bookrandom Chapter 296 B-17, B-29
Chapter 296 B-17, B-29
Zhang Chi was not worried about the possible counterattack by the Japanese.
In addition to the ongoing "Operation No. 1 on the Mainland" in the Republic of China, and the troops of Mutaguchi Ren'ya who were playing the role of "wandering devils" in Sindhu, the devils on all other fronts were basically in a passive defensive position.
The Japanese set up defenses everywhere on the islands in the ocean, which naturally meant that their already insufficient military forces were further diluted.
The loss of control of the sea made it impossible for the Japanese to mobilize garrisons in various places, and the Japanese troops in various places could only fight on their own.
On June 18, the day after the delegation led by General Stevenson left Pegu, an encrypted telegram arrived with the latest news - the White Eagle Navy and the Japanese combined fleet started fighting in the Mariana Islands.
This time, the White Eagle Fleet was still led by Admiral Spruance, the war hero of the Battle of Midway. His Fifth Fleet gathered 15 aircraft carriers (including light and escort aircraft carriers) and was heading towards Saipan and Guam.
Zhang Chi in the headquarters had the staff hang a large map of the Pacific on the wall and randomly picked up a blue pushpin and stuck it on the location of the Mariana Islands. (The map is mentioned at the end of the chapter by the author)
"The location of this place is very critical..." Tan Zhijie, the chief of staff beside Zhang Chi, immediately discovered the problem.
"Yeah." Zhang Chi said as he picked up a ruler and started marking on the map. After more than two years of traveling, his map-making skills have become quite good.
"Look, the distance from the Mariana Islands to Ryukyu, Dongfan (WW) Island, Luzon Island, and the Japanese mainland is more than 2000 kilometers." Zhang Chi drew three lines on the map, directly connecting the Mariana Islands and several places.
"The maximum range of the B-17G heavy bomber you secretly got from there is 2900 km, right?" Tan Zhijie straightened his increasingly thinning hair and moved his fingers on the map.
"After taking this place, if the White Eagles wanted, they could easily send B-17Gs from the Mariana Islands to bomb the Japanese main island directly, and then fly to the Republic of China and land there."
"Yes, that's how the B-25s flew during the Doolittle Raid, but they took off from an aircraft carrier just over 1000 kilometers from the Japanese mainland." Zhang Chi pursed his lips and continued, "Now, the White Eagles not only have B-17s, but they've even developed B-29s. They can fly back and forth without any problem."
"Fly back and forth? Is that true? Is it fully loaded with bombs? How long will the range be?" Tan Zhijie was completely shocked when he heard Zhang Chi's statement.
"This B-29 is White Eagle's latest heavy bomber, with a maximum bomb load of 9 tons and a maximum combat range of 5600 kilometers."
"what?"
At the beginning, Tan Zhijie was just a lieutenant colonel staff officer in the expeditionary force. The artillery regiment of the Japanese Type A division was already a powerful configuration that was out of his reach. After all, an ordinary national army group might not have so many artillery pieces.
Later, he was picked up from the Savage Mountain by Zhang Chi. As Zhang Chi could "produce" various light tanks, self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, self-propelled artillery, amphibious tanks, torpedo boats and other advanced mechanized equipment at any time, he gradually became numb from being startled three times a day.
For his generation of soldiers, the times were developing too fast. In less than twenty years, he went from the Beiyang warlords' mode of being shot in a queue when he was a child to the World War I mode. After meeting Zhang Chi, he witnessed what modern warfare was like during World War II.
(This line-up execution was a personal experience of Mao's military advisors in Feng Fengxian's Northwest Army. Their assessment was that the Northwest Army's horizontal assault tactics were very neat, brave, and dense, and it was obvious that they had not been easily defeated by the heavy machine guns of the Somme.)
A few days ago, when Zhang Chi bought the B-17G 'Flying Fortress' heavy bomber developed from the War Thunder system after recent combat at a unit price of 15.5 Silver Lions, Tan Zhijie became obsessed with this powerful weapon with a maximum bomb load of nearly 9 tons and a maximum combat range of 2900 km.
In his opinion, with this ultra-long-range bomber, many new tactics will be able to be implemented.
At that time, he thought that this B-17G was the latest bomber that Zhang Chi secretly obtained from White Eagle through secret channels, and he even expressed such emotion:
With this "powerful weapon of a great power", the days when the Chinese nation was bullied will be gone forever!
Now, when he learned that White Eagle had produced the more powerful B-29, Tan Zhijie was once again shocked by the industrial capabilities of the United States across the ocean.
However, he was not discouraged by this. After all, the current focus was still on fighting the Japanese. In the past, there were no planes to fight the Japanese, but now with long-range bombers like the B-17, it was even more necessary to fight!
After wiping his face, Tan Zhijie turned his attention back to the battle:
"If the Japanese knew that the White Eagles had such bombers, they would definitely fight to the death in the waters around the Mariana Islands and not let any of the White Eagles' soldiers land on the islands. Otherwise, their homeland would be bombed frequently."
Today will be sunny with occasional incendiary showers, and the average temperature will be 550 degrees.
Somehow, when Zhang Chi thought of the thousands of tons of napalm bombs of Annan war technology level that he sold to White Eagle, such auditory hallucinations suddenly sounded in his mind.
Shaking his head, Zhang Chi forced down the corner of his mouth that was about to smile: "Whether the Japanese have this information or not, the location of the Mariana Islands is too important. The Combined Fleet will definitely not be able to take care of us. Even those Japanese naval aviation pilots deployed in the South China Sea will have to fly Zero fighters to join the battle."
"Great, now the sky is high and the birds fly freely, the sea is wide and the fish leap freely." Tan Zhijie waved his hand excitedly, and then led the staff team to start formulating the combat plan.
On June 26, while the Japanese were busy playing the Mariana Turkey Hunt game with the White Eagle Naval Air Force (of course, the Zero fighter was the turkey), Zhang Chi chose to divide his troops into two groups to attack the Malay Peninsula.
Due to limited road conditions, the 1st and 3rd Infantry Divisions were deployed flatly and attacked southward along the Isthmus of Kra.
Since the Kra Isthmus is the border area between Pegu, Siam and Malay, there are almost no roads. The two infantry divisions of the People's Army of Cambodia were almost building simple roads while advancing.
The elite amphibious marine brigade, under the cover of the Navy's First Fleet, set out from the port of Yangon and carried out a flanking maneuver in the Andaman Sea, ready to land at any time to cut off the enemy's retreat.
In order to prevent the Japanese navy from sending a squadron, the First Fleet of the Anmin Army Navy has now replaced three Helena light cruisers purchased by Zhang Chi from the system, and has several anti-submarine boats and torpedo boats to cooperate.
Moreover, they sailed along the coastline throughout the journey and were under the cover of land-based aircraft at all times. In Zhang Chi's opinion, if the Japanese only sent a few light cruisers or heavy cruisers, such a fleet could easily cope with it. At least protecting the transport ships carrying the Marines from docking would not be a problem.
As for whether the Japanese will really go crazy and send high-speed battleships like the Kongo-class at the decisive moment?
Zhang Chi felt that when it came to war, how could there be no risk at all?