Glorious Mission 1937

Chapter 617: A painful day for the Allies

September 1941, 9 was the day when the Southeast Asian Allies suffered a double blow. The failure of the Java Sea Battle seriously affected the ground battle. At the same time as the Java Sea Battle, the Japanese 24th Army was under the command of the commander of the army, Lieutenant General Imamura. , launched a landing operation on Java Island with a force of one and a half divisions.

Due to the strength of only one and a half divisions, it was impossible to organize a large-scale offensive, and only scored two stages of implementation. According to the strategic deployment of Lieutenant General Imamura, the 16th Army first landed on Java Island with the 2nd Division, the 56th Mixed Brigade and the Kawaguchi Detachment. , Clear the periphery, and then storm the hinterland of Java Island.

At the same time, a request for additional troops was made to the Japanese base camp, mainly because the battles in Hong Kong, Manila and Singapore had ended, and the Japanese army could deploy more troops to participate in the battle against the Dutch East Indies.

As for the Allied forces, the Dutch East Indies is a colony of the Netherlands. The main force is 6.5 Dutch-Indian troops and 1.6 American-Australian troops. However, most of the lower-level officers and soldiers of the Dutch-Indian Army are local Indonesians, and there are deep conflicts with the middle and upper-level Dutch officers. , and the equipment is poor, and the training is poor; the US-Australian army is a defeated army that has just been withdrawn from the Philippines, and its morale is low.

Under the command of Lieutenant General Jun Imamura, the Japanese army was divided into three directions: west, center, and east, and started landing operations.The main forces on the West Road are the Kawaguchi Detachment and the 38th Division. The Kawaguchi Detachment is the 35th Infantry Wing under the command of Major General Kiyotake Kawaguchi, the head of the 124th Brigade.The Ministry landed in Miri, and then divided into two groups to advance deep into Borneo.

Subsequently, the 1st Airborne Brigade commanded by Kume Seiichi I parachuted and landed in Paling, Sumatra.After a fierce battle, Palembang was captured.Then, the advance troops of the 38th Division arrived and cooperated with the airborne troops to consolidate Palembang. Soon the main force of the 38th Division also arrived in Palembang and completely seized the Palembang oil field.

In the middle, the Sakaguchi Detachment is the main force. The Sakaguchi Detachment is under the command of Major General Yasuo Sakaguchi, the leader of the 56th Mixed Regiment, and is reinforced with artillery and engineers.Responsible for seizing Tarakan, Balikpapan and Banjang in southeast Borneo.After landing in Tarakan, the unit was stubbornly resisted by the Dutch and Indian troops, and there was no breakthrough for a long time.

The Japanese army on the East Road was composed of the Eastern Detachment and the Marine Corps, which were composed of a part of the 38th Division. The Eastern Detachment captured Ambon and Timor after landing.Then they captured Manado, Kendari, Makassar and Bali one after another.so far.The east, north, and west sides of Java Island were all captured by the Japanese army, and the first phase of the battle came to an end.

Just hours before the Japanese completed the first phase of their offensive on Java, some two thousand miles to the north, the last train of British troops left Rangoon by morning.After demolition specialists completely destroyed the port facility.The last ships left the port.At this time.The vanguard of Japan's No.30 Third Division has entered the suburbs of Yangon.

Because the Australian Prime Minister refused to reinforce Myanmar, which played a pivotal role in determining the fate of Myanmar.Yangon was destined to fall, because at the critical moment when the Japanese army attacked Burma.However, disagreements occurred within the British Burmese Army. The frontline field commander of the British Army, General Smith, made a request to the headquarters that it would take a week to retreat [-] miles to the other side of the Sitang River Railway Bridge to stop the Japanese army.

But the British commander, General Hutton, refused to give the field troops at the front a week. Instead, he insisted that General Smith resist along the Billing River; this was clearly a line of defense on the headquarters map.But, as Smith discovered, in the dry season the river is just a wet ditch in the jungle that anyone can jump across.

Sure enough, the Japanese jumped the ditch and put both flanks of the British army at gunpoint.When Smith was finally allowed to retreat, it was no longer possible to guarantee an orderly retreat.What angered the British most of all was that they were bombed by their own planes, because the Royal Air Force Command in Rangoon made a huge mistake ordering the pilots to attack the Allied troops who were advancing on the road leading to the bridge over the Sidang River column.

The British military officer was exhausted and tried his best to urge the convoy carrying Indian and Gurkha soldiers to pass the narrow iron bridge that night.But at this moment, a powerful vanguard force of the Japanese army penetrated through the forest and cut off most of the troops of the Indian division.

At 25:[-] in the morning on the [-]th, the bridge of the Sidang River Bridge was blown up by the British army in a series of deafening explosions. The Indian division that could rely on to defend Yangon had been cut off by the Japanese army and the fast-flowing river.

General Wavell was as composed as ever when he heard the news of the fiasco at the Seton.Apparently, this important port had been lost, as it was now impossible for the British [-]th Armored Brigade and a new Indian division to reach Rangoon in time to save the city.

Lieutenant General Iida held a victory parade in the city of Rangoon, which was abandoned by the Allies. Since Rangoon had fallen to the Japanese, the Japanese No.15 Army now controlled the gateway to Burma.The road to the north to cut off the land strategic communication line to China has been opened, and the Nationalist government is urgently dispatching two troops from Chongqing to Burma to defend this vital road.

Wavell had returned to his old headquarters in New Delhi, India, and now he had a more realistic view of Japanese military strength.Realized that neither the incoming squadron nor the newly arrived British [-]th Armored Division and Indian recruits could hold Burma.

At a time when the whole of Southeast Asia was about to fall to the Japanese army, the only stronghold of resistance against the Japanese was in the Philippines.Of course, the main islands of the Philippines have fallen, and now it is Bataan Island between Singapore and the Philippines that is still resisting.The U.S. troops stationed on the island have been compressed to an area of ​​only a few square kilometers by the Japanese army. Although the defenders suffered heavy casualties and ammunition and other supplies are scarce, the U.S. soldiers who have seen the Japanese madness and brutality are still carrying out bloody battles. Fight, because they know very well that what they are facing is an extremely cruel devil army, even if they put down their weapons and surrender, they may not be able to escape their lives, so it is better to fight to the death.

On the rocks of Corregidor Island, MacArthur commanded the Philippine guerrillas to resist, so that the enemy still could not occupy Mindanao and the southern islands.Admiral Nimitz's attack on Japanese bases in the Pacific made headlines in American newspapers. The pilots of the aircraft carrier USS Lexington repelled a heavy enemy air attack on Rabaul on February 21. Three days later, the aircraft carrier task force led by Halsey bombed the USS Enterprise. But these were only diversions, and the American public's attention was focused on the officers and soldiers besieged in the Philippines, who were now completely isolated due to the Japanese victory in the Dutch East Indies.

Exaggerated headlines in the newspapers still gave Americans the impression that MacArthur's forces in the Philippines were striking the enemy and it was only a matter of time before reinforcements broke through the blockade and arrived in the Philippines.

Roosevelt and his staff were well aware of how much the newspapers could be trusted, and they knew it wasn't true.Some members of Congress also knew that this was not true, and they began to press for General MacArthur to be transferred back to the country and served as the Supreme Commander of the United States Army.

And MacArthur himself is now completely desperate for reinforcements, but he decided to fight to the end with his officers and soldiers, because he escaped when the Japanese army attacked Luzon Island, which seemed to MacArthur a disgrace, he is a soldier, He has a reason and a duty to be with his soldiers and his position.When the US Governor of the Philippines and President Quezon left Corregidor Island by submarine, MacArthur's wife refused to take the opportunity to leave with her young son.MacArthur sent back a box symbolically, which contained his medals, documents and a will.

MacArthur was determined to die, and he wanted to wash away his shame with the most noble military etiquette.But President Roosevelt knew that sacrificing MacArthur, a well-received hero in the United States, was politically impossible.As the Allied Command of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Australia was about to collapse, New Guinea and Australia faced threats, and the Canberra government panicked. Marshall and Roosevelt agreed that it was necessary to appoint a new Allied Supreme Commander. After the British army retreated to concentrate on defending India, The appointment seemed even more urgent.

Australia's prime minister and military leaders have had to rely increasingly on the United States, and relations between London and Canberra were already tense after Britain's request to send Australian troops to defend Burma was rejected, when Prime Minister Curtin threatened to recall the remaining Relations between the two countries did not improve during the division.

Both the US government and the British government believe that the candidate for the Supreme Commander of the South Pacific Allied Forces should be General Douglas MacArthur. Soon this order was issued by Washington to the front line of Bataan. The order was jointly signed by the President, Marshall and the Secretary of the Army. , ordered MacArthur to immediately set off for Mindanao, and from there to Melbourne to lead all the US military forces to stop the Japanese.

MacArthur was very unimpressed by Washington's order. At first, the general refused to abandon his officers and soldiers, and even offered to resign or re-enlist "just as a volunteer."He was in great pain, fearing that he would lose face and lose his conscience because he had not fulfilled his promise to die with the soldiers.

However, blessings and misfortunes never come singly. The news that the U.S. government transferred MacArthur to Australia was leaked at this time. The Japanese army immediately added a company to Corregidor Island, and at the same time sent a large number of warships to intercept it. Americans also understand that the life and death of MacArthur is very important to this war. As the youngest principal of the US Military Academy at West Point since its establishment, MacArthur is the god of war in the US military and is synonymous with victory. It would be a major blow to the United States.

This day was extremely painful for the Allied forces, because on this day the Allied forces not only lost the only remaining naval fleet in the South Pacific, but also lost Java and Rangoon, and more importantly, the most famous American general MacArthur In a tight siege, at stake. (To be continued..)

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