At the same time as the first* explosion, 5,000 kilometers away in Tokyo, it was already dark. The morning train was full of people, and it was another ordinary morning after the start of the war. The newspaper boys on the street are running and shouting for victory to attract the attention of office workers.

"The Imperial Army won a great victory in Guinea, and 7,000 Australian troops surrendered. The British Navy withdrew from the Indian Ocean and fled to South Africa ......"

Pedestrians stop from time to time to buy a copy and hurry past with a clip under their armpits. Unlike a few months ago, most people are numb to the constant news from the front, unless it is good news such as the surrender of 100,000 British troops in Singapore or the fall of Manila, it is difficult to arouse the interest of most of the fate. All the victories of the imperial army in any battlefield became a matter of course. Everyone was expecting news of the magnitude of the fall of Guinea or the occupation of the entire territory of Burma, and there was no doubt that it would come soon.

There was a buzzing sound in the sky, but the clouds were low in the morning and nothing could be seen. The air raid sirens came belatedly, and most did not appear alarmed, believing that it was just another "civic exercise".

Although the concept of an absolute air defense zone is occasionally discussed in the newspapers, most people do not think about it, and they will be hit on the head*. In the 13th year of the Showa era, the Chinese Air Force, which did not know whether it was alive or dead, sent two Martin bombers to drop leaflets over Kumamoto, which was regarded as an invasion of the Japanese mainland since Kublai Khan. But such a provocation was met with a powerful counterattack, and the heroic Imperial Army soon attacked, occupying all the airfields along the coast of China, and the enemy was forced to hide in the mountains where the Japanese mainland could no longer reach.

There is no doubt that the Americans are hiding on the other side of the Pacific and shivering, and even if they want to take revenge on Japan, how can they cross the vast Pacific Ocean to attack the Japanese mainland?

15 B25 bombers, approaching the target in a loose formation. They must approach at dawn to visually observe the target. The main targets were industrial areas and barracks near Tokyo Bay. Of course, it is not expected that much of Japan's military potential will be destroyed, but it is only a political operation, and there are still some targets that are limited to the target, not ordinary civilian targets, but places including the Japanese Imperial Palace and some Shinto dojos.

As the planes approached the coast, they had dispersed, and most of the planes were no longer visible from the leading Doolittle No. 1 plane, some of them flew to Yokosuka, Nagoya, others were left behind, and due to strict radio silence, Doolittle did not call the other groups, but prepared to fight separately.

The plane flew through the thick clouds and approached Tokyo with its back to a round of Asahi. Pilot sees a clear reference building and guides the aircraft to the target area. Bombers opened their bomb bays, and some 227kg* were hung with peace medals awarded by Japan during the Taisho era to American servicemen and diplomats. Now the Americans are going to give these jokes back to the Japanese.

"Look, pedestrians are walking very slowly, I thought these tall buildings would be full of anti-aircraft guns."

Said the navigator.

"The sneak attack was successful, boys, send them the best wishes of the Americans."

The plane flew low over Tokyo and dropped rows of *.

Huge explosions were scattered all over Tokyo, and the Americans did not have a strict target selection or a Norton command that could measure the speed of the ground.

Most of the panicked citizens of Tokyo stood in a daze when the first explosion sounded, and only then did they realize the air raid and rush to the nearby air defense facility. Many people are running and thinking: they took off from China again?

The bombing lasted up to 20 minutes – most of the explosions were far away from the palace because some of the planes arrived later, but one still landed at Ise Jingu near the palace, killing six worshippers praying for victory, which is a divergence from history. In a way, this mistake* helped the military department, and their plan to quickly enter the general battle and expand the division by 200 regiments will be carried out smoothly.

On the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar, the pontoon bridge that was blown up quickly broke apart. The broken part was written by the rapid flow and slammed downstream. 30 minutes later, the second and third British Wellington planes dropped 2*.

In anticipation of the possibility of an early detonation of the wreckage of the pontoon bridge remaining on the water*, an extra one was thrown in the second round.

An observation plane of the British army had quietly flown over the head of the Japanese army, and saw the first explosion, as well as the formation of the marching army on the west bank against the background of the firelight, everything was really as Chu Tingchang expected, and the Japanese army was heading east day and night. Of course, the question that still fascinates us is whether Sakurai's command crossed the river? Due to the radio control of the Japanese army, the Allies did not know about this matter (if you do not count the 419 group).

The second thunderbolt quickly headed for the second pontoon, a specially reinforced pontoon bridge for trucks and tanks. After seeing the first explosion, the transport on the pontoon bridge still did not stop and did not receive any orders. In fact, the entire Japanese army did not understand what was going on, was it an air raid? Or is it enemy shelling?

Another loud bang. Sakurai, who was hiding in the headquarters probe to probe his brain, shuddered again, and then a second sound—in the same direction. Only then did he realize that the enemy's target was the pontoon bridge.

"Tell Captain Kuroda to hold the last pontoon bridge downstream no matter what."

"But division commander, how did the enemy's artillery hit so accurately?"

The staff officers next to them began to guess, and from the loud explosions, they guessed that it was some kind of fortress cannon, although it did not seem to have been found in Burma.

"Division Commander, listen!"

Someone reminded.

Command fell silent, and the humming of the engine was heard, seemingly in the clouds not far away.

"Is it an enemy observer? Or bombers. ”

"It can't be an artillery strike, it must be an air strike."

He walked out of the headquarters and looked at the river rolling in front of him.

The third batch of Wellington aircraft arrived a little late, partly because the Royal Air Force could only piece together three of these aircraft, so it had to wait for the first batch to return home and reload. It was not far from dawn when it dropped its bomb.

Another thunderbolt drifted downstream. This time it did not pass through the gap where the second pontoon bridge was blown open, because the second bridge was built in a good way, and after the middle was blown up, the two sides still maintained a certain bridge shape under the drag of steel cables.

At this time, the suspicious Japanese air defense position had already divided a part of the searchlight to monitor the river, and the sharp-eyed Japanese saw a hedgehog-like thing hit the wreckage of the second pontoon bridge and then exploded. This time the river was completely blown open, which was regarded as opening the passage for the * behind, and another significance was that a large amount of equipment that was still intact was destroyed, making it difficult for the enemy to repair the bridge in a short time, but the sky gradually brightened.

Inside the Sakurai headquarters, someone ran in.

"Sir, is it *, floating down from upstream?" After receiving the 4th piece*, the Japanese finally woke up.

Xu Chong and Lin Xiuxuan were running in the field, and this time it was the turn of the injured Ma Qiang to command in the rear, and the purpose of the two of them was to protect them.

Qin Xiaosu overheard the 4th batch of planes taking off, but it was estimated that when they arrived, the sky was already very bright. For Lin Xiuxuan and Xu Chong, such an action was quite risky, because the cover of the night was fading, so he canceled the idea of letting the water ghost blow up as a last resort.

Sure enough, when the east showed the white of the fish's belly, the enemy guarding by the bridge saw * floating down from the upstream, and when they entered the 500-meter range, they began to fire with machine guns.

The Japanese commander, waving a command knife, instructed anti-aircraft artillery to fire, and some of the infantrymen standing on the shore also began to shoot with rifles.

Lin Xiuxuan served as an observer, indicating targets for Xu Chong and observing the wind direction. Fearing premature exposure, Xu Chong used a regular* rather than an anti-materiel gun, which made the landing point of the shot across the river erratic.

The first shot brought down the enemy commander with binoculars, and the second shot hit the shooter operating the Bofors cannon, and this 40-mm heavy fire was a priority to be addressed, mainly to disarm the threat to himself. Then turn to light machine-gun positions. He didn't care much about the infantry who were fighting indiscriminately with the 38 rifles.

The black * floated down, was hit several times, and did not explode, this kung fu Xu Chong had already taken out a machine gun position. The Japanese began to wonder, and they found that people were being hit in positions that were not next to each other.

But a 92-heavy machine gun that was moved to the high ground destroyed * with continuous firepower, and the huge explosion set off a splash that even splashed on Lin Xiuxuan's body. After 30 seconds, the last one* floated down the river from behind, and now it was even brighter, and the 92nd position stopped firing, and the positive and negative shooters were already lying in a pool of blood. The Japanese began to sense that the situation on the east bank was wrong, but because the sun rose in the east was very dazzling, it was difficult to find the faint fire and smoke when the opposite side fired, and the roaring river completely swallowed up the gunfire.

So everyone watched as the * crashed into the last pontoon. Bombed the last bridge into the sky.

After the completion of the first phase of the mission, Lin Xiuxuan and Xu Chong hurriedly transferred, for them, the combat effectiveness during the day would probably be reduced by ninety, and it would be difficult to survive once they were exposed behind enemy lines. After they detached, they would swim across the river 8 kilometers north and then quickly engage in intelligence support operations. However, the current situation is that it may not be possible to get to the designated position in time, which is of course caused by the delay of the British in taking off, and if they do not provide information, Chu Tingchang will lose the intelligence advantage.

In the north, Chu Tingchang's troops have already begun to move, and he has a complete grasp of the position of the Sakurai Division's headquarters, but this time, he is ready to send this favor to Sun Liren, and his primary goal is to block the retreat of the 33rd Division, and by the way, settle accounts with the 14th Wing. But so far, he has not been able to receive the latest information from the 14th Wing, and it is clear that the team leader is still on the way after the bridge is blown up. This was really what worried him the most, many soldiers almost superstitiously believed that the battalion commander would lead them to victory, but how did they know that the battalion commander would lose his mana at this time.

Wing Captain Aizawa received an order from the command headquarters from the communications corps, informing him that the pontoon bridge had been bombed and asked to stand by, which made him angry, he had just repaired several damaged tanks, and also completed communication coordination with the air team at Magway Airport. As long as he has a successful battle and actual combat report, he can be promoted to Dazuo exceptionally, in fact, he has already written the report, and he can change a few place names.

But instead, Nakasa calmed down, and he felt that the three bridges were blown up together, which was obviously strange.

When you think about it, west of the Irrawaddy River today, there are only two infantry wings and a few airfield garrison brigades left, and the full battle may be less than 10,000 people. If the Chinese and British troops cover up at this time, it may be a trouble, but of course if he is there, he can still pick up this burden. He skipped the divisional headquarters and spoke directly to Captain Kato at Magway Airport, asking the 2nd Aeronautical Intelligence Wing to take off a reconnaissance plane while the rest of the Type 99 bombers remained on standby.

As an explorer of Japanese armored warfare, Aizawa had a good relationship with some of the leaders of the Southern Army who admired the blitzkrieg, and even General Terauchi Shouichi encouraged him to carry out some bold practices and explore the Germans' air-ground integrated fighting style in one go. Now he even has a command tank with a reinforced radio station, ready to communicate with the air.