readx;

Chapter 1831 The soldiers are endless

At a time when there were frequent wars and endless fighting on the land of Lunan, the war in the Indian Ocean and the Southwest Pacific also entered a stalemate. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

As Britain and the United States continue to send more troops to South Africa, the southwest Indian Ocean region is overwhelmed. In order to change the unfavorable situation in the region, and at the same time to gain the name of righteousness and the support of the local people, the government officially recognized the independence and territorial integrity of Madagascar in mid-April, and promised to give Madagascar full economic and political independence after the end of the war, and only reserved the right to supervise foreign affairs and invest freely in Madagascar.

On 1 May, the government of Free Madagascar was established, and in the same month, with the help of the Japanese army, three divisions of the Madagascar National Defense Force were formed with the help of captured British and French weapons to jointly assist the Japanese army in resisting the aggression of British and American colonial countries.

The war in the Indian Ocean finally escalated in June.

In order to cope with the war in the southwest Pacific, the US Government suddenly launched an air raid on Madagascar on 3 June, which carried out wanton and indiscriminate bombing for a whole month, killing more than 6,000 Madagascar civilians, more than 400 Japanese soldiers, more than 1,000 Madagascar defense forces and Japanese and Indian troops, wounding more than 20,000 civilians, and wounding more than 3,000 horses and Indian soldiers.

The 23rd Air Corps of the Navy and the 5th Flying Division of the Army, deployed in Madagascar, put up a stubborn resistance, and together with the ground air defense forces, shot down more than 600 planes of the British and American Air Forces, and lost more than 300 fighters themselves.

As a result, after a month of air warfare, the newly formed 23rd Air Force of the Navy only had less than 80 fighters left, and another 70 fighters urgently needed to be repaired, and at the same time, the Fifth Flying Division of the Army participating in the war had less than 70 fighters left, and the British and American East African Air Force was strengthened by the South African Air Force, and quickly recovered to the strength of 900 aircraft, and the ratio of the number of fighters on both sides was six to one, that is to say, one Japanese fighter had to deal with six Allied aircraft, which was almost an impossible task. Air supremacy in Madagascar fell completely into the hands of the Allies.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the Japanese base camp ordered the Southern Army Command to urgently transfer 100 fighters from the 2nd Reserve Flying Division in Ceylon and the Maldives to reinforce Madagascar, so that the 23rd Air Force was restored to 130 fighters and the 5th Flying Division was restored to 120 fighters.

At the same time, the Fifth Air Force, which is headquartered in Singapore and is responsible for the air defense of the entire Southeast Asia, has also reinforced 300 fighters to the Third Air Army, which is headquartered in Kolkata. The Native Army sent 600 fighters to Southeast Asia. The navy also sent 200 fighters from the mainland to Southeast Asia, and 150 fighters from Southeast Asia to the Indian Ocean to deal with the next wave of Allied offensives.

As a last resort, the Navy and the Army reached an agreement: Army and Navy Air Force pilots could be seconded to each other in order to maintain front-line combat strength.

Before launching a large-scale landing operation, the Allies first carried out a small-scale landing operation, codenamed the "Big-headed Side-necked Turtle" program. The big-headed side-necked turtle is the name of a special species of Madagascar tortoise, and the name is taken to imply that the allies will land like the tortoise, in all directions and smoothly. As for the place where the landing operation was launched, it was the northern part of Madagascar, which was defended by a Japanese-Indian army wing.

The Allied landing target is located in Diego, in the north of the island of Madagascar. Puerto Suarez (then known as Mt. Antsiranana). The port is one of the most famous harbors in the Indian Ocean, and can only be accessed by a waterway that is only three-quarters of a mile wide. In addition, there is a long and narrow peninsula that separates the port area from the anchorage area.

Before the outbreak of World War II, the French army built a large number of fortifications here, and after the Japanese took over, they were reinforced again. Suarez was turned into an incomparably huge fortress by the Japanese army, and the landing operation was very difficult.

The Allied initial landing plan was to land near the anchorage and occupy the port, but this plan was quickly rejected by the commander in charge of the operation.

In the early days of the war, most of the Allied command was in the hands of the British, such as the commanders of this operation, Rear Admiral Callender and Albert of the Royal Navy. Rear Admiral Ferrandi, while the commander of the landing force was Rear Admiral Silrington of the Marine Corps, who was also responsible for the overall operation of the operation.

At the time of the departure of the landing force, the aerial reconnaissance and espionage work of the Allied forces was also being carried out in an orderly manner.

According to the information obtained, Callender, Alber. After discussions with Major General Silrington, Ferrandi decided to attack the port itself.

The 1st Infantry Division of the US Army and the 29th Infantry Brigade of the British Army were tasked with the landing mission. The U.S. 1st Infantry Division had a tank battalion of 90 M2 light tanks, while the British 29th Infantry Brigade was equipped with 20 Churchill infantry tanks and 16 Cromwell-type cruisers.

On 4 July, the Allied landing force sailed from the port of Durban, South Africa, through the Strait of Mozambique, towards the northern coast of Madagascar.

Escorting this fleet were the US Navy's New York-class battleships "New York" and "Texas," the Yorktown-class aircraft carriers "Yorktown" and "Hornet," as well as the British Royal Navy's battlecruisers "Lion," "Royal Princess," and "Tiger," six light aircraft carriers, including the "Unicorn," "Giant," "Honor," "Aare," "Glory," and "Ocean," and two "Kent"-class heavy cruisers, as well as a total of 25 destroyers of the two navies. Thirty-two escort destroyers and forty-six minesweepers can be described as the peak of military appearance.

In addition, Vice Admiral Somerville commanded a section of the Atlantic Fleet to ensure that nothing was lost.

Due to reports of Japanese submarines at the northern and southern ends of the island of Madagascar and in the Strait of Mozambique, as a precaution, Callender and Albert have been unable to do so. Ferrandi each brought a set of staff structures on the Kent-class heavy cruisers "Kent" and "Berwick".

On 11 July, the Allied fleet arrived at the intended location.

At 0:00 a.m. on the morning of the 12th, the minesweeper "Lafangli" quietly dived into the waterway at the entrance to the port, began to clear mines, and soon opened a passage in the minefield.

At two o'clock in the morning, the minesweeper "Fort Winchester" followed the "Lafangli" and entered the outer anchorage to continue the minesweeping mission.

At three o'clock in the morning, after all mines had been cleared of the outer anchorage and it was determined that there was no danger, the rest of the ships entered one after another. The Allies quickly laid down the landing force and carried out a stall grab.

As the Allied soldiers landed, more Royal Navy minesweepers began to nervously clear the mines at the inner anchorage.

However, what is surprising is that the roar of the engine of the British landing craft and the explosion of the detonated mines were not detected by the Japanese and Indian troops.

Before the Allied landings were massive, an amphibious assault team had sneaked ashore tasked with capturing a battery that could control the outer anchorage.

After a brief exchange of fire, the Japanese and Indian troops, fearful of their former master, the British, surrendered, capturing more than 400 soldiers of Indian origin.

At 6:10 a.m. on the morning of 12 July, 150 American F2A "Buffalo" and F4F "Wildcat" fighters, British "Swordfish" torpedo planes, and "San Martin" Bird fighters took off from the aircraft carrier one after another, and flew to Diego. Over the port of Suarez, they almost completely destroyed the merchant ships in the harbor and the nearby airfield, and by the end of the air raid, more than three thousand Allied troops had landed.

Out of distrust of the American recruits, the Allies were tasked with attacking Diego. In the city of Suarez is the British Royal Welzi Fusiliers, and its landing site is twenty miles from the city.

During their march towards the city, the British captured an officer of Indian origin and four Indian soldiers.

After a brief period of negotiations, the British sent the Indian officer to persuade the Japanese and Indian command at the port to surrender, but this soon proved to be an unwise move.

The Allies and their tanks came to a place leading to Diego. At the critical pass, Suarez was met with organized and stubborn resistance from the Japanese and Indian troops, which was very evident due to the warning given by the Indian officer, who had been released by the British.

When the Allies landed, they chose two beaches that were not adjacent to each other, because the density of minefields at the inner anchorage was much greater than the Americans and the British expected, and at noon an escort destroyer was injured and sank by a mine, so large ships could not enter the inner anchorage, which virtually increased the travel time from the carrier ship to the landing craft on the beach, resulting in a serious shortage of ammunition and food on the beach.

The transport ships carrying the artillery were unable to bring ashore the heavy firepower that the troops desperately needed, and it was not until dark that the ships found a place in deep water to unload the guns. And because the unloading site was relatively remote and there were no roads to access, the poor artillerymen had to take some time to converge these heavy weapons with the large forces.

Other problems have also arisen as the combat process deepens.

In order to transport as many personnel as possible, the vehicles belonging to the 29th Infantry Brigade of the British Army, which was tasked with the main attack, were limited to less than 100 vehicles, and the communications equipment assigned to the troops was also seriously insufficient, which made communication and liaison a major problem.

In an attack launched on the morning of the 12th, the "South Lancashire" rifle battalion, which was part of the 29th Infantry Brigade of the British Army, successfully penetrated the Japanese-Indian control line, but had to withdraw with its prisoners because of the lack of contact with friendly troops for a while.

An amphibious assault team also arrived at Diego at noon on the 12th. Inside the city of Suarez, however, it was not possible to find a transport to the base of the Japanese and Indian forces.

On the afternoon of 12 July, after the landing of the 1st Infantry Division of the US Army, Major General Silrington began to readjust his subordinates and ordered an attack on all fronts at 8:30 p.m. that day.

However, it was a Marine assault group that played a key role in the battle, aboard the destroyer "Anthony" and forcibly landed at a pier in a Japanese and Indian military base half an hour after the general offensive was launched. As the main forces of the Japanese and Indian armies were attracted to Diego. The position west of Suarez, there were very few people defending the dock, so the assault team entered the base without much effort.

After occupying the headquarters of the Japanese and Indian forces located in the base and clearing out the officers and staff officers who commanded the operation, the organized resistance of the Japanese and Indian troops finally stopped. However, the coastal forces of the Japanese and Indian armies, which were guarding the entrance to the port, did not surrender. For this reason, Stowell, the commander of the Royal "Verzi Fusiliers" regiment, personally sent two American-made radios to the Indian commander who commanded the troops, and then the white flags were displayed on the positions of the Japanese and Indian troops.

In the Allied forces in Diego. During the landing of Suvares, a submarine tried to sneak up on this huge fleet, but was immediately sunk by the "Swordfish" torpedo machine.

Unfortunately, more *** submarines gathered over, and the battlecruisers "Tiger" and "Lion" of the British Royal Navy Navy were sunk one after another.

Due to the shallow water in the harbor, the two warships were able to sink to the bottom of the sea, and they were salvaged soon after. The next day, another tanker was sunk, all three of which were sunk by mini-submarines carried on board the I-16 and I-20 ocean-going submarines of the *** Navy.

During the entire landing battle, the Allies lost 300 killed and more than 700 wounded, while the Japanese and Indian troops lost more than 450 wounded, about 1,000 wounded, and more than 2,000 captured.

The Allies have just captured Diego. In the port of Suares, a large-scale transport fleet was organized, and by the 22nd, three US divisions were finally transported to the port, and the Japanese air force and submarines carried out an offensive and laid mines, and the Allied fleet lost 10 minesweepers, 2 destroyers, and 18 transport ships, and the officers and men suffered more than 6,000 casualties, but they managed to complete the transportation task.

Faced with outnumbered Allied forces, the Japanese had to suspend the implementation of their plans for a counteroffensive on land.

Pacific Theater.

On land, the Japanese army immediately advanced along the coastline to southeastern Australia after receiving a large number of reinforcements and immigrants. As of 21 July, the Japanese army had advanced to the Nullarbor Plain area of South Australia, and was about to approach the Eyre Peninsula, where the US military had deployed heavy troops, and a new battle was about to break out.

Due to the defeat of the U.S. Navy in the waters of Western Australia, the Seventh Fleet, which was under the jurisdiction of the Allied Southwest Pacific Theater, was no longer enough to resist the attack of the superior navy.

Prior to July, the Japanese had occupied the Marshall Islands and the Gilbert Islands, and were advancing their maritime defenses into the Tuvalu Islands and the Solomon Islands. In order to ensure the safety of the South Pacific shipping routes, the US military has strengthened the defense of the Lane Islands, the Cook Islands, and the Fiji Islands south of the Hawaiian Islands, and on the other hand, it has built a large number of airfields with the Samoa Islands, the New Hebrides, and New Canedonia as its forward bases to resist the Japanese army's advance into the waters of the southeast Pacific Ocean.

Receiving MacArthur's distress call, Admiral Nimitz, who had recently been replenished with ships, was also worried about the deterioration of the situation in the Southwest Pacific theater of operations, so he decided to launch the Gilbert Islands Campaign.

The Gilbert Islands are atolls in the central and western Pacific Ocean, located at 173 degrees to 175 degrees east longitude, southeast of the Marshall Islands and northeast of the Solomon Islands, across the equator line, and are in the middle of the sea lines of communication on the west coast of the United States and the east coast of Australia. However, due to the sandy coral geology and flat terrain, almost every island is suitable for the construction of an airport.

According to the last pre-war census, the Gilbert Islands had 26,000 indigenous people, the highest population density of any island in the Pacific. The climate here is hot and humid, with annual precipitation of about 4,000 millimeters and an average annual temperature of 27 degrees Celsius. In 1915 the island became a British protectorate, and in 1915 it became part of the British colony of Gilbert and Ellis.

After the Japanese army invaded the Gilbert Islands, they immediately supported the indigenous people to establish a free Gilbert government, propagated national liberation and independence, won the support of the local indigenous people, and praised the people as saviors. However, due to the emphasis of the Japanese base camp on the defense of New Britain, New Ireland, and the Bismarck Islands, only a garrison of several hundred men was deployed in the Gilbert Islands, and there was not a single warship in the entire archipelago, and the air force had only one fighter and four seaplanes, and the only fighter among them could not take off because of the lack of spare parts.

The US forces participating in the Gilbert Islands Campaign were the Fifth Fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Spruance, and about 130 ships of various kinds were put into operation, including two aircraft carriers, four escort aircraft carriers, four battleships, six cruisers, 22 destroyers, 26 large landing ships, and more than 60 other landing and auxiliary ships.

There are about 600 combat aircraft, including 260 carrier-based aircraft, and about 50 B-17 "Flying Fortress" heavy bombers among shore-based aircraft.

In order to ensure the victory of the landing battle, Nimitz transferred the Second Marine Division and the 27th Infantry Division of the United States Army to the command of the Fifth Fleet for the landing operation on the Gilbert Islands.

The above-mentioned ground combat forces were organized into the Fifth Amphibious Army, which was organized by Horan. Major General Smith served as the commander of the army and assembled in New Zealand, Samoa, and Ellis to prepare for war.

The forces participating in the battle were under the unified command of Vice Admiral Spruance, commander of the Fifth Fleet, and the 50th Task Force was responsible for suppressing the Japanese airfields in the Marshall Islands, Truk, Nauru, and other places, so as to ensure the smooth implementation of the landing on the Gilbert Islands and be ready to meet the incoming Japanese fleet at any time.

According to the plan, the 52nd Task Force was responsible for the Makin Island landing operation, and the ground combat force was the 27th Infantry Division; Task Force 53, which was responsible for the landing on Tarawa Island, and the ground combat force was the 2nd Marine Division; The 57th Task Force, composed of shore-based air forces, provided air cover for the landing force's sea crossing.

After a week-long bombing and reconnaissance, the US military launched a landing operation on 22 July, only to find that all the Japanese troops stationed on the islands had already withdrawn.

As a result, the U.S. military occupied the Gilbert Islands bloodlessly, sounding the clarion call for a counteroffensive in the Pacific War.

......

On the morning of the 23rd, Nanhua, Xinjing, Xiaonanhai.

After receiving the war briefing from the United States, An Yi and his generals discussed and agreed that the current situation in the Pacific and Indian Ocean battlefields is chaotic, and the army has obviously strengthened its attack on the Australian mainland, but its main naval fleet is nowhere to be found, and the southwest Indian Ocean and the Central Pacific region may become the direction of the navy in the future, and a large-scale naval engagement is about to break out.

As far as the current South China is concerned, it is not yet appropriate to expose the strength of the navy, and it is the best policy to keep the light and obscure, and wait for the results of the separation of the three powers: Japan, Britain, and the United States.

The next step of South China's strategy is still to take the East Indies and Myanmar as soon as possible, and connect South China with India, West Asia, Central Asia and China through convenient railway transportation.

~~~~~~~~~~

: Thank you for the death *** head, huanghuzia, rookie elite, look down on history, li1387842511, can't spend, 15802539588 you have been rewarded for a long time, the Son of Heaven is grateful! ***！

Keep asking for a subscription and *** support!