My Head of the Huaxia Expeditionary Force

Chapter 614 It happened for a reason
What Liao Mingyu didn't know was that because of the emergency in the Yangon area, the Japanese territory in the Burma-occupied area was about to be lost. This alarmed the headquarters and the high-ranking "His Majesty the Emperor" early on.

In addition, Terauchi Shouyi spared no effort to publicize the threat of the Chinese Expeditionary Army, which caused the Japanese cabinet to have different opinions, and clouds hung over everyone's hearts.

At a small scale, it is called a strategic regional failure, and at a large scale, it is the impact on the entire national destiny.

One is the plunder of important resources that the country depends on for survival, and the other is the last gateway of the country. The two equally severe battlefields of Yangon and the Ryukyu Islands are facing the risk of defeat, making it difficult for the top Japanese military to make a choice in a short time.

For the Japanese army in Myanmar and even Southeast Asia, it is a plot that cannot be let go. After all, the island country has limited resources, and oil, rubber, minerals, etc. need to be imported on a large scale. This is an important place for them to plunder war resources.

Therefore, in the initial battle of Yangon, the base camp did not hesitate to mobilize the insufficient naval fleet to support it.

It's a pity that the few cruisers and destroyers that came over suffered two sinking and three serious injuries in the end, so they reluctantly withdrew from the battle.

The original plan to let the Yamato participate in the Battle of Okinawa was also shelved by the swinging base camp earlier, so that the Yamato did not receive clear instructions after the battle.

Although the Ryukyu Islands were finally captured by the U.S. military, the Yangon crisis has not been resolved. The funniest thing is that Terauchi Shouichi’s efforts to add fuel and vinegar to the bitter water successfully made the base camp lose his position as the commander-in-chief of the Southern Army and replace him with Itagaki ahead of schedule. Seishiro, the old devil.

As for the active planner of the "September 7th" incident, I believe there is no need to introduce it. In the original history, he was transferred to the Japanese Southern Army as the commander of the 9th Front Army shortly before the end of World War II. East India commanded the Japanese army to fight. In September of the same year, after the Japanese Emperor announced his unconditional surrender, he led his troops to surrender to the British army in Singapore.

However, due to the defeat in the Burma war, the Southern Army has performed poorly for a long time. Not only Terauchi Shouichi, but also a large number of senior officers of the Southern Army including him have been replaced, and Seishiro Itagaki was also assigned to this position in advance.

Liao, a little butterfly, unknowingly changed many things that should have happened.

The first thing Itagaki Seishiro did after taking office was to prepare for emergency rescue of tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers trapped in Yangon.

In his view, Myanmar has become an enclave, and it is meaningless to stick to it. The top priority is to rescue the remaining troops as much as possible, and use all available vitality to defend the Malaysian area.

Therefore, sending a fleet headed by Yamato to Singapore has become a top priority.

Because this mission was not a suicide attack, Little Japan still equipped the Yamato with some proper escort fleets, including the "Katsuragi" medium-sized aircraft carrier, two light cruisers, and supporting escort destroyers.

The size of the fleet is not large, but this is the only trump card that the Japanese Navy Headquarters can hold. Originally, there was an aircraft carrier of the same level as the "Dragon City" parked in Wugang, but now there are not so many naval aviation units. There are not enough fleet crews and fuel supplies, so we can only settle for the next best thing.

As everyone knows, the whereabouts of this fleet have long been discovered by the US military. In order not to startle the enemy, the Yankees only sent a light cruiser to follow it from a distance, and the reconnaissance plane was always at high altitude to detect the movement of the Japanese fleet.

After route deduction, it was roughly determined that the destination of the other party was Malaysia or Singapore, and it should be intended to reach the Andaman Sea in southern Myanmar through the waters of Malacca.

"Junzuo, should we obey the arrangement and follow the Americans?"

Seeing Liao Mingyu sitting on the stool as if in deep thought, and there was no movement for a while, Meng Fanzai couldn't help but stepped forward and asked, "If we want to cooperate with them, what should we do here in Yangon?"

"Hehe, what should I do?"

Liao Mingyu opened the second telegram silently, and said leisurely while reading it: "Cooperation is not the point, that old fellow Stilwell probably just wants to see my attitude."

Meng Fan turned his eyes, and the shrewd man understood the mystery in a moment, and then said: "Then, should we obey the law, or just find an excuse...?"

"No need to do that. There are enough planes in the Heihe base area now, and it's time for our students to go to the battlefield to hone their skills."

"Ah this?" Meng Fanle was a little surprised, and asked puzzledly: "Can you send some raw melon eggs... I'm afraid it's..."

I'm afraid there will be no return.

He didn't finish the last sentence, because he stayed in the Heihe base area to manage some military affairs at the earliest, and knew that there were factories and flight schools there. Not only did he work overtime every day to produce equipment, but the aviation brigade was also training various pilot students.

Even though World War II aircraft are far inferior to modern jets, the selection and training of pilots is still extremely difficult.

In the battlefields from ancient times to the present, experience is the most rare thing. To become a qualified fighter pilot, in addition to physical fitness and a certain level of education, you need at least 200 hours of flying time to go to the battlefield. It is the existence of being a target for artillery fire.

This is also the reason why Germany and Japan had a large number of fighter jets even before the defeat, but they did not participate in the battle. It is purely that the training of pilots is far from keeping up with the consumption rate, and the plane becomes useless if no one is flying it. of scrap iron.

Although Meng Fanle didn't know much about aircraft, he knew the difference between a rookie and a veteran. Although Heihe base had established a flight training team for several months, it was still not optimistic to send those novices to the battlefield directly.

Unexpectedly, Liao Mingyu smiled indifferently, and asked, "Who told you to send them to participate in hunting and attack operations?"

"Then what do you mean?" Meng Fan was puzzled.

Now the air combat force of the expeditionary force consists of four fighter squadrons and one bomber squadron. Among them, Jamie leads the first and second squadrons based at Mandalay Airport, and is mainly responsible for supporting the new army's battle in Ayeyarwady Province.

Andre led the third and fourth squadrons and bomber squadrons in Heihe and Taunggyi, and was responsible for air strikes on the Yangon battlefield.

Regardless of the fact that each squadron has 18 fighter planes, apart from the planes parked at the airport for daily maintenance and post-war repairs, there are not many planes that can go to the battlefield every day, and they have to support multiple combat targets. In fact, more rely on Supplement from Stilwell's side.

If the existing aviation squadron is to be deployed to cooperate with the actions of the Americans, it will inevitably cause Yangon to lack air strike capabilities, and the offensive of the ground forces may be affected to some extent.

(End of this chapter)