In order to assist the German-Austrian coalition forces in defending Vietnam's security, the General Staff of the National Defense Forces ordered the mobilization of the 21st Army of the Guangxi Army into North Vietnam and fought side by side with the German-Austrian coalition forces. At the same time, at the request of Germany and Austria, the preparations for the expeditionary force to enter Myanmar were stepped up.

At the request of the German side, China squeezed out 300 Tm39d "Falcon" fighters from Guiyang Aircraft Manufacturing Plant and Chengdu Aircraft Manufacturing Plant to introduce Austro-Hungarian design and technical imitation to provide them to the German army in Far East to support their operations in Annan.

After years of full-scale development, China's aircraft manufacturing capacity has reached a monthly output of more than 700 aircraft, but it mainly focuses on the manufacturing of fighter jets and attack aircraft. The production of bombers, especially medium and heavy bombers, and large transport aircraft is far from meeting the needs.

While fighting and building, only countries like China with a large population, sufficient human resources, and sufficient strategic depth can do so. China is getting stronger and stronger in this war, and its domestic unity is unprecedented. The development speed of its industry, especially heavy industry, far exceeds that of peacetime.

With the arrival of 1941, China's steel production reached its annual output of 9 million tons, surpassing Japan. The production capacity in the metal processing and manufacturing industries such as machine manufacturing, metallurgy capabilities, metal processing capabilities, military production, aircraft and automobile manufacturing also surpassed Japan. The only one behind Japan at present is the shipbuilding industry.

With the increase in military production, the scale of the Chinese Army has also expanded to 6 million people. With more than 300,000 naval officers and soldiers, the total strength of the Chinese National Defense Force surpassed the Soviet Union and ranked first in the world. Beijing has also stepped up preparations before the counterattack and began to step up the formulation and preparation of counterattack plans in the Yangtze River Basin and Inner Mongolia.

The new 5th Army trained in Hunan was also transferred to Yunnan and joined the Expeditionary Force sequence. The total strength of the Chinese Expeditionary Force reached 500,000, and its strength was once again strengthened.

On March 12, 1941, the German-Austrian joint fleet crossed the Suez Canal and entered the Indian Ocean. The Southeast Asian Battle officially began.

The entire Allied Fleet is divided into three parts: the Austro-Hungarian mixed fleet, which is commanded by Admiral Wilmotz Yankel, and consists of 6 aircraft carriers of the Austro-Hungarian 1st, 4th and 6th Air Fleets, two battleships, four heavy cruisers and other main battleships. The main attack targets are Ceylon and Myanmar. The German Expeditionary Fleet. Admiral Wilhem Marshall is commanded by four aircraft carriers of the German Navy's 1st and 3rd Air Fleets, including three aircraft carriers of the "Prussia", "Admiral Spee" and "Markenson".

Battleships, two heavy cruisers and other main battleships, the main attack direction is to block the Strait of Malacca and the direction toward Malaya. The special mixed fleet composed of the Chinese and Italian Navy, the Chinese fleet includes four aircraft carriers, two battleships and other main battleships, commanded by Admiral Chen Shiying. The Italian fleet includes two aircraft carriers, the Skyhawk and the Falcon, two battleships, and four heavy cruisers and other main battleships. Commanded by Admiral Yakino, the main task of the Chinese and Italian fleet is to protect the safety of the transport fleet that transports 10 divisions of Germany, Austria and Italy.

In mid-March, the Gulf of Aden is high and the clouds are light, the sun is shining, and the temperature is already very high.

Human history is the largest fleet of ships lined up in six columns, advancing eastward in a mighty manner, forming a 10-small picture on the sea surface. The entire fleet includes 16 aircraft carriers, 10 battleships, and more than 120 large and small warships, more than 330 transport ships, carrying a total of 180,000 army officers and soldiers, and 1 Marine Corps, including 9 infantry divisions, 1 armored division, 3 army aviation divisions. Its heavy equipment includes more than 1,200 tanks, 1,800 armored vehicles, 48,000 various cars, more than 2,700 aircraft and more than 1,300 heavy artillery with a caliber of 90 mm. In addition, it also includes a large amount of ammunition, supplies, fuel and other supplies.

The Allied Expeditionary Force consists of one army in each of Germany, Austria and Italy, an Army Aviation Division and an Austro-Hungarian Marine Corps. The Expeditionary Force is commanded by German General William Lister. Austro-Hungarian General Lendulik serves as the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Earhart Rous and Lieutenant General Carvalero of the Italian Army were appointed as deputy chief of staff.

Take off from Somalia and Yemen airports, and teams of fighter jets from the Army and Navy Aviation who were performing escort missions flew over the fleet, with huge engines roaring across the sky, and the whole scene was spectacular.

The Austro-Hungarian mixed fleet took the lead in the front, followed by the German fleet. At the end was an extremely large transport fleet and escort fleet, each fleet was separated by 20 nautical miles. Due to concerns about attacks from British or Japanese submarines, destroyers carrying out anti-submarine missions had been patrolling around the fleet, and anti-submarine patrol aircraft taking off from the aircraft carriers were also circling back and forth over the sea.

But during the week of sailing, the transport fleet never encountered any trouble. He didn't even see the shadow of the enemy.

On March 20, the Austro-Hungarian mixed fleet, which served as the forward, had approached the Ceylon Sea.

The British had no ability to compete with the German and Austrian fleet in the Indian Ocean, but the Japanese fleet refused to sail across the Strait of Malacca to provide assistance to the British. The British Indian fleet had to give up Ceylon, huddled in Mumbai and Kolkata, and avoided under the wings of the Indian Air Force.

There is nothing wrong with the choice of the new British Oriental Fleet Commander General Somuwell. His fleet was not strong enough to fight against the Austro-Hungarian fleet and could only destroy himself. He also believed that he had the responsibility to preserve the integrity of this fleet. This was symbolic. At least the British Empire still retained a "existence fleet" in the Indian Ocean.

Ceylon, which was defending only one infantry regiment of the British army, soon fell. Only after the air force here had more than 100 fighter jets and had a fierce air battle with the Austrians, the remaining fighter jets flew directly to India.

The Austrians learned from the Norwegian campaign launched by Germany. The 2nd Brigade of the 1st Marine Division threw heavy weapons on the transport ship behind, but the personnel and light equipment followed the fleet. Because more than 6,000 people were stuffed into one, the cabin of the special mixed fleet, which was originally not well-off, became crowded, causing complaints from the crew and Marines. But this was also beneficial. The Austro-Hungarian fleet, which arrived in Ceylon two days earlier than the entire transport fleet, easily occupied the entire territory of Ceylon, and controlled the ports and all airports before the transport fleet arrived.

This saves the transport fleet from attacks.

On March 23, the Allied Transport Fleet arrived in Colombo safely, and the personnel temporarily went ashore for repairs.

General William Lister and the naval generals were carefully studying the landing plan in Myanmar. In the end, they decided to dispatch the naval aviation fleet first to bomb British airports along the Myanmar coast, and to eliminate British air forces stationed in Myanmar as much as possible.
Chapter completed!