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Li Guang rushed from Madagascar to Tang Port, which took eight days along the way. More than 4,000 kilometers, at the speed of the Li-class submarine, ten days to arrive, is also a very good indicator.

It was thought that by July 17, the Japanese fleet should be able to return to Ceylon, which would inevitably be a game of hide and seek, but the truth is that the voyage went smoothly.

Saving soldiers is like fighting fire, military common sense that even fools of the Japanese army should know. The Japanese navy withdrew for twenty days, enough time for the Japanese fleet to return to sail and then rush to Ceylon. But why hasn't it arrived yet?

The answer is: on the 17th, the Japanese fleet was still in Singapore and had not yet gone to sea, so it was impossible to reach Ceylon.

The Japanese Navy is not just a Ceylon battlefield, millions of square kilometers of land, tens of millions of square kilometers of sea territory, the Japanese Navy is really a bit insufficient.

First, in the Solomon Islands and the islands of New Guinea, the Japanese Navy had to fight not only to support the Army, but also to fight the U.S. Navy.

Secondly, in the direction of Ceylon, the Japanese Navy is to perform tasks of the same nature.

Third, the submarines of the Maritime Resistance Force and the US military have now begun to become a disaster. The officers and men of the US submarine gradually became skilled workers from the early stage of the war, and the attacks were pervasive, and by the middle of '42, the Japanese side could already hear the news of the sinking of the ship every day. Moreover, the Pacific theater is different from the Atlantic theater. There is a big big guy here - the US military. The US military has a lot of money, and submarines not only attack large merchant ships with torpedoes, but also give away a torpedo when they encounter a fishing boat of up to 100 tons.

Coupled with the key attacks of the anti-Japanese submarines in the sea, half a year after the start of the war, Japan no longer has absolutely safe shipping routes.

The little devil has always paid no attention to logistics, and ordinary merchant ships can ignore it. But some merchant ships were not transporting civilian goods. Rather, military supplies, which had to be escorted by a fleet.

In total, there were only more than 20 merchant ships in the Maritime Resistance Army, and more than a dozen ships were occupied to escort the escort. There are so many merchant ships in Japan, and it is not a problem to have fewer warships. Therefore, the little devil is only slightly realizing now that the seemingly powerful fleet is really, really not enough.

It was necessary to fight a war and escort ships, so the Japanese navy had no choice but to start making adjustments to its strength.

After the Battle of Midway, the Japanese Navy tried to hide the truth about the fiasco from the Japanese people. It's still going around promoting big wins. However, with the loss of five main aircraft carriers, the First Air Fleet was almost completely wiped out, and only one aircraft carrier, Zuihe, barely managed to save face, which was really embarrassing.

The little devil deceives himself. Simply hang the 1st Air Fleet on the books, and it can only be on the books. Now those aircraft carriers are except for the captured aircraft carrier Kaga. They all slept at the bottom of the sea.

In order to show that it was still strong, the Japanese Navy reorganized a Second Air Fleet.

At present, Japan's aircraft carriers, except for the Fengxiang, are still under the command of the Combined Fleet Command. The others were all drawn to the so-called Second Air Fleet.

Among them, the aircraft carrier Zuizuru of Rear Admiral Tadaichi Hara has undoubtedly become the main force of this fleet. There is no way, the little devil is now such a large and medium-sized aircraft carrier.

In terms of displacement, Japan also has two aircraft carriers that can be regarded as large and medium-sized aircraft carriers, both of which were converted from large cruise ships. The base displacement of the aircraft carriers Hayabusa Eagle and Flying Eagle is not small. But the speed is not good, the maximum speed is only twenty-four knots.

And Japan had a total of seven light aircraft carriers throughout World War II. It's all in the air now. They are: Fengxiang, Longxiang, Longfeng, Ruifeng, and Xiangfeng. Chitose, Chiyoda.

Among them, the Fengxiang has already been sunk once, and now it belongs to the Combined Fleet Command, and generally cannot be used.

And the Xiangfeng has already been sunk in the Battle of the Coral Sea. Although Chitose and Chiyoda are in the Navy, they are still seaplane carriers and have not yet been converted into aircraft carriers.

As a result, Japan now actually only has three light aircraft carriers, the Ryuchamp, Zuiho, and Ryuho, at its disposal.

However, the Japanese mainland still needs aircraft carriers to watch the house. As a result, the aircraft carrier Ryuho was left behind on the Japanese mainland.

The current Second Air Fleet is configured in this way.

Fifth Air Force: the aircraft carrier Zuizuru, another now counting on German ...... aircraft carrier.

The 6th Air Force, the aircraft carrier Hayabusa, the aircraft carrier Flying Eagle.

The Fourth Air Force, the aircraft carrier Longxiang, the aircraft carrier Ruifeng.

On the surface, this air fleet is a copy of the original First Air Fleet. But combat effectiveness is not a grade at all. First of all, the Fifth Air Force now has only one aircraft carrier. Secondly, the two aircraft carriers of the Sixth Air Force are not small in size and too slow. And then there are the two light aircraft carriers of the 4th Air Force. Coupled with the heavy losses of the Japanese elite pilots in the Battle of Midway, the aircraft carrier Flying Eagle had just been launched, and the crew was not yet proficient. Taken together, this Second Air Fleet did not even have half of the combat strength of the original First Air Fleet.

It is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice, and there are so many belongings for the little devils, so this arrangement is not wrong. At least the opponents they have to face are in better shape.

How many aircraft carriers does the US military have now? The answer is four.

However, the USS Raider aircraft carrier has many problems because it is an experimental aircraft carrier built by the United States at the beginning. The weather was a little worse, and he couldn't take off the plane at all, but he had to fight with the Liberty Dragon of the Naval Resistance Army. Therefore, it is used by the US military as an escort ship or a warship for transport aircraft, and no general is willing to accept an aircraft carrier of such a level as combat effectiveness.

However, after the First Battle of Midway, only the USS Enterprise and USS Saratoga fought in the Pacific.

Deeply feeling that the number of troops is insufficient, the US military is therefore preparing to transfer the USS Wasp, which is escorting ships in the Atlantic, to the Pacific Ocean.

In this way, the US military has three aircraft carriers.

In a simple quantitative comparison, the Japanese army still has an advantage, and as for the real combat effectiveness, it can be ignored for the time being, anyway, the American pilots are not very good now. The ratio of aircraft carriers on both sides was five to three, with the Japanese having the advantage. As for the battleships, the Japanese had the upper hand.

However, the Japanese army had to deal not only with the American army, but also with the war in Ceylon, so the number of troops was not so sufficient.

Outcome. After a quarrel, the importance of Ceylon and New Guinea and Solomon in the eyes of the Japanese Navy became apparent.

You must know that although the Ceylon battlefield was also initiated by the Japanese Navy, it was originally said that the benefits would go to the army. And on the Ceylon battlefield, the Japanese Army was on the offensive anyway.

How proud the Imperial Japanese Army is, it has not tasted defeat since the beginning of the war, although Nishimura Takuma has lived in Ceylon for many years, and the strength is superior, it is difficult to ask the navy for help. It can only be to urge reinforcements to come quickly.

However, on the battlefields of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, the Japanese and American armies were fighting, and the scale was much larger than that of Ceylon. The battle had only been fought for a month, and the Japanese had already committed three divisions in New Guinea. The number of troops is still being increased.

There, the Japanese Army did not have any superiority in strength. Although MacArthur was bitter about the beating. But with more than 200,000 troops, the equipment and supplies are sufficient, and the little devils can't take it for a while. In short, the reality is more urgent than ever for the Japanese Navy to be strengthened.

In the direction of Ceylon, the Japanese Navy is actually somewhat inauthentic, although it is not showing itself now. But it's a bit of a pit for the Japanese Army.

If you look at the map, you can see that in the direction of the Indian Ocean, as long as the Japanese army guards the three straits from west to east, the Allies will not be able to enter the South China Sea at all. The three straits are: Strait of Malacca, Sunda Strait, Lombok Strait.

The Central Pacific is different, and in this direction, from a strategic perspective, the Japanese Navy will not tolerate the intrusion of the US military. If the Japanese Navy held back, Rabaul in New Britain would soon become a target for the U.S. military. If the U.S. military occupies an island today, it will go further tomorrow. Then the Truk base, the fortress of the Japanese Navy in the Pacific Ocean, will also become a further target for the US military. Once the island chain is broken, the next step is for the U.S. military to attack the Japanese mainland.

Therefore, the Japanese navy's use of troops has shown its priority.

All five aircraft carriers of the Second Air Fleet were used in the Central Pacific Theater. In order to stop the army's mouth, two aircraft carriers were also mobilized for the Ceylon battlefield.

Isn't there only so many aircraft carriers in Japan? Why did an aircraft carrier pop up?

Because these two aircraft carriers are indeed aircraft carriers. Like the aircraft carriers Hayabusa and Flying Eagle, they were all converted from mail ships. And the name also brings the word eagle, which is the aircraft carrier Great Eagle and the aircraft carrier Cloud Eagle. However, the displacement is only a little more than 17,000 tons.

If you just rely on these data, it seems that although these two aircraft carriers are not good, they are not very bad, at least not much worse than the original Liberty Dragon aircraft carrier of the Naval Resistance Army. But if you really study these two aircraft carriers, you will know how big the gap is.

These two ships, to put it simply, are the use of cruise ships, the upper part of the hull is welded with steel structure, and the wooden planks are laid.

Not only did there be no command ship island, but even catapults, blocking cables, all of which were absent.

Perhaps the little devil also planned to continue to use it as a cruise ship after the war, so many of the original buildings on the ship were not demolished at all. As a result, this ship, which has a displacement larger than the aircraft carrier Liberty Dragon, can only carry about thirty fighters.

Another question arises, how to recover the plane without a blocking cable?

Little devils are very good at saving, and it is the tradition of little devils to live a budget-conscious life. The Japanese army has renovated a total of three of this escort aircraft carrier, and the other one is still being refurbished (Chongying). In the plans of the little devils, this aircraft carrier was intended primarily for escort and anti-submarine use.

Since it is escort and anti-submarine, it basically will not go out of China's mainland coast and the South China Sea. Therefore, after the plane took off, there was no need to return at all, and there were airfields in the Japanese occupation zone around.

It should be said that the devil is not unaware of the defect of the absence of a blocking cable, and also intends to install it. But after the outbreak of the war, the two ships were busy. They had another mission--- transporting planes to various battlefields.

Take a look at the Maritime Resistance Army, a PC merchant ship and a professional transport aircraft have been specially arranged on a small scale. And there is simply no free time.

Therefore, with the Japanese attacking, the two ships were busy. At this point, there is simply no free time to equip the blocking rope.

If the Japanese army could see the US escort aircraft carrier, I am afraid they would cry. You must know that the configuration of the US escort aircraft carriers is no worse than that of the Japanese light aircraft carriers. In addition to the speed is not comparable, the other configurations are even better.

Economically, the two countries are not at all rivals of the same level.

This time, the aircraft carriers sent by the Japanese Navy in the direction of Ceylon are two such things. However, such a fleet size is not worthy of the identity of Vice Admiral Jizaburo Ozawa. Postwar. The Japanese side explained Ozawa's behavior during this period as follows: After the end of the South Sea Campaign and the Indian Ocean Naval Battle, Ozawa withdrew from the front line of the Pacific War in a semi-leisurely manner, and after a short rest, Ozawa became the commander of the Third Fleet. To put it simply, Lieutenant General Ozawa has made outstanding achievements in the past six months or so, and now he has returned to his homeland and started to run for office. Didn't you see that so many officers died in the First World War at Midway? What's more, Nagumo Tadaichi was injured, and now the Second Air Fleet has no commander. And the commander of the Japanese Navy's Third Fleet is now missing. The original commander of the Third Fleet, Vice Admiral Takahashi Iwang, "worked hard and made great contributions" (to put it bluntly, it was an official oil. Unsuitable for front-line combat, he returned to China and served as the commander of the Wu Zhen Guard.

Jizaburo Ozawa was in a hurry to go back and run for an official. Naturally, he will not rush to the sea with his troops. Despite Vice Admiral Nishimura's repeated urgings, the navy did not move. The Navy will also make excuses, and the blame will be passed away, and the army aviation is not ready.

This is not a complete nonsense of the Navy, although Japan's fighter production is now higher than it was at the beginning of the war. However, the consumption on the battlefield is faster, and the fighters cannot be mobilized to support Ceylon for a while.

Vice Admiral Takuma Nishimura has also had enough of the uncle's style of naval aviation. In the Ceylon landings. Naval aviation simply cannot be on call. It is clear that there is no army aviation to use it. Although Nishimura Takuma was uncomfortable, after all, the army was superior, and it was difficult for the naval resistance army to defeat easily. Therefore, it will have to wait.

It was not until July 14 that Jizaburo Ozawa waited for the arrival of his successor, Lieutenant General Fuki Okawauchi. Hurriedly returned to the Combined Fleet Command.

Vice Admiral Fu 7 Okawauchi, who is not well-known in the Japanese Navy, is a little unusual. This vice admiral is the Chinese Army. In particular, several elite German mechanics of the chairman of the committee are enemies in the eyes of them. You must know that in the Battle of Songhu in 37 years, it was this Japanese admiral who led six brigades of marines to withstand the offensive of the Chinese army in Shanghai, causing considerable casualties to the Chinese army.

Although Vice Admiral Fu 7 Okawauchi is also an expert in mine warfare, and has also risen from the position of destroyer, cruiser, and battleship, he is fundamentally not an expert in naval warfare.

The current Southern Detachment Fleet is no longer the configuration it had at the beginning of the war, but has been changed to a kind of unit similar to that of a naval base area.

There is a custom in the Japanese Navy that certain generals with sufficient qualifications but not suitable for front-line combat are often transferred to such posts by the open and the covert.

At present, the warships of the Southern Fleet are still not few, but the combat effectiveness is no longer the same, and the capital ships have been transferred one after another.

Of course, the task of Okawauchi Fu Qi is not too heavy, according to Yamamoto 56's arrangement, only need to send some troops, materials and ammunition to the Japanese army in Ceylon, and the task will be completed. The occupation of Ceylon itself is the task of the army, and since the army has benefited, it is impossible to ask the navy to help watch the field all day long.

Although the Japanese army had the upper hand in the Ceylon war, the naval resistance army, which had absolutely no fighting, had no power to fight back, and the situation was not optimistic about the Japanese army at all. So why does Yamamoto think so?

Because, the Japanese Army, from Lieutenant General Takuma Nishimura to Admiral Shoichi Terauchi all bragged in front of the Navy that if they only needed to increase their forces a little more and add some fighters, the remnants of the enemy in Ceylon would be completely wiped out.

Lieutenant General Fushichi Okawauchi took office, and the Japanese Army also prepared its aviation and mobilized fighters. These fighters were still mobilized from Sumatra, so that the Japanese Army on Sumatra did not have a few fighters. Anyway, Sumatra has now been completely occupied by the Japanese army, and it is impossible for the Allies to counterattack for the time being, so let's have fewer fighters.

The planes and the air force are alive, but they can't go yet. His Excellency the Lieutenant Admiral had to get acquainted with his men, so no matter how much Nishimura screamed in Ceylon, it was not until the 18th that the Japanese navy dispatched warships.

The speculation of the Naval Resistance Army that the Japanese fleet would reach Ceylon around the 15th, and naturally it would not appear. Of course, Li Guang didn't know that the Japanese admiral had changed, and it was no longer Jizaburo Ozawa, but Vice Admiral Fu Qi Okawauchi, who had never heard of it.

The Japanese attack on Ceylon scared Britain and the Soviet Union enough, but in fact, the Japanese army did not actually take Ceylon as the main direction of attack, and there was no idea of joining Germany in the Middle East. (To be continued......)