The expeditionary force began to dominate Southeast Asia by recruiting defeated soldiers

Chapter 395: Palembang Oil Field? I want it!

The reality was that before the B-17 fleet of the National Security Army dispatched from Rangoon could carry out a few long-range bombings on the oil fields in Sumatra and Borneo, the Japanese's own crude oil supply collapsed.

Historically, 80% of the Japanese's pre-war oil came from imports from White Eagle, 10% came from the Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia, and 10% came from the Sakhalin oil fields in the southern part of Sakhalin Island.

As for introducing coal-to-oil technology from the ally Hans, and then using the abundant coal resources in Northeast China and the Korean Peninsula to refine oil?

Sorry, the Japanese are poor imperialists. IG Farben's coal-to-oil technology is too expensive. Hans and others can manage it with a little effort, but the Japanese can't.

In January 1943, the Japanese invaders conquered the Dutch colony of Sumatra. Because the local Dutch oil workers and soldiers feared retaliation from the Japanese if they surrendered, they did not carry out the plan to blast the oil fields. As a result, the Japanese invaders took over the Palembang oil fields in southeastern Sumatra almost intact.

At this time, the proven reserves of the Palembang Oilfield were between 700 million and 1 billion barrels, with a peak output value of 120,000 barrels per day. The ecstatic Japanese headquarters quickly transferred nearly 4,000 oil workers (80% of the total Japanese oil workers) from the country to participate in the resumption of production in the Palembang Oilfield.

By comparison, the proven reserves of Borneo's oil fields before the war were about 15 billion barrels, with a peak production value of 18 barrels per day.

The proven reserves of Russia's core oil field, the Baku field, are about 50 billion barrels, with a peak output of 70 barrels per day.

As for the core oil field of Hans Country, it is located in Ploiesti, which is in the hands of my younger brother. The proven reserves are only 10 billion barrels, and the peak output value is 20 barrels/day, which is enough to supply part of the Hans armored forces.

By comparing these data, we can find that the Dutch really have oil in their hands. This is why Zhang Chi always promotes historical Chinese regimes such as the Old Port Xuanwei Office and the Lan Fang Republic (pictured). There is no way, the place chosen by our ancestors is good, and there really is a lot of goods underground!

If the economy is to take off rapidly after World War II, sufficient and cheap oil is indispensable. Although Zhang Chi has begun to deploy oil fields in Libya and Saudi Arabia through Yegorov, he does not want to miss the oil fields at home.

Historically, the Japanese produced 42 million barrels of oil in the Palembang Oilfield starting in 2590, and in 43 they produced 4960 million barrels, basically restoring the pre-war oil production capacity.

In addition, the Japanese also found the drilling and mining equipment left behind by the White Eagle Oil Company on the island. After analysis, the White Eagle Special Intelligence Bureau judged that the Japanese were basically able to guarantee the oil supply for the future naval joint fleet and air force.

This is also why Stevenson was eager for Zhang Chi to go south as soon as possible to launch a large-scale bombing of the Palembang oil field.

To this end, Stevenson even coordinated more than 80 B-17 bombers for the National Security Army through the Lend-Lease Act.

Originally, these aircraft were to be used to form a new White Eagle Air Force in Yangon, but considering the high loss rate of long-range bombing, the Pentagon, at Stevenson's suggestion, simply gave the aircraft to the People's Army of the Security Council for free and let the People's Army of the Security Council carry out the mission.

This sudden "gift" also allowed Zhang Chi to openly use the B-17s purchased from the system.

However, even if the An Min Army did not bomb the Palembang oil field, the Japanese began to run out of oil. The reason was very simple. The White Eagle's unrestricted submarine warfare had destroyed millions of tons of Japanese merchant ships and oil tankers, and the refined oil could not leave Sumatra at all.

Sometimes Zhang Chi couldn't understand why the Japanese, as an island country, did not pay any attention to the sea transportation lines and were so careless.

It seemed that all the warships of the Japanese Navy were preparing for a fleet decisive battle, and the maritime escort command responsible for escorting them only had old ships that had been eliminated, and personnel assembled from merchant marine schools and civilian seamen.

This made even the newly established forces of the Anmin Army's navy and naval aviation dare to face the Japanese escort fleet. By September 1944, they had sunk or captured about 70,000 tons of Japanese merchant ships and destroyed 9 escort ships.

In particular, the PBY-4 "Nanyang Inspectors" with a range of more than 3000 km can often patrol the coastal airspace for an entire day. As long as they discover suspicious ships, they can immediately call on nearby patrol gunboats or F6F Hellcats from nearby naval aviation bases to mount torpedoes and hunt down and intercept the Japanese merchant fleet.

This resulted in the Japanese air force only being able to learn theoretical knowledge on the ground, and not having enough fuel for them to actually fly planes in the sky.

By September 1944, the Japanese had generally less than 30 hours of flight training for their new aircraft. At the same time, no matter how many new aircraft the Japanese built, there was not enough fuel for them to carry out daily patrols and they could only carry out key attacks.

At the same time, the Combined Fleet stationed on Luzon Island could no longer obtain sufficient fuel supply. Even though they knew that the Anmin Army was approaching Singapore, they did not dare to send giant ships such as Yamato, Musashi, and Nagato to support. After all, even the most important Yamato could only fill its oil tank half full at this time.

With this little bit of oil, it’s easy to go to Singapore but hard to come back!

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"Disarm the combat state, repeat, disarm the combat state!"

Inside the bridge of the Yukikaze, the first mate roared into the brass pipe.

The large four-engine plane on the horizon was flying westward. Captain Masamichi Terauchi lowered his binoculars and sighed.

"The An Min Army's aviation force is becoming increasingly aggressive. Patrol planes taking off from Bangkok are already flying towards Cam Ranh Bay!"

At this time, the tense atmosphere on the Yukikaze had just dissipated with the departure of the 'South China Sea Inspector'. The navigator took out two fishing rods and said:

"Captain, don't be so gloomy. Cam Ranh Bay is just ahead. We've already entered the protection range of the Zero fighters. Didn't that reconnaissance plane just now flee? Could the Anmin Army's torpedo planes still be able to catch up here?"

Four days and nights have passed since the ship encountered the Anmin Army fleet in the early morning of September 16 and was forced to flee. Now it is September 20. The Yukikaze has encountered the Anmin Army's "South China Sea Inspector" many times along the way, and was also surrounded and intercepted by torpedo attack aircraft called by them.

However, the lucky Yukikaze was still able to escape danger many times and successfully escaped back to the waters near the coast of Annan.

The navigator pointed to the stern and said, "It's a rare nice day, let's go to the stern and cast a few lines!"

Terauchi Masamichi took off his helmet, adjusted his soft military cap, and said with some melancholy:

"I wonder what's happening to my colleagues who stayed in Lion City? Has the Security Army launched an attack on Lion City?"

Navigator: "We'll find out when we get into port. I don't know what mission the higher-ups will assign us next."