While Japan was grieving and indignant at the destruction of the Combined Fleet, China also took advantage of the situation to launch another special battle.

Battle of Hunger: The only mine blockade in the history of warfare.

The sheer scale of this is unprecedented.

Its main purpose is to blockade the entire coastline of Japan, which is a very crazy idea, although the area of the Japanese island country is small, but the total length of the coastline is not small at all. And to blockade the whole of Japan, if it is with ships, it is undoubtedly a fantasy. After all, when manpower is poor, another weapon of war is needed here, mines, and mines that require a certain amount of science and technology.

Blockading Japan's coastal areas with mines is tantamount to choking the entire choke of Japan. Of course, this requires a premise, that is, China has so many mines.

Of course, since the Chinese side has such a plan, it is also a very crucial step in the war, and it is not impossible for China, with its war machine fully open, to have enough mines. What's more, this plan has been drawn up a long time ago, and the time for preparation is relatively sufficient. The premise is also a natural solution.

In order to meet the demand, the military port warehouses and airports on the east coast of China are full of all kinds of mines, and the arsenal also sends mines in a steady stream. In order to prevent all ships from entering or leaving Japan in a short period of time.

China's internal blockade operation against Japan, known as the "Hunger Campaign" by the Chinese side, was a large-scale mine blockade campaign carried out by China in the late stage of World War II in order to paralyze Japan's economy, destroy its war potential, and force it to surrender unconditionally. It was the largest blockade campaign during World War II and the only one in the history of world warfare to be carried out exclusively with mines.

Strength of both sides.

Chinese Army: The second aircraft carrier strike group composed of the mythical aircraft carrier Xuanyuan is the mainstay, with hundreds of Globemaster heavy bombers and thousands of Djinn bombers, including a large number of H-2 improved bombers.

The 2nd Carrier Strike Group, whose home port is based in Naha, has a mythical aircraft carrier, two Imperial-class aircraft carriers, and a large number of cruisers, destroyers, and frigates. The main thing is that this strike group is also equipped with a large number of minelayers.

The air force is mainly concentrated on the airfields on the eastern coast of China, Jeju Island, North Korea and the Ryukyu Islands. And this time the bomber troops. It's not about dropping bombs on the Japanese mainland. Instead, a large number of mines were dropped into the waters of Japan's offshore ports.

Japanese Army: The Japanese Army has more than 1,000 aircraft and more than 500 antiaircraft guns, and the Navy has about 1,200 aircraft and more than 700 coastal defense guns. In addition, the Navy has a number of old warships preserved.

Japan is a relatively industrially developed but resource-poor island nation. During the war, Japan imported 92% of its oil, 100% of its rubber and cotton, 87% of its iron ore, 90% of its coke, and 40% of its grain and other strategic materials. Most of the domestic material transportation is also through inland sea shipping.

Arguably. The sea lines of communication are Japan's lifeline. In light of this. China believed that by destroying Japan's sea lines of communication, it could weaken its economic production capacity. Destroy its war machine.

At the end of the 16th year of Zhongxing, the Chinese army formulated a mine blockade plan codenamed "Hunger Campaign." However, in the process of preparing for the campaign, the Chinese army found that neither the navy nor the army aviation at that time could complete the task alone. The main reason is that the naval forces, although they have mines, do not have suitable carrier-throwing aircraft. Because Japan's major ports have a large number of strong shore defense guns, warships simply cannot approach safely. So, this requires the two to cooperate with each other.

The "Hunger Campaign" lasted four and a half months from November 27 to April 15, the 17th year of Zhongxing, and the entire campaign was divided into five stages.

Phase 1:

The focus of the blockade by the Chinese army is the Shimonoseki Strait, the only route for Japanese transport ships. At the same time, mines were laid on Hiroshima and Sasebo to blockade the Japanese fleet and contain its minesweeping forces.

On November 27, 150 Globemaster bombers took off from Naha Air Base and arrived in mainland Japan that night. Among them, 58 planes dropped bombs at multiple locations to attract the attention of the Japanese army; The remaining 92 planes continued to fly north, dropping thousands of mines on the Shimonoseki Strait for the first time at an altitude of 1,500~2,500 meters.

On December 1, the Chinese army laid 3,000 tons of mines in the Xiaguan Strait, basically cutting off the strait.

Throughout the month of December, the Chinese army mainly carried out minelaying on the naval bases of Kure Port and Sasebo, as well as the Hiroshima military loading and unloading port, in order to block the area of movement of the remnants of Japanese ships. It can be said that in addition to blockading the Shimonoseki Strait and playing a lasting strategic blockade role, the minelaying at this stage also played a role in controlling the remnants of the Japanese military.

During this period, the Chinese army flew a total of 546 Globemaster bombers and laid 3,030 mines. 29 Japanese ships were sunk and 39 were damaged, totaling 200,000 tons. Due to the blockade of the Shimonoseki Strait and major ports, Japan's maritime traffic was reduced to 25% of its pre-war level, and cargo traffic through the Shimonoseki Strait fell by about 50%.

Phase 2:

(January 3rd ~ January 12th)

The blockade of the Chinese army focused on the cities of Japan's industrial centers. From 3 to 12 January, the Chinese army flew 595 sorties and laid 3,422 mines, and in addition to the Shimonoseki Strait, there were also important ports such as Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, and Osaka, as well as the main shipping lanes of the Seto Inland Sea, cutting off the sea traffic between Japan's major industrial zones and the entire transportation network of Japan's inland sea lanes.

For the first time, the Chinese army used hydrostatic mines at this stage. A hydrostatic mine is a non-triggering mine that is detonated by taking advantage of the change in the pressure of the sea water while the ship is sailing. At that time, there was no reliable sweeping equipment for this kind of mine, and it was easy to use and difficult to sweep, so the Japanese army was helpless and helpless.

In March, 113 ships were sunk or damaged by mines in the Shimonoseki Strait, forcing ships carrying goods from the Sea of Japan to not enter the Seto Inland Sea directly through the Shimonoseki Strait, but to make a detour to ports in northwest Honshu and on its west coast to unload.

The Seto Inland Sea, Japan's main shipping sea. In fact, it has become the "Dead Sea". The Seto Inland Sea was only accessible to small wooden boats and barges, resulting in a serious shortage of resources in Japan's industrial cities, and national production was on the verge of a halt.

Stage 3:

Due to the mine-laying blockade by the Chinese army, which interrupted the route from the Seto Inland Sea to the Asian continent through the Shimonoseki Strait, Japan had to re-choose its outlet and route to the sea and bring back as much food, industry, and military supplies as possible on which it depended. To this end, Japan made full use of the ports of Maizuru, Tsuruga and Fushigi in the northwestern part of Honshu.

From 13 January to 6 February, the Chinese armed forces flew 509 sorties to lay 3,013 mines in ports in northwestern Honshu and Kyushu, and began to use low-frequency acoustic mines with strong sweeping resistance. Completely blockaded these ports. More than 1,200 Japanese ships were blocked.

In order to ensure the smooth flow of shipping lanes and ports, Japan organized 349 minesweeping ships and more than 20,000 personnel to carry out large-scale minesweeping operations. Despite the fact that the Japanese minesweepers lost three-quarters of their ships, the cost was enormous, and countless yen was spent in the Seto Inland Sea alone. But it was still not possible to break through the blockade of the Chinese army. Japanese ships did not dare to go to sea easily. Large quantities of supplies are difficult to repatriate. Japan gradually fell into a situation of paralysis and starvation.

Stage 4:

The main purpose of the Chinese army is to complete the complete blockade of the northwest of Honshu and the ports of Kyushu, and at the same time, because the Japanese army has successively invested more than 340 ships and more than 20,000 men to clear mines, in order to ensure the density of mines in the minefields. The Chinese armed forces have repeatedly laid mines in the Shimonoseki Strait, as well as in key sea areas and ports such as Kobe and Osaka.

From 7 February to 8 March, the Chinese army flew 404 sorties and laid 3,542 mines.

In addition, seaplanes of the Chinese Army Aviation Unit stationed at the base of the Ogasawara Islands also participated in the minelaying.

From March 10 to March 15, 2,086 mines were laid on the south coast of the Korean Peninsula with the aim of forcing Japanese ships of more than 1,000 tons to leave Japanese waters and sail into the open sea, so that the surface ships of the Chinese army could strike at them.

Several months of minelaying led to the blockade of Japan's major ports, the highest number of ships lost in Japan, a significant reduction in the number of ships sailing between Honshu and Kyushu, and the almost complete cutoff of shipping between the Shimonoseki Strait and the industrial port.

In January, 586 ships passed through the waters near Osaka, but by March it had decreased to 34; The number of ships in the sea near Kobe, another industrial port, dropped from 414 to 21. The number of ships entering and leaving the two ports fell from 720,000 tons in January to about 100,000 tons in March, a drop of about 86%. Similarly, cargo throughput at other ports has plummeted.

The fifth stage is from March 16th ~ April 16th

During this phase, the Chinese army focused on expanding the blockade area. During this period, the Chinese armed forces dispatched a total of 1,474 sorties of bombers and laid 23,746 mines, which were extremely extensive; in addition to continuing to blockade the Shimonoseki Strait, the Honshu and Kyushu regions, and the major ports, the Chinese army combined with minelaying ships to carry out large-scale minelaying in the entire Japanese ports where large ships could berth, forcing the Japanese ships staying in these ports to be unable to sail.

As a result of extensive minelaying, all of Japan's shipyards and industries were brought to a near standstill, and ships damaged by the bombing could not be repaired in a timely manner, and maritime traffic was on the verge of a standstill.

Due to Japan's extreme shortage of grain, coal, and other raw materials, the transport ships were forced to take desperate risks, regardless of the danger of mines at any time, in an attempt to forcibly break through the blockade of the Chinese army, but the results were not good. With almost all transportation routes to the outside world cut off, Japan was completely paralyzed.

The "Hunger Campaign" began on 27 November and ended on 15 April, lasting four and a half months, during which the Chinese army dispatched thousands of Globemaster bombers and laid nearly 100,000 mines, including more than 44,900 magnetic mines, more than 33,500 acoustic mines, more than 22,900 hydrostatic mines, and more than 7,700 infrasound mines.

The Chinese army's aerial mine-laying blockade operation, codenamed the "Hunger Campaign," achieved the expected strategic and campaign objectives, dealt a heavy blow to Japan both materially and spiritually, and hastened the complete collapse of Japanese militarism.

Hunger began to accompany Japan, and a large number of desperate deaths were caused by hunger every day, and social contradictions became serious.

The enlightenment brought about by this example is that a low-tech weapon equipped with a large number of weapons has played a decisive role in blockade operations, and it is worthy of study and reference.

PS: Something happened to Huali's family in the past two days, which led to brain disorders.

From a phone call at more than 3 o'clock in the morning to now, Huali has been in Xiamen 174 Hospital all day, and the mood is very bad! (To be continued......)