afterglow

Chapter 383: Concept of landing on Oahu; large iron mine in Western Australia
“The key is, how do you safely transport tens of thousands of troops to Hawaii?”

A voice came from behind. Everyone followed the sound and saw Cheng Han walking over accompanied by two staff officers.

"I've seen this before." More than a dozen people present hurriedly handed over their hands.

In order to deal with the [-] US troops stationed on Oahu, we need to bring at least two infantry divisions. However, to be on the safe side, we must bring more tank troops and heavy artillery troops.

The Ming Navy has a limited number of high-speed troop transport ships in service and cannot meet such large-scale ocean delivery.

Although there are many low-speed transport ships, they cannot keep up with the speed of the main fleet and will become a burden to the fleet. A special number of warships need to be allocated to protect them. If the situation goes bad, they will not even be able to escape.

The Ming Dynasty's navy mainly focused on offense against Britain, but it has always been based on deterrence and strategic defense against the United States. Therefore, there is no need to spend huge sums of money to maintain a large number of high-speed troop transport ships.

If the troops he needs can land smoothly, Zhou will be more confident about taking Oahu, but the problem facing the naval generals is how to bring the troops there safely?

"Even if we set out from Japan, Hawaii is thousands of miles away. There are Wake Island and Midway Island along the way. Taking the middle route can avoid Wake Island, but we have to pass through Midway Island." A tall colonel and senior staff officer said calmly.

Zhou Changfeng naturally thought of the route to attack Pearl Harbor, and asked, "What if we take the northern route?"

"Northern route? North Pacific route? It's not suitable because of the high winds and rough waves there."

"Yes, although there are few merchant ships taking the northern route and their whereabouts are not easily exposed, if you bring a large number of transport ships, it is definitely not appropriate to take the northern route."

"That's right, you may not know Zhou Taizhao. If a ship encounters a big wave, the ship will roll to such an extent that it can rock a person, and it can often last for more than ten hours or even days. The sailors will be choked, and the army will not be able to withstand it."

"And the voyage is so long. If you can't adapt to the bumpy and tiring seas for more than ten days and then suddenly land ashore, you will become a soft-footed shrimp that cannot stand firmly."

The staff officers present unanimously opposed it, believing that this was a move to weaken oneself before fighting.

Zhou Changfeng immediately figured it out. Historically, the Japanese only carried out sneak attacks. They could just let the aircraft carrier units arrive near Hawaii quietly. Anyway, it was carrier-based aircraft that participated in the attack.

But now the generals of the Ming Dynasty are studying around landing on Oahu, and their campaign goals are completely different.

Is it to annihilate the field forces or capture the city?The alternative to the current situation is to annihilate the U.S. Pacific Fleet or capture the strategic node Hawaii.

If it is in a sea area adjacent to a continent, then the importance of the naval base will decrease. At this time, annihilating the mobile fleet is the optimal solution.

We also have the same idea in land warfare - regardless of the gains and losses of a city or a pool, move flexibly, wait for opportunities, and focus on annihilating the enemy's effective strength.

However, the Pacific Ocean is so vast that the importance of a complete naval base like Pearl Harbor skyrocketed.

If there was only one city in a wasteland with a radius of thousands of miles, who would dare not care about it?
Because of this, a group of senior staff officers have defaulted to placing the priority of dealing with the Pacific Fleet second.

In fact, everyone feels that in the face of the mighty Ming Dynasty's approaching navy, the Americans are likely to flee decisively——

Because relying solely on the Pacific Fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor has almost no chance of winning, a confrontation is basically asking for death. It must be combined with the Pacific Fleet stationed on the west coast and reinforcements from the Atlantic Fleet.

The U.S. fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor includes 3 aircraft carriers, 9 battleships, 4 heavy cruisers, 8 light cruisers, and dozens of destroyers and auxiliary ships.

Since the Ming Navy had already cleared out the enemy forces in Southeast Asia, the British and Dutch had no spare capacity to send additional reinforcements across half the world, so they could concentrate all their efforts on the Pacific Ocean.

The progress of the two Yongle-class battleships is about the same. The Yongle is both undergoing sea trials. The Xuande is slightly slower, but it has also completed outfitting.

Excluding them and the battleship Yuan Ding, which is being overhauled in the dock, the Ming Navy's Two Ocean Fleet can also assemble a huge main fleet of 9 battleships, 2 battlecruisers, and 6 aircraft carriers.

Even in the past when it was believed that aircraft carriers could only play a supporting role, the Ming Navy was fully confident, but now it is even more confident.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet consists of the 1st Aircraft Carrier Group and the 2nd Aircraft Carrier Group, with a total of three aircraft carriers: Lexington, Saratoga, and Enterprise.

Six versus three, how could Feilongqi lose?
On the contrary, Zhou Changfeng was a little worried, because the origins of these three ships were not ordinary.

The Lexington and Saratoga were both rebuilt from the unfinished Lexington-class battlecruisers, with good speed, protection, and firepower.

They are also equipped with four twin-mounted 203mm naval guns. It is undoubtedly rare for an aircraft carrier to be equipped with heavy cruise-level firepower.

In the famous "[-]th Fleet Problem" exercise, the red team's Saratoga made a roundabout attack on the Panama Canal lock. Because it looked almost the same as the Lexington, she fooled a blue team's destroyer into escorting her. Then "sink" it.

The sailors of the destroyer who withdrew from the battle could not swallow this sigh of relief, so they violated the rules of the exercise and sent a telegram requesting reinforcements.The nearby light cruiser USS Detroit rushed to intercept it aggressively, but was judged by the director team to be unbeatable and was "sinked."

Both the Lexington and Saratoga were pioneers in U.S. aircraft carrier tactics, accumulating experience and improving tactics in countless exercises.

As for the Enterprise, it's even more unusual.

The Annapolis Naval Academy had this to say about her:

"In the more than 20 important battles of the entire Pacific War, she only missed two. Her carrier-based aircraft shot down 911 enemy aircraft, sank 71 enemy ships, and damaged 192 enemy ships. Her carrier-based aircraft The record will always be the glory of our army and the nightmare of the enemy."

The Akagi, Kaga, and Hiryu were all killed by her hands. At the most difficult moment of the war, the Enterprise once made an epic statement - Enterprise VS Japan.

However, Zhou Changfeng also comforted himself. The two Taiweiyuan-class fleet aircraft carriers of the Ming Dynasty were also excellent. They were modified based on the No. [-] and No. [-] Yongyuan-class battlecruisers and were not inferior to the Lexington class.

The two Ziweiyuan-class aircraft carriers are sturdy armored aircraft carriers and are naturally equipped with extremely strong survivability.

Its flight deck armor is 64mm thick and is immune to most high-explosive and semi-armor-piercing bombs. Only 1000-pound and 1600-pound armor-piercing bombs can penetrate it.

And even if it penetrates, the aircraft bombs at the end of the Qiannu will not have enough energy to penetrate into the power cabin and ammunition depot further down. At most, the hangar will be blown up to force her to withdraw from the battle. After returning to Hong Kong to repair for a few months, she can return with full health.

As for underwater threats, the Americans' iron rod kinetic torpedoes in the early days of the war could basically be ignored.

After rejecting several measures in succession, someone suggested that we simply take the center line in a generous manner. After passing Midway Island, we would turn northeast and the fleet would arrive north of Hawaii.

This is because the currently identified coastal defense guns are basically concentrated in the southern part of Oahu, but their range of fire is limited, facing south, and only a small number of open turrets can rotate 360°.

So if you want to choose to land, you must avoid the dense cross-fire blockade area. At present, the best location is Haleiwa in the north of Oahu. 【Picture】

"Landing from the south is asking for death. Let's go north. Look, this Haleiwa is perfect." Zhou Changfeng leaned forward slightly and touched the sand table with his hand.

"According to common sense, the Americans will continue to increase their troops. The news sent back by the informant is that the Eighth Marine Regiment will be transferred to Pearl Harbor after it is reorganized." Cheng Han looked at Zhou Changfeng, who was three steps away, and asked word by word: " If you want to ensure everything goes wrong, how many soldiers do you need?"

The latter stared at the sand table intently, constantly comparing differences in establishment and analyzing the impact of terrain in his mind. He pondered for a full ten seconds before speaking: "One Marine Brigade, one Southern Infantry Division, two heavy mountain artillery battalions, and one assault tank." Battalion, two engineer battalions.”

Soldiers are more valuable than more elite, and transportation capacity is limited, so the most elite and most suitable troops must be carefully selected.

The Southern Infantry Division has received more training in complex terrain operations, and they were all involved in the pacification of Nanyang.

They have been tempered by the flames of war, just choose any one among them.

As for a battalion of heavy tanks, they are mainly used to deal with US armored forces and break through solid defense lines.

既没有外界压力又严重缺乏坦克设计经验的美国人现在还在捣鼓一些工业废品——有两个炮塔、各装备一挺机枪的M2A3轻型坦克刚刚停产，终于开始量产装备M5型37㎜坦克炮的M2A4了。

As for the medium tanks, the Americans said they are still testing them and will probably be put into production by the end of the year.

The overall technical level of the M2A4 is roughly equivalent to the British Vickers MkE ten years ago, but the M5 tank gun is very eye-catching, which means that one beauty covers all the ugly.

It can penetrate about 500mm thick steel plate at a distance of 50m, and is more powerful than the German Pak36 37mm towed anti-tank gun.

In view of the fact that this thing could pose a serious threat to the Ming Army's Type [-] medium tanks, Zhou Changfeng insisted on deploying heavy tank units.

Only in this way can we use the overwhelming advantage in the quality of weapons to reverse the disadvantage of traveling across the ocean to land.

"That's about 4000 troops, 11 tons of marine brigades, 16 tons of infantry divisions... together with a standard campaign ammunition, a total of 36 tons of shipping is required."

A thin logistics staff officer with the title of lieutenant colonel reacted quickly, and directly explained the required transportation capacity by dividing three times, five times, and two times.

"The existing landing ships and high-speed troop transport ships are not enough." The naval colonel looked like he had a headache. He held his fist to his mouth as if thinking, "Maybe... we can try to deploy a group of old destroyers to transport troops. ?”

The eyes of everyone present were bright. This was indeed a good solution.

The Pingyang class of the Ming Navy is the oldest destroyer in active service. Its first ship was commissioned in the 15th year of Zhichang, and there are 34 ships in total.

Now, as the cutting-edge Jieyang-class destroyers are being launched one after another, the Navy is planning to remove the [-] Pingyang-class ships in poor condition from active service and transfer them to reserve service.

Just in time, let them use their remaining heat again.

These destroyers, which temporarily serve as high-speed troop carriers, can reduce the number of sailors originally responsible for weapons and free up part of the ammunition depot.According to the non-crowding level, a single ship can carry four hundred army soldiers.

"Take out all the intelligence information related to Haleiwa and get my warrant." Cheng Han casually took out a pen from his inner pocket and signed a note.

Someone immediately took the order, turned around and ran away.

After initially determining the general outline, everyone began to gradually and in-depth discuss the specific strategy.

How should the fleet route be arranged?How to ensure the fleet's fuel supply?How much food should be brought to the landing troops?What is the most appropriate firepower mix for landing support?

The staff office of the governor's office was full of enthusiasm, and their strong energy surprised even Zhou.

Afterwards, he entered the palace and went to Zhaoren Hall, where he reported back to the emperor the previous discussion.

Zhu Lingjing was lying on a chair, the gramophone record was slowly spinning, and beautiful music came from it, filling the whole room.

She said nonchalantly: "Don't always talk too much. How can anything be foolproof?"

"It's okay, Your Majesty, I won't just issue a military order casually."

It is too easy for old foxes to harm others, especially for those young and energetic juniors who are not experienced in the world. A provocation method may be able to induce the other party to take the initiative to issue a military order.

Then if it succeeds, then echo the compliment; but if it fails, don't blame the person for being heartless.

Zhu Lingjing said softly, "Hmm," "Let's not talk about what to do militarily. What the opposition is focusing on now is whether the advantages of conquering Australia outweigh the disadvantages."

"There are no decisive benefits militarily... It is mainly economic. Australia is rich in various minerals, and politically it is also obvious. This is a big step in projecting our country's power to the world." Zhou Changfeng said.

After all, if we win Nanyang and then stop, we will only seek to dominate Asia. In the future, as the world situation is finalized, it will be more troublesome to export influence.

"Oh, the economic benefits are probably worth it."

Why does this sound a bit strange?Aren’t political benefits important?
Zhou Changfeng asked puzzledly: "Didn't Your Majesty still have great ambitions back then?"

Good guy, it doesn't count after you deceived me into a pirate ship, right?
Zhu Lingjing's eyes wandered for a moment, then she glanced at him and said calmly: "After all, it was just a vision from the past. Now... let's do our best."

The rich second generation before taking over the company: It will be listed in three years and march towards the top [-] companies in Asia!
The second generation of rich people who took over the company: I have suffered a lot of losses this year, but I will try not to lose money next year.

Fortunately, Australian iron ore has been discovered today. Although only a small part has been explored, the richness of hematite in those open-pit deposits is still amazing.

Historically, the large iron ore mine in Western Australia was discovered by a couple by chance only in the 50s.

The difference is that after the German Revolution, some of the escaped old aristocrats crossed the ocean and settled in Australia.

In three or four years ago, a young man born into an exiled aristocratic family challenged people to fly solo around Australia and discovered mountains and plains of hematite in a canyon in Western Australia, thus overturning people's perceptions.

If it weren't for the fact that there were rich iron deposits there that the Ming Dynasty did not have, Zhou Changfeng felt that the Ming Dynasty would not covet Australia.

(End of this chapter)