Iron Cross

After sending Hopkins and Donovan away, Churchill lived like a year, thinking about how to carry out the British version of "Night of the Long Knives" and its consequences. To be honest, sometimes he even had the urge to think about prison. Ask Rudolf Hess about his "experience" in assisting the head of state to successfully organize it. In the end, he suppressed this impulse.

Apart from this, he did not care about all other affairs. All domestic affairs were left to Attlee and others, and all military affairs were left to Brooke and Pound. This was in contrast to his previous image of being "hands-on" in everything. The comparison is undoubtedly a huge contrast, which makes the conspiracy group behind Eden and Attlee rejoice, thinking that he is finally seriously considering the possibility of finding a way out in Canada. In view of the fact that it takes time to change people's ideas, it also takes time for the conspiracy group to communicate and control the situation from top to bottom, and it takes even more time for the Duke of Windsor to negotiate with the Germans, and they maintain a peaceful situation.

In the midst of the chaos, the snow-like telegrams for help from India, Australia and New Zealand were all ignored intentionally or unintentionally. By August 6, the Japanese-German coalition eliminated the last remaining British-Indian troops in South India. Now as far as the map is concerned, the Indian territory south of 14 degrees north latitude is basically under control (it is actually impossible to penetrate). India The territory controlled by the Nationalist Government is getting larger and larger, and the number of troops is increasing, and there are even first-level designations for group armies.

However, the main force of the Japanese-German coalition was still the 3 infantry divisions, 1 tank division and 2 German marine brigades initially deployed. After deducting the personnel lost successively in the battle, the total added up to more than 100,000 people. Even though Coupled with 2 flying divisions and naval land-based aviation, it is only 120,000 troops, which is too sparse for the vast Indian territory.

The other two German marine brigades have been staying on the island of Ceylon to consolidate defenses. Yamashita Fengwen and Scheer both thought clearly that this was their base and base camp and could not be lost, so they had no thought of adding reinforcements. . However, for the troops still stranded in the Philippines, Yamashita put forward a request to be dispatched as soon as possible. At the same time, he sent a telegram to Tokyo, requesting that the three divisions of the Burmese Front Army be placed under his command, and requested that the country continue to increase its troop strength. He specifically proposed in the telegram that he hoped to replenish the strength of the two tank brigades under the 4th Tank Division and expand them into three independent tank brigades, and recommended those with the most combat achievements and experience in defeating British tank brigades. Takeda Takeda is the new brigade commander.

After the news reached Tokyo, it aroused heated discussions in the base camp. All parties have been paying close attention to the progress of the dispatched troops in India. After hearing that the march was going smoothly and that no large-scale resistance was encountered by the Indians, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing how many troops were occupied, When nearly 50 tons of gold were collected from 100,000 square kilometers of land, everyone couldn't help but marvel: from the start of the Indian campaign to the present, only one month has passed, and such a harvest has been achieved, which is really unexpected.

"We must continue to accelerate the pace of withdrawal from China, deploy troops to India, and further strengthen Yamashita-kun..." Although Ishihara Kanji has slight differences in political opinions with Yamashita Tomofumi, in terms of military strategy and command style, he has a strong impression of the latter. High level of trust.

All the staff at the base camp agreed. As the situation in India opened up and the situation became "good", Deputy Chief Ishihara's prestige had grown unprecedentedly, far exceeding what it was at the beginning. Even the generals of the Ishihara faction became proud.

"Sir, how many troops do you plan to mobilize from the China Dispatch Army?"

"Since the Chiang regime has promised not to send troops to India, and the promised cities (including Nanchang) can be returned to him peacefully, and by the way, it can also sell him some arms. Are there several arms ships in the waters of Saigon now?"

A staff officer immediately nodded: "Yes, most of them are light infantry weapons, including infantry equipment from France, Italy, and the Soviet Union, including a small number of mortars and infantry guns. The price Germany gave us is extremely low, almost like giving it away..."

"These things are not expensive in Europe, and they are still trophies or obsolete products. Of course they cannot be sold at high prices. The head of state is relatively generous, and General Horikichi is particularly good at doing business." Ishihara smiled slightly, "Pick out the submachine gun The rest of the troops left for us will be sold to Chiang Kai-shek and China's local powerful warlords - such as the Guangxi and Yunnan cliques - at a premium for delivery in North Indochina. After delivery, the ships will go to the Philippines as soon as possible to transport new infantry divisions to India. "

Shun Tada asked: "How much do you plan to reduce the Chinese dispatched troops?"

"Control the infantry divisions within 12, add 8 independent mixed brigades, gather the scattered chariot troops of each unit, and then transfer some personnel from the mainland to form 2 new chariot brigades - according to Yamashita-kun's It is recommended that the aviation group's strength continue to increase, and all the areas west of Wuhan in the central area can be considered to be sold to the Chiang regime and the Communist Party, and Mr. Okamura will be responsible for the details." After careful consideration, Ishihara Kanji said, "The total military strength will be before the end of this year. It must be reduced to less than 500,000, reduce the proportion of ordinary army divisions, and increase the thickness and proportion of technical weapons. "

"There will be many different opinions from the Chinese military."

"You have different opinions? Okay." Ishihara Wanji smiled ferociously, "Those who obey the base camp's line will be sent to India to be promoted and make a fortune; those who are not convinced don't need to go to the reserves and will be directly sent to defend islands in Nanyang, such as Gilbert. In a place like this, let them experience the artillery fire of the US military.”

Tada Shun took a breath of air: "The person who reacts most violently now is your old classmate Yokoyama Isamu."

"Hengshan... hahaha." Ishihara smiled and laughed, "It's easy, I'll convince him."

"Where is the Kwantung Army?"

"Give them three new tank divisions and two new flying divisions, and let them free up six infantry divisions for the country, half of which are Type A and half are Type B."

"You plan to send so many troops to India?" Tada Shun was shocked, "I'm afraid the supply won't be enough."

"Not all of them will go to India. Some of the soldiers will return to the country to demobilize in factories, and the industrial workers of the navy will also be returned to them. The Indian Expeditionary Force will have a final size of 200,000 to 250,000 people (excluding the Burmese direction). The era of relying on numbers to fight wars has gradually passed, and technical weapons will eventually replace the role of people." Ishihara Kanji smiled slightly, "New tactics, new equipment, new routes, doesn't Tada-kun want to be an innovator? Create the eternal foundation of the empire?"

Tada Shun was flattered by what he said. There is no harm without comparison: Compared with China, India is not only richer, has better location conditions and is extremely easy to rule. In this case, he still insists on suffering in China. His brain must be completely broken.

On August 9, the Tokyo headquarters issued a telegram, agreeing that the second batch of four divisions of the Indian Expeditionary Army would enter India, and at the same time, the three divisions of the Burma Front Army were assigned to Yamashita Tomoyuki for command and the combat sequence was adjusted: the Indian Expeditionary Army was divided into the Burma Front Army and the Indian Front Army. The commander of the Burma Front Army remained unchanged, and Yamashita Tomoyuki served concurrently as the commander of the Indian Front Army. The 3rd Armored Army was organized, and the original 4th Tank Division was reorganized into the 31st, 32nd, and 33rd Independent Tank Brigades. Nagura Kan became the commander of the Armored Army as he wished, and his rank remained the same as that of Lieutenant General. Takeda Ko was promoted one level to become the major general brigade commander of the 33rd Tank Brigade.

What particularly shocked everyone was that the 11th Army of the China Expeditionary Army was disbanded, most of the troops were assigned to other armies, and Lieutenant General Commander Yokoyama Isamu was ordered to return home. However, the doubts only lasted for one day. The next day, the headquarters re-issued an order, and Yokoyama Isamu was appointed as the commander of the South Indian Front Army, ready to lead the remaining 4 divisions in the Philippines to support India.

Ishihara Kanji, who knew his old classmates well, knew that the other party jumped out to oppose not because he really thought China was better than India, but because he was afraid of losing the opportunity to make achievements and climb up, so he seized the opportunity to show off. Sure enough, when Yokoyama Isamu arrived in Tokyo, Ishihara Kanji showed him the appointment letter and he was happy to obey without even a word of nonsense. In the end, he invited Iimura Mamoru, the then president of the Army University, to drink together (the three of them were collectively known as the 21st Three Crows), which made the entire Army Ministry and the General Staff Headquarters dumbfounded.

The Army's actions seemed to have clear ideas and logic, but the Navy's actions were incomprehensible to everyone: General Hori Teikichi led the main fleet not only did not rush to reinforce the Gilbert Islands, but instead swept all the way in Australia and New Zealand. The day after Yokoyama Isamu's appointment was announced, the Combined Fleet, which had ravaged Sydney and Brisbane, turned southeast and began to attack New Zealand.

During the attack on Sydney and Brisbane, the US Army Air Force and the Australian Air Force fought hard to stop them, forcing the Combined Fleet to pay a heavy price. The Shokaku was hit by a torpedo. Although it did not affect the combat, the speed was slowed to a maximum of only 26 knots. The Kirishima (Kongo class) was hit by two bombs and lost two main guns, which looked terrible. The most unlucky one was the light cruiser Yura, which was first hit by a bomb, and then collided with the destroyer Kuroshio (Kagero class) while evading quickly, and finally sank. In addition, a transport ship and an oil tanker were sunk - although there was not much oil on them.

The losses of the Australian, New Zealand and US forces were not small, and more than 300 aircraft were lost one after another, which was close to the 7th Air Force estimated by Arnold - 75% of the total force was lost. Even so, it did not shake Hori Teikichi's determination. He insisted on commanding the fleet to New Zealand - neither returning home nor going to the Gilbert Islands.

This decision made Fushimi Hiroyoshi in Tokyo furious, but he had no way to deal with Hori Teikichi. What was even funnier was that the fleets commanded by Kurita, Mikawa and Kakuta also pretended to keep radio silence and ignored the orders of the Military General Staff, but they carried out Hori Teikichi's orders to the letter: Kurita's transport fleet dispatched ships to transport arms, especially heavy artillery, to the islands in the South Pacific, and was honored by the South Pacific Army as "Lieutenant General of Weapons Delivery" - the most friendly naval general; Mikawa's fleet was ready to cover the second batch of troops entering India, and Kakuta's three carrier battleships were ready to join the main force of the Combined Fleet...