afterglow

Chapter 640: Battle on all fronts; Thousands of miles of raids

Tianshi Youyuan can be said to be an old unlucky ship. It seems that it is the shackles of fate that make her a thorn in the eyes of the Australians.

As early as a few years ago during the Battle of Darwin, the Tianshi Youyuan was severely damaged by a fatal collision with a Whitley bomber and returned to the mainland for repairs for half a year.

Later, when the Ming army led an expedition to Hawaii, the Tianshi Youyuan returned to the battlefield and patrolled the Solomon Sea. It fought wits and courage with the Enterprise for several weeks, but was ambushed by the Swordfish submarine and was seriously injured again.

This time, the Tianshi Youyuan was not so lucky. After an internal fire caused the volatile oil and gas to explode, the sailors were forced to abandon this light aircraft carrier that had escaped death twice.

With a standard displacement of 1.7 tons, a maximum speed of 29 knots and an aircraft carrying capacity of 60 aircraft, from today's perspective, the Tianshiyuan-class, which was completed and put into service in the th year of Zhichang, is not an excellent design and is unremarkable.

However, no matter how small she is, she is still a fleet aircraft carrier after all.

Li Gangqiao, the Minister of War, took it very seriously and specifically asked about the details of the battle. The Ministry of War sent someone to review the damage control operation records in the navigation log and only stopped after confirming that there was no negligence.

Although the cost was a bit high, the tactical goal was successfully achieved, so it was not a loss.

It was impossible for Port Hedland to be put back into use in a short period of time. The state-owned aircraft assembly plant and the Royal Air Force aircraft maintenance base in Perth were both bombed into ruins.

Therefore, the 77th Bomb Group could not continue its strategic bombing of the Old Port Oil Field and the Balikpapan Oil Field. Dozens of B-17s and B-24s involved in the bombing were transferred to eastern Australia. They could not just sit there idle, so they went to bomb Cairns and Townsville.

Over the past six months, the 77th Bomber Group of the US-Australia Joint Air Force has lost nearly 20 heavy bombers, almost completely decimated. The hundreds of tons of aerial bombs they dropped reduced production in the Nanyang oil fields controlled by the Ming army by about %.

In the 790th year of Zhichang, several oil fields in Southeast Asia contributed 662 million tons of crude oil; but last year, the first year of Jinghe, due to air raids in the following months, the total output for the year dropped to million tons.

Now that this threat has been eliminated, the military top brass breathed a sigh of relief.

From then until August, the Ming army began to adjust its strategic focus again, repeatedly sending reinforcements to Australia to strengthen the Australian Corps.

Zhou Changfeng had previously worried that the US-Australian coalition would attempt a counterattack this year, and Zhu Lingjing had the same concerns, so the decision-makers were closely monitoring the enemy's actions.

Today, the Ming armed forces have expanded to include a considerable number of wartime conscripted troops in addition to the more than 40 divisions and 30 brigades of standing troops before the war.

这包括53个陆军步兵师、12个陆军工兵旅、9个陆军交通兵旅、27个汽车运输团、18个空军高射炮旅、15个陆军宪兵团、92个独立高射炮营、69个独立岸防炮营、7个海军勤务支队等等一系列单位，总数达二百余万人。

The total number of personnel in the Army, Navy and Air Force on paper now exceeds six million, including 291 million in the Army, 239 million in the Navy and 72 in the Air Force.

Although the vast majority of troops are fully equipped and staffed, nearly half of the army's combat units are stranded in the mainland and unable to engage in combat.

The dilemma faced by the Ming army was that the combat area was greatly limited, and it was impossible to maintain millions of troops through a developed road and railway network like the European battlefield.

East Asia and South Asia seem to be connected, but the terrain between Annan, Myanmar and Indochina is rugged and covered with virgin forests.

The British did not build any railways in Burma at all. There was only a narrow dirt road connecting British Indus and British Burma. On the contrary, the railway network in the Indus region was very dense and well-connected.

This meant that the Ming army had to build roads and bridges first. The situation improved after the one-way railway running through British Burma and Siam was completed and opened to traffic. The railway has a maximum daily capacity of 3000 tons, which can theoretically meet the combat supply needs of 40 troops.

But this still could not meet the demand, because the total strength of the Ming Army's Indu Corps reached 34, and the Annan and Japanese vassal troops also had 30.

In order to alleviate the shortage of supplies, the Ming Navy opened a sea route from Singapore to Chittagong, which basically met the consumption of hundreds of thousands of troops.

The Commonwealth troops would certainly not give up, and Archibald Wavell ordered the Ming army's logistics lines to be blocked to the greatest extent possible.

The British army tried every means to block sea transportation, such as laying mines by submarines, ambushing cargo ships by submarines, dropping mines by airplanes, and attacking cargo ships by airplanes. The Ming army also fought hard.

Therefore, although a large amount of supplies were sunk with the ships, the supply of hundreds of thousands of troops has never been interrupted.

Of course, this is the limit for now, and we can only maintain a force of this size at most.

Moreover, after the end of the spring offensive in February, the Ming army had advanced to the Bihar front line, and the local iron, copper, gold, mica and other minerals were continuously transported back to the country via railways.

At the same time, as the Ming army advanced deeper into the interior, supply became increasingly difficult.

In order to reduce the pressure of transporting supplies to the rear, the Indu Corps began to support local tribal autonomy, collect food, or simply requisition food locally.

On the contrary, because they were pushed back hundreds of kilometers and the front line retreated significantly, the supply problem of the Commonwealth troops became easier.

Mei Chaoyin, commander of the Indus Corps, spoke frankly when he returned to Beijing to report on his work - the situation of this winter offensive will be worse, and the deeper we go, the more trouble we will have. It would be best to land on the east coast in the south and open up a second battlefield, such as... Chennai.

The composition of the troops used by the British Empire to defend this gem land was very ridiculous. In fact, there were only 3 British infantry divisions and 2 British armored brigades, with a total strength of about 10 people. The absolute main force was 36 British Indian infantry divisions and service units, totaling about 170 million people.

Although the British Indian Army's combat effectiveness was not good, its numbers far exceeded those of the Ming Army, which to a certain extent offset the Ming Army's quality advantage.

In addition, reasonable tactics were also effective. Admiral Archibald Wavell personally directed the deployment of multiple lines of defense for in-depth defense. After the Ming army defeated one or two divisions, they would immediately face the second line of defense and a large number of reserve troops.

Because of this, Mei Chaoyin didn't want to continue fighting head-on like this.

He believed that after landing in the south, he could advance boldly in multiple directions, cutting off the British Indian Army's main artery - the extensive railway network, thereby causing the spontaneous collapse of Wavell's carefully arranged defense line.

This idea is undoubtedly correct. Avoiding the strong and attacking the weak is the best strategy.

Unfortunately, the problem was that the main force of the Ming Navy was pinned down in the Pacific by the U.S. military, and the remaining forces could only fight the Royal Navy's Far East Fleet in a 50-50 situation at best, and were unable to seize control of the sea.

Since there was no need to deal with Italy as in history, the British Far East Fleet was able to maintain a considerable size, including the battleships Queen Elizabeth, Warspite, Resolution, and Formidable, as well as four attacker-class escort carriers (American-aided Borg class).

Therefore, after weighing the pros and cons, the decision-makers of the Ming Dynasty decided to adjust their strategic focus again and prepare to resume the attack on Australia. After experiencing the Battle of Darwin and the Battle of Cairns in the early stage of the war, the Ming army witnessed the stubbornness of the Australian army and felt that the gains did not outweigh the losses. They temporarily lost interest and then shifted their strategic focus to the direction of India and Du.

Today, the huge amount of resources seized from Assam and Bihar are being continuously transported back to the mainland to replenish the war machine, and the decision made at that time should not have been wrong.

But now the situation has changed. Instead of letting millions of troops stay in the mainland and sit idle, it is better to deploy some of them to strengthen the Australian Corps.

In May, an additional division was sent to Australia, and in June another division and two brigades were sent. Now the Grand Marshal's Office has decided to transfer a few more divisions from the mainland.

澳洲兵团除原本的第五军与第六军之外，又新编成第十二军，预计将会达到14个步兵师、4个野战重炮旅、2个战车旅、2个机动步兵旅、5个工兵旅、3个交通兵旅以及大量勤务单位，总数计约70万人。

As for the Australian Army, after several rounds of expansion, it has reached its limit and now has 15 infantry divisions, 1 armored division, 2 armored brigades, and about 77 people.

The US military stationed in Australia has three infantry divisions, about 3 people; the remnants of the Royal Dutch Army were reorganized into two infantry brigades, about 10 people, but their combat effectiveness was weak.

Due to the threat from the Ming navy, the US-Australian coalition forces had to deploy a considerable portion of their forces in key coastal areas to guard against the Ming army landing and cutting off their retreat - just like in the Battle of Townsville.

The problem of labor shortage has always plagued Australia. Even if the population of more than seven million is mobilized to the maximum extent and women replace men to take over factory jobs, only one million people at most can be mobilized.

Because of this, the Australian army was eager to launch a counterattack as soon as possible to drive the Ming army into the sea, otherwise the situation would only become increasingly unfavorable as time went on.

In the previous two years, we were unable to support the counterattack due to insufficient training and weapons and equipment, but things are different now.

Marshal MacArthur held the same view. In fact, he thought so last year. However, as a good cook cannot cook without rice, a considerable portion of the supplies were used to supply the heavy bomber brigade to carry out strategic bombing of the Nanyang Oilfield.

The recent increase in the number of Ming troops has exacerbated the concerns of the US-Australia coalition forces, but Melbourne and Washington have failed to reach a consensus after repeated communications.

Washington insists that the US-Australia coalition should not take the initiative to attack, so as to avoid suffering unnecessary losses and leading to collapse, because Australia's limited industrial capacity and shortage of manpower mean that the margin for error is extremely low.

The Americans were so strongly opposed that the Australians had no choice but to shelve the proposal for a counterattack.

The year 1942 marked a critical period of negotiation for both warring parties.

The American people gradually became tired of the fighting in the Pacific War, and more and more questioning voices emerged in the political circles.

Why has the confrontation not yet shown any signs of improvement? How long will this back-and-forth game of mutual harm continue? At least one of the West and the East must be preserved, right?

The military had previously promised politicians that it could completely curb the Ming army's offensive this year, and would actively seek one or two fleet decisive battles, counterattack Oahu the following year, and deploy more Mexican and Brazilian troops to reduce casualties at home.

Politicians are now increasingly suspicious - the Battle of Maui has been going on for several months without any significant progress, so how can a counterattack be launched at this efficiency?
Some senators believed that peace should be made immediately. The threat from the German Socialist Party was growing day by day, and now they were beginning to vigorously build an ocean-going navy. War resources should be immediately tilted towards Europe to nip it in the bud and confine it to the Eurasian continent.

The president also felt helpless. Neither the Ming and American militaries had an overwhelming advantage over the other, and the confrontation in the Pacific could go on for a long time, perhaps for ten to eight years.

This was obviously irrational; he hoped to end the Pacific War within six to twelve months and concentrate on Europe.

On August 8, the Secretary of State submitted a memorandum to the Ming Legation in an effort to reach an agreement that the transport fleet would deliver supplies to the Anglo-American Expeditionary Force and the National Republican Army via the Bering Strait via the Arctic route, and that the Ming army would not attack these specific merchant ships.

The embassy replied that the senior officials of the Ministry of Rites and the Department of Foreign Affairs said they would study the issue carefully.

【Picture】

On August 8, an informant from the Intelligence Office of the Grand Council in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, sent back a piece of intelligence - a fleet consisting of US battleships, US aircraft carriers, and British aircraft carriers had just docked in Port-au-Prince.

On August 8, the informant sent back the latest intelligence again, saying that the fleet would leave the port the next day and seemed to be planning to sail to Panama.

There were disagreements within the Grand Marshal's Office on whether to intercept the fleet, mainly because it was too far away. A long raid across thousands of miles might not necessarily track the target, and in the end they would most likely return empty-handed.

The navy was eager to try, with a sense of "If you go east, I will go west". In the end, the Grand Marshal's Office reluctantly approved the interception operation.

Currently, the only ships in good condition and suitable for this mission are the Ziwei Zuoyuan and Taiwei Zuoyuan, and they were chosen as the main force.

In order to strengthen the large-scale search capability, the Ming Navy decided to dispatch the Donghu seaplane carrier to accompany the fleet to take advantage of the Type 40 large seaplane's airborne radar in searching for the enemy.

Finally, the fleet was joined by the Hongzhi special battleship as an escort.

拦截行动参战序列总计2艘航母、1艘水机母舰、1艘小型战列舰、2艘防空巡洋舰、7艘驱逐舰、2艘高速给油舰，编为丙字一一二空袭舰队。

The fleet commander-in-chief was led by Cheng Jian, a rising star in the aircraft carrier force. His resume was quite unique. At the beginning of the war, he was the captain of the Poyang Lake seaplane carrier, and was later transferred to the Tianshi Zuoyuan.

The raid on the Ceylon base in the 40th year of Zhichang was commanded by Cheng Jian.

On August 8, the Type 22 Air Attack Fleet hastily set out from its anchorage in the waters west of Niihau Island, first speeding southeast for a day and night, then turning due east and advancing at a cruising speed of about kilometers.

According to the calculations on the map, it will take our side about eight days to reach the designated location, while the British and American fleets will arrive a little later, probably in early September.

This Anglo-American fleet was mainly composed of the light aircraft carrier USS San Jacinto, the battleship USS Alabama, and the armored aircraft carrier USS Indomitable.

The USS San Jacinto is the last of the Independence-class light aircraft carriers. It has been in service for a short time and is now ordered to join the Pacific Fleet.

As for the Alabama and the Indomitable, after forcing back the Max and the Enkers, the Royal Navy assessed that no more forces were needed to deal with the two, so the fourth South Dakota-class battleship returned to the mainland, and the Royal Navy also allowed the Indomitable to temporarily join the US military.

[Revised version, early and mid-war industry. ]

(End of this chapter)