Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Lively and Noisy Oriental Ocean (I)

Singapore, 29 December 1945

Although Europe was already in the midst of snow and vegetation, Singapore's Janggi Naval Base was still sunny and lush. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Under the scorching equatorial sun, accompanied by a long whistle, the flagship of the Royal Navy's Eastern Fleet, the battle cruiser Prestige, nicknamed the "African God of War" in a certain world, sailed into the Zhangyi Naval Base with a large number of destroyers and transports, and slowly lowered the anchor chain.

And the military band, which had been prepared for a long time on the shore, also played the melody of "God Save the King" diligently.

-- After a lapse of four years, the flag of the British Empire once again flew over Singapore after a long absence.

From the bridge of the battlecruiser Prestige, the opulent European-style buildings, lined with palm trees and flower beds, are still the same as they were four years ago. As for the obstructive Sun Flag and the Rising Sun Flag, as well as those Japanese slogan banners, they have already been ripped off by the inquisitive commander of the Nanyang Army, General Terauchi Shouichi.

In the nostalgic twilight of the sunset, everything reappears as if it were yesterday, as if returning to the heyday of the British Empire.

However, even the most stupid people are probably very aware that the current empire on which the sun never sets has long been lost beyond recognition.

After attending the surrender ceremony at the Governor's Palace in Singapore, and watching the new Governor of the Straits Settlements, Lord Mountbatten, receive his command knife from Japanese Army Admiral Toshiichi Terauchi, the Commander of the Royal Navy's Eastern Fleet, Bruce Murphy. Austin. Admiral Fraser did not attend the next ball, but walked out to the balcony with a bottle of whiskey in his hand, and drank alone with a small plate of cheese.

- While it would certainly come across as arrogant and vulgar, Admiral Fraser didn't care. Unlike some well-mannered guys, this general has always regarded himself as a rough man, claiming that he has never read a novel, lacks both cultural accomplishment and political wisdom, and has never been the material for playing officialdom.

Therefore, he never bothered to hide his emotions, and he didn't like to put on a hypocritical smirk and pretend to be a polite gentleman.

At this moment, Admiral Fraser was not in a happy mood, and could even be said to be depressed - it had indeed been his dream to return to his home port of Singapore with the Royal Navy's Eastern Fleet, but a purely selected victory like the present one really made him feel bored.

-- Since the change of hands in Malaya and the fall of Singapore, the Royal Navy's Eastern Fleet has been driven out of the Pacific. But then, before the British could recover their senses, the Japanese Combined Fleet, which had been driving straight in, entered the Indian Ocean with great vigour, joined forces with the disgruntled rebels in the colonies, and continued to carry out one violent attack after another against the British naval and army in the East: the fall of Burma, the fall of Ceylon, the great Indian uprising, the great Arab rebellion, and the capture of Basra by the Persian army...... Countless crushing defeats followed, important ports were lost one after another, the British Empire's century-long business in the East collapsed in an instant, and finally forced the British Eastern Fleet to flee from the Asian continent in a hurry.

By the time Admiral Fraser came to take over in the fall of 1944, the Eastern Fleet had been reduced to only one battlecruiser, six destroyers, and two submarines, plus a few "jeep carriers" converted from cargo ships, and could only live in Mogadishu and Dar es Salaam on the east coast of Africa, and Cape Town in South Africa......

And the only way this poor fleet could inflict harm on the Japanese monkeys was to set off from the east coast of Africa, travel thousands of nautical miles to the other side of the Indian Ocean, drop a bunch of bombs on a Japanese naval base in Southeast Asia or Australia, and then turn around and run. However, such a harassment mission is actually quite dangerous, and if you are unlucky, you will be bitten by Japanese planes and bombed indiscriminately, or let the Japanese fleet chase and intercept them...... The few battleships, aircraft carriers and cruisers that remained of the Royal Navy's Eastern Fleet after the evacuation of India were successively sunk in this harassment that did not outweigh the losses.

Therefore, no matter how brave and ruthless Admiral Fraser was, he could not create any miracle with such a pitiful fleet, so he could only take advantage of the absence of the main force of the Japanese Combined Fleet to secretly organize the "African Express" fleet from time to time to smuggle supplies to the British and Indian troops trapped in the port of Mumbai several times. Once the Japanese Combined Fleet returned to the Indian Ocean in a big way, Admiral Fraser could only honestly return to Africa and take up his shotgun to hunt antelopes in the savannah.

After the fall of Bombay this fall, Admiral Fraser lost even this task, and could only stay all day on the seashore in Africa to bask in the sun. At the same time, they were calculating when the country would transfer the prestige back to fill the huge gap formed by the Soviet atomic bomb on the home fleet.

Who would have thought that after only a few days of the African sun, Admiral Fraser was stunned by a sudden gift package from heaven: the Yankees intensified their efforts to follow the example of the Soviet Union, and directly bombed Tokyo with atomic bombs and poison gas bombs, crushing the heads and hearts of the Japanese Empire in an instant!

Then, the Japanese Empire descended into chaos and a new Japanese provisional government emerged, calling on Japanese troops to surrender to the Allies.

After a while, although many Japanese troops scattered abroad were still fighting, the commander of the Japanese Nanyang Army in Singapore, General Terauchi Shouichi, announced that he would obey the orders of the Provisional Government and welcome the Allied forces to receive Singapore...... In this way, the Eastern Fleet of the British Royal Navy, which was almost reduced to the "African fleet", suddenly jumped out of the bottom of defeat in ignorance and jumped to the pinnacle of victory.

The officers and men of the Eastern Fleet, who had long been tired of the long war, naturally celebrated and rejoiced at this. However, as a professional soldier who had cut through the wind and waves for half his life, Admiral Fraser preferred to have a good fight with the Japanese Navy and win a real victory with shells and torpedoes.

Of course, Admiral Fraser also knew very well that this could only be a delusion in his heart.

-- All the information at present indicates that although the vast majority of the Japanese naval fleet has no intention of surrendering, it has no intention of remaining in Southeast Asia and fighting the Royal Navy of the British Empire, but is retreating eastward in great strides. Not to mention the Dutch East Indies and British Malayan colonies on the north and south sides of the Singapore fortress, as well as the French Indochina Federation a little farther away, and even the Philippine Islands on the other side of the South China Sea, all abandoned by the Japanese navy, it seems that they are bent on concentrating forces in the western Pacific and fighting the Yankees.

As for the Japanese Army, which did not follow the withdrawal, they stayed in the stronghold for three days and sent a telegram, urging the Allies to quickly surrender and take over power.

But that doesn't mean the British Empire will be able to restore everything to the way things were. Because after the hurricane swept by the Japanese invasion, the colonial order in this part of Southeast Asia has fallen apart, and the indigenous people of all walks of life have taken advantage of the chaos to rise up and emerge countless thorns. For example, General Aung San's Burmese "Independence Army", Ho Chi Minh in the Red River Delta, Soekarno in Java, and a bunch of self-reliant Sudanese monarchs on the island of Sumatra. To the north of Singapore, on the other side of the Straits of Johor, there are also numerous MCP guerrillas who are active and have no sympathy for the colonial rule of the British Empire.

They had been a nuisance to the invading Japanese in the past few years, but now they had become a nuisance to the Allies, and not so long ago, they had received a large amount of funding from the broken jars of the Japanese - the Japanese navy, which had persisted in fighting, and the Japanese army, which had partly refused to surrender, had almost deliberately left large quantities of ordnance to these guerrillas and indigenous political forces before withdrawing from all parts of Southeast Asia, seemingly intent on adding to the blockage of the returning Allied forces.

In the Philippines in particular, guerrilla groups supported by the CPP, religious organizations, and U.S. intelligence have been fighting in Luzon and Mindanao in order to seize cities and ports abandoned by the Japanese army. The situation was similar in Vietnam, where the Japanese released all the French and Vietnamese partisans in the prisoner of war camps before abandoning Indochina, and left them with a lot of weapons and ammunition. As a result, before all the retreating Japanese troops and overseas Chinese could board the ship, the Viet Minh guerrillas under the command of Ho Chi Minh had already fought with the French and overseas Chinese self-police forces in Saigon......

In short, in order to prevent the Western colonizers from making a comeback, the Japanese Navy planted numerous mines in advance before withdrawing from Southeast Asia. The part of the Japanese Army that was waiting to surrender was extremely depressed, and as long as the bullet did not hit its chest, it did not bother to care about anything.

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However, all this disturbance on land has little to do with Admiral Fraser, the commander of the naval fleet, for the time being.

As a veteran sailor, his mission was to sink enemy warships and shoot down enemy planes on the sea, but the Japanese Navy had no intention of fighting him. And the British Empire, which is currently plagued by internal and external troubles and many holes, can no longer support him to launch an expedition deep into the Pacific.

Churchill's wartime cabinet, which returned to power after the collapse of the Anglo-Soviet peace talks, was ecstatic at the exciting news of the "peaceful recovery of Singapore", which he regarded as "a ray of light finally dawning in the darkest of times". They also tried to boost the morale of the people who had little left in the newspapers in Japan, but if they really wanted to commit to the few capital ships that were already in their small number, they would continue to launch the Eastern Crusade and launch a fateful revenge battle against the Imperial Japanese Combined Fleet, whose main force was still intact...... It's better to save this!

As a matter of fact, the journey of the Royal Navy's Eastern Fleet had already come to an end the moment it arrived in Singapore -- just in case, the current 10 Downing Street did not even intend to send a fleet to Hong Kong to receive it, and was bent on watching the two great sharks of the United States and Japan continue to fight on the eastern seas.

No matter how depressed and melancholy Admiral Fraser, who has not yet won a single battle in the East, is a reality that cannot be changed.

With the raising of the flag in Singapore, his mission on the Oriental Sea has come to an end, and Singapore is the end where the glory of the empire can shine again. Further to the east, the Pacific Ocean, the vastest stretch on earth, has long ceased to be a battlefield belonging to the British Empire. At present, Whitehall in London can get away with the leak and take back Singapore, which is already an excellent way of luck, and if you are greedy again, you will only lose the last bit of capital.

Just as Admiral Fraser craned his neck and drank another glass of whiskey, another Army General approached with a glass.

“…… General Frazier, why are you drinking here alone? Why don't you go and dance with those ladies and ladies? ”

Admiral Fraser glanced up and saw that it was Odeh who had come with the fleet to Singapore to be surrendered. General Wingate.

A maverick and offbeat celebrity in the British Army, and a controversial figure who caused a headache for the bureaucracy, his name is legendary in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and he is said to be on a par with the "Lawrence of Arabia" of the First World War.

Army General Wingate was a pioneer of long-range special operations, a gifted commander of irregular operations with a fanatical penchant for personal adventure. He had participated in counterinsurgency battles in many colonies, and fought against the tide in a series of major defeats in the Pacific War, recruiting a large number of indigenous soldiers, forming the famous "Chindit" special forces, and fighting the Japanese army many times in the tropical jungles of Burma, and achieved considerable results.

However, the hard work of a mere special forces force could not change the defeat of the strategic collapse of the entire front. With the outbreak of the great uprising in India, the battlefield of the "Chindith" special forces also had to retreat again and again, and finally exhausted in the quagmire of the Ganges valley. Admiral Wingate, who was only spared, was also sent to East Africa to train a black native special forces for the British Empire with Admiral Fraser, an African admiral. At present, because he has been fighting in Southeast Asia for many years and is familiar with the environment, he has redeployed Admiral Wingate to Asia to take charge of the reception of Singapore.

At the same time, Admiral Fraser squinted at the brightly lit and melodious hall and found that it was indeed a field of skirts and hairpins, singing and singing: Obviously, the civil and military officials of the British colonies who had just taken office had not had time to bring their families, so the women who participated in the ball were mainly the wives and daughters of local wealthy overseas Chinese businessmen and Malay wealthy families, and some white women were courtesans who had just been released from the Japanese comfort station...... Although they were forced to sell meat to survive, they were probably the wives or ladies of the British colonial officials who surrendered four years earlier.

In this regard, Admiral Fraser could only shrug his shoulders and express helplessness, after all, in this era of war, there are too many unlucky people who have lost their families, and many military survivors in the country have been forced to sell themselves, although he himself is not in the mood to have fun, but he has no intention of letting others become ascetic ascetics.

“…… I'm sorry, but my mind is still confused, and I feel lost, so I'm really not in the mood to dance with a girl......"

Admiral Fraser raised his glass to Admiral Wingate, "...... Speaking of which, how did things come to this? Until now, I feel like I'm in a dream. As if all of a sudden, we flew out of the abyss of defeat and sat on the throne of the victors, watching the murderous enemy, who had never been defeated by ourselves, inexplicably being pulled out of the bones, kneeling at our feet in flattery...... Seriously, this feeling is not comfortable, even more unpleasant, but it makes people feel empty in their hearts, and it seems to be very unsteady......"

“…… Who knows? Maybe fate is such a wonderful thing? Admiral Wingate shrugged indifferently, "...... General Frazier, at least in the East, the war that belongs to you is over and you can rest well, but the war that belongs to mine has just begun!

As you probably know, London has thrown me another impossible task: to recover all of Burma and Malaya from the rebels! Also waiting for the opportunity to invade the Dutch East Indies and lay a foothold for Queen Wilhelmina, who is in exile in London! Damn it! The War Department only gave me three brigades, one of which was still a black African brigade, but asked me to fight a war that even three army groups could not win! It's insane! ”

“…… As far as I know, it seems that London has given you a suggestion that you can use the guns and ammunition surrendered by the surrendered Japanese troops to recruit soldiers from among our prisoners of war who surrendered four years ago, and arm them again to make up for the shortfall in strength! ”

Admiral Fraser frowned and asked, "...... Although they were tortured in the Japanese prisoner of war camp for four years, it is estimated that some people are not in good health. But as long as they are well rested and properly nourished, it should still be possible to pick out a few thousand usable soldiers, right? ”

-- Nearly four years earlier, in February 1942, the stupid and weak General Percival raised the white flag in Singapore and led 80,000 British colonial troops to surrender to the Japanese. Churchill lamented at the time: "The most sorrowful catastrophe in British history, the greatest surrender, is in Singapore." Of the 80,000 prisoners of war, half were British and Australians, the rest were Indians and Malays, and a few Chinese.

In view of the current situation of the shortage of available troops on various fronts, and the embarrassing situation that young and middle-aged men in the country have been conscripted to the limit, the War Office in London actually opened its mind and hit the heads of these prisoners of war who had suffered so much, and let Admiral Wingate recruit troops from among them, and the required ordnance and ammunition were collected from the surrendered Japanese troops, which was just enough to save capacity...... However, not to mention how immoral this idea is, the most important point is that those 80,000 British prisoners of war did surrender in Singapore four years ago, but who said that they are still in this place today?

“…… Unfortunately, according to the old monkey of Shouichi Terauchi, after that battle, only 300 Australian prisoners of war were left behind to sweep the roads in Singapore. The others were transported to a prisoner of war camp elsewhere, not in Singapore at all, at least I can't get them here now. ”

Admiral Wingate complained, "...... Unless your fleet is willing to do this favor and get them back to Singapore from POW......"

“…… Need help from the Navy? Could it be that the POW camp was in Bangkok or Yangon? ”

Admiral Fraser threw the last bit of whiskey down the bottom of the bottle down his throat and smacked his lips a little unsatisfactorily.

“…… No, a little further afield, but again by the sea...... It's on China's Hainan Island, just south of Hong Kong! ”

Admiral Wingate replied eagerly, "...... Your Excellency, you're willing to do the Army a favor, right? ”

When Admiral Fraser heard this, he was stunned. I saw that he first rolled his eyes, as if he was thinking about the direction of the place name, and then sighed helplessly, turned around and summoned the waiter with a large tray, took down two glasses of brandy, and stuffed one of the tall glasses into the hand of the unknown Admiral Wingate, "...... That one...... Well, let's not talk about these annoying things, let's continue to have a drink! ”

Admiral Wingate: "......"