bookrandom Chapter 611: The Battle of Ryukyu Begins, the Japanese Invasion Launches the Kikusui Special Attack
Chapter 611: The Battle of Ryukyu Begins, the Japanese Invasion Launches the Kikusui Special Attack
On March 20, the real iron fist began to be swung.
The subsequent landing of the 7th Division of the Nanyang Defense Force, the army's truly elite force, began to advance rapidly southward along the coastline.
The First Division of the Lan Fang Restoration Army followed behind them, responsible for maintaining logistics and providing assistance.
The 7th Division had a clear goal: to recapture the Lan Fang Kingdom's territory and wipe out the remaining enemies.
With the support of tanks, aircraft and heavy artillery, the offensive was unstoppable.
The remaining small groups of Japanese troops and the scattered indigenous armed forces who were resisting stubbornly were unable to stop the regular army.
On March 25, the symbolic liberation of Dongwanlu took place.
On March 29, Pontianak, the former capital of the Lan Fang Republic, a city that has experienced many vicissitudes of life, welcomed its liberators.
Tanks of the Nanyang Defense Army rolled through the streets, and soldiers cleared out the last sporadic resistance.
The next day, March 30, a hasty but significant ceremony was held in Pontianak.
Zong Liangji announced the official restoration of the Lan Fang Republic and took office as the first commander-in-chief of the Lan Fang Provisional Government.
Despite the simple structure and the need for reconstruction, the countless Chinese people gathered in the square were still excited and in tears.
They waved homemade Lan Fang flags and cheered in Hakka and Teochew dialects, venting the national emotions that had been suppressed for decades at this moment.
Exactly 67 years later, the Chinese once again became the masters of this land.
The news spread quickly around the world via radio waves.
On the Allied side, White Eagle was positive about the establishment of Lan Fang, while John and the Netherlands were furious but helpless.
The Russians had an ambiguous attitude. After all, Zong Liangji's official identity was an elementary school teacher and he belonged to the "progressive" force. The Russians were still fantasizing about whether it was possible to win over Zong Liangji and establish an organization on Borneo, an island twice the size of the Japanese mainland.
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On April 1, the day after the Lan Fang Republic announced its restoration.
The sea off the distant Ryukyu Islands was covered with dark clouds.
The White Eagle Navy's huge task force gathered here, with warships connected to warships and ships connected to ships, like a floating Great Wall of Steel.
The main guns of several battleships spewed out terrifying tongues of flames, and shells weighing one ton roared towards the Japanese positions on the beach of Ryukyu Island, shaking the earth.
In the sky, swarms of White Eagle carrier-based aircraft were like dense swarms of locusts, diving, dropping bombs, and strafing, tearing apart the exposed fortifications, artillery positions, and logistics nodes of the Japanese one by one.
After the devastating sea and air fire preparation, countless landing craft were launched, loaded with White Eagle Marines, and attacked the beach.
The Battle of Okinawa, one of the most brutal amphibious landings in history, began.
At the same time, on the sea level in the south, another large fleet was breaking through the waves and heading towards the southern Ryukyu Islands.
The core of this fleet is three newly commissioned Casablanca-class escort aircraft carriers flying the South China Sea Navy flag.
Although they cannot be compared with the White Eagle's huge regular aircraft carriers, each of them carries 28 fighters and can still provide valuable air cover and ground attack capabilities.
Accompanying the aircraft carrier were two shallow-water heavy gunboats with thick armor and powerful main guns, as well as a transport fleet carrying three elite infantry divisions of the Nanyang Defense Force. It was also escorted by several light cruisers, destroyers, frigates and other types of ships.
The South Seas Expeditionary Force officially joined the war.
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The Ryukyu Islands, this shining pearl scattered in the western Pacific Ocean, has been dubbed the "Southern Gate" by the Japanese since it was occupied, and has been given extremely important strategic significance.
This place is only 600 kilometers away from the Japanese Kyushu Island and is the last easy-to-defend and difficult-to-attack sea barrier in their homeland defense circle.
In order to defend this last gateway, the Japanese headquarters gave their all.
Not only was the 32nd Army commanded by Lieutenant General Mitsuru Ushijima, totaling about 10 ground forces (including logistics and defense forces recruited from Okinawa), deployed here, building a dense system of tunnels and permanent fortifications, but almost all of the remaining air forces on the mainland were also deployed.
Thousands of aircraft of various types were urgently dispatched to airports in Kyushu and Ryukyu.
Most of these planes were crudely made in the late stages of the war, and the pilots were mostly rookies who had only undergone short-term intensive training and had unfamiliar skills. Even fuel was in short supply.
But they were still given the terrible mission of deciding the outcome of the war - these planes were not used for air combat, but as disposable human bombs.
The Japanese high-ranking officials, desperate, launched a large-scale special attack operation code-named "Kikusui", attempting to block the Allied fleet from entering the country in this extremely cruel way.
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Inside the bridge of the escort aircraft carrier "Tianshu", flagship of the Nanyang Navy's First Fleet.
Fleet commander Major General You Hongxuan leaned on the railing and looked into the distance, his eyes sweeping over the ships under his command that were cutting through the waves.
With splashing waves and howling sea breeze, this brand new fleet is heading towards the war-torn Ryukyu.
As a former naval officer of the Republic of China, You Hongxuan once suffered from the frustration of having no ships available.
Now that he can command such a large fleet, traverse the oceans, and participate in a war of such a scale, his heart is filled with pride and he is more and more convinced that his decision to go south to join Zhang Chi was correct.
"Report." A staff officer walked quickly into the bridge and handed over a telegram. "Commander, urgent notice from the White Eagle Fifth Fleet."
You Hongxuan took the telegram, glanced at it quickly, and his brows gradually furrowed.
The telegram described in detail the frenzied attack that the White Eagle Task Force encountered off the coast of Ryukyu.
There, the Japanese planes ignored interception and crashed into the warships like moths to a flame, causing seven ships to sink and many ships to be seriously damaged. Friendly forces warned the Nanyang Fleet to be highly vigilant against this suicidal tactic.
"Crazy... Really crazy..." You Hongxuan cursed under his breath, then regained his composure. "Call the White Eagle Fleet back. Thank you for the warning. We will strengthen our air defense and head to the rendezvous area as soon as possible to complete the landing force delivery mission."
He turned to the communications officer and issued a series of orders:
"Order all ships to rotate their air surveillance radars. Ensure at least two radars are scanning the skies above the fleet at all times, giving the enemy no opportunity to exploit."
"Tianshu launches direct-range aircraft to provide cover over the fleet."
The order was quickly transmitted by radio to every ship in the fleet.
The atmosphere instantly became tense. The lookouts on each ship widened their eyes, the radar and sonar operators held their breath, and the sailors on the anti-aircraft gun positions checked the ammunition again and gripped the firing handles tightly.
Soon after, when the fleet got closer to the Ryukyu Islands.
"Radar room report, bearing 030, distance 80, a large number of low-altitude, fast-moving targets have been spotted. The speed is about 250 knots. Preliminary judgment is that they are Japanese Zero fighters, more than 50 in number, approaching our fleet." The radar officer's urgent voice rang out on the internal communication channel of the bridge.
"Here they come!" You Hongxuan's heart trembled. He took a deep breath and ordered sternly, "All fleets, level one combat readiness, sound the battle alert."