Glorious Mission 1937

In fact, the debate between the navy and the army is nothing more than a debate within the Japanese army about offensive and defensive decisions. The Japanese army believes that since it has achieved such obvious results and obtained all the war materials needed by the Japanese Empire, what is the next step? To expand the results of the war, it is to integrate resources, build permanent defensive fortresses, and plan to occupy Southeast Asia for a long time.

However, the Navy believes that the current world situation is so favorable to the Empire of Japan, so it must seize the opportunity to expand the occupied area. The main targets are Australia and India, especially India. As long as India is occupied, the Imperial Japanese Army can fight against the German Army. Join forces in the Middle East.

On October 10, the base camp held a military meeting in Tokyo to focus on this issue.

The meeting was held in the Japanese Imperial Palace, and the presiding meeting was still the Japanese Prime Minister Fumma Konoe.The guard's opening statement is very simple: "The imperial army has achieved unprecedented victories in the South Pacific, and has basically completed the strategic goals planned before the war. Now there are only 4 places in the entire South Pacific region that are still controlled by the enemy, but these places are far away. The Malay Peninsula is relatively far away from the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies, and it will not affect the actions of the Imperial Japanese Army for the time being. So how to guide the war in the future, please express your opinions!"

The first to speak was General Umezu Yoshijiro, Minister of the Army: "Masters, before deciding how to deal with future wars, we must have a clear understanding and judgment of the current world situation. Other countries will definitely take action. According to the analysis of our Ministry of War, the United States and Britain will cooperate more closely in military, economic, financial and other aspects in the future. Forming a body, while trying to weaken the combat effectiveness of the Axis powers, On the one hand, it seeks to rapidly enhance its combat effectiveness."

"That is to say, the United States, Britain and other countries must first focus their war guidance on the Axis powers on Europe, and cooperate with the Soviet Union to make the war situation in this area develop in a direction that is beneficial to them, and at the same time strive to ensure and strengthen counter-offensive strongholds against Japan. , and once we have a superior force, we will try to launch a counter-offensive against Japan in one fell swoop.”

Umezu Yoshijiro's analysis has attracted the attention of many high-level officials in the headquarters and the government, because the current development trend is exactly like this.

"Your Excellency Meizu, what will the allies do? Will they launch a counterattack against that area?" Konoe asked loudly.

Umezu Yoshijiro replied: "First of all, let's talk about the United Kingdom. At present, the United Kingdom will definitely work hard to cooperate with the United States, the Soviet Union, and China. In order to seek the combat power to quickly defeat Germany and Italy first. At the same time, it will try to ensure that the Mediterranean and West Asia will prevent Japan, Germany, and Italy from cooperating. In order to counterattack Japan and maintain the unity of the British Empire in East Asia, Britain will try its best to ensure the dominance of the Indian Ocean and India and Australia. This requires the support of the Chinese people. Therefore, Sino-British relations will heat up in a short time. "

"Let's talk about the United States. At present, the United States will definitely work hard to cooperate with Britain and the Soviet Union. In order to seek the combat power to quickly defeat Germany and Italy first. At the same time, in Australia and the Indian Ocean, it will strive to secure and strengthen its counter-offensive strongholds against Japan, and strive to use its elite naval forces and air force Concentrate our forces on the Pacific side. Use part of it to obstruct our sea traffic, surprise attack on the central area of ​​Japan and conduct various other guerrilla warfare."

"There are also China and the Soviet Union, the powerful enemies of the empire. The United States and Britain will definitely try their best to help the Soviet Union and Chiang Kai-shek. The stronghold for attacking Japan. And the time when it may attempt to launch a large-scale attack will generally be after Showa 18 (1943).”

Chief of Naval Operations Nagano Xiu got up and asked: "Your Excellency Umezu, how should the empire deal with the alliance between the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and China based on your Army Ministry's thinking!"

Umezu Yoshijiro did not directly answer Nagano's words, but said: "The initial judgment of the above-mentioned world situation and the judgment of the initial combat performance are important prerequisites for determining future war guidance strategies. Therefore, before specifying future combat guidance, we must Have a general understanding of the initial combat performance, and then look at the military, economic, and political differences between the initial combat performance and the planned plan?"

"Looking at the entire Pacific battlefield, the victory of the imperial army is unquestionable. In the military, both the army and the navy achieved huge results beyond expectations. As a result, the United States and Britain were temporarily forced to fall into a defensive position. This created a favorable situation. Except for some delays in the Philippine side, the army's operations shortened the operation period by about one month in general, and the loss of troops was less than expected. In particular, the Burma operation, which was originally expected to end after the southern operations, Thanks to the spare power obtained in advance in the south, it can now start, and has occupied southern Myanmar, and is confronting the Chinese government forces."

"Naval operations dealt a heavy blow to the main force of the US and British fleets in the Pacific in the initial battle. In addition, they almost wiped out the enemy's naval forces in East Asia. In this regard, the loss of our forces was much less than expected, so that At present, the military relationship between the enemy and us in the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean has been different on offense and defense."

"In terms of air operations of the army and navy, our loss is also relatively slight, and we have defeated a considerable number of enemy air forces, and we are constantly achieving more than expected results. Therefore, in the future, when we can restrain the deployment of a large number of enemy air forces in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, able to cope with the rapid increase in the strength of the enemy's air force."

"In terms of politics, the current world political situation with the empire at the center is not much different from what was expected before the war. However, the overall situation has exceeded expectations and is moving in favor of the empire. development direction."

"Economically, due to the huge results achieved in the initial battle, securing the resources in the planned area and cutting off the supply of important materials to the United States and Britain can basically be completed ahead of schedule. The maritime transportation capacity has generally remained in the scheduled state. The acquisition of materials, especially oil There is no doubt that it is possible to achieve excellent results that exceed expectations. Therefore, in general, the combat capability in terms of materials is expected to be strengthened beyond the planned plan, but there is still a need to ensure food place to consider."

Having said that, Umezu Yoshijiro began to elaborate on his and the Army's point of view: "In fact, the issue we are arguing about now is the issue of offense or defense. In fact, it is the issue of Australia and India. The South Pacific region and surrounding areas are occupied by Allied forces. Among the several strongholds of the empire, Ke Island, the Nanyang territory of the Chinese people, and Burma must be occupied by the empire, because these places are not very large and are very close to the core control area of ​​​​the empire, so they must be annihilated.”

"But Australia and India are different. These two countries are too big. Although they are not very powerful, even if the empire can capture the entire India and Australia in a very short period of time, there are not so many troops to garrison. Besides The empire still has a larger China that needs to be conquered. However, Australia and India are important strongholds for the United States and Britain to counterattack Japan. Therefore, the Ministry of War thinks and believes that it is necessary to cut off the connection between India, Australia and the United Kingdom through political means and disrupting trade. , plan its rebellion, and promote the independence of Myanmar, and use its achievements to stimulate the independence of India is the safest way."

The Minister of the Navy and Kawako Shiro and the Chief of Operations Nagano Shoshin glanced at each other and shook their heads, apparently disagreeing with the Army's combat plan.

Fumma Konoe motioned Umezu Yoshijiro to sit down, and then said, "Do you all have different opinions?"

The Minister of the Navy and Chuan Koshiro got up and said: "Our Ministry of the Navy has different opinions. Based on the investigations made so far, the Navy has determined that it has sunk 5 US battleships, 2 aircraft carriers, 4 cruisers, and 8 destroyers. Created 4 battleships, 8 cruisers, and 6 destroyers. In this regard, we only lightly damaged 1 Class A cruiser and [-] Class B cruiser, and they have been repaired. It can be seen that whether it is the United States or the United Kingdom, they are all wearing A paper tiger with a gorgeous coat is totally vulnerable."

"Before the war, the Empire believed that it had to adopt a defensive strategic posture to deal with the attacks of the United States, Britain and other countries when it had to, but now it seems completely unnecessary, because the Ministry of the Navy believes that the Imperial Japanese Army has reached the time to switch to an offensive strategic posture. .”

"Therefore, the Navy strongly demands to take active actions against Australia, advocating that it should be captured. Because it is not good to be on the defensive in a long-term war, it is very important to always guide operations from the offensive and force the enemy to be on the defensive. Not only we understand this, but the United States Everyone knows that they will definitely use Australia as the most important strategic base for counterattacking the Japanese Empire, and it is feasible to capture the United States, the largest stronghold for counterattacking Japan.”

After Oikawa Koshiro finished speaking, Chief of Army General Staff Seishiro Itagaki stood up and said: "Australia, its area is equivalent to 30 times the size of the empire, with a population of about 700 million, and land transportation is extremely inconvenient. If the imperial army intends to capture it, it must be estimated that Australia People will fight to the end because of their national character, and coupled with the difficulties in military geography, their operations will not be easy."

"As far as the troops to be invested in the conquest, according to Army research, generally speaking, the Navy needs the main force of the combined fleet, and the Army needs 12 divisions as the backbone; the required ships for the Army alone are about 150 million tons, depending on the situation. It may also be necessary to invest more army troops. To allocate such a huge force, it is necessary to greatly reduce the Manchurian side's war preparations against the Soviet Union and the Chinese side's battlefield, which will put the entire strategic situation at a great disadvantage and will put It will force a large change in the overall utilization of ships, which will bring a major loss to the national strength in terms of materials."

Umezu Yoshijiro also said: "Right now, the imperial army in Manchuria is being attacked by the main force of Chen Feng from China. Now the Chinese have captured the entire Suidong prairie. The Kwantung Army's First Division, Eighth Division and The First Division of Chariots has been collectively smashed and wiped out by the Chinese from the battle order of the imperial army. In addition, about 20 imperial alliance troops were wiped out. The imperial army lost nearly [-] troops in this alone , and it is impossible to spare too many troops to participate in the Australian war.” (To be continued..)