Iron Cross

"What, the combined fleet attacked Ceylon? All the airports were destroyed? Damn it, wasn't it reported that they were preparing to return to the mainland?" Lieutenant Commander Mountbatten, the great-grandson of Queen Victoria, who was just in his early 40s and looked too young to befitting his military rank. After receiving the telegram, the general was immediately dumbfounded. It took him a long time to squeeze out a sentence, "The Japanese don't want their own transport fleet? Why did they attack Ceylon?"

Major General Evans, the chief of staff on the side, couldn't stand it anymore. He coughed and reminded: "Your Excellency, now we are not considering whether the Japanese army's behavior is logical, but we must consider how to assist Ceylon Island."

"Aid? How can we help them?" Mountbatten roared, "The Eastern Fleet's total assets are not as large as a Japanese battleship, and the number of aircraft is not enough. The damn airport was destroyed by the Japanese again..."

Even though he was telling the truth, Evans felt incredibly frustrated.

After thinking for a long time, Mountbatten held back two sentences: "Send a telegram to Hawkins and ask him to hold on firmly. If the coastal area cannot be stopped, withdraw inland. He has 50,000 troops and tanks. No matter how powerful the Japanese warships are, He can’t even get ashore, so he can’t even deal with the Marines, right? Send a telegram to General Stilwell, requesting the U.S. Army Air Forces to go south to reinforce Ceylon.”

"Should we let the Royal Air Force in the south go to support first? There are at least three squadrons there."

"Yes, yes! Yes, yes!" Mountbatten, who was obviously in a panic, nodded hurriedly, "Also, send a telegram to Admiral Nimitz in the Pacific, requesting the assistance of the US fleet..."

After hearing the news that Mountbatten had succeeded General Wavell as Commander-in-Chief of the Southeast Asia Theater, Hoffman commented harshly: "Churchill finally sent the man who ruined the Indian subcontinent."

Zeitzler and Keitel were quite dissatisfied at first, always thinking that the Führer was exaggerating. But when they heard that Mountbatten commanded the Battle of Dieppe, Zeitzler, who was on the other party, finally couldn't help laughing: "It turns out that it was. This idiot! That guy didn't know how to command at all, and he didn't care about the casualties. He just pushed the landing troops ashore. The supporting firepower of the British destroyers didn't know where to pour it. At first, we were in a hurry, and the 6th Armored Division launched a counterattack. After that, the enemy was immediately defeated... What's even more funny is that after the Canadians landed, the casualty rate exceeded 80% and they were still running around like headless flies. "

"The Japanese are so lucky." Keitel said enviously.

"We are not unlucky either." Hoffman said with a smile. "When the British Empire loses India, will Churchill still be able to remain as prime minister? Will Britain still have the will to resist?"

When Mountbatten was appointed to this position, many people opposed it. Marshal Brooke, the Chief of the General Staff of the British Empire, made it clear: "...No matter how you look at it, Lord Mountbatten does not look like a person who can command the overall situation." But in the end, he couldn't defeat Churchill. He insisted that the appointment was appropriate: firstly, Mountbatten had royal blood, which is very important in the land of India; secondly, Mountbatten's father was the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mountbatten 13 He joined the Royal Navy at the age of 18, and his qualifications were reasonable. He had a strong desire to defend India. Third, Admiral Wilson, recommended by Brooke, had suffered a huge defeat in the Middle East. It did not look good to be appointed commander of the Southeast Asian Theater immediately.

But no one expected that this appointment was politically appropriate, but militarily it was a complete disaster.

When Mountbatten rushed to the hospital and sent a telegram for help, Hawkins and all the British troops stationed near the port were shivering under the fierce fire of the Japanese warships. Those shore defenses did not play much role at all, and they directly Destroyed by several times the battleship gunfire, the bombardment fleet bullied Colombo and Trincomalee as they did not have large-caliber shore guns, or had been destroyed by aerial bombs, so they simply fired closer. The entire artillery attack line extended deep into the port, with more than ten inches of caliber. No matter which shell of the battleship's main gun hits, it will create a deep crater of tens or even hundreds of meters. The British and Indian officers and soldiers who had no time to react were either killed by shrapnel or shocked to death by the huge shock wave.

The whole city was like a hornet's nest, with officers, soldiers and civilians running around everywhere, as well as rubble and broken limbs flying everywhere.

"Sir, good news! Good news!" A confidential staff officer suddenly rushed into the command tower, "Chief Fuchida found a light aircraft carrier and several merchant ships in the port, which were covered with aircraft, but they were parked in the harbor. There was no movement on the berth.”

"The destroyers rush up and capture them immediately. We must not let the enemy fly the plane." Kusaka Renyi immediately ordered.

"The destroyers provide close cover. Let the S-boats go. They have shallow water and are faster! By the way, let the landing force control the port area as soon as possible." Horikichi smiled, "Everyone, we seem to be lucky. The Americans are particularly generous now. , Not only did we send planes, we also sent aircraft carriers!”

Everyone in the commander's tower laughed.

This aircraft carrier was the USS Borg. The U.S. Navy officers and soldiers on board never expected that for the sake of safety, they decided to temporarily avoid the limelight of the United Fleet in Trincomalee Port. Unexpectedly, they would encounter such an unfortunate event as a Japanese attack. There were originally a few fighter jets on the aircraft carrier, but the parked warship did not have the appropriate deck wind to allow the aircraft to fly - if you wanted to fly, you had to go outside the port, but when the artillery shells of the bombardment fleet were flying over like raindrops, trying to get out of the harbor was basically asking for death. , the captain had to order to abandon the ship and open the sea valve.

At dawn, the Japanese carrier-based aircraft focused mainly on air strikes on the airports and coastal defenses in the two cities, and did not have time to attack the warships in the ports. When the second attack wave arrived, Mizuo Fuchida was delighted to find that there were some ships parked in the port, and surprisingly there was an aircraft carrier. The enemy officers and soldiers on it were running for their lives in a hurry. He concluded that the enemy had ordered to sink into the sea, so he restrained himself. The desire to bomb it and sink it, the determination to capture it - it all depends on who is faster.

Another 40 minutes later, a scene appeared that made Hawkins completely desperate. The offshore lookout post reported that a large number of landing ships were rushing towards the beach in the south of the port, and the swastika flag flying above them was actually there.

"The Germans are here too?" He secretly complained, but he was completely powerless - there were not many defenses in the area where the Germans planned to land, and the few shore defense firepower was wiped out by Japanese destroyers with close fire cover. Most of it.

When he saw the battle report, he laughed at the Americans for being vulnerable in the direction of Panama. Unexpectedly, this ridicule was directly applied to him. Now he found that his side's performance was not much better. The first No. 4 tank slowly got off the landing ship, landed on the shallow beach near the sea and began to move forward, followed by the second, third, and then the landing ship carrying infantry quickly released the infantry.

In order to ensure a successful attack, Scheer also used a waterway amphibious Tiger tank in the first wave of attacks - deliberately denying anyone a way to survive! When the last Battle of Panama started, the Marine Brigade suffered a lot of losses due to US aircraft and artillery fire, but the resistance encountered this time was so weak that it was as easy as usual training.

Horikichi put down the telescope and asked, "Are any of our people among the first wave to land?"

"Yes! There is a total of about one group, including 8 tanks and infantry, but I didn't want to use the Tiger, so I only went to No. 4..."

Horikichi nodded with satisfaction: "This is a great opportunity for military training, don't let it go! The Tiger is for use when you buy it. If you suffer serious losses, buy it again. The key is to follow the Germans and learn how they use armored assaults to fight. , The Army will be surprised by that time!”

At 11:15, all the armored forces in the direction of Trincomalee successfully landed. Except for 3 tanks that suffered mechanical failures and were unable to move, the others landed on land safely. After getting rid of the soft beach, the power of the tanks was fully unleashed, especially the leading tanks. The 12 Tigers were like entering uninhabited territory, and a large number of troops marched towards the port area.

On the other side of the battlefield, with close fire support from destroyers, four S-boats successfully covered the Japanese officers and soldiers as they boarded the Borg and quickly closed the sea valve. However, most of the hull had sunk in the sea, and the hangar was also After being soaked in water, only the transport planes and fighter jets on the deck were still lying on it. Even the fixed steel cables were not damaged in time and pushed into the sea. After the news was transmitted back to the rear, the Musashi was full of joy.

At noon, Hawkins had obviously lost control of his men. Indian soldiers were everywhere and could not organize an effective counterattack and blockade. The situation was very obvious. The target of this joint Japanese-German attack was the port. , not only Trincomalee, but the performance of the Colombo direction was not much better. Unwilling to fail, he was determined to make a final struggle and shouted into the phone: "Pull out our tank troops and attack with the 50th Tank Brigade to repel the enemy in front of you!"

The 50th Tank Brigade is the only organic armored unit of the Ceylon garrison. It is composed entirely of purely British officers and soldiers. It has been deployed in the center of the island and is basically not "taken care of" by large-caliber naval guns or aircraft. The British officers and soldiers mustered up their spare time. They bravely drove their Crusader, Valentine and Sherman tanks to meet the enemy, trying to use armor to repel the landing German troops and drive them into the sea again.

But they never dreamed that they could hit a Tiger on the island of Ceylon. Before the British tanks could enter the effective range and take a posture, the Tiger 1,500 meters away had already fired first. Basically, three shots were sure to hit one. vehicle.

"Tiger, it's Tiger." The headset called in panic.

"Go around to the side, side."

However, there were Japanese fighter planes circling in the sky, and a large group of No. 4s were watching eagerly from the side. A detour was not an ideal option, and the British tanks that dared to drive along the coastline were torn to pieces by the firepower of the destroyers supporting them at close range.

By the afternoon, a jaw-dropping scene emerged. The German and Japanese landing forces of less than 6,000 people chased tens of thousands of British troops and drove them out of the port like ducks. Whenever they encountered difficult firepower, At this time, the landing force did not force the attack, but directly called for aircraft support and let the dive bombers deal with it - no matter how difficult the fortification was, a 250 kilogram aerial bomb would stop it when it hit it.