After a long construction period of three and a half years, the improved "Zeppelin-class" aircraft carrier "Zhejiang", which the Chinese Navy ordered from the Ansaldo shipyard, was finally able to be delivered to service. At the same time, two improved "Romanian-class" heavy aircraft carriers, built by the German North Sea Shipyard and the Austro-Hungarian Isliea Shipyard for the Chinese Navy in mid-1940, began to be delivered to the Chinese Navy almost at the same time. Along with these two heavy aviation ships, delivered to the Chinese also included two "Zagreb-class" air defense cruisers with a standard displacement of 12,600 tons and four ocean-going destroyers of the 3,700-ton class. Sa Shijun, who had been training ships in Europe, awaiting the receipt of Italian-built aircraft carriers, and had participated in some of the combat operations of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, was promoted to vice admiral and became the first commander of the newly formed air fleet.

Before the outfitting of the three aircraft ships and frigates, the Chinese navy had sent more than 13,000 officers and sailors to Europe for early adaptation training.

With the intervention of Xu Shuzheng, two "Romanian" class aircraft carriers were named "Xihai" and "Beihai" in honor of the historical exploits of the Wehrmacht in recovering Balkhash and Baikal, while two large air defense cruisers were named "Kulen" and "Tashkent".

The base camp agreed to Admiral Liszt's request to set up a task force to be sent by China to cooperate with Allied military operations in the South Pacific, and the new fleet under the command of Sa Shijun was reorganized into the South Pacific Fleet to cooperate with the Axis operations in Australia.

The newly formed South Pacific Fleet consisted of 3 aviation ships, 2 battleships and 4 air defense cruisers, 4 light cruisers and 8 ocean-going destroyers. At present, the strength of the Combined Fleet of the Axis Far East is far superior to that of the Japanese Navy and the American Navy, and although the Americans and the Japanese surpassed the Axis fleet in terms of the number of battleships, the Japanese Navy, which has only four aircraft carriers, has only about 300 carrier-based aircraft combined. The U.S. Navy now has only seven aircraft carriers at full disposal, while the Axis Far East Fleet is now far superior to its opponents.

In the Chinese theater, the Wehrmacht was still capable of launching a full-scale counteroffensive against Japan when it dispatched 3 million troops to fully cooperate with the Axis powers in the war against the Soviet Union. In Jiangnan, the Wehrmacht recaptured Wuhu in March 1942 and approached the Nanjing area. More than 700,000 Japanese troops from East China could only retreat into a narrow triangle of Nanjing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, struggling to support themselves.

In North China and Mongolia, the Chinese side has concentrated more than 3.5 million troops and is ready to launch a full-scale counteroffensive against the three eastern provinces at any time. Now the morale of the entire Northeast Theater is high, and all the officers and men can't wait to launch an attack immediately. At the beginning of May, the 32nd Group Army of the National Defense Army and the newly formed 52nd Group Army were stationed at Rehe and Shanhaiguan, and the entire Kwantung Army, especially Naosaburo Okabe, who was responsible for defending the line from Jinzhou to Shanhaiguan, became very nervous, and the entire Kwantung Army entered a state of combat readiness.

But the expected offensive was delayed.

There was a lot of debate within the Axis Allies about how to solve Japan's problems.

In terms of military strategy. The Allies were divided into two factions, which always held opposing views on how to fight against Japan, and eventually a head-on conflict was formed. One faction echoed the views of the Army faction, namely the General Staff of the Chinese Army headed by Chiang Zuobin and the German-Austrian military delegation headed by Falkenhausen, and advocated advancing from northeastern China to Korea, and then crossing the Korean Strait to attack the Japanese mainland, that is, the so-called "Northeast Operational Plan"; The other faction supports the Navy's view and advocates island-by-island assault along the island chain between Taiwan and the Japanese mainland. That is, the so-called "Pacific Operational Program".

Vilmots? The battle plan drawn up by the Far East Navy headed by Admiral Yankel even simply abandoned the island of Taiwan, which was strongly defended by the Japanese, and instead chose to land on the Yaeyama Islands, where the Japanese defense was weak. In this way, the supply channel of the Japanese mainland to the southern invading Japanese army and more than 30 divisions in Taiwan can be directly cut off. Yankel insisted that the enemy would soon be forced to surrender if the strategic air force continued to bomb Japanese ports and cities, disrupt Japanese production, and the naval forces tightened the blockade.

Army generals such as Chiang Zuobin and Falkenhausen stuck to the convention, believing that a naval attack would not force the Japanese to surrender in any case. The enemy's armed forces must be defeated on land. Attacking Northeast China first, then the Korean Peninsula, and then the Japanese mainland islands was the right path to victory.

The main admirals, including Admiral Yankel, Admiral Marshall, and Admiral Chen Shaokuan. It was agreed that it would be a huge sacrifice and a waste of time. Admiral Yankel even insisted on a direct attack on Okinawa, believing that if the Ryukyu island chain was broken, Japan would die.

After the end of the Battle of the Dutch East Indies, the strategy of the navy was taken seriously by the German and Austrian sides, and because of the war against the Soviet Union, the German and Austrian sides did not want the Chinese side to disperse its forces to the northeast front. Jiang Zuobin was furious and extremely dissatisfied with this. At the end of 1941, Chiang Fangzhen was ordered to go to Vienna and Berlin to explain to the German and Austrian emperors the mood and determination of the Chinese side to recover the lost territory.

Jiang Fangzhen's lobbying had a certain effect. In view of the fact that the Okinawa Campaign did not require much army troops, and that the Chinese side had a strong supply of troops and was able to independently undertake the Northeast Front's operations against Japan, the German and Austrian military leaders finally agreed that the Northeast Operation and the Okinawa Operations should be carried out at the same time, but the Navy needed to launch an attack in advance.

However, there are still significant differences between the army and the navy.

Admiral Yankel wanted to place the Chinese Northern Fleet and the German Far East Fleet under the command of the Far East Navy, but the Chinese Army General Staff wanted the fleet to carry out the task of blockading the Liaodong Peninsula. The fleet commanded by Admiral Hayer and Admiral Wang Chongwen consisted of a large fleet of seven old battleships, but it did not have aircraft carriers and could not carry out combat missions alone without the protection of aircraft.

In the end, Chiang Zuobin made a concession and agreed to hand over the German-Chinese Far East Detachment under the command of Admiral Haye to Yankel for unified control and let them support the landing operation in Okinawa, while Yankel kept the fleet aircraft carriers and new fast battleships of the Far East Fleet under his own control, which was his main fighting force.

In compensation, Germany and Austria agreed to provide the Chinese side with 200 new long-range heavy bombers to support China's land operations in the northeast.

On the Chinese side, the only two marine divisions were also placed under the command of the Axis Far East Fleet, so that Admiral Yankel had a total of five marine divisions and a total of 180,000 amphibious combat forces. With the addition of China's South Pacific Fleet under the command of Sa Shijun, Yankel now has 18 heavy aircraft carriers and 10 battleships, far surpassing the Japanese Navy, and is full of confidence in the Okinawa campaign.

However, a typhoon and a tsunami caused by the earthquake in Japan delayed the entire battle plan by a month.

Until May 23rd, Vilmots? Admiral Yankel had only given the order for the start of the campaign at his Far East Fleet headquarters in Manila Bay. (To be continued.) )