Take Taobao to fight against Japan

At the beginning of March 1944, Koga Mine concentrated the effective forces of the United Fleet, assembled and set up an ambush in the Mariana Islands, Palau Islands or New Guinea, in an attempt to destroy the counterattacking US fleet.

Influenced by Admiral Togo's decisive battle ideology of "contributing to one battle" in the Tsushima Strait victory, the new Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet, Koga Mine, wholeheartedly dreamed of World War I and changed the course of the war.

As he was a practical man, he also knew that the chances of success were slim, but it was Japan's last hope.

On March 3, Mine Koga announced the battle plan. Once the advancing US fleet broke into the Bismarck Sea via the Solomon Islands or New Guinea, the combined fleet would attack with all its strength.

For this purpose, Koga Mineichi efficiently began to concentrate most of Japan's naval forces and ordered the relocation of Combined Fleet Headquarters from Musashi to Rabaul, New Guinea.

"Let's attack together and die together!"

At 1944:3 am on March 31, 9, before departure, Koga mine said this to his chief of staff Lieutenant General Fukudome Shigeru.

Afterwards, with the belief of fighting to the death with the U.S. military, Koga Fengyi and the Chief of Staff of the United Fleet, Vice Admiral Fukurumono, flew to Rabaul in two seaplanes.

However, "pretending to be struck by lightning", they encountered a strong typhoon when they flew near New Guinea. The Koga Peak family disappeared in the typhoon, and disappeared mysteriously like MH370, becoming an unsolvable historical mystery. .

However, the plane of its chief of staff, Fukushimoto, and others ran out of fuel in the fight against the storm, and then made an emergency landing on the sea. The crew survived by relying on life rafts, and finally landed on the island of New Guinea alive, and almost became the leader of the guerrillas. captive.

Soon after Koga Mineichi was killed, he was awarded the title of Admiral of the Navy by the Japanese government, and Deputy Takeshi Toyoda succeeded Koga Mineichi as the commander of the Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet.

During the entire Pacific War, a total of 3 admirals of the Japanese Navy were awarded the title of admiral. The first was Admiral Yamamoto 56, but he was also awarded posthumously after his death.

The second place was Admiral Nagano Shoshin, then Chief of the Naval Command Department. He was awarded the title of Admiral of the Navy on June 1943, 6, while Koga Mineichi ranked third.

Japan's marshal is just an honorary title, not an official military rank. Japan's highest military rank is general, but it is only equivalent to the rank of general in other countries.

In less than a year, the two commanders of the combined fleet of the Japanese Navy were killed one after another, and both of them died on the front line by plane. It seems that the Japanese militarism is exhausted.

On the same day, Allied forces established artillery positions on Rendova Island and began shelling Munda airfield.

The Japanese army dispatched aircraft from Rabaul to attack Rendova Island several times, and sent the cruiser "Yubari" and 9 destroyers to bombard the Allied positions on the island.

Naturally, the Allied forces fought head-to-head, and launched a life-and-death battle with the Japanese combat aircraft fleet and fleet.

At this point, the Battle of the New Georgia Islands officially started.

Chapter 1584 Centennial Fortress Project

Time flashed to June 1943, 6.

On this day, the New Georgia Islands landing campaign that lasted for two months finally came to an end.

In this campaign, the Allied forces participated in the battle, including 5.8 soldiers from the Army, 1700 Marines, 134 ships of various types, and 1290 aircraft.

The Japanese troops guarding the island consisted of the Army's Southeast Detachment and the Navy's 8th Joint Special Marine Corps under the jurisdiction of the Southeast Fleet, with a total of 1.4 people, 350 aircraft of various types, and 27 combat ships.

Mainly deployed around Munda Airport on New Georgia Island and Kolombangara Island.Commanded by Vice Admiral Cao Lu, Commander of the Southeast Fleet.

After more than two months of bloody battles, the Allied forces occupied the New Georgia Islands at the cost of more than 5000 casualties, 8 ships lost, and 241 aircraft, and established a forward base for the subsequent development and attack.

For the Japanese army, there were more than 2500 casualties, 19 ships and more than 790 aircraft were lost.

In this battle, the Allied forces adopted the offensive tactics of crossing the island, and accumulated rich combat experience for the future comprehensive counter-offensive in the Pacific battlefield.

By adopting a strategy of abandoning neighboring islands and capturing only those of strategic importance, the Allies can then use their superior sea power to blockade and trap enemy forces on isolated islands, thereby achieving capture without a fight these islands.

In this way, the casualties of the Allied forces will be greatly reduced, and at the same time, the speed of the counterattack against Japan will be greatly accelerated. Such an offensive strategy has a very strong practical effect.

Rabaul, New Britain, Japanese Eighth Front Command.

On November 1942, 11, the Japanese base camp reorganized the 16th Army and the 17th Army in the South East Pacific region to form the Eighth Front Army, which was responsible for the mission of combat command in the Solomon and New Guinea regions.

The Japanese base camp also set up a headquarters in Rabaul, New Britain, and the commander of the Eighth Front Army was General Jun Imamura.

"Your Excellency, I just received the latest news that New Georgia Island fell half an hour ago, and the imperial army was finally defeated."

General Imamura Jun, commander of Japan's Eighth Front Army Division, was discussing the war with Lieutenant General Kato Yohei, Commander of the Southeast Front Fleet, Vice Admiral Kusakaru, Senior Staff Officer Takahashi Hefu, and other senior generals in his office. A communications staff officer walked in with an ugly expression on his face.

"Understood! Next, it's the turn of the Papua Peninsula and Rabaul!"

Jun Imamura waved his hand weakly, not interested in reaching out to receive the telegram. Although the news had been expected, he was still full of sadness at the moment.

Among the Japanese generals, Jun Imamura can be regarded as a soldier with "both military and political excellence". In 1936, he served as the deputy chief of staff of the Kwantung Army and participated in planning the July [-]th Incident. He was the commander of the Fifth Division of the Japanese Army during the Battle of Southern Guangxi. He led two divisions to occupy the Dutch East Indies.

Rabaul is a city located in the northeast of New Britain Island in the South Pacific. In 1910, the Germans first filled the local mangrove swamp to build a town and named it Rabaul Town.

After World War I, Germany lost all its overseas territories, and the ownership of this place was transferred to Britain, which then became the capital of the New Guinea Territory.

After the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Japanese army immediately devoured Southeast Asia. Britain knew that it was no match for Japan in Southeast Asia, so it urgently evacuated all the women and children in Rabaul Town. It didn’t take long for the Japanese army to bomb Rabaul on a large scale.

Immediately after the Battle of Rabaul started, tens of thousands of Japanese marines landed in Rabaul, the Australian army was defeated, and the Japanese occupied the surrounding islands based on Rabaul.

During the Japanese occupation, the Japanese built Rabaul into a more fortified military base and prepared to use it to move on to the western Pacific.

Naval ships, naval aviation and army aviation and other forces centered on Rabaul to attack the surrounding Allied forces and lines of communication. The Japanese army dug nearly [-] kilometers of criss-cross tunnels in the Rabaul area as air-raid shelters. Dodge Allied aerial bombardment.

Both the Eighth Front Army Command of the Japanese Army and the Southeastern Fleet Command of the Navy were stationed here. At its peak, Rabaul had more than 11 Japanese troops stationed here. This is a city of soldiers.

The Japanese army built many factories and tunnels here, and even a Jiyuan with more than 2000 people!

Especially since the Allied forces began to counterattack Guadalcanal in October 1943, Imamura had anticipated the future outcome and decided to implement the "Centennial Rabaul Fortress Plan".

The Japanese army had already started laying mines in the waterway of Simpson Bay last month, installed more than 152 90mm shore artillery pieces, and equipped various fortifications with more than 500 light artillery pieces and 76 heavy artillery pieces.

After a long period of arduous digging, the length of the Rabaul Caves exceeds 300 kilometers.

Each of these caves has its own advantages and disadvantages. The simple ones are built hard on the volcanic rocks, and the more exquisite ones are covered with coconut wood floors in the caves.

The air-raid shelter where the headquarters of the Eighth Front Army lived was equipped with a telephone, and the Japanese army also built auxiliary facilities such as underground hangars, repair rooms, warehouses, and hospitals.

Imamura even gathered educated people from the army to set up a weapons research institute with 200 self-made crackers, 400 mortars and 200 flamethrowers. Most officers and soldiers were equipped with self-made anti-tank mines.

The biggest problem for the Japanese army is food self-sufficiency.

To this end, Imamura personally organizes personnel to engage in planting, breeding and fishing operations.

The slogan put forward by Imamura and Kusaka is: "Build a new Japanese empire in the South China Sea and persist in the Hundred Years of War of Resistance."

Coincidentally, three wrong packages were mixed in the supplies sent from China once, and the contents were not rice but paddy.

Jun Imamura was very excited when he heard the news, and authorized two professors from the Faculty of Agriculture of Kyoto University to lead people to conduct scientific farming experiments.

Rabaul's climatic conditions are very suitable for planting. Now rice has been grown for more than a year, and it can already achieve self-sufficiency in staple food.

Even in the future, even if the Americans are rich and powerful, they cannot afford to use bombs to blow up farmland everywhere.

Jun Imamura also ordered soldiers who were fishermen to go fishing in the sea, but the American air raids were too frequent. The few ships were too precious to be lost, so they changed from salvage to sea fishing. hole.

In addition, Imamura Jun is also interested in farming, because chickens cannot be confined in air-raid shelters and can only be raised in the open field. In the end, these domestic chickens turned into pheasants running around.

So on weekdays, when the Allied forces did not come to bomb, a unique landscape appeared on the British Isles. Japanese soldiers were all over the island to collect eggs and catch pheasants.

In fact, Imamura is indeed very far-sighted, and has long anticipated the difficulties that the British Isles will face, and these things are really useful.

Chapter 1585 Atlantic Fortress

Although knowing that the defense of Rabaul is quite strong, the US military did not directly land and attack Rabaul.

Instead, they skipped Rabaul with the "leapfrog" tactic, and built several additional airfields on nearby islands to surround Rabaul to block the supply of the Japanese army. At the same time, they frequently bombed Rabaul. Renders the Rabaul base useless.

But what I want to say is that most of Imamura's soldiers saved their lives because of this, and he persisted until Japan surrendered before he took the initiative to send Senior Staff Officer Takahashi Hefu to the Australian destroyer to negotiate the surrender.

Until September 1945, 9, on the Royal Navy's "Glorious" aircraft carrier, the Commander of the Eighth Front Army, General Imamura Jun, and Lieutenant General Kusakaka, represented the Japanese Army and Navy to Lieutenant General Studi, the commander of the Australian First Army. surrender.

There was such an ironic dialogue at the surrender ceremony:

Studi asked, "How many of you are there?"

Imamura replied: "Including the surrounding islands, there are more than 14 soldiers and dependents of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy in the Solomon Islands."

Studi laughed: "It's nonsense again."

Imamura Jun: "These are all facts, we have brought the entire roster, you can see it."

Studi was a little confused: "Then where are all of you?"

Imamura replied honestly: "10 around Rabaul and 4 surrounding islands."

Studi then asked, "Why can't you see it?"

Jun Imamura replied: "Basically, they are all in the underground cave fortifications, and they can't come out if they have nothing to do."

Studi: "What do you eat?"

Imamura Jun: "We have food in storage, plus the food we grow ourselves, and there is no problem in persisting for 10 years."

Studi suddenly couldn't figure it out, and asked inexplicably: "Then why are you surrendering?"

Jun Imamura shook his head and said, "I don't know, the Emperor asked him to surrender."

Studi was beating his heart: The Japanese still have 14 people in full armor. What should we do with only a few boats and only 3000 people?

Imamura saw the mind of the commander of the Australian Army, and said with a smile: "Don't worry, we really surrendered. You wait at sea for a few more days, and I will inform you when the time comes."

I saw Jun Imamura got off the warship and returned to Rabaoer. Immediately, countless Japanese appeared on the ground and began to build large-scale construction projects.

First build the barracks for the Australian guards. The build is beautiful and the quality is very good.

Then they built straw sheds around the Australian barracks, which was a prisoner-of-war camp for them to live in.

After setting up the prisoner-of-war camp, and then stretching barbed wire around the thatched shed, and then polishing the weapons and putting them away neatly, he got into the barbed wire by himself, very well-behaved and honest.

Imamura came to the commander of the Australian Army: "Now you can move in."

3000 Australian soldiers who couldn't laugh or cry lived in the middle of 14 Japanese captives. From time to time, they still felt cold on their backs: "Who the hell are the captives?"

Of course, these are things for later, whether it will become history again, everything is unknown.

Kato Yohei read the telegram with his head down, and said to Imamura Jun with a sad tone: "Your Excellency, the warriors of the Empire of Japan have done their best.

There is really no way, the area we need to defend is too large, and the increasingly powerful allied forces have sharp offensive capabilities and initiative, we are completely defenseless! "

Cao Lu felt the same way and said: "Isn't it true that the Imperial Japanese Navy is like this? Although every naval battle has been done with all its strength, and every naval battle can achieve a good exchange ratio, the final result is that it becomes weaker and weaker. "

Takahashi Herff went on to say: "Not only is our side losing steadily, on the Central Pacific battlefield, the Allied forces led by Nimitz have also been actively attacking. At present, they have launched the Battle of the Mariana Islands. Saipan Key islands like Guam and Guam are no longer safe.

And if these two islands are lost, the mainland of the Empire of Japan will no longer be safe, and the situation will get worse by then. "

Imamura Jun said in a deep voice: "The situation is indeed getting worse and worse, but we have no way out. At present, we can only do our best to defend the front line for the Great Japanese Empire.

As for the others, they are not something we can consider or solve! "

Although in another time and space, Imamura has been farming and living in the New Great Britain Island, and was lucky to survive until the end of World War II.

But he is not a time traveler after all, and he cannot know what the future will be like as clearly as Yang Fan.

Therefore, for Jun Imamura, their current task is to fight to the end, even if it means breaking their bodies to pieces.

Instead of waiting for the end of the war without knowing the prophet, and then obediently drawing the ground as a prison, take the initiative to live in a prisoner-of-war camp.

"What your Excellency said is very true. The warriors of the Empire of Japan will never give up. I dare not say anything else. The island of New Britain is absolutely impenetrable. I am not afraid of the US military coming to attack, but I am afraid that they will not come!"

Kato Yohei nodded confidently, with a gleam of brilliance in his eyes. After working so hard for so long, he really hoped that this indestructible Rabaul Fortress could play an unparalleled military value for the Japanese Empire.

Along the coast of Dunkirk, France, Rommel, commander of the German "B" Army Group in France, is conducting routine inspections at a coastal artillery command center.

In order to prevent the Allied forces from landing on the European continent, Nazi Germany built a 2700-kilometer defense line along the northern coast of Norway to the borders of France and Spain.

This line of defense is known as the Atlantic Barrier, and construction began in March 1942, with a planned total length of about 3 kilometers.

The line of defense was temporarily built during the war, and the planned project volume was very large. For this reason, during the peak period of the project, the German army mobilized a total of 26 manpower, invested 1300 million tons of concrete and 12 tons of steel, and built projects at 15000 locations.

One of the main reasons why the German army is so happy with the construction of the defense line is based on the concept of the German army's defensive economics.

From the perspective of the German army, the establishment of solid fortifications on forward positions can reduce the investment of troops, and the saved troops can be invested in other theaters.

This concept has always been used in the construction of the German Atlantic Barrier, so when building various fortifications, the purpose is not to protect infantry, but to strengthen their combat effectiveness, that is, how to strike more effectively under the strengthening of the firepower of the fortifications. The incoming enemy.

It's just that this project is too huge, and the African battlefield and the European Eastern Front battlefield were defeated too quickly. Up to now, only part of the project has been completed on the Atlantic defense line. The plan is only 68% complete.

With the defeat of the African battlefield, Rommel, a generation of famous generals, served as the inspector of the Atlantic Fortress in December 1943 and began to take over the construction of the Atlantic Fortress.

However, after inspecting the defense situation in Denmark, Rommel's mentality collapsed directly, and his confidence in this huge defense system almost completely disappeared.

Chapter 1586 Fresh out of the oven

至1944年6月,德军在西线总共部署58个师，其中包括33个守备师,15个步兵师，9个装甲师和1个装甲掷弹兵师。

On the surface, although the German army assembled a large number of division-level units on the western front, because Hitler kept transferring soldiers from the western front to the eastern front, the shortage of each infantry division on the western front was very serious.

What's more serious is that there are only a small number of infantry divisions with combat experience, and most of them are garrison divisions that lack training and combat experience. Very few people and equipment can really go into battle.