After roughly explaining the most serious crisis facing the Anti-Japanese Alliance, Yang Zhen looked directly at the British Army General in front of him and said in a rather unpleasant tone: "General Wavell, who once commanded the entire British military operations in the Middle East theater, has abundant
A senior officer with experience in commanding a synthetic army. You should know that there is no ammunition and no fuel. Whether we like it or not, the only thing we can do is to terminate this battle."
"Without oil, the tank cluster is just a pile of scrap metal. Without artillery shells, what's the use of our many artillery pieces? And without the support of tanks, artillery, and aviation, are we supposed to use our fists, teeth, and rifles?
Fighting heavily armed Japanese troops?”
"We, with a weak industrial base, cannot compare with your British Empire. Although your Excellency has never received sufficient troops on the North African battlefield, the number of tanks and aircraft has never been inferior to your opponents, and they can
Receive a steady stream of sufficient supplies from the mainland.”
"You consume one gallon of fuel, and the country can replenish ten gallons for you. If you lose one tank, the United Kingdom, which has a strong industrial foundation, can replenish ten tanks for you. And for us, all this so far
It’s just something I can’t even think about.”
“Whether it’s the fuel for tanks and cars to run, the fuel for aircraft to fly, or the shell steel, cartridge case copper, smokeless gunpowder and high explosives needed to make ammunition, until limited industries are built, we can only rely on external support and
Import. Without the supply of foreign materials, we simply cannot meet the needs of the war."
"It is true that we have established a number of modern industries of our own through the assistance of the United States. But Admiral Wavell, you don't think that these factories can be built in a short time like blowing air? The equipment is shipped.
Now, we can produce the corresponding war materials immediately?"
"To put it bluntly, the reason why we took the initiative to stop fighting is because we have fought this battle to the limit. Except for light weapons and ammunition, we are now unable to meet the huge consumption of materials required to continue the war. You are a military strategist
, it should be clear that without sufficient logistical supplies, it is impossible to carry out a war for a long time."
"Of course, the reason for terminating this battle is not only that the supplies have been unable to meet the consumption. Moreover, after nearly three months of fierce fighting, although our army has achieved considerable results on the east and west fronts, the alarming consumption of equipment has
But we are unable to replenish it.”
"We cannot produce artillery by ourselves. All the artillery are captured Japanese artillery and purchased second-hand artillery. Some of these artillery have been produced for a long time, and they are even some crude artillery. After long-term and intensive use,
There were many explosions during this battle. Coupled with the losses during the battle, the number of our artillery has dropped to a very dangerous level."
"There are also tanks and armored vehicles. In the past three months of the offensive, half of the originally small number of tanks have been lost due to the stubborn resistance of the Japanese army. Now we are expanding several armored divisions, and the equipment organization
Not even one-third. With all our efforts, including those tanks that are not tanks, we can at most meet the needs of an armored division."
"According to our establishment, an armored division only has more than 200 tanks. In other words, after three months of war, we now only have more than 200 tanks available for combat. There are still a lot of them.
After a long period of use, a tank needs to be overhauled due to excessive wear and tear before it can be put into use."
"In addition to the three months of fierce fighting between us and the Japanese army, with nearly 100,000 casualties, it can be said that we have reached the point of exhaustion. Let alone attacking, it is quite difficult to maintain the existing front line. You know
, even if we join the division with the lightest casualties, it is still less than 60% of its original establishment."
"This does not include the loss of hundreds of trucks, hundreds of aircraft, as well as food, medicine and other supplies. If General Wavell had replaced your British army and faced such a large casualty ratio,
With the high level of battle-damaged equipment and the almost empty logistics warehouse, will you still take the risk and continue the attack?"
"Although the Japanese army we face is not as mechanized and well-equipped as your current opponent, the German army, it is still higher than the German army in terms of infantry tactics and the use of some artillery tactics. The most fundamental thing is its tenacious fighting spirit.
The will and fierce fighting style are far beyond what your Western armies can compare with."
"Admiral Wavell, I hope you will not underestimate the Japanese army. This is an army as cunning as a wolf, as ferocious as a lion, and as greedy as a bear. The traditional Japanese bushido spirit has instilled the spirit of bravery from soldiers to generals.
The spirit of fearing death. And in terms of enduring hardship and hard work, it is far beyond the comparison of Western armies."
"After several years of fighting with the Japanese army, we have seen Japanese soldiers dying of exhaustion from running for dozens of kilometers without stopping. We have seen Japanese soldiers who were still resisting with only one man and one gun. We have seen Japanese soldiers who were fighting with only one person and one gun.
The Japanese army persisted in fighting for nearly a week with only a handful of rice and a few rice balls. I have never seen a Japanese army that surrendered voluntarily after being defeated, and I have never seen a Japanese army that cowered because of difficulties."
"Although the Japanese army's equipment and armor tactics cannot be compared with the Germans, they are superior to the Germans in some aspects. Especially in infantry attack tactics, coping with harsh combat conditions, and combat
In terms of mental tenacity and tenacity, they are far incomparable to the German army."
"As your future ally, I don't want you to suffer a disastrous defeat because you underestimate the enemy when you fight against such an opponent on the future battlefield. If the German army is a tiger, then the Japanese army is a cunning wolf. I hope you
We can value the experiences we gained with our blood."
After satisfying these American and British officers' inquiries, although he was very reluctant, but for some reasons, Yang Zhen solemnly issued a very serious warning to everyone present in view of the current situation in Southeast Asia, reminding them not to
despising their future enemy.
However, although Yang Zhen gave a certain warning to the US and British military delegation, the answer he gave to the question that everyone in the US and British military delegation, including General Wavell, wanted to know, could only be half-truth.
It's just a half-truth. It is true that by the time Yang Zhen took the initiative to terminate the offensive, the oil reserves and military raw material reserves had indeed been exhausted.
Especially for oil reserves, all the remaining reserves combined are less than 100 tons. If we continue to maintain the offensive and the logistical supplies at that time, we can barely sustain it for three days at most. This still reduces all unnecessary supplies.
Only after consumption can it be maintained.
The reserve of aviation bombs can only be used for low-intensity operations for three to five days at most. Although the reserves of aviation gasoline are still sufficient, they can only last for one month of low-intensity operations at most. The entire military raw material reserve is
It is no longer possible to produce any kind of artillery shells except small arms ammunition and mortar shells.
There is indeed a certain shortage of artillery shell reserves of various calibers, large-caliber artillery shells and rockets. Especially the Japanese cannon shells with the longest range and the 122 rocket shells with the most complex production process can last for up to five days of combat.
However, with a reserve of 75mm caliber mountain guns and 100mm grenades, there is no problem in maintaining high-intensity use for another month.
As for mortar shells of various calibers, in addition to the large gap of Japanese-made mortar shells, the reserves of 120-, 82- and 60-caliber mortar shells produced by the Anti-Japanese Alliance are larger. The 57 recoilless rifle
, the reserves of anti-tank rockets and various anti-aircraft artillery shells are also quite sufficient. There are only 14mm anti-aircraft machine gun bullets, which are slightly insufficient due to excessive consumption on the battlefield.
Although the reserve of artillery shells is still enough to last for a period of time, if there is no gasoline, all transport trucks will have to stop using it. Without modern transportation, it is simply impossible to rely on manpower and animal power alone in a short time.
Transport the large amount of materials needed within a certain period of time.
If a large number of artillery shells and other required ammunition cannot be transported, what's the use of having a larger reserve? Aren't the troops at the front the same as having no ammunition available? And as the front becomes longer and longer, in order to maintain the firepower and other supplies of the troops,
As demand increases, the number of supply vehicles required is also increasing.
In order to maintain the gasoline required for such a large-scale transportation, the amount of anti-Japanese gasoline reserves at that time could not be satisfied. Not to mention that there were only one hundred tons left. Even if this number were doubled, it would not be able to satisfy two people.
Armored brigades and thousands of trucks are needed.
At the end of the campaign, when new deployments were being adjusted, due to lack of gasoline, many vehicles had to resort to hard towing by driving a car and towing at least one truck to save money when evacuating the railway line.
Limited gasoline. As for the infantry units, all except the wounded were evacuated on foot.
In addition to telling half-truths about the situation of supplies and ammunition, Yang Zhen also did not tell the truth about the proportion of tank battle losses. Almost all troops were dispatched. It can be said that all forces were mobilized to participate in this battle. Here, the armored forces
The losses in this battle were indeed heavy. The total number of tanks lost on several battlefields totaled more than 200.
However, only half of these battle-damaged tanks could not be repaired and were completely destroyed. The remaining half were not irreparable. Moreover, Wang Guangyu snatched the battle-damaged tanks that could not be repaired from Soviet warehouses in Mongolia.
Future tanks and tanks equipped with additional armor, as well as legal tanks that cannot be equipped with additional armor due to the overall structure of the turret.
As for the original Soviet-made tanks of the Anti-Japanese Alliance that had been installed with additional armor, more than 40 of them were completely destroyed by Japanese 75 field artillery fire, or were burned by Japanese meat bombs with Molotov cocktails and could not be repaired.
.The remaining battle-damaged tanks can be returned to the battlefield after repairs.
However, even though the number of remaining tanks in the two armored brigades is still enough to enable both armored brigades to retain a certain degree of assault capability. Even the second brigade, which suffered greater losses, has been able to recover in a short time through the adjustments and supplements of the first brigade.
A certain amount of vitality was restored within.
However, a large number of tanks have suffered huge loss of parts due to long-term and intensive use, and they are in urgent need of repair before they can continue to fight. The shortage of maintenance manpower, especially the number of technical personnel, makes it difficult for these tanks to be repaired within time.
Completed and returned to the battlefield.
The battle-damaged tanks that can still be repaired cannot be completely repaired in a short time due to the lack of supplementary parts and technical personnel. In this way, when the battle ends, Yang Zhen will have the number of tanks that can be used to continue launching attacks.
, has been reduced to half of what it was when the war started. Although most of them can be repaired, this cannot be done in a short time.