After attending the opening ceremony of the Yiu Ting Bay Nuclear Power Plant, An Yi did not return to Xinjing immediately. Instead, he came to Saigon. On the one hand, he visited Zhu Yun and their common baby daughter, and on the other hand, he convened Malay and Burmese people.
The generals of the two northern front armies held a meeting to understand the situation of army reorganization and at the same time give specific instructions on the next strategy.
Through consecutive meetings, An Yi learned about a series of problems and practical difficulties that had arisen in the entire army some time ago, solved them one by one through consultation, and formally determined the next phase of combat plans formulated by the staff departments of the two fronts.
On the afternoon of September 6th, the meeting ended. Before An Yi had time to have a drink with brothers Gu Changfeng, Xia Jian, Yang Guan, Xie Chi, Wang Xulun, Zong Xingzhen, Zhang Zuying, Lu Xiong, Yan Yaohuan, Fang Pengxiang and other brothers,
As soon as I got drunk, I had to take a special plane overnight and rush back to Xinjing.
It turned out that Roosevelt, in his capacity as the President of the United States and an ally of allied countries, sent three distress telegrams to An Yi in succession, requesting South China to launch military operations in advance to restore the situation in the two major battlefields of the Pacific and Indian Ocean, which were already in crisis.
The Pacific Theater was divided into two theaters. In the Pacific Theater, fierce battles broke out on Guadalcanal and the New Georgia Islands during this period.
When the Japanese army, with the cooperation of the navy, launched landing operations from northwest and north Australia, the Japanese navy in the South Pacific used offense instead of defense and successively occupied Bougainville Island, the Shortland Islands, and the New Georgia Islands.
and other places, and helped the locals to establish a national government on Guadalcanal, and heavily armed the indigenous people in order to free up troops to seize new islands and consolidate the defenses of New Britain Island, the Bismarck Islands and the Island of Ireland.
The Americans were worried that the Japanese army's construction of an airport on Guadalcanal would threaten the security of Espiritu Santo, Efate, and New Caledonia, and block the sea lines of communication from the United States to Australia, so they obtained
After the victory in the Gilbert Islands landing battle, troops were organized to forcibly land on Guadalcanal in late July.
Facing the powerful U.S. fleet, Lieutenant General Nobutake Kondo, commander of the Japanese Navy's South Pacific Fleet, who was weak in strength, knew that he was outmatched, and immediately ordered the Guadalcanal defenders to cooperate with the indigenous armed forces to withdraw into the jungle in the center of the island to carry out guerrilla warfare.
In order to show support for the indigenous government of Guadalcanal, the Japanese navy launched a war of destruction on Guadalcanal, with the purpose of hindering the U.S. military's operations on Guadalcanal and thereby destroying the U.S. military's counterattack plan in the Southwest Pacific.
On the night of August 1, Lieutenant General Nobutake Kondo dispatched eight destroyers from the Shortland Islands to perform a sabotage mission against Guadalcanal transport ships.
At about nine o'clock that night, when the destroyer fleet arrived near Tassa Faronga on Guadalcanal, it collided head-on with the US Army's Task Force 67, which came to meet it!
Compared with the Japanese Fleet, which has only eight destroyers, the Sixty-seventh Fleet of the U.S. Navy under the command of Rear Admiral Wright has four heavy cruisers, one light cruiser and six destroyers.
Just from the perspective of strength comparison, this will be a one-sided battle. Compared with the four 10,000-ton heavy cruisers equipped with 203mm heavy guns, the Japanese destroyer fleet with an average tonnage of only 2,000 tons has almost no chance of winning.
possible.
However, the truth is not as simple as it seems.
The U.S. fleet, equipped with large-caliber artillery, began to bombard the Japanese ships with heavy artillery from the beginning of the battle. However, the Japanese ships did not fire at the U.S. ships. It turned out that the fleet commander had clearly instructed the ships before setting off: "This time
The purpose of the operation is to destroy enemy transport ships, not to annihilate warships. Before reaching the destination, attack with torpedoes instead of naval guns as a last resort."
The eight captains of the *** navy destroyer fleet faithfully carried out this order.
On the dark sea, the flash of the U.S. Navy battleship's gun muzzle became the best aiming point for the Japanese destroyer.
In a chaotic night battle that lasted less than half an hour, the Japanese's excellent torpedo technology was quickly proven.
The Japanese destroyer fleet equipped with Type 93 oxygen torpedoes won a complete victory in this naval battle. During the battle, one of the four heavy American cruisers was directly hit by two torpedoes and sank into the sea, while the remaining three were
Heavy damage. Two other US destroyers were accidentally fired by friendly cruisers and towed back to the base.
In comparison, the Japanese Navy only paid a slight price in the sinking of the outpost destroyer.
During the night battle, the flagship of Rear Admiral Wright, commander of Task Force 67 of the U.S. Navy, was damaged, and Rear Admiral A. Campbell on another light cruiser commanded the fleet to withdraw from the battle.
Subsequently, the Japanese Navy sent two destroyers to approach the drowned officers and soldiers of the US ship, and fired wildly with the ship's anti-aircraft machine guns. More than 900 US officers and soldiers who fell into the water were brutally slaughtered, and no one escaped alive.
The other five destroyers rushed directly to the anchorage of the US military transport ships, sank six transport ships in one fell swoop, and returned successfully before dawn.
Although the U.S. Navy suffered heavy losses in this raid, the U.S. engineers used large construction machinery to quickly build an airport on Guadalcanal, allowing the U.S. fleet operating in this area to receive strong air cover.***
The navy's hopes of victory suddenly evaporated.
On August 10, after several fruitless attacks, the Japanese navy suspended the war of destruction on Guadalcanal and helped a squadron of Japanese troops and a regiment of indigenous armed forces stationed on Guadalcanal to evacuate from Guadalcanal.
In late August, after consolidating the defense of Guadalcanal, the U.S. military became more powerful and began to launch a landing operation on the New Georgia Islands. Considering the lack of troops and the lack of strong fleet support, the Japanese decided to voluntarily abandon the New Georgia Islands and use destroyers to evacuate the defenders.
military.
At 6:30 in the evening on August 28, four destroyers of the Japanese Navy set sail from Bouin Port, passed through Hivazel Island and the east coast of Kolombangara Island, and sailed into Kula in the early morning of the 29th.
Bay, and soon discovered the flash of artillery fire about 10,000 meters away on the left side. This was a US military ship formation preparing for firepower on the opposite shore.
Seeing that the U.S. Navy formation had a greater firepower advantage, the Japanese naval destroyer fleet did not dare to start a battle, so it took advantage of the darkness to approach to a distance of 6,000 meters and conduct a torpedo attack.
One of the destroyers fired six torpedoes, and the other two destroyers each fired four torpedoes. Then they immediately turned around and returned to Port Bouin safely at 8 a.m. on the 29th.
When the American warships just discovered the suspicious target appearing in the northwest, the torpedoes launched by the Japanese ships were already quietly approaching!
A destroyer was hit by a torpedo, the engine room was flooded, and the hull tilted to the right. It immediately lost its navigation ability and sank into the sea only half an hour later.
The U.S. Navy commander sent two destroyers to come to the rescue, but they were fired upon by Japanese shore guns. The two destroyers immediately split into two groups. One suppressed the Japanese shore guns and covered the rescue, while the other approached the sunken destroyer and rescued the ship.
Two hundred and seventeen crew members.
Subsequently, the U.S. warship formation, still in accordance with the original plan, provided naval gunfire preparations for the landing troops, shelled the nearby Japanese positions in Baroko and Huila, and then returned to the port of Tulagi via the New Georgia Strait.
Although the torpedo attack carried out by the Japanese destroyer formation was successful and sunk a US destroyer, the task of evacuating the defending troops was not completed.
Therefore, the Japanese army had to organize a fleet to transport the goods again on the 30th.
This time, ten destroyers of the Japanese Navy set off from Bouin Port at noon on the 30th, stopped at Shortland Island, and set off from Shortland Island at 7:30 pm.
The formation is divided into three parts: the first transport team consists of three destroyers, the second transport team consists of four destroyers, and the other three destroyers serve as cover.
As soon as the Japanese fleet set out to sea, it was discovered by the Allied coastal surveillance posts.
According to the report from the coast watch post, Admiral Halsey, the naval commander who was commanding the operations in American Samoa and commanding the not yet full 16th Task Force and the 17th Task Force, immediately ordered that he had just returned to Tula
The battleship formation in Jigang went to sea again to intercept.
This fleet was commanded by Rear Admiral Hans Walker and consisted of three cruisers and four destroyers. The formation passed through the New Georgia Strait at a high speed of 29 knots and sailed to Kula Bay.
The *** naval fleet sailed into Kula Bay in the early morning of the 31st. The *** naval commander ordered the three destroyers of the first transport team to continue moving forward and sail directly to the shore to accommodate the personnel, the second transport team and the cover team.
At the entrance of Kula Bay, a guard was launched, with the second transport team deployed behind the cover team.
However, it was very slow for the Army's wounded to get on board, and it took only an hour to accommodate 100 people.
At one o'clock in the morning on the 31st, the US military formation also sailed into Kula Bay and completed combat preparations. The speed was reduced to 25 knots and the search began.
At 1:45, the U.S. military took the lead in discovering the Japanese cover team with the help of shipboard radars installed on just a few ships. Rear Admiral Hans Walker led the formation to turn northwest to seize a favorable position and prepare for battle.
At 1:53, the Japanese cover team discovered a suspicious target on the right front. The Japanese commander immediately judged that it might be a U.S. Navy ship formation. He immediately led the cover team to engage the enemy in the front and ordered the second transport team to deploy in the rear.
He also ordered the First Transportation Team to suspend the containment mission and outflank the rear of the US fleet.
The Japanese Navy's combat policy is to maximize the power of torpedoes without engaging in artillery battles with the U.S. Navy.
At two o'clock, the distance between the U.S. Navy ship formation and the Japanese cover team had shortened to 6,200 meters. Rear Admiral Hans Walker ordered the firing. The U.S. ship's artillery was guided by radar, and the shooting was quite accurate. The cruiser's main gun fired for the first time.
A salvo, a hit
hit the Japanese lead ship, forcing the destroyer to withdraw from the battle. Another destroyer was hit by a bullet in the front main gun, the ammunition box of the machine gun caught fire, and the hull was penetrated in many places. Another destroyer was hit by a bullet in the anchor chain locker.
, fortunately it did not explode, the food tank was flooded.
However, the U.S. Navy warships did not use flameless gunpowder. The muzzles of the artillery produced a large amount of flames when firing, which was very conspicuous in the night and became an ideal aiming point for Japanese destroyers.
Although the Japanese destroyers were hit repeatedly, they did not completely lose their combat effectiveness. They quickly fired torpedoes to fight back. Two destroyers fired all sixteen torpedoes in the torpedo tubes!
At that time, the US military formation was sailing in a single column, with two destroyers as the vanguard, three cruisers in the middle, and the other two destroyers behind. The flagship in the center of the formation became the base point for the Japanese ships to target. It was hit by four torpedoes one after another. The front deck of the warship
It was blown apart and the ship's hull was flooded with water.
After the torpedoes were fired, the Japanese naval commander quickly retreated but did not release smoke.
The U.S. fleet pursued closely, and the artillery fire was extremely fierce, making it the target of the second transport team.
Four destroyers aimed at the U.S. Navy ships and fired torpedoes frequently. The two destroyers in the vanguard were hit by mines and sank. The two destroyers in the rear quickly moved forward to cover. The Japanese destroyers retreated and disengaged, so the U.S. destroyers ran to rescue the drowning people, and the cruisers
Then go east and withdraw from the battle.
Soon, the six destroyers of the Japanese naval cover team and the second transport team returned to the battlefield, and together with the first transport team that took the retreat, sent the remaining two US Navy destroyers to the bottom of the sea.
In this battle, one US cruiser and four destroyers were destroyed, and more than 2,000 naval officers and soldiers were killed.
The night battle and the subsequent massacre of U.S. Navy soldiers who fell into the water delayed a lot of time. Worried about being bombed by U.S. land-based aviation after dawn, the Japanese naval commander immediately suspended the evacuation mission and returned to Bouin Port.
The U.S. Navy, which had a certain advantage, unexpectedly suffered a tragic defeat. At the same time, adhering to the established strategy of "Europe first, Asia second", the Americans no longer dared to use their limited naval ships to launch counterattacks, and temporarily suspended the attack on the New Georgia Islands.
attack.
Seeing that the U.S. Navy was waning, the Japanese gave up on withdrawing their troops. The two sides are currently facing off between Guadalcanal and the New Georgia Islands. However, as the U.S. Navy recovers and gathers strength, the next wave of battles will surely be shocking.
In the Southwest Pacific theater, General MacArthur, the former hero of World War I, seemed to suddenly become incapable of fighting, and he frequently fell into trouble.
During the exchange with the German army, the Japanese army systematically learned the use of paratroopers. When they landed at the Soviet port of the Far Eastern Republic, and attacked the middle and lower reaches of Heilongjiang, the Japanese army used parachutes to surround Gurskoye.
Behind the defense line, they attacked from the front and back to capture this almost insurmountable pass. More than two years later, the Japanese army further perfected this tactic.
On August 22, the Sixth and Seventh Flying Regiments of the Fourth Air Force of the *** Army Air Force concentrated more than 800 fighter planes to attack the Eyre Peninsula and Lake Giles, Lake Gairdner, and Lake Island.
and the US military defense lines around Lake McFarland conducted intensive air strikes.
The U.S. military pilots lacked combat experience and had far fewer aircraft than their opponents, so they lost air superiority in this area. At the same time, the U.S. military's radar system was obscured by bright spots in the sky and had no time to detect the nearly two hundred Japanese aviation forces mobilized.
A transport plane carried out a concentrated parachute drop in the grassland area southeast of McFarland Lake.
After nearly a day of air combat, the Japanese army transported more than 8,000 troops to this area. Subsequently, this part of the Japanese army stayed day and night, and suddenly appeared outside Port Augusta on the night of the 28th.
The U.S. military was caught off guard, and after a fierce battle overnight, the city changed hands.
This important town located at the mouth of the Torrens River is a transportation hub for railways, roads, shipping and maritime transport in South Australia. It stores a large amount of US military combat supplies. It is also the location where US troops deployed on the Eyre Peninsula retreat to the east of Flinders Ridge.
The geographical location is extremely important as the chokepoint of the region.
MacArthur, who was commanding operations at Port Lincoln on the Eyre Peninsula, once again felt the heart-wrenching scene when he was trapped in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, and hurriedly deployed on the front lines of Mount Cooper, Mount Sturt and Newquay Bluff in the west of the Eyre Peninsula.
troops launched a counterattack towards Port Augusta.
MacArthur, who was busy making mistakes, even neglected to carry out air strikes on the three airports where Port Augusta is located. As a result, the Japanese army dispatched an additional division of troops to the area in just three days, and added more troops.
Having obtained a large amount of U.S. military inventory and equipment, the U.S. military launched a counterattack on September 2 and was quickly defeated by the Japanese army.
At this time, MacArthur thought of asking for help from the Australian army east of Flinders Ridge and Nimitz in the Pacific Theater. However, the Australian army needed to defend the long Flinders Ridge defense line to ensure Australia's most elite New Zealand
Due to the safety of Wales and Victoria, they did not dare to separate their forces for rescue, and Nimitz could not rescue those near the thirsty water. At the same time, during the war in the Central Pacific, the 16th Task Force and the 17th Task Force commanded by Admiral Halsey
The task force suffered heavy losses in personnel and had no ability to reverse the defeat on land.
Under this circumstance, in order to preserve the limited strength of the U.S. military in the Southwest Pacific, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff made a decision to order the Fifth Fleet commanded by Vice Admiral Spruance to cooperate with MacArthur’s Seventh Fleet to carry out the Eyre Peninsula
withdrawal mission.
In general, the situation in the Southwest Pacific theater deteriorated sharply, which was inseparable from MacArthur's rigid command thinking.
In fact, at this time, many British and American generals were still stuck in the state of the last European War in their operational thinking. They thought that building a solid defense line, coupled with complete logistical supplements at the rear, and just attrition would be enough to defeat the opponent. Little did they know that with the advancement of aviation technology
, the war has evolved into an all-round competition for space, and both the front and the rear may become battlefields.
In this contest, how to limit the opponent's advantages to the greatest extent has become the number one issue.
...
In the Indian Ocean battlefield, starting in late August, a large-scale naval battle broke out again between the Allied fleet and the combined fleet of the Japanese Navy.
Combining intelligence from both the Japanese and the United States, it can be said that the Japanese naval combined fleet was in full force in this battle. It was personally commanded by General Yamamoto Isoroku and had jurisdiction over the main fleet, the Navy's aircraft carrier task force and the second aircraft carrier group.
Six battleships, four high-speed battleships, eight fleet aircraft carriers, ten escort aircraft carriers, ten heavy cruisers, twelve light cruisers and anti-aircraft cruisers, forty-two destroyers and ninety-one other auxiliary ships.
The allied navies include the USS Arkansas, USS New York, and USS Texas, three aircraft carriers, the USS Yorktown, the USS Hornet, and the USS Raider, and a heavy cruiser.
"Portland" and "Indianapolis", four "Omaha" class light cruisers;
The Royal Navy fleet has the battleship "Queen Elizabeth", the "Princess Royal" and the battlecruiser "Reputation", "Unicorn", "Giant", "Reverent", "Ares", "Glory",
"Ocean" and six other light aircraft carriers, four "Kent" class heavy cruisers, and four "Southampton" class light cruisers.
In addition, the Allied navies also have twenty-five destroyers, thirty-two escort destroyers, and forty-six minesweepers, which are still quite powerful.
Since the outbreak of the World War, Britain has recalled old warships for sale from various South American countries. For example, the "Lion", "Royal Princess", and "Tiger" battlecruisers. After the end of World War I and during the economic crisis, these three warships were
Sold to Brazil, Argentina and
The Chilean Navy is now fully equipped for battle. However, the battlecruisers "Tiger" and "Lion" were unlucky and sank during the attack on the port of Diego Suarez. Fortunately, the water was shallow and they were already
It was salvaged and towed back to the shipyard in South Africa for repairs.
As a side note, the Japanese navy at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii has also salvaged the US warships that were attacked and sunk one by one. They are currently undergoing repairs and are being repaired according to the blueprints left by the Americans.
Modern modifications have raised the combat effectiveness of these warships to a new level.
It is strange to say that the modification of warships is originally very complicated. The impact of new equipment on the warships must be taken into consideration. When so many warships need to be modified, the drawings alone will take several months, not to mention the various drawings.
Procurement and production of equipment, materials.
However, when these warships were salvaged, workers who were transferred from Japan to Hawaii to participate in ship repairs found that the naval base material storage center in the Hawaii military port was like a big treasure house. Everything was ready-made, including blueprints and weapons.
, radar, etc. are all ready-made, which is very shocking.
Now the Japanese Navy has copied the shipborne radars left by the Americans at Pearl Harbor and modernized some ships.
Currently, among the ships sunk in Pearl Harbor, only the USS Arizona and the battleship USS Oklahoma cannot be repaired. The USS Utah is an old battleship launched in 1909 and has no significance for repair, and the minelayer
The "Oglala" was built in 1907 and is the oldest warship in Pearl Harbor. It has rarely set sail. It is said that seabirds have even found nests in the chimney, so it does not need to be repaired.
Therefore, in fact, the final losses of the U.S. military in the attack on Pearl Harbor were only these four warships. If the Japanese Army had not landed on Oahu, all of these ships would have quickly rearmed the U.S. Navy for use in Pacific operations. However,
Now there are only cheap *** people.
Returning to the main story, the Allied navies did not know that the combined fleet had completed its assembly in Singapore in mid-August. After replenishing carrier-based aircraft, fuel and ammunition, it headed menacingly towards the southwest Indian Ocean.
Admiral Bertram Ramsay of the Royal Navy, who had commanded the Dunkirk evacuation, commanded a huge fleet on August 21 to attack the Seychelles, the most important naval base of the Japanese Navy in the Indian Ocean.
The islands rushed away. The entire allied naval fleet was divided into two groups. The first group took nine aircraft carriers to carry out air strikes at Victoria Harbor on Mahe Island, while the main fleet of the second group prepared to support the rear.
Three days later, when the fleet arrived at its destination fifty nautical miles away, it released carrier-based aircraft and made an emergency tactical maneuver to the northwest waters.
In order to prevent the Japanese naval land-based aviation from counterattacking, Admiral Bertram Ramsey also sent out a group of warning aircraft.
Fortunately, we did not see any enemy planes. The Allied naval fleets were full of joy, believing that the Japanese must have been stunned by this wave of air strikes and had no room for counterattack. The next step was to launch a landing operation to solve the problem. However,
, three hours later, when they saw the returning fleet, everyone was shocked: of the large fleet of 300 fighters, at least 150 had not returned.
When the air strike group landed on the ship, the alert cruiser reported that the radar showed that a group of aircraft suddenly appeared twenty kilometers away from Mahe Island, and a group of no less than 250 fighter planes pounced fiercely.
Bertram Ramsay immediately ordered all the fighter jets to form an array in the air, and every anti-aircraft gunner was in place. Then, they saw one hundred and fifty Zero fighter jets and fifty Type One land attack aircraft of the Japanese Naval Air Force.
, a huge lineup composed of thirty ninety-seven-type heavy explosions and thirty hundred-type dragon-swallowing heavy explosions.
After a fierce air battle, all thirty Fulmars of the air cover were shot down, and more than fifty "Buffalo", "Wildcat" and "Sea ***" crashed into the sea.
The Japanese attack fleet broke through the British air defense and hit many warships, including the light aircraft carriers "Unicorn" and "Giant", the old battleship "Arkansas", and the "Kent" class "Berwick"
The heavy cruiser USS "Milwaukee" and the two "Omaha" class light cruisers "Milwaukee" and "Cincinnati" were sunk, and many other ships were severely damaged.
Bertram Ramsey was so depressed that he had no choice but to lead the fleet back to the Diego Suarez military port. In his opinion, since the air attack plan ended in failure, the most important thing was to lead the warships back to the base safely.
The admiral didn't know that just as he was leading the fleet to attack the Seychelles Islands, the 23rd Naval Aviation Group and the Army's 5th Flying Division had mobilized all long-range bombers, and suddenly
Attacked Allied military airfields in Southeast Africa.
This time, General Kotaro Nakamura of the Japanese Indian Ocean Front used his brain again. As early as the end of July, he assigned the ships of the Indian Ocean Fleet to use the night to escort the 9th and 10th independent infantry brigade in Mozambique, a neutral country on the other side of the strait.
Landing at Matop Bay.
In order to keep the secret, the Japanese army adopted the strategy of killing all the people along the way, bypassing the important port city of Matop in southern Mozambique, sneaking along the Drakensberg Mountains, sneaking into British Southern Africa, and uprooting the radar stations located near the coastline one by one.
By August 24, the Japanese army had sneaked to the outskirts of Port Elizabeth. This is the command center of the Allied naval and army forces. Based on the information fed back by coastal radar stations, the aviation forces deployed on the east coast of Africa are uniformly dispatched.
At four o'clock in the morning on the 25th, the 9th and 10th Independent Infantry Brigades suddenly launched an attack on Port Elizabeth. The Allied commanders did not expect that there would be an attack here. Caught off guard, the Allied troops stationed in the center of the city
The joint command headquarters, the Elizabeth Airport in the eastern and northern suburbs, and the ports in the south were all controlled by the Japanese army.
Lieutenant General William Henry Gott of the British Army, Rear Admiral Husband Kimmel, the former commander of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet who was demoted due to the Pearl Harbor incident, as well as more than 50 Allied generals and generals in the headquarters, as well as
More than 4,000 British and American soldiers became prisoners.
After dawn, the 23rd Navy Air Force and the Army's 5th Flying Division suddenly dispatched a hundred B17 bombers, and under the cover of 150 Zero fighter jets, they air raided the airport on the east coast of South Africa.
A large number of Allied fighter planes were scrapped on the airport runway before they could even take off. Even if they were lucky enough to get airborne, they could not escape during the climb and became victims of the firepower of the Zero fighters.
By the afternoon of that day, the airports on the east coast were almost wiped out one by one by the Japanese air force. From the beginning to the end, the Allied Joint Command did not warn the airports or direct operations.
At the same time as the air attack was launched, four divisions in total, the 30th Division, the 19th Division, the 67th Division, and the 100th Division, were deployed on Mount Tsaratanana in northern Madagascar to resist the U.S. forces moving south.
,cooperating with the Japanese and Indian Army No.11,
The 12th, 13th, and 14th Divisions, as well as 20,000 Madagascar government troops, suddenly marched towards Diego Suarez Port. At this time, the allied forces stationed at Diego Suarez Military Port, who felt good about themselves, also sent
Two U.S. military divisions moved south.
The leading troops of the two armies collided head-on in the rugged Ambudimanga Mountains, and a fierce battle immediately began. Due to the complex terrain and numerous hills and ravines, the superior mechanized troops of the Allies could not be used. Both sides came and went, killing each other.
It's so lively.
On the northern sea, on August 26, the Allied naval fleet retreating towards the Diego Suarez military port was finally overtaken by the Japanese combined naval fleet arriving from the East Indian Ocean.
The eight fleet aircraft carriers of the *** Navy dispatched 300 fighter planes. The Allied Navy fleet has only about 40 fighter planes responsible for air cover, and the rest are bombers and torpedo planes.
Facing one hundred and fifty Zero fighter jets, the Allied Navy's "Buffalo", "Wildcat" and "Sea ***" fighter jets were unable to parry and fell into the sea one after another, losing all the main forces of the Allied forces in the air.
Ships, aircraft carriers, and heavy cruisers were all hit by bombs and torpedoes.
Dragging thick smoke, the aircraft carrier "Ocean" and the "Kent"-class heavy cruiser "Cumberland" sank into the sea. In addition, five destroyers sank. The aircraft carriers "Yorktown" and "Hornet" each sank.
Three bombs destroyed the ability of aircraft to take off and land. The light aircraft carriers "Reverence", "Ares", and "Glorious" were hit by a total of twelve bombs, but miraculously they did not sink.
The allied navies suffered a heavy blow and lost almost all their carrier-based aircraft. Fortunately, they were already close to the Diego Suarez military port. Finally, before the next wave of fighter planes arrived, the entire fleet hid in Diego Suarez.
naval port.
What followed was undoubtedly an extremely humiliating scene for the Allies.
Under the superior sea, land and air attack of the Japanese army, on September 5, after ten days of continuous fighting, the Diego Suarez naval port fell, and the main force of the Allied fleet became a prisoner of the Japanese navy.
In this battle, which lasted for more than half a month, the Allied Army lost more than 20,000 lives, about 50,000 were made prisoners, and thousands more were missing. The Navy also included the USS Yorktown and the USS Hornet.
, "Raider", "HMS Reverence", "Ares" and "Glorious"
Six aircraft carriers including the USS New York, USS Texas, and USS Queen Elizabeth, as well as nearly a hundred cruisers, destroyers, and transport ships became the trophies of the Japanese army and dominated the naval power.
Reached an unprecedented peak.
In the East and South Africa region, the Japanese Navy's Indian Ocean Fleet continued to increase its troops to the African continent. With the help of the air force, a total of four independent Japanese infantry brigades maintained the battle line at the Outeniqua Mountains south of Port Elizabeth.
On the front line, the situation in Asia and Africa is in chaos.
Late at night on September 6th, after An Yi returned to Xinjing with Gu Changfeng and Xia Jian, he immediately convened a military committee and decided to hold an all-army military meeting two days later. All front armies, group army generals and above, would gather in Xinjing to discuss the current situation.
situation, and finally determine the time for the entire army to launch a counterattack.
The war is about to break out.
~~~~~~~~
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