Clark Air Force Base, inside the command of the Pacific Fleet.

After listening to the information about the navy, Chen Shao spoke: "This time I came to the Philippines for another purpose. The war has been going on for a whole year, and the ground fighting has never stopped, whether in the north or in the west. The Soviet Union was almost overwhelmed and clung to a few territories.

In North Africa, Germany had been completely defeated, and the Mediterranean Sea was controlled by the Allies. From the Arabian Peninsula to the Caucasus, there are wars everywhere. The empire has sent nearly a million troops to the Middle East, and the rest of the troops have been invested in the Caucasus and the Arabian Peninsula except for the defense against the Indian allies.

Instead of landing in Germany as expected, the Allies sent large numbers of troops to the Middle East. The United States is unable to continue to increase its support for Europe.

At present, it can be said that the war has shown a stalemate of a protracted war. This is the last thing we want to see, and it must not be more than a year before the end of the war. This is the minimum requirement of the Empire. The key to a quick break to the impasse is in the United States.

The Pacific region is the most critical place in the overall situation, and as long as we win this ocean war, the United States will inevitably panic.

I don't ask our Marines to land on the U.S. mainland, because that's too much for logistics. But west of Hawaii, I don't want to see the Allies still holding even one of the islands.

I hope that next summer, when the soldiers of the Northeast Theater begin the battle across the Bering Strait, you will be able to hold the Pacific firmly in your hands. ”

Speaking of this, Chen Shao glanced at the contemplative people in the conference room and said slowly, "My generals. One year, the bottom line of the empire is only one year, and this year the empire's economy has zero growth for the first time, which is not a good sign. ”

As soon as Chen Shao's voice fell, Wang Jie immediately took out a few documents from his briefcase and put them in front of everyone.

"This is a plan of the High Operations Department of the Wehrmacht. You can take a look. ”

Since the beginning of the Pacific War, the Supreme Operations Department of the Chinese National Defense Forces has already thought of a fairly complete strategic plan for defeating the Allied forces.

At the beginning of the year, they wrote down the idea and presented it to Chen Shao.

The Supreme War Department asserted that the Marshall Islands were occupied or blockaded. You can cross the Pacific Ocean. Attacks on Hawaii by way of New Guinea and the Philippines should be carried out by his forces.

In the words of the Supreme Department of Operations, an offensive should be launched along the Australia-Mindanao axis. And it is done mainly by the army. The task of the Navy is nothing more than to transport ground forces from the sea to some important places. The landing was then carried out under the cover of army aircraft.

In addition to transporting and repatriating landing forces, the Navy should also be responsible for supporting the shelling of coastal targets, the protection of sea lines of communication, the blockade of Japanese-occupied islands, and the flanks of attacking army units.

The Supreme Operational Department emphasized that the proposed offensive line had the following advantages:

1. It can make use of some of the bases that China has established in the South Pacific and the Southwest Pacific;

2. A line of defense could be established between Australia and the Japanese-occupied islands in the South Pacific;

3. This is the only offensive line that can always be supported by shore-based aviation;

4. Since this line of attack passed through a number of large islands in the southwest and western Pacific Oceans. The Chinese troops could then detour to some of the important points heavily fortified by the Allied forces and occupy the places where their resistance was relatively weak.

"There's something wrong with this plan!" After reading the plan, Qian Sihai couldn't help but say.

"It doesn't hurt to be straight." Chen Shaodao.

"This is a detour to the Allies. Advancing along this axis is a waste of troops, and it is necessary to have a long and fragile line of communication. Moreover, the pace of the advance will be quite slow, because each step forward will be limited by the radius of movement of fighters and bombers (who also need to escort them).

By attacking from only one strategic direction, it is easy for the Allies to judge the spearhead of the next offensive, and they can concentrate their forces on our way to resist. In addition, ground forces are threatened by malaria and other tropical jungle diseases, and must pass through a number of military points where the enemy can support each other. The flanks, rear, and lines of communication of this route will also be attacked by Allied forces entrenched in the Central Pacific.

In fact, since the Spanish-American War in 98 of the last century, the US Navy has been faced with the problem of how to defend and recover the Philippines. A direct crossing of the Central Pacific is the best route for troops, which the US Navy has long concluded.

There are no large islands in the Central Pacific, and the objects to be fought for are only a multitude of small islands and atolls. Our attack from the Central Pacific poses a great threat to the whole of Japan and the United States, and will force the Allied forces to divide their forces to guard the various positions they have deployed throughout the Pacific region.

Of course, our troops attacking such strongholds (small islands) must land at fortified points of the enemy, but we can concentrate our superior forces to capture a certain island or an archipelago. Because of the distance between these islands, it was generally difficult for the defending allies to support each other. In the event of a blockade by our aircraft carrier forces, the Allies will not be able to implement reinforcements.

Attacking from the Central Pacific Ocean not only had better meteorological conditions and shorter transportation routes, but also saved ground troops and ships. An attack from the Central Pacific can not only cut off the sea lines of communication between the Allied mainland and the South Pacific, but also shorten our sea lines of communication to the South Pacific, and in addition, it can quickly advance the battle line to the coastal waters of the United States, forcing the Allied fleet to engage in a decisive battle, and it can also directly launch air strikes on the US mainland. ”

Qian Sihai obviously has a draft for a long time, and it sounds very smooth. It is not surprising that an attack from the Central Pacific Ocean was originally the next offensive plan formulated by the Pacific Theater.

However, the War Department had already anticipated that the staff officers of the Pacific Theater would adopt the strategy of launching an offensive along the axis of the Central Pacific, so long before China entered the war, it ordered 12 escort aircraft carriers converted from merchant ships and 10 converted amphibious transport ships, and these escort aircraft carriers and amphibious ships were delivered to the fleet at the beginning of this year.

It would be a waste to use these escort carriers to support operations on the Australia-Mindanao axis. If these escort carriers do not undertake such purely auxiliary tasks. It will be possible to operate on the vast ocean and constantly expand the scope of sea supremacy. With these escort aircraft carriers and amphibious ships, which can be used as bases for maritime activities, as the vanguard, the forces in the Central Pacific can carry out island-crossing operations against some of the Allied islands without the support of shore-based air forces, and can effectively protect their own sea lines of communication.

In fact, when Qian Sihai had an opinion, Chen Shao also replied: "The Supreme Operations Department also took into account your ideas, and when I set off, Cai Ye had already told me in advance that the Pacific Theater would definitely have opinions." So, synthesize your thoughts. I think it can be so. Offensive of the Australian axis. Still going on. The plan for the Central Pacific is also carried out in accordance with the plan drawn up by the Pacific Theater Command.

I'm driving the shipyard crazy this time to support you. Working overtime day and night, there will be enough ships for you to use. ”

The second operational plan mentioned above is coordinated with each other. A huge pincer offensive is formed. The scale of this pincer offensive. Much larger than any pincer offensive.

Despite the two-pronged approach of China. The eastward advance from two operational directions once again put the Allies in an advantageous position to fight on the interior front. However, Chen Shao believes. The power of the new Chinese aircraft carriers and their maneuverability were sufficient to offset the above-mentioned favorable conditions of the Allies.

On the other hand, an attack from two directions would either protect the flanks and lines of communication of the Australian axis, force the Allies to divide their forces for defense, and most importantly, cut off communications between the mainland of the United States and Australia.

Due to the many uncertainties of the situation, Chen Shao did not make a specific decision prematurely in order to give the plan some flexibility and determine how to implement the strategic plan once the time is ripe.

Chen Shao is not untargeted, he also takes the overall situation into account. At least the plans of both sides can be combined to make it more perfect. The only drawback is that a large number of modified aircraft carriers and amphibious ships are required. Now this problem can finally be solved. Taking advantage of the fact that the Japanese-US combined fleet does not have the energy to take care of these scattered island groups, it is a good opportunity for the Pacific theater of operations.

"Your Majesty, what about the troops? It is necessary to launch an offensive both on the Australian axis and on the islands of the Central Pacific. The number of our troops, is not enough. Qian Sihai liked Chen Shao's decision very much, but the problem came again, the offensive in these two directions required a large number of troops.

Chen Shao smiled slightly, this problem had been considered for a long time, he was naturally not unprepared at all, "Since last year, the empire has expanded its army to 10 million, deducting 1.5 million sea and air forces, counting all the forces of the Marine Corps and the army, we have 8.5 million soldiers who can fight." Nearly half of the troops have been expanded in the past six months, and they are all former retired soldiers.

Considering the change in the situation of the war, the Pacific climate also had a great impact on the soldiers, and when the troops were expanded, six jungle combat units with full formations were formed again.

Today's South Pacific belongs to the summer of the Southern Hemisphere, and the Pacific rainforest is very demanding for soldiers. These six armies, the 300,000 troops specially trained for jungle warfare, are the troops that exist specifically for this kind of battlefield. I believe that with the addition of these 300,000 new forces, you will not have too many troubles. ”

"Then I don't have a problem." Money Shikaido.

Seeing the conference room that sank again, Chen Shao stood up directly and said: "An attack carried out from two directions can only achieve the greatest results by supporting each other and closely cooperating with each other, so I have decided that the entire Pacific Theater, except for the Pacific Fleet, will be included in the Pacific Theater command system and will be under the unified command of Qian Sihai." ”

No one objected to Chen Shao's decision, not to mention Chen Shao's prestige, even his order was very reasonable. In the Pacific Ocean, the main force to which the Pacific Theater belongs is the Marine Corps, while the Jungle Army is more of a cooperative nature, and many of the land forces that have landed in Australia have not been formally included in the Pacific Theater system. The Air Force has always been independent.

Chen Shao's order, directly hand over all these things to Qian Sihai, and the meaning is completely different. At the very least, the Pacific theater of operations has been further expanded.

In fact, when you open the world map and look around Australia, you can see that there are so many islands. Without a unified command structure, coordination is bound to be troublesome.

The scale of the offensive from the Australian axis to the Central Pacific is unprecedented in the history of warfare. How can China conquer the allied islands dotted with allied forces? What about crossing the ocean and pushing the front forward in great strides? There is little historical experience to draw from in this regard.

To launch this new offensive, it is necessary not only to adopt new methods in training, but also to adopt new measures in combat, support, supply, and maintenance, and to develop a whole new set of weapons and equipment.

Nevertheless, by the autumn of the sixteenth year of Zhongxing, that is, a year after China entered the war, preparations for an offensive from the Central Pacific were about to be ready. It was also a great achievement in the Second World War.

It's not a petty fight, it's a real big deal.

The main force of the Central Pacific Force is the attack fleet of the Chinese Pacific Theater. The fleet is a composite force of soldiers, ships and aircraft. It was formed for the implementation of long-range assaults.

This is a completely different fleet from the Pacific Fleet, which is completely in the service of sea and air supremacy. At the moment the fleet has only one real aircraft carrier. But this attack fleet has the most powerful ground attack force.

Since last year, China's first amphibious assault ship was officially put into large-scale service, the attack fleet has been up to now. There are already twenty-two such amphibious assault ships. These big guys with a displacement of more than 30,000 tons. Not at all smaller than the First Emperor-class aircraft carriers. In fact. This, in the eyes of Western countries, is an aircraft carrier. It's just that there are no fixed-wing fighters on it, but helicopters.

Straight-through deck. The independent ship island is actually what the aircraft carrier of World War II looks like. It's a different story, though. Of the hull of the Gundam, only two floors are helicopter hangars. The rest are docks for loading marines and amphibious armored vehicles, tanks.

Landing warfare is the core task of amphibious assault ships. It will not be responsible for air supremacy and sea supremacy.

The real reorganization of the fleet began after the Japanese Combined Fleet attack, that is, with the arrival of the first amphibious assault ship USS Yangcheng Lake (37,000 tons, 32 knots) to the Philippines.

Then, the first fast light aircraft carrier (merchant ship modification) with a displacement of about 10,000 tons also sailed to the Philippines.

Up to now, the attack fleet has 1 aircraft carrier, 5 light aircraft carriers, 8 escort aircraft carriers, 22 amphibious assault ships, 24 cruisers, 56 destroyers, 86 frigates, 129 transport ships, 150 integrated supply ships, and 64 arsenal ships (don't think about it crookedly, it is the kind of merchant ship modification, and then place a large number of rocket artillery launchers, exclusive attack missions on the island, make up for the firepower gap between naval guns and carrier-based aircraft, there is no technical content. During World War II, when the United States was fighting the Ryukyus, there were a lot of these things among the nearly 1,000 ships. The arsenal ship is purely a gorgeous personal name. Not the guy who can put more than 500 missile launchers), four large medical ships, as well as a large number of landing craft and various special ships (e.g., minesweepers, rescue ships, etc.).

The commander of this powerful fleet is Admiral Xiao Jinguang. He was also a talented and demanding naval officer. He excelled while teaching at the Naval Staff College and was known as a strategist.

The assault force of the assault fleet is its fast aircraft carrier task force. The main tasks of this task force are to support landing operations, such as carrying out long-range assaults to blockade the landing area, preparing for aviation fire on the landing area before the landing force makes a surprise landing, providing tactical support to the landing force, and intercepting the enemy in the air and at sea that threatens the ships of amphibious warfare. This fast aircraft carrier task force is usually organized into 4 task forces. Each task force is equipped with one light aircraft carrier and two escort carriers, with three to four cruisers, four to six destroyers, and eight to ten frigates to escort them.

When the task force is on cruise, the frigates form an outer anti-submarine warning screen, but when there is a danger of air attack, the frigates are ordered to join the inner ring of destroyers and cruisers.

These aircraft carrier task forces are extremely flexible and can operate in coordination with other units or carry out combat missions independently, and some of them can be drawn from them to form surface ship assault formations to carry out special missions.

This aircraft carrier task force is a floating aviation base on the sea, which can open the way across the Pacific Ocean to the Allied coast.

The landing combat strength of the attack fleet is an amphibious combat group, and in order to carry out landing operations, this amphibious force is composed of amphibious assault ships, transport ships, cargo ships, landing ships, dock landing ships, and so on.

In order to organize escort ships and perform direct support missions, it also has destroyers, escort aircraft carriers, cruisers, and arsenal ships. This unit is usually divided into two or three echelons in battle, and often part of the force is also sent to carry out special tasks.

If there is a tactical need, it also sends fast ships with artillery as the main weapon, or acts with aircraft carrier task forces or landing formations.

Since the beginning of the war, we have constantly summed up experience and divided the work more and more carefully, often assigning the task of preventing the enemy's counterattack to fast aircraft carriers and their alert ships, while handing over the task of providing tactical support to the ground forces to the escort aircraft carriers of the amphibious combat forces and the ships with artillery fire as their main weapon.

All ground forces under the umbrella of the amphibious combat forces, whether they are the army or the Marine Corps, are all integrated into the amphibious combat group army.

The Strike Fleet also has a shore-based aviation force, which includes aircraft belonging to the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. At first, the task of this shore-based aviation unit was mainly to assist aircraft carriers in carrying out pre-landing aerial reconnaissance and air raids on landing areas.

Subsequently, the task force of fast aircraft carriers and amphibious combat units were able to accomplish the task of supporting landing operations without the support of shore-based aviation, and the more they fought, the more experienced they became. Therefore, the name of the unit was changed to the Central Pacific Forward Area Air Force. At this time, its mission was to conduct aerial reconnaissance, destroy enemy bases, and defend the newly occupied bases in China.

In order to quickly cross the Pacific Ocean and to advance and dominate the sea, the attacking fleet must maximize its maneuverability and overwhelming strategic momentum.

Like the fleet 100 years ago, the situation of being tied up near the rear base due to the need for supplies, loading fuel and repairs had to be shaken off. In order to protect the occupied territory from Allied attacks, and to be able to repeatedly attack Allied forces in order to create favorable conditions for the next offensive, the fast aircraft carrier task force must be able to stay at sea (or forward) for a long time.

The key to the attack fleet's ability to sustain operations lies in its ability to quickly build forward bases by taking advantage of the lagoons of certain atolls and other relatively hidden anchorages. Because of the need for replenishment at sea, the more the tide of war moves forward, the more it is necessary to establish more forward bases.

The logistics supply ship formation is composed of supply ships, repair ships, and floating docks belonging to the logistics support unit. This formation can not only replenish all the ships fighting in the front, but also repair damaged ships (except for those who have been seriously damaged and need to enter the factory for overhaul).

Before the start of the next campaign, the ships of the attacking fleet must enter the forward bases set up by the logistics support units at sea or on the shore in a planned way to repair the ships and give the crews a rest.

The front was gradually advancing eastward, and the formation of logistics supply ships was moved to appropriate anchorages in order to establish a new forward base close to the operational sea area.

Fast aircraft carrier task forces, which can be replenished by supply ships during the voyage, can reduce the time spent at forward bases to a minimum. It is expected that in the later stages of the Pacific War, only one aircraft carrier task force will be drawn from the operational area each day to rendezvous with the supply ship group, and the remaining groups will still be able to continue Allied operations.

Immediately after rendezvous at sea with the supply ship group, the aircraft carrier task force replenished fuel, replenished ammunition, food, various spare parts, aircraft and personnel, received the mail, and sent the seriously wounded to the hospital ship. Then, return to the operational sea area, replace another aircraft carrier task force and go to the rendezvous point the next day for resupply, and after the sea supply ship group has finished replenishing each aircraft carrier task force, the cargo on each supply ship will be pooled, and the empty ship will return to the forward base for reloading. During this time, new ships loaded with supplies departed from the base for replacement.

This complex and meticulous replenishment at sea is only one aspect of the overall planning, construction, ordering, training, transportation and maintenance. This kind of replenishment by sea will not only enable China to turn this composite force into a rapid and powerful assault force, but also enable the US military to send a powerful military force from the Chinese mainland to Australia in less than a year. (To be continued......)