Shadow Spy

Chapter 480 The Birth of a Five-Star General

On the evening of May 5, Li Junhao received an order from Washington: to take over the 10th Fleet and the 5th Army and be responsible for the follow-up command of the Ryukyu Islands Campaign.

He raised his eyebrows. The Joint Chiefs of Staff were dissatisfied with the progress of the Ryukyu Campaign!

Well, you should be dissatisfied. The battle lasted less than two months. After the land and sea troops successfully landed on the beach and established a safe landing site, only more than half of the main island of Ryukyu was occupied. The casualties of the US Army involved in the battle exceeded 3. Nearly 9000 of them were killed. This kind of loss made Washington intolerable!

On the 12th, Li Junhao ordered his deputy chief of staff, Whitehead, to command the naval and land forces to reinforce the Ryukyu Campaign. In view of the special nature of the battlefield, he also sent the Gurkha Division, which was good at close combat, leaving the 121st Group Army and the Third Army. An airborne division and five land and sea special operations brigades are responsible for continuing to clean up the bay islands...

After the Gurkha Division and the main brigades of the three armies came on the scene, the situation immediately changed. Fighting close combat and clearing tunnels and caves were all well-practiced combat skills of these troops, coupled with the advantages of equipment, especially the helicopter group. Participating in the war, with ready low-altitude support and rocket launchers with white phosphorus warheads, the battle situation quickly became one-sided!

The commanders of the Army troops who had been unsuccessful in the previous battle and were ordered to retreat raised their binoculars to look at the battle on the front line, but what they saw made them feel both ashamed and envious...

After several years of training, the soldiers of the Gurkha Division have become a super elite force in this era. Their combat effectiveness and combat coordination have reached an extremely high level. They are organized in platoons, followed by a company of sea and land soldiers, and attack The battle was extremely smooth. The combination of automatic grenade launchers, MK-IIA heavy anti-armor grenades, M1 flamethrowers and M20 75mm recoilless rifles can defeat any fortress!

This kind of battle mode is very different from that of the U.S. Army, but it is extremely lethal. In addition, the Gurkha Division and the navy and land forces are not in a hurry at all. They fight steadily and clear out the enemy step by step. They never advance rashly and leave no one alive wherever they pass. !

The army commanders felt the huge gap and felt ashamed of their previous pride. They jointly admitted that the sea and land forces were the strongest forces...
-

The fighting lasted for five days. Soldiers from the Gurkha Division and three navy and army took turns to clean up Ryukyu Island. The 10 Japanese troops and tens of thousands of puppet troops who helped the Japanese troops were all wiped out!

Afterwards, it took another five days for the US military to clean up the remaining islands and completely clear the entire archipelago.

5月23日，琉球岛战役完全结束，日军第32军司令牛岛满中将指挥的2个师团和1个混成旅约8.6万余人、以及海军基地部队和由岛上伪军编成的特编团等16万人被歼灭，损失飞机近3000架、舰艇120余艘。

In this battle, the US military suffered more than 3.8 casualties, lost 763 aircraft, sunk 36 ships, and injured 368 ships, of which 3.5 were the battle losses of the 10th Group Army in the previous period. Both aircraft and ships were the fifth in the previous period. The loss of the fleet! This result surprised and shocked everyone.

After the US military occupied Ryukyu Island, it opened the gateway to Japan and laid the foundation for entering the Japanese mainland.

Only Li Junhao knew that this process was more than a month earlier than in the original history, and the casualties of the US military were reduced by 60%. These can be regarded as his own contributions! ——

On May 5, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a formal order clearly stipulating that the Allied Far Eastern Theater Command is responsible for all military affairs in Asia and the West and South Pacific. The U.S. Pacific Fleet and Pacific Theater are under the unified command of Admiral Penson. This time, it is equivalent to the unified command of the US military and allied forces in the entire Eastern Hemisphere!

On the 30th, after discussions at a joint meeting of White House advisers and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it was believed that all countries in the world currently have the rank of marshal, but the US military does not. This causes many inconveniences in actual allied command and reciprocal exchanges, so the US military should set up a comparison The higher military rank of four-star general is adapted to the current situation.
-

On the 31st, the Joint Defense Committee of the two houses of the U.S. Congress approved the bill on the highest military rank in the U.S. military proposed by the White House:

1. General of the Armies of the United States is the highest military rank in the U.S. military. It is the only military rank awarded only to the founding president George Washington; it is also called a seven-star general.

2. General of the Armies, awarded only to John Pershing. Admiral of the Navy, awarded only to George Dewey.

Both are also the only military ranks; also known as six-star generals.

3. Establish the rank of five-star general, which is the highest active military rank in the U.S. military. It is awarded to senior U.S. military generals who have made great military exploits for the United States and assume general direction and regional command responsibilities. This military rank is valid for life.
-

On June 6, Roosevelt signed a promotion order to the highest military rank as Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces:

Promoted White House Chief of Staff and Convener of the Joint Chiefs of Staff William Leahy to five-star Navy admiral.

On the 2nd, George Marshall, Chief of Staff of the Army and Commander-in-Chief of the European Theater of Operations, was promoted to a five-star general of the Army.

On the 3rd, Ognyan Lee Panson, commander of the Marine Corps and commander-in-chief of the Far East Theater, was promoted to a five-star general of sea and land.

The reason why the promotion of three five-star generals is divided into three days is because according to the practice of the US military, among those with the same military rank, the one who is promoted first is the senior one and has priority in command.
-

Marshall and Li Junhao were both members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They knew this news in advance, so they were not surprised. The former had previously asked Roosevelt not to establish the rank of marshal in order not to surpass his teacher Pershing. The current result is the best of both worlds.

Li Junhao was overjoyed. He was promoted to five stars so early and ranked third. This was a real unexpected gain!

However, according to the current command sequence of the US military, Marshall and himself are responsible for the combat command of the US military in the western and eastern hemispheres respectively, so it is necessary to raise their military ranks first.

Otherwise, his side is fine, but Marshall is facing a bunch of marshals from the Allied forces. The British, French, Soviet, and even the Dutch and Belgian armies have marshals. He, the commander-in-chief, is the only one with four stars. Admiral, it's a bit embarrassing to lead them.
-

Because of the end of the Battle of Bay Island and the Battle of Ryukyu, the US military in the Far East had actually directly threatened the Japanese mainland. Li Junhao ordered all the Allied forces in the Far East Theater to reorganize their troops and prepare to attack the Japanese mainland, but he knew in his heart that they could not fight!

However, he had a vague idea in his mind: attack the Japanese Kwantung Army before the Soviet army to prevent Northeast China from being destroyed by the Soviet Union! Although he had not yet made up his mind, he ordered the 121st Army to prepare.

(End of this chapter)