Shadow Spy

Chapter 428 Feasibility of airborne operations

This military meeting only announced the adjustment of troops and personnel in the India-Burma theater. As for other work, it has not yet been discussed. The withdrawal of the main force of the Chinese Expeditionary Force and the arrival of new recruits from northern Shaanxi will take time, but one thing will happen immediately. It’s about to begin!

General Ridgway single-handedly reorganized the 82nd Infantry Division into an airborne division. This time it was transferred to the Allied India-Burma Theater. His first plan was to plan an airborne operation for the entire division's combat troops! For this reason, since he followed Li Junhao to Myanmar, he has been surveying the terrain and formulating airborne plans. He has no time to take care of his job as deputy commander of the theater, and basically leaves it all to Wheeler, the chief of staff!
  Wheeler was very dissatisfied with this. The original chief of staff, Luo Zhuoying, was leaving and was not doing anything at all. Sun Liren, who was originally also the deputy chief of staff, was just a name. The management work of more than [-] troops in the war zone was already very heavy. , and now Ridgway has given him the job of deputy commander!

Major General Wheeler, who was really overwhelmed, approached Li Junhao twice in a row and asked him to come forward to let Li Qiwei return to his job.

Li Junhao felt helpless about the dispute between the two people. He talked to Li Qiwei once and found that he was completely obsessed. If he could not complete the airborne operation of the entire division, he would have no interest in doing anything; and Wheeler's work It did increase too much. Fortunately, before New Year's Day, Yang Shixiong was finally in place!

For Yang Shixiong, his previous job in the Shanghai Concession included a lot of administrative work that he was not good at before, and it took him a long time to adapt to it.

When Li Junhao left Shanghai, in order to maintain the stability of the army and implement the concession strategy, he had to stay for a year and a half, while most of his other comrades left one after another.

During this period, he helped the new joint commander, Major General Vaughn, take control of the situation. Only then was he called by Li Junhao to come to Myanmar and take up the position he is best at - chief of staff in the theater!

General Wheeler, who quickly discovered Yang Shixiong's talents, was very happy. He basically gave him complete responsibility for the theater staff, and he began to perform the work of deputy commander of the theater for Ridgway.
-
  On January 1, Li Qiwei came to Li Junhao and handed over a plan for the 15nd Airborne Division to land in Myanmar in airborne mode, asking him to help review it, and then submitted it to the Ministry of the Army, which is expected to be implemented in Myanmar in early February.

This plan was very detailed and complicated. Li Junhao spent a whole day and half an evening reading it and understanding it. Then he asked Li Qiwei to put forward his opinions.

"Matthew, your plan is indeed detailed enough. I finally finished reading it." Li Junhao said, "But I found a few questions and I hope to get your answers."

"Of course." Li Qiwei said immediately. Although he has been busy with his own plans during this period, he has learned a lot about Commander Pan Sen's abilities and magic from the headquarters and staff, so he attaches great importance to him at this time. Opinion.

Li Junhao decided to be polite at the beginning, starting with praise, and said: "First of all, I admire you very much, Matthew. You spent ten months transforming a pure infantry unit into the first integrated unit of the US military. Airborne Division, first of all, you did a great job!" Hearing this, Ridgway showed a proud smile and waved his hand: "I also made progress by groping, and I also learned a lot from the German airborne troops on Crete. The experience and lessons learned from the Battle of Guangdong Island, this can be regarded as the 82nd Division has basically taken shape, but it has not been tested in actual combat, and I still feel unsure, so I came up with this plan. Taking advantage of the current calm period of the war situation in Myanmar, I will implement it here. The airborne operation of the entire division's combat troops, to test the previous training results..."

"I should admit that your idea is very good." Li Junhao nodded, "But you have to anticipate the difficulties in advance!" He decided to talk about some practical information. Some of the insights of later generations were beyond this era. He also Can act as an "expert".

"Of course, I have anticipated all possible difficult situations in my plan..." Li Qiwei said very confidently. Although he respected Commander Panson in front of him now, in his professional field, he did not know how to do it. Admit that there are people in the current US military who are stronger than myself!
  "Matthew, you just said that you have studied the Battle of Crete, so can you tell me whether the German airborne operation was successful?" Li Junhao asked the first question. Previously in 1941, he had analyzed this battle for President Roosevelt and others in the White House, and now he wanted to hear Ridgway's views.

Ridgway had really studied this issue seriously and immediately said: "First of all, we must admit that although the German airborne operations paid a huge price, the result was the occupation of Crete, control of the Eastern Mediterranean, and guaranteed security in Southeast Europe. Stability, in particular, ensured the safety of the Ploiesti oil fields in Romania, the lifeline on which Germany relied to maintain the war. This achieved the original purpose of launching the campaign.

“As the first large-scale airborne combat operation in the history of modern warfare, the Battle of Crete will definitely go down in history and be remembered by future generations.

"Of course, the German army made many mistakes during this operation, some of which were even fatal, which resulted in extremely heavy casualties. Even after that, the German army never used this tactic again!
  "In view of the mistakes made by the German army in Crete, in this plan, I focused on requiring the troops to avoid these problems during operations. For example: the transport aircraft must accurately arrive at the airdrop location, and the paratroopers must immediately follow the predetermined pattern after the airdrop lands. Quickly assemble and concentrate our forces to seize the nearest battlefield airport first, so that subsequent airborne troops and heavy equipment can land as soon as possible..."

Listening to the other party's talk, Li Junhao still admired Li Qiwei, but he had to pour some cold water on him, "Matthew, what you said is all right, but there is one question that I don't know if you have considered. Is it the safety of transport aircraft before entering the battlefield, does this involve the issue of air supremacy?”

Battlefield air superiority? Li Qiwei was stunned for a moment, then said: "Isn't it that our US military has air control over Myanmar now?"

Li Junhao said: "It is true that we have control of the air here in Myanmar, but if your 82nd Division comes over, there are only two routes, one is to transit through North Africa, and the other is to start from the mainland and cross the Pacific via Honolulu. Do you think there are two routes? On the route, what is the probability that a large group of aircraft will be attacked or affected by the environment, causing damage to the fighter aircraft?"

Hearing this, Li Qiwei was dumbfounded and didn't know how to answer.

(End of this chapter)