Chapter 331: Operation Tidal (I)

The new plan was unanimously praised by the bigwigs of the three armed forces, Fang Xiaoyu was not proficient in these tactical things, and when he saw that everyone praised it, he readily agreed.

After the plan was decided, the entire plan was divided into three parts and sent to the general staff of the three independent services for refinement, and this campaign formulated and established the war command mode of the Chinese Empire in the future, so that the three armed forces of the Chinese Army could better display the might of joint operations in the war.

This battle was personally named "Operation Tide" by Fang Xiaoyu, which meant that it would be like a rising tide, carrying out landing operations from the north and south of the Wa Kingdom, and completely submerging the Wa State with wave after wave of offensives.

After the order for combat readiness was issued, all units began to make intense arrangements. The 3rd Guards Army and the 1st Marine Corps were assigned to the Ezo Province direction, and they were to form the Northern Army Group with the Ezo Army and attack from the north of the Wa Kingdom.

Accompanying the attack by the Northern Army Group were three wings of the Air Force, a large number of transport ships of the Navy, two 'Wanghai'-class cruisers, five 'Swordfish'-class destroyers, and two 'Zhonghua'-class battleships that had just been launched.

To the south, in the direction of the Sulphur Islands, the Imperial Chinese Army placed the Second Guards Army, the Second and Third Armies of the Marine Corps, and the Twentieth and Twenty-first Armies of the Wehrmacht to form the Southern Army Group, which was also accompanied by three wings of the Air Force and two 'Zhonghua' class battleships of the Navy.

On March 27, 904, the operational order for Operation Tidal was officially issued, and 480 planes of six companies took off and flew from the north and south to the coastline of the Japanese Kingdom.

"What's that?" The rumbling sound of aircraft engines swept overhead, causing the Japanese coastal defense artillery to raise their heads, and they watched in amazement as a flock of large birds flew over.

"It's like an airplane." A well-informed artilleryman, after a period of bombing, many people in the Wa Kingdom already knew the name of the plane.

"Airplanes? What's that? Before the well-informed artilleryman could explain, the bomber had already answered him.

Bombs, swarms of bombs fell on the forts on the coastline, and the unprepared Japanese forts were immediately drowned in a cloud of fire and smoke.

Not only the batteries, but also the barracks, ammunition depots, transportation hubs, command offices and even arsenals, which were marked by spies in advance, were all taken care of by the bombers.

The Japanese artillerymen climbed out of the ruins of the fort, and before they could spit out the dirt in their mouths, they heard another scream. It was a shell, a huge shell came after the bomb, and it was the three hundred and five-millimeter main guns on the Chinese-class battleships that began the covering shelling.

Under the double cover of aircraft and naval guns, the troop carriers lowered their assault boats one by one and began to rush towards the beach at a rapid pace. Seeing the landing of the army, the nearby Japanese soldiers immediately gathered near the coast, and they lay on the ground and shot desperately at the approaching assault boats.

Several soldiers on the front assault boat were shot down, and the bow of the assault boat was also damaged, and the machine gunners sitting in the front of the assault boat immediately set up a Type 03 machine gun on the bow of the boat, and fired at the Japanese fortifications on the coast.

The Type 03 machine gun made a sound like tearing cloth at a rate of 1,200 rounds per minute, and the bullets were like a whip, sweeping across the resisting Japanese soldiers on the beach. Despite the barrage of bullets, the soldiers were very tenacious, and they continued to shoot, reload, reload, and reload until they were killed.

The assault boat of the Chinese army is based on the speedboat built by Fang Xiaoyu for several concubines, and high-speed motors are installed on the boat, which is enough to support the assault boat to travel at a speed of more than 30 knots. At this moment, these assault boats were clinging to the water, rowing out a splash and breaking the waves, and the speed of progress was very fast, and in the blink of an eye, they crossed the long distance from the troop carrier to the beach.

The first assault boat quickly rushed to the beach, and the soldiers quickly jumped off the assault boat and shot on the spot, covering the landing of the follow-up troops.

More and more assault boats arrived on the beach, bringing more and more soldiers, and the soldiers of the Chinese Empire soon occupied a numerical advantage, while the Japanese soldiers were bombed due to the bombing of the rear barracks and transportation hubs, and they could only resist in vain without reinforcements, and the number of Japanese soldiers who resisted on the beach was too small, and they were quickly wiped out.

Two hours later, the soldiers of the Chinese Empire had taken full control of Qunlu Beach on the south side of the main island of the Japanese Kingdom, and Zhang Zhonglin, the commander of the Southern Attack Group, walked to the temporary headquarters that had just been set up on the sand, which had been dyed red. "The casualties of the troops are not large." Zhang Zhonglin asked as soon as he entered the room.

Chief of Staff Gao Deyu said with a smile: "How can such an unexpected combat plan have high casualties, with the cooperation of the air force and navy, there is not much time for the Japanese army to react at all, and there is no more than one battalion of Japanese soldiers blocking us on the coast, and we only have more than 200 casualties." ”

"Well fought, so good at landing warfare, you should join the Marine Corps." Several leaders of the Second and Third Armies of the Marine Corps walked into the command room with a smile, and when they saw Zhang Zhonglin, several people saluted one after another.

Although the leaders of these marines are also military-level leaders, the Guards are one level higher than ordinary troops, so Zhang Zhonglin's military rank is still higher than them, and Zhang Zhonglin is also in charge of commanding the combat operations of the Southern Army Group this time.

Zhang Zhonglin said with a smile: "Everyone should strengthen vigilance to prevent the enemy from counterattacking, and now let's study the future combat issues." After saying that, several people gathered at the map table and discussed it one after another.

Unlike the southern group commanded by Zhang Zhonglin, Sun Zhonglian, the commander of the Second Guards Army who commanded the attack of the northern army group, used another offensive method. Under the bombardment of planes, a large number of Ezo troops, who had cooperated with the attack, launched an attack on the coast of the Kamatsu Peninsula in fishing boats.

The Karumsu Peninsula is only one sea away from Ezo Island, and the distance in a straight line is no more than fifty kilometers, so the attack of the northern army group is quite easy. The soldiers of the Ezo Army only had to drive the fishing boats they were familiar with, and under the cover of the gunfire of the battleships of the Imperial Chinese Navy, they relied on their numerical superiority to attack, and the Japanese troops guarding the beach were constantly exhausted due to the lack of numbers.

Although this action relieved the defensive pressure on the Kamatsu Peninsula, it caused a shortage of garrisons in other areas, but the Japanese army did not expect that the fierce attack here was just a feint.

The attack of the Ezo army lasted for two days, and the Northern Defense Command of the Japanese army unknowingly transferred a steady stream of troops, creating a large gap in defense. Taking advantage of this gap, Sun Zhonglian concentrated the 1st Marine Corps and the 3rd Guards Army to launch an attack on Mutsu Port.

Mutsu Port is the largest port in the north of the Japanese country, with a deep draft, advanced equipment, and a fairly high cargo throughput. When night fell, the 3rd Guards Army sent several assault teams to take advantage of the darkness to attack the port of Mutsu.

Because of the high-intensity operations that have continued on the Kamatsu Peninsula in the past few days, too many Japanese troops have been transferred to support them, and at the moment there are only two brigades stationed in Mutsu Port.

The Guards' sneak attack had a very good effect, due to the lack of troops, there were not many posts in the port, the soldiers of the Guards quickly boarded the dock, and with a single machine-gun fire, most of the guards were eliminated, and by the time the Japanese troops in the nearby barracks heard the news, the landing force of the Guards had exceeded a company.

With the firepower of 18 Type 03 general-purpose machine guns of a company of the Guards, plus several mortars and more than 100 semi-automatic rifles, its combat effectiveness was not comparable to that of those Japanese soldiers with single-shot rear-loading guns.

Completely occupying the port of Mutsu, a large number of cargo ships carrying heavy weapons and logistical supplies can be unloaded at the port. Trucks loaded with supplies drove down the bow, and the equipment of the 3rd Guards Army and the 1st Marine Corps was soon all ashore, and they regained full combat strength faster than the Southern Army Group, and by the time the Japanese reinforcements arrived near the port of Mutsu, they were already standing in front of an invincible heavy army.

A large number of armored vehicles with Type 03 machine guns advanced rapidly, and the Japanese army, which had never seen this tactic, retreated again and again, but how could the two-legged Japanese army outrun the four-wheeled car, and the Japanese soldiers of the two divisions that had just been reinforced were completely broken up and fled into the mountains and forests.

Under the flank attack of the First Marine Corps, the Japanese troops stationed on the Katsu Peninsula were forced to retreat for fear of being surrounded by the landing Chinese army, and the Ezo army was able to land on the land of the Japanese kingdom after feints for several days.

The two army groups commanded by Sun Zhonglian and Zhang Zhonglin all landed on the territory of the Japanese state very smoothly. Although the landing of the Chinese Imperial Army was successful, the Japanese government was not worried, on the contrary, they were very excited, and in their opinion, the opportunity to turn the tables had finally come.

In this battle, the number of troops invested by the Chinese Empire was not large, and the Chinese army in the north had two armies of 100,000 people, plus 100,000 Ezo troops, that is, 200,000 people.

There were more in the south, and the Chinese army only dispatched five armies and 250,000 people, while after this period of frantic expansion, the Japanese state already had 30 divisions of the regular army, and 50 reserve supplementary divisions, with a total number of more than 1.6 million.