different.

In fact, from the moment of the loss of the Ryukyu Islands, the Ming Dynasty had already begun to plan a counterattack against the Ryukyu Islands in the near future. By the time it was officially implemented, the Ming had assembled a huge fleet of more than two thousand ships of all kinds.

According to the order signed by Zhang Cheng, the navy was solely responsible for the attack on the Ryukyu Islands. The front commander is Admiral Liu Fei, deputy commander of the Marine Corps, who will take full command of the ground operation to retake the Ryukyu Islands. However, the naval fleet is not under its command.

For this operation, the Ming Navy mobilized almost all the warships in the western Pacific. These ships were organized into several fleets, including two escort carrier fleets, one battleship shelling fleet, one regular aircraft carrier fleet, three escort fleets, and several transport fleets. The Navy mobilized eight Marine Divisions, with a total strength of more than 200,000 men.

At the same time, the Navy, in coordination with the Army, borrowed part of the strategic bomber force to participate in the early bombing of the Ryukyu Islands. At least 200 Japanese fighters had been blown up on the airstrip before the landing campaign was launched. At the same time, a large number of defenders were destroyed with various supplies, paralyzing communications, blowing up strong fortifications, and so on.

When the time came to the end of July, the large-scale attack on Ryukyu Island officially began.

The reason why the main target was chosen on the island of Ryukyu is simple: there are many airports and open spaces that can be quickly renovated and put into operation. As long as this area is controlled, the strategic bombers taking off from here will be able to quickly fly over almost all of Japan's large cities and industrial areas without any detours. In addition, naval warships can use the port on Ryukyu Island as a base, which greatly shortens the time to go out of the Pacific Ocean. It will also be able to cut off the connection between the Japanese mainland and the important Mariana Islands.

Saturday morning, July 27, 1940. When the Ming planes, which came to bomb every day, as a routine, left the sky over Ryukyu Island. The carrier-based aircraft of the two escort fleets of the Ming Navy carried out pre-landing firepower preparations for the Kerama Islands and Okinawa Islands.

At the same time, an artillery fleet of battleships, cruisers and destroyers began to approach the islands, carrying out large-scale shelling of Japanese airfields, barracks, headquarters, communications centers, transportation hubs, etc. The tragic Battle of the Ryukyus began.

By the afternoon, the Japanese planes deployed in the Ryukyus and the surrounding islands were almost completely depleted.

These Zero Combat and other types of fighters piloted by rookies were almost completely wiped out when they attacked the Ming fleet. The Japanese navy's top brass had long been obsessed with attacking the Ming surface ships, believing that destroying the Ming navy's living forces would help force the Ming to the negotiating table.

Under the orders of the higher-ups, the young rookie pilots turned a blind eye to the transports not far away, and launched a mad attack on the warships with strong air defense. The end result can only be a tragedy. The quality of the Japanese pilots and the quality of the fighters were far behind the Ming Navy. Under the combined strangulation of anti-aircraft fighters and proximity fuses, there were heavy casualties.

Although Daming only sent eight escort aircraft carriers as air cover platforms, they could recover from Taiwan. Bay Islands and even the mainland took off directly from the Fighting Falcon fighter jets to the skies over the fleet. After the fighters landed on the escort aircraft carrier to replenish fuel and ammunition, they could soon continue to take to the air for combat. This has kept the air power of the Ming Navy at full strength.

Ushijima asked for air assistance to the mainland. Shocked by the huge losses, the Japanese knew that they had to provide immediate assistance, but the Ming Dynasty's air offensive from Korea and Jeju Island was so strong that it was difficult for them to mobilize a large amount of air power to the Ryukyus in a short period of time. In this case, the Ming Navy easily seized air supremacy.

Then, under a combined naval and air attack, the small Japanese fleet stationed in the Ryukyu Islands was quickly sunk. The small warships of the Japanese army could not be the opponent of the Ming warships in any case, although they resisted heroically, but the result was already predestined.

The Ming naval artillery fleet soon approached the Ryukyu Islands, carrying out heavy artillery bombardment of exposed targets on the various islands. After destroying most of the targets, the Ming navy landed on the Kerama Islands two days later. And soon wiped out the garrison Japanese troops, and established a ship mooring ground and a logistics supply base here. It is very close to the Ryukyu Islands, making it an excellent base for advancement.

Two days later, the remnants of the island's defenders were completely wiped out, and the Ming engineering units built a number of front-line field airfields on several larger islands in a very short time.

In the era of piston engines, aircraft did not have high requirements for airport take-off and landing. The sappers of the Ming Dynasty drove bulldozers to bulldoze the selected place, and then used heavy rollers to press it several times. The rest is simple, there are two ways to quickly build a field airfield.

One is to use quick-drying cement, which can be used after dozens of hours. The second is to directly make the special steel plate and splice it together piece by piece after transporting it from the rear. Both of these methods of building field airfields were very simple and convenient.

When the construction of the Ming Dynasty's front-line airfield was completed, the struggle for naval supremacy near the entire Ryukyu Island became more intense.

The Japanese gritted their teeth and sent a large number of fighters from the fierce fighting of the local air defense force to the south to support the combat operations on Ryukyu Island. Most of the air defense of the homeland was entrusted to the American Air Force and the Japanese pilots who received American fighters.

In the days that followed, the air forces of both sides engaged in an almost non-stop large-scale air battle.

Daming Navy's fighter planes from the mainland, Taiwan. Take off from bay islands, front-line airfields, and even aircraft carriers in a brutal aerial duel with Japanese fighter units flying over from Kyushu.

In just a few days, the total number of warplanes destroyed from the sky to the ground airfield was as high as thousands! And this is not counting the losses caused by the fierce battles between the Daming fighter units departing from Korea and Jeju Island, among other places, and the resisting Japanese air forces over the Japanese mainland.

And that's not the end, it's just the beginning. (To be continued.) )