The Rise of the Third Reich

Tokyo time, October 10, 1943, bad news came one after another.

First, the U.S. break-up fleet disappeared. Since the afternoon of October 9, Japanese reconnaissance planes have not discovered this large engagement formation consisting of 3 battleships, 1 heavy aircraft carrier and 10 cruisers. Now the main force of the Combined Fleet and the First Mobile Fleet can only join forces first, and then divide their forces into three routes (each route has a Yamato) to search for the enemy in the North Pacific. It can be guessed that the U.S. Diplomacy Breaking Fleet will retreat from the North Pacific. However, the North Pacific is very large. Once the U.S. fleet is lost, it will not be easy to intercept it.

Secondly, Japan's bases on Amakonak Island (the island where Dutch Harbor is located) and Unalaska Island in the Aleutian Islands were continuously hit by large-scale air strikes by the US military!

The US military aircraft that attacked the two islands were shore-based aircraft and took off from bases in Alaska. The air strikes were mainly conducted by American B-17 long-range bombers, which adopted high-altitude penetration tactics and were escorted by a large number of P47D and P51B/C fighter jets.

It was the first time for the Japanese Army Air Forces stationed on Amakonak Island and Unalaska Island to encounter fighters with excellent mid-to-high altitude performance such as the P47D and P51B/C, and they suffered heavy losses. In particular, the P47D fighter equipped with a turbocharged engine can completely defeat the Hayate fighter that the Japanese Army is proud of at an altitude of more than 6,000 meters.

In the first wave of air strikes, 43 Hayate fighters were shot down by P47D and P51B/C. In the second wave of air strikes, another 41 Hayate fighters were lost. In the third wave of air strikes, 51 more Hayate fighters were shot down. . In less than two days of fierce air battles, 135 of the most advanced Hayate fighter jets of the Japanese Army Air Forces stationed in the Aleutian Islands were shot down in the air battle, and 102 pilots were killed!

In addition to using the P47D and P51B/C to defeat the Hayate fighter jets with poor high-altitude performance in air battles, the American B-17 bombers also dropped thousands of tons of bombs over the Japanese airports, ports and camps in thousands of sorties, causing A considerable loss. It also forced the ships of the Japanese 5th Fleet to leave Dutch Harbor on the night of the 9th and retreat to Attu Island (more than 600 nautical miles away from Dutch Harbor), another important Japanese stronghold in the Aleutian Islands.

The withdrawal of the fleet also means that Amakonak Island and Unalaska Island will soon be blocked by the US military, and the tens of thousands of Japanese troops on the two islands will be trapped in the dilemma of being cut off from support.

The third bad news came from the South China Sea. An oil transport fleet departing from Sumatra was besieged by at least 15 American submarines on the night of October 9 (Tokyo time)! The 10,000-ton oil tankers Kamikuni Maru and Nichie Maru, the 5,000-ton special transport ships (coal and oil tankers) the Sixth Shinsho Maru and the Sanko Maru, and the 14,000-ton Six oil tankers, including the Yindo and Hayato oil tankers, were sunk.

In addition, the destroyer Xia Chao responsible for escorting and four submarines including No. 24, No. 25, No. 26, and No. 27 (all with a displacement of 460 tons, mainly used to deal with submarines) were sunk. Commander of the 13th convoy, Lieutenant Commander Haruyama Ryo, was killed in action.

The news that the oil tanker fleet was attacked by a submarine did not look bad at first glance. In the past two years after the outbreak of the Pacific War, similar things happened frequently. But this time the incident was very serious. Not only were five oil tankers and tens of thousands of tons of precious Sumatra crude oil lost at one time, the attack took place in the South China Sea, which Japan regarded as a lake!

Moreover, for the first time, the U.S. submarine force adopted the wolf pack tactics commonly used by the Germans and organized at least 15 submarines to launch a swarm attack. They not only sank 6 oil tankers in one fell swoop, but also sank an escorting destroyer and 4 submarines.

This submarine attack sent a very scary signal-the scope of activities of U.S. submarines has been greatly expanded, and their combat effectiveness has also been substantially improved.

If Japan wants to ensure its maritime lifeline, it must invest more in escort operations.

Not only must active destroyers with strong combat effectiveness be deployed to escort the Nanyang-Mainland voyages, but a large number of long-range anti-submarine reconnaissance and patrol aircraft must be deployed on various important islands in the Nanyang to conduct long-term and large-scale anti-submarine patrols... But the Japanese Navy has a total of There are only about two hundred active destroyers (including a large number of old ships). Among them, the truly combat-effective first-class destroyers (about 150) mainly escort the main ships of the combined fleet, while there are more than a hundred old second-class and third-class destroyers. It is also mainly used for aircraft carrier escort formations on the Pacific route. The number of destroyers that can be used for escorting in Southeast Asia is really scarce.

As for large patrol aircraft, the number of Japanese naval aviation is also limited, and they have to be used in the Pacific battlefield first, and not many can be used for anti-submarine warfare in Southeast Asia. This is not a question of whether there are aircraft or whether there is no fuel. Because large-scale training aircraft are all fuel-guzzlers, burning a hundred or dozens of gallons of fuel an hour (the Zero also burns 35 gallons) is the minimum. If 100 large-scale training aircraft are maintained over the Nanyang Islands for twenty hours a day, The scale of a patrol aircraft is hundreds of thousands of gallons a day and hundreds of millions of gallons a year, which is equivalent to hundreds of thousands of tons of aviation gasoline... Yamamoto Isoroku cannot produce these additional hundreds of thousands of tons of oil!

Allowing U.S. submarines to operate in the Southeast Asian islands will cause more oil ships to be sunk, which will further reduce the amount of crude oil available to Japan, making it impossible to maintain the war.

At the same time, on the frontal battlefield in the Pacific, fuel was being consumed at a heartbreaking rate.

On the one hand, almost all the ships of the Combined Fleet are running around at sea; on the other hand, Japanese patrol aircraft on the Pacific battlefield are also extremely active during this time, searching for the missing U.S. break-up fleet and the U.S. 7th Fleet with unprecedented intensity. Main force.

Now every day's fuel consumption is the same as the loss of excellent pilots, which is rapidly weakening Japan's continuous combat capabilities in the sea and air.

"...Although the results of the current battle in the Pacific are greatly in our favor, the consumption is also staggering. The navy's fuel reserves are being lost at an alarming rate, and excellent pilots are also losing a lot in the fierce battle. And the US military's offensive is now There seems to be no sign of relief, and one battle after another. If the Navy cannot immediately receive additional fuel and pilots, its ability to continue operations will be greatly reduced, and the Aleutian Islands Campaign is likely to be lost."

At an emergency meeting at the base camp held on the afternoon of October 10, Navy Minister Isoroku Yamamoto, after reporting on the recent major victories, began to vomit his bitterness again.

"Yamamoto-kun," Army Chief of Staff Gen. Sugiyama, who also held the rank of marshal, seemed to be confused by Yamamoto Isoroku's inconsistent description, and asked: "Did the navy win or defeat?"

"Of course we won!" Yamamoto Isoroku replied, "But if we win a few more battles like this, the Japanese Empire will fall!"

ah? Can you win a war and subjugate your country?

"Yamamoto-kun, please be careful what you say!"

Prime Minister Hideki Tojo hurriedly reminded Yamamoto Isoroku to be careful what he said - now is the base camp meeting, how can we say that Japan is going to subjugate?

"Your Excellency, Prime Minister," Yamamoto Isoroku said, "I am only telling the truth...Judging from the number of ships lost in the battle during this period, our side is certainly a great victory, but victory does not come without a price. The price of victory is the consumption of fuel and the loss of pilot lives! If this kind of victory continues, the Japanese Empire will collapse because it cannot afford the price of victory.”

Subjugating a country because it cannot afford victory... This is probably the most incredible way to subdue a country, right?

"There must be a solution, right?" Tojo Hideki asked quickly. He did not want to report to Emperor Showa one day in the future: Because our navy and army officers fought bravely to kill the enemy and were invincible, the Japanese Empire could only perish...

"The solution... The first is to carry out the Jie-1 operation of course!" Yamamoto Isoroku said, "Secondly, the navy needs more fuel and pilots. Only with enough fuel and pilots can the Jie-1 operation be carried out. It’s possible to win.”

Although the core of the Jie-1 combat plan is to fight a war of attrition by defending the island, it is impossible to win the island defense war with ground troops anyway. If the combined fleet and air force are unable to move due to lack of oil, the Hawaiian Islands will ultimately be unable to defend itself.

Therefore, Yamamoto Isoroku once again raised the request to increase the Navy's fuel supply at today's base camp meeting, and also raised the issue of insufficient pilots - Yamamoto wanted to get some skilled pilots from the Army. If the Army refused to release them, , at least more pilot regiments must be mobilized to the Hawaiian Islands.

"The Army can send a few more pilot regiments to the Hawaiian Front, but the Army's fuel gap is also huge." Gen. Sugiyama, Chief of Army Staff, understood that Yamamoto wanted to use the Army's meager fuel supply, and quickly raised objections. , "Now the Army has 4 tank divisions, 27 aviation divisions, and many automobile and transport fleets (the total tonnage of ships owned by the Japanese Army far exceeds that of the Navy, and it is really impossible without fuel), so It requires a lot of fuel, and the battle against Chilu is on the string and may be launched at any time..."

"Naked" is the Soviet Union. The Japanese call Russia "Lucia". Red Lucia is of course the Soviet Union. While the Navy is fully preparing for "Operation Czech No. 1", the Japanese Army is also preparing for war with the Soviet Union!

It sounds incredible, but the reality is this. According to a group of Showa staff who like to "play big chess", the reason why the United States is unwilling to make peace with Japan is because the Soviet Union is still resisting. If the Soviet Union completely collapsed, the United States would be at war with the whole world and would have to sue Japan for peace.

In addition, the Japanese Empire was reluctant to be a neighbor of a super-European Community that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Therefore, it is necessary to send troops to the Far East after the fall of Moscow...