Chapter 7: The World of Conflict: The King of Curry Ocean

The year-round hot Curry Ocean, well, no, is the northern part of the Indian Ocean, on the eastern side of the Arabian Sea, a natural deep-water harbor, Mumbai

- The word "Mumbai" is derived from the Portuguese word "Bom. Bahia", which means "beautiful bay". Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Originally a Portuguese colony, the info was later transferred to the British as a dowry for Portuguese princesses. After hundreds of years of operation, the port of Mumbai, facing the Arabian Sea, has become the largest seaport city on the west coast of India, an important trading hub, and a key bridgehead for the British colonizers to maintain their rule over India.

However, at this time, Mumbai has completely faded from the bustling and prosperous color of the past, and is covered by a mountain of corpses, a sea of blood and the smoke of war.

When the Atlantic and Pacific oceans are full of wars, the South Asian subcontinent, located in the middle of the Indian Ocean, is also engaged in a vigorous national liberation war. Although the choice of targets and allies seems to run counter to the main theme of the "anti-fascist war" of World War II, no one can deny the righteousness of the Indians in their struggle for national liberation and national independence.

After three years of chaotic war, the Indian colonial empire, which the British gentlemen had painstakingly run, had largely collapsed. From Peshawar, which borders Afghanistan, to Assam, which is rich in black tea, and Kolkata, which guards the mouth of the Ganges River, one after another rice flags are falling.

However, India, "the most brilliant diamond in Queen Victoria's crown", was of great significance to the British Empire.

Not only economic considerations, but also political extraordinary—without India, there would be no British Empire!

You know, the reason why the British kings at this time were able to proclaim themselves emperors, and not just kings, was because they had the title of "Emperor of India" that had been plundered from the Mughal dynasty on their heads. Once India is lost, then the emperor's honorific title will also be gone, and he can only be demoted to the king again.

Although the territory under his actual control became smaller and smaller, and the Indian native soldiers under his command continued to mutiny and defect, the Indian governor-general, vice-king of India and commander-in-chief of the British army in India, who guarded this rich colony for the British king, once beat the Italians to the point of death in North Africa, and then was beaten to death by the German African army led by Rommel the desert fox. Marshal Wavell never became discouraged in the face of adversity, let alone succumbed to fate.

Relying on the little maritime aid received intermittently from the port of Mumbai, the strong fortifications and years of operation in the capital city of Delhi, and the internal contradictions of the various Indian rebels, the tens of thousands of British troops stationed in India under the command of Field Marshal Wavell have been struggling and fighting in this adversity like a stormy sea, just as they had been fighting against the rebels from all sides in the face of the great Indian uprising nearly a hundred years ago.

Of course, the port of Mumbai, which still bears the flag of rice, has also become a thorn in the side and a thorn in the flesh of the Indian insurgents......

- The majestic Himalayas block the abundant water vapor from the Indian Ocean, forcing them to enter the Tibetan Plateau, and only to turn into heavy rain before that, making India one of the world's wettest regions. It's the rainy season in India, and it's just as a tropical storm is approaching. Therefore, at this time, the port city of Mumbai is shrouded in a torrential rain.

The streets of the city were inundated with knee-high water as the high tide blocked the drainage system, and the sea was cloudy and stormy.

However, even the overwhelming rain that poured like a river of heaven could not extinguish the "enthusiasm" of human beings to fight and destroy each other.

On the land outside the port of Mumbai, the rumbling of artillery, the clatter of machine guns and thunder mingled together, and thousands of Indian National Army soldiers in yellow-green uniforms and turbans were fighting to the death with British troops in desert camouflage uniforms who had just arrived from the Middle East for emergency reinforcements.

Although the Indian National Army was never able to breach the core fortifications of the British army, it also cut off the defenders of Bombay from the remnants of British India by land—similar to the topography of Macau or Xiamen, which began as an island not far from the mainland, but was dredged and filled into a peninsula with bridges and causeways. Therefore, when the enemy's army is overwhelming, the land passage between the city and the outside world can be easily cut off. However, the British army had already prepared for this, and set up positions and fortifications in advance on the land passages of the city, preparing to let the Indian thieves bleed up.

But the problem lies in the sea behind them - at this time, the sea dominance in the Indian Ocean no longer belongs to the British Empire.

Therefore, for the port city of Mumbai, an even more fatal knife has been quietly inserted from the sea behind them!

Although the surface of the Arabian Sea was already full of stormy waves and torrential rain, the three Japanese super battleships Musashi, Mino and Shinano, flying the flag of the rising sun, were completely fearless, passing steadily between the crests and valleys of the waves, while slowly turning the turrets...... Subsequently, the 460-millimeter cannon erupted a long dazzling flare and spat out steel projectiles weighing nearly a ton. The deadly bullet arced through the air and landed on the city and fortifications of Mumbai, immediately raising clusters of blinding fire. It was a full minute before the rumbling explosion came from the shore.

The rumbling sound of artillery echoed in the Arabian Sea, and even the torrential rain could not extinguish the fire that rose one after another in the city of Mumbai. Every shell that hits it can blow up a crater the size of at least half a football field. The British army's merchant ships, ammunition depots, and oil depots caught fire and exploded one after another, and the 46-meter-high landscape building India Gate, which was directly facing Bombay Bay, also collapsed in the shelling, and the strong city fortifications were shattered, and the situation of the war quickly took a sharp turn.

In normal times, the British would have sent all the bombers and torpedo planes at hand to drive out the Japanese battleships at all costs. However, in the midst of such heavy rain and thunderstorms, it was difficult for planes on the ground to take to the air, and the field airfields on the outskirts of the city had already been seized by the Indian National Army. As for the airfield in the city behind the defensive line, it was the first key target of the Japanese battleships. At this moment, it was already a scorching sky of smoke and flames, and the waves of fire were dancing wildly, and the pilots running around were like beetles on a hot iron plate, and like paper figures that had encountered a typhoon, and were blown up to a height of more than ten meters by the scorching air waves, and then they fell violently into flesh. The planes that didn't take off in time were like waxy dragonflies that were rapidly melting away.

Under the attack of land and sea, the British army, which was already at an absolute disadvantage in strength, began to gradually become difficult to support. The supply of mobile forces and ammunition, which were being urgently dispatched on all fronts, was bombarded by the ship's artillery in all directions. The city defense headquarters was mostly destroyed by the aftermath of a high-explosive bomb, and although it was not completely extinguished, it also lost contact with the front line because the telephone line was blown up...... Citizens scurried around like headless flies, or hid in cellars shivering.

But even in such a desperate situation, the gentlemen of England did not choose to give in - only to see that in the midst of a roaring storm, ten American-aided PT torpedo boats, infinitely tragic, rushed out of the harbor and rushed to the huge battleship like a boy scout challenging a giant!

The overlord of the seven seas, the empire on which the sun never sets, is now on the Indian subcontinent, and there is only so little sea power left.

However, "when you see the enemy, you must fight" is the creed of the Royal Navy of the British Empire, which has persisted for hundreds of years and is engraved in its bones. Now it is no longer to see the enemy, but the enemy has already hit the doorstep, no, it has already entered the house, and there is no excuse to avoid the battle.

However, despite the courage of the British torpedo boat formation, it could not change the desperate balance of power - they were spotted by Japanese naval sentries almost as soon as they were sorted, and then a sharp alarm sounded, and the destroyers of the battleships rushed forward to meet them...... After a short scuffle, only half of the British torpedo boats had time to fire their torpedoes and none of them hit. Nine of the ten torpedo boats in the sortie sank, and one drifted to the beach controlled by the Indian National Army after an engine failure and stalled, where it was captured by the long-awaited adversary.

With the destruction of the British torpedo boat formation, the Japanese artillery fleet approached the coastline even more arrogantly, using all the guns of the fleet, except for the anti-aircraft guns, to pour fire frantically on the city of Mumbai. In a very short period of time, the British army's shore fortifications and munitions depots were devastated, and the core city was bombed like the surface of the moon, and there were a series of explosions everywhere, which was a spectacular scene......

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“…… That's a ...... What a sight! The legendary weapon of the final battle! ”

Behind the Japanese artillery formation on the opposite shore, on a 10,000-ton fast armed merchant ship, the chairman of the Indian National Congress Party, Chandra . Holding high-powered binoculars with both hands, Bowes greedily watched the magnificent scene of three Yamato-class battleships and more than 20 cruisers and destroyers bombarding Bombay together.

In particular, the three steel giants with a displacement of 65,000 tons made Chairman Bose's eyes light up and he couldn't take his eyes off it.

Japan's Yamato-class battleships, especially the Yamato, the flagship of the Combined Fleet, have been a nightmare for the Allies for four years in a row.

At the beginning of the outbreak of the Pacific War, during the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the battleship Yamato was extremely brave in a single-ship assault, almost completely annihilating the US aircraft carrier fleet cruising outside the harbor, forcing the last remaining aircraft carrier of the Enterprise to run aground on the beach and almost be scrapped.

In the subsequent battles of the Philippines, Singapore, New Guinea and Australia, the Yamato and the battleship Musashi, which was commissioned later, all performed well. Whenever the Yamato-class battleships appear on the surface of the sea, it means that some unlucky ship or city will be turned into a sea of fire.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet, which does not believe in evil, is gearing up to take revenge after regaining its strength after the frantic explosion of ships. Unexpectedly, in the first Battle of Nouméa in 1943, it was forced by the battleship Yamato into the aircraft carrier cluster, and then there was a slaughter like a hungry wolf. Four self-proclaimed Iowa-class battleships rushed to the rescue, but they were also torn to pieces by the Japanese battleships. In the end, all the large ships were destroyed, and only a few cruisers and destroyers escaped from the battlefield. Following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the blood and bones of the US Pacific Fleet were once again swept away.

In the Second Battle of Noumea in 1944, the Americans invested in Montana-class battleships with larger tonnage and thicker barrels, as well as a larger number of aircraft carriers, and finally pulled in the British allies. The overwhelming bomber swarm tickled them, the direct hit of the battleship's shells could only wipe off a little paint, and the desperate British battleship even rammed, but unfortunately it was useless. After the destruction of the Allied battleships, the two Yamato-class battleships, at an incredible speed of 42 knots, caught up with the retreating US aircraft carrier formation and launched another massacre...... In one day and one night, six rear admirals and one vice admiral of the United States and Britain were killed, and President Roosevelt, who got the news, almost suffered a heart attack in the White House.

At this point, the US Pacific Fleet was completely destroyed for the third time, and it has not recovered its courage until now, and the British Royal Navy has said goodbye to the Pacific Ocean in tears.

To this day, even in the Indian Ocean, the British Royal Navy, which had just eaten two Soviet atomic bombs, was powerless to compete with these steel giants that seemed to be favored by the god of war, and could only sit back and watch the final fall of the Indian colonies.

Such a huge ship cannon, so domineering...... Back when I first met, Chandra. Bowes was fascinated by them.

“…… Such a majestic steel giant ship is a symbol of a real strong country! It is not so much the masterpiece of the god of war as the masterpiece of the god of industry...... It's a pity that only the most powerful industrial countries can have it, and now India ...... Ay! ”

Bowes couldn't help but be upset when he remembered Gandhi's old bones shaking the hand-spinning wheel, and babbling all day long in Calcutta about "de-industrialization," "a return to the traditional quiet rural life of Indians," and "a return to the state before the arrival of the British...... What age is it now? Even if you want to do without industry, without modern technology, and return to the old pastoral life, will the imperialist powers agree?

In India, where there are many princely states, the trend of thinking that echoes Gandhi's "environmental protection theory" is really very strong, which makes Bose very troublesome.

In fact, while Chandra. With the help of the Japanese army's "return of the king", Bose once again became the chairman of the Congress party. However, there are still many old factions in the party, and his power as chairman is not stable. Gandhi, who had the highest prestige, had been in Calcutta for several years, based in the densely populated Ganges Delta, and with the anti-modernization theories of "de-industrialization" and "return to yesterday", he had attracted a large number of feudal landlords, and from the very beginning he showed a trend of not falling. Nehru was entrenched in the middle reaches of the Ganges, with a large heavy army at his disposal, confronting the British in Delhi.

And Chandra, who led the "Indian National Army" to land in southwestern India and was based in the port of Goa. In order to get out of Gandhi and Nehru, Bose had to try to form an alliance with the chairman of the Muslim League, Mr. Jinnah, who was entrenched in Karachi, and persuaded him to put aside the idea of establishing a 'halal state' - Pakistan for the time being, and to make the struggle for the independence of the whole of India and the liberation from the colonizers as the immediate priority of the Muslim League, and to resume cooperation with the Congress party, or more precisely Bose's faction. Thus, relying on solidarity and cooperation with the Muslim League, as well as the assistance of the Japanese side, Bose has now assembled 11 divisions and a number of auxiliary troops near the port of Mumbai, totaling nearly 200,000 men, with the assistance of the Japanese naval fleet. The British army defending the city on the opposite side did not exceed 20,000 at most...... If he doesn't win, he will have no face to do as the chairman.

Thankfully, the worst didn't happen, and the battle for Mumbai was now a foregone conclusion. Next, it was time to go north to fight Nehru for Delhi. Before that, though, there's one more thing that needs to be arranged...... Thinking so, he turned to look at the girl sitting behind him.

This is a very characteristic girl, with a rather beautiful face, and wild skin of wheat, and gray hair on the sides, but there is no sense of decadence that prematurely decays. What's even more eye-catching is the pair of wobbly huge breasts......

In the words of later generations, she looks like an energetic, athletic carnivorous lady who haunts tropical beaches.

And according to the Indian aesthetics, this is also a wonderful stunner that is very coveted.

Even though Bowes thought he was by no means a womanizer, he couldn't help but swallow a few mouthfuls of saliva when he saw the girl.

But he did not dare to show the squint on his face at all, because he was "very clear" about the "true identity" of the girl opposite, the personal representative sent by Marshal Yamamoto Isoroku, commander of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy, to the Indian Ocean front, and most likely his illegitimate daughter.

At this time, she was talking: "...... As promised, the Combined Fleet has already provided you with maximum fire support. And the 10,000 rifles, 20,000 grenadiers, 600 radios and 2 million rounds of ammunition that you have been financed have all been unloaded in the port of Goa......"

“…… Many thanks to Marshal Yamamoto for his support. "According to Japanese custom, Chairman Bowes bowed and saluted, then pulled out a new stack of bills from his suitcase," ...... Miss Musashi, according to the pattern requested by His Excellency the Marshal, the new version of the Indian rupee banknote after the independent establishment of the State has been printed and will be put on the market from today, and will be guaranteed to circulate not only in Goa, but also in Kolkata, Dhaka and Karachi......"

Then, looking at the majestic posture of the Yamato-class battleship on the banknote, the wheat-skinned Miss Musashi smiled with pleasure.

Speaking of which, in previous contacts, Bowes has always felt that the people in the Japanese Navy are very nervous and not very serious. The biggest feature is that it seems to be very, very fond of fame - of course, as long as it is human, there are basically few people who don't like fame. But the people of the Japanese navy did not seem to pay much attention to their own reputation, but they were particularly fond of making their warships famous, and for this reason Bose presented one embarrassing problem after another.

In the past cooperation, the Japanese navy first asked Bose to mobilize the Indians under his control, put models of Japanese warships in the shrines of various houses, and prayed that the combined fleet would destroy the ghosts of the United States and Britain and prevent the British colonists from returning. So Bose pinched his nose and apportioned this matter as a political task, although the people below were embarrassed, most of them thought that it was good to be able to take a toy warship model for nothing, so they made do.

Next, the Combined Fleet presented Bose with an even bigger problem - he wanted to enshrine the model warship in the temple of India! This kind of thing is not enough even for the face of Bose, the chairman of the Congress party, after all, those Brahmin priests are very arrogant, and even the British did not listen to them in the past. In the end, Bose had to build a memorial hall in Goa City, and put a model of the battleship of the Japanese Combined Fleet for people to see, and barely fooled the past.

Recently, Marshal Yamamoto 56 sent another message, hoping that all the designs of Indian banknotes and stamps would be used by the famous ships of the Japanese Navy...... Hence the fresh release of this batch of Indian rupee banknotes, nicknamed "warship coins...... Although it seems to be a bit humiliating, he was not asked to print the portrait of the Japanese emperor directly, and Bowes felt that warships were dead things no matter what, and as long as he said a few nonsense words, "This is to emphasize to the people the importance of developing the navy, and India will also have a strong naval fleet in the future", he will probably be able to explain the past to the country.

As a revolutionary who once ran around the world in Germany, the Soviet Union, and Japan for foreign aid, Bose knew very well what it meant to be able to bend and stretch.

Compared with this little face, Bose is more interested in practical interests. At this time, the young lady in front of him seemed to be in a good mood, so he asked tentatively, "...... Is it true that the artillery support of your fleet will last only two days? Although our army is making good progress at present, after all, the weather is really bad, and it is still unknown whether it will be able to break through to the center of Mumbai tomorrow. Could you please stay in the nearby waters for a little longer? ”

“…… The main force of this fleet can shell the port of Bombay for two days in a row and provide fire support to your army, which is already the limit, Mr. Bowes. ”

The wheat-skinned Miss Musashi put down the new bill in her hand and said a piece of mixed news for Bose, "...... To tell the truth, according to intelligence, the US Pacific Fleet has been making frequent moves recently, and it seems that it is attempting to move westward again and fight a decisive battle with the Empire. Therefore, after carrying out the mission of shelling Mumbai, the fleet will leave the Indian Ocean and return east to the Truk anchorage to prepare for the next decisive battle against the United States. At the same time, in order to shrink the front, the Empire's garrisons in Ceylon and other places had to be withdrawn one after another. And the affairs of India will be entrusted to all the friends led by you......"

I couldn't help but swallow a few mouthfuls of saliva.

But he did not dare to show the squint on his face at all, because he was "very clear" about the "true identity" of the girl opposite, the personal representative sent by Marshal Yamamoto Isoroku, commander of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy, to the Indian Ocean front, and most likely his illegitimate daughter.

At this time, she was talking: "...... As promised, the Combined Fleet has already provided you with maximum fire support. And the 10,000 rifles, 20,000 grenadiers, 600 radios and 2 million rounds of ammunition that you have been financed have all been unloaded in the port of Goa......"

“…… Many thanks to Marshal Yamamoto for his support. "According to Japanese custom, Chairman Bowes bowed and saluted, then pulled out a new stack of bills from his suitcase," ...... Miss Musashi, according to the pattern requested by His Excellency the Marshal, the new version of the Indian rupee banknote after the independent establishment of the State has been printed and will be put on the market from today, and will be guaranteed to circulate not only in Goa, but also in Kolkata, Dhaka and Karachi......"

Then, looking at the majestic posture of the Yamato-class battleship on the banknote, the wheat-skinned Miss Musashi smiled with pleasure.

Speaking of which, in previous contacts, Bowes has always felt that the people in the Japanese Navy are very nervous and not very serious. The biggest feature is that it seems to be very, very fond of fame - of course, as long as it is human, there are basically few people who don't like fame. But the people of the Japanese navy did not seem to pay much attention to their own reputation, but they were particularly fond of making their warships famous, and for this reason Bose presented one embarrassing problem after another.

In the past cooperation, the Japanese navy first asked Bose to mobilize the Indians under his control, put models of Japanese warships in the shrines of various houses, and prayed that the combined fleet would destroy the ghosts of the United States and Britain and prevent the British colonists from returning. So Bose pinched his nose and apportioned this matter as a political task, although the people below were embarrassed, most of them thought that it was good to be able to take a toy warship model for nothing, so they made do.

Next, the Combined Fleet presented Bose with an even bigger problem - he wanted to enshrine the model warship in the temple of India! This kind of thing is not enough even for the face of Bose, the chairman of the Congress party, after all, those Brahmin priests are very arrogant, and even the British did not listen to them in the past. In the end, Bose had to build a memorial hall in Goa City, and put a model of the battleship of the Japanese Combined Fleet for people to see, and barely fooled the past.

Recently, Marshal Yamamoto 56 sent another message, hoping that all the designs of Indian banknotes and stamps would be used by the famous ships of the Japanese Navy...... Hence the fresh release of this batch of Indian rupee banknotes, nicknamed "warship coins...... Although it seems to be a bit humiliating, he was not asked to print the portrait of the Japanese emperor directly, and Bowes felt that warships were dead things no matter what, and as long as he said a few nonsense words, "This is to emphasize to the people the importance of developing the navy, and India will also have a strong naval fleet in the future", he will probably be able to explain the past to the country.

As a revolutionary who once ran around the world in Germany, the Soviet Union, and Japan for foreign aid, Bose knew very well what it meant to be able to bend and stretch.

Compared with this little face, Bose is more interested in practical interests. At this time, the young lady in front of him seemed to be in a good mood, so he asked tentatively, "...... Is it true that the artillery support of your fleet will last only two days? Although our army is making good progress at present, after all, the weather is really bad, and it is still unknown whether it will be able to break through to the center of Mumbai tomorrow. Could you please stay in the nearby waters for a little longer? ”

“…… The main force of this fleet can shell the port of Bombay for two days in a row and provide fire support to your army, which is already the limit, Mr. Bowes. ”

The wheat-skinned Miss Musashi put down the new bill in her hand and said a piece of mixed news for Bose, "...... To tell the truth, according to intelligence, the US Pacific Fleet has been making frequent moves recently, and it seems that it is attempting to move westward again and fight a decisive battle with the Empire. Therefore, after carrying out the mission of shelling Mumbai, the fleet will leave the Indian Ocean and return east to the Truk anchorage to prepare for the next decisive battle against the United States. At the same time, in order to shrink the front, the Empire's garrisons in Ceylon and other places had to be withdrawn one after another. And the affairs of India will be entrusted to all the friends led by you......"