Chapter 317 The Battle of Myanmar

The Battle of Verdun officially started before the arrival of summer. 50 German troops surrounded the Verdun Fortress guarded by 71 French divisions. In the south of Verdun, 24 divisions led by Von Zeket had crossed the Maas River, trying to cut off the reinforcements west of Verdun and act as a strategic reserve. They were ready to intervene in the battle as a new force at the critical moment of the Verdun Battle to play a decisive role in the entire battle.

The vast Champagne area between Paris and Verdun is now a mixture of enemies and us. When the German soldiers were at their peak, they occupied the entire Champagne area for a time. However, after the First Army fought a beautiful double-team battle in the direction of Paris, this area is now almost along the Marne River that crosses it as the actual control line between both sides. The French army still firmly guards the route of more than 100 kilometers from Xialong to Verdun. The entire French reinforcement route was like a spoon, going around from Paris to southeast and then to east to Verdun. This military transportation line of more than 200 kilometers has now become the lifeline of France.

What the army led by General Feng Zeket wants to cut off is this lifeline.

Guided by the large-scale artillery bombardment on the night of June 30, the German artillery fire plowed the French important firepower points discovered by the aerial reconnaissance in the previous stage for almost a night. It was not until four o'clock in the morning that the huge artillery bombardment ended. The German army even used their latest technology in this unprecedented artillery operation. After sending the huge and heavy shells to the West, the Germans glided beautifully on the track to slow down the huge recoil force he suffered. Corporal Amida completed his unfortunate death without warning.

Prince William's Fifth Army made a lot of preparations for this large-scale shelling. They divided the 3,200 large and small artillery artillery under the Fifth Army into arrays, and took turns to take turns to rest, ensuring that more than 1,400 artillery were pouring shells into Verdun every hour.

The large number of shells previously reserved by the German logistics forces could support more than 20 days of shelling of this scale according to their calculations, but Prince William was still not satisfied. He had ordered the logistics department and notified the Berlin Supreme Command, requiring more, more, and more to transport shells and bread. He planned to first destroy the French fortification system with about ten days of artillery bombardment. In history, only in the Battle of Sevastopol that occurred between the coalition forces of Russia, Turkey, Britain and other countries in the 1950s, the coalition forces continued to carry out ten days and nights of artillery bombardment.

Prince William and his staff hoped that such a bombardment could strike the morale that had just accumulated in the French army because of the arrival of reinforcements, and defeat the French counterattack firepower, laying the foundation for the next stage of large-scale infantry offensive.

Of course, their goal was not easy to achieve. On the night when the French were bombarded, hundreds of large-caliber fortress cannons launched retaliatory shelling on the periphery. Although their counterattack seemed a little panicked, it also brought considerable damage to the other party.

On this night, the Battle of Verdun, which decided the future of the entire Europe, began, and in the eastern hemisphere, the soldiers had already ushered in dawn. At around 4 a.m., when the army soldiers resting in the Singapore port area were still dreaming, the twelve transport ships in the port area had already begun to raise fire, and more than fifty tanks and more than a dozen construction vehicles of two tank divisions had already sailed on two of them. The yellow-bottomed sun-swalking dragon flag of the Royal Army fluttered high in the sea breeze, and the escort formation led by six battleships had removed the cannon suit, and the muzzle that reflected the light in the haze was ready to destroy all enemies who dared to stop them.

The Navy Pacific Fleet currently has ten Fearless Class battleships and eight Imperial Power Battleships, a total of eight Eighteen Battleships. It is the most powerful maritime force in the Asian region. After conquering Singapore, the Navy has been organizing the Indian Ocean Fleet and has increased its naval budget. It will be preparing to expand its shipbuilding capacity to four ships per year from next year to establish a large fleet that matches the current status and defense tasks of the empire. After Zhang Zuolin's new Warring States theory was publicly published, the Navy also expressed its views on this argument later. The Navy will establish a large fleet that can control half of the Pacific and half of the Indian Ocean within ten years, control ten bases in the Indian Ocean waters through lease or other forms, and cooperate with the local defense system to form an Asian maritime security system. The draft of the ten-year plan has been officially formed. It is currently under preparation and is expected to be submitted to the imperial examination at the end of the year and submitted to the cabinet for approval of the new budget.

Liu Buchan has received news from Beijing that after the end of this battle, he will officially end his position as commander of the maritime fleet and be transferred to the Beijing Navy Department as the Minister of Shangshu and Shangshu Tongzhi. This battle will not have any tactical difficulties for the navy. The only task is that after the end of this war, he will be responsible for finding new candidates for the next commander of the navy.

Therefore, this time he left the simple task of escorting the fleet to himself, and handed over the Indian Ocean cruise fleet to the younger generation of newly emerging newcomers, and was also the commander of the third battleship squadron of the Pacific Fleet. This ship was Major General of Mo Ruiqing of the battleship Yongzheng. Mo was from Jiangsu, which was also an important consideration. In the early days, when the Imperial Navy had Fujian people as its main team and later joined a large number of manpower from other provinces, the navy also had some regional small group ideas. It only improved slightly after I enlightened Liu Buchan several times. This time he did not choose the juniors from Fujian. I believe that he also had this part of consideration. In my recommendation letter to me, he expressed his hope that after the replacement of the Supreme Commander, he would lead the imperial Navy for a period of time, and after he took him in Beijing for a long time, he could completely reverse the old impression of the Imperial Navy = Fujian Navy for the Empire.

In addition to the escort fleet and cruise fleet, there is also a small fleet that is carrying out the mission of helping the army troops attack Yangon. If everything goes well, according to the plan, Liu Buchan will then lead the escort fleet to join the Yangon attack war and cooperate with the army troops to conquer Yangon.

With the fall of Yangon, coupled with the new situation of the 22nd Army landing in Sethi, the British and Indian troops in western Myanmar will face a complete collapse. Moreover, their misfortune has not yet been completed. After Yangon is conquered, the naval fleet will turn to attack the Bangladesh region and Kolkata. The rear of the British and Indian troops will face a situation of being cut off. In that case, they will have only two options to retreat immediately or surrender immediately.

After the British Pacific Fleet withdrew from Singapore, the situation in Asia was fully grasped by the Chinese. There was no force on the sea surface that could fight against the Chinese Empire's maritime formations, and the army was brave and good at fighting, and had rich practical experience. If the Second Front Army did not end the war before the Spring Festival, Cao Kun's dream of marshal would be awake now.

The sun just appeared. At 7:20 am, the first landing troops, 50,000 infantry divisions and two tank divisions, had all been loaded. They will arrive at their destination at dusk, the important town of Sitté, facing the Bay of Bengal in western Myanmar.

Before and after arrival, the escort formation will continue to carry out two hours of artillery bombardment to clear obstacles for landing operations, and ground forces will then land and enter the city overnight. A local guerrilla organization will assist in their landing operations and provide assistance to their subsequent operations.

A detailed local topographic map and other information provided by all officers at the battalion level and above in the first batch of landing troops was provided by the guerrillas.

This smooth situation is something that General Cao Kun is happy to see. The situation he faces is much easier than what his two colleagues have come. This is why, now in Hanoi, he did not get promoted to his rank of general in Beijing after successfully opening up the first phase of the war, but he didn't care much about it. For a professional general, it was a great shame to get rewards without any achievements. So when he learned that there was a dilemma in the Battle of Myanmar on the Western Front, he was very happy.

He did not agree to Du Xigui's request to temporarily transfer to the Navy, but instead transferred him to the Front Army's General Staff as Deputy Chief of Staff. Due to the unusually compact cooperation between the Navy and the Army in the current war stage, Deputy Chief of Staff also held the responsibility of liaison and coordination with the Navy. Cao Kun decided to make good use of this great opportunity in the subsequent war to add a lot of glory to his credit book.

Everyone has their own dreams. The soldiers of the empire hope to use their guns to make merits for the empire and exchange them for glory and great benefits. Cai E, the commander of the 201st Division on the transport ship Zhoucang, was using this period of sea to give his soldiers a pre-war speech: "Soldiers! The court is watching us! The people are watching us! I hope everyone will remember this firmly! After driving away the British and Indians and returning home in triumphantly, all the brothers present today can obtain a boastful qualification. Of course, the court rewards are indispensable, but you should be proud of this qualification! You will be able to understand what I said in ten or twenty years.

How correct is it. At that time, you will be glad that you participated in this war to liberate Asia. By then, maybe you can have dozens of acres of land in your hometown to be a small landlord. Maybe you can watch the report that Lao Cai wrote to you in the office of the Beijing Army Department. Maybe you can open a bird company wherever you are. But no matter what you are doing, when your grandson raised his head from your knees and asked you, 'Grandpa, what were you doing at that time', you don't have to cough awkwardly and thrust him on the ground and hesitate: 'Ah...ah...your grandpa, I, at that time... picking cow shit in the countryside of Qinzhou to exchange for two Guangxu brothers...'"

The division, which is mostly soldiers in Qinzhou, immediately burst into laughter. Even the idle sailors watched the young general telling jokes from afar - but he himself didn't smile at all. He just stopped for a while and waited for the laughter to stop. This showed that he had mastered a lot of speech skills. After all his eyes were focused on his face, Major General Cai E continued: "But you are here, you have participated in this war that brings glory to yourself. Brothers, you can stare straight into your grandson's eyes and tell him with confidence: 'Good grandson, your grandfather, I was in the 201st Division of the Royal Army at that time, we liberated Myanmar! I have seen that fucked scholar and commander Cai E. He told jokes to your grandfather at that time!'"

There was another burst of laughter. Cai E's speech was effective, which not only improved morale, but also improved his image as a scholar and officer in the army. For a young man like him, he had reached this position due to his talent and the appreciation of the highest level. This was completely different from the prestige enjoyed by those old-school officers in the army. Therefore, he needed to put his own mark on the army in his own way.

This is undoubtedly successful. In this Myanmar landing battle, the four army divisions who took the lead were all from Guangdong and Guangxi. Guangdong and Guangxi have always been called barbarians by the Central Plains. The so-called East Yi, South Barbarian, West Rong and North Di are also the same. Although this is a manifestation of unhealthy arrogance, wherever the Central Plains culture has been bathed, they often agree with this discriminatory regional division. They are often full of energy and must show their own advantages to those normal people who are neither barbarian, nor barbarian, nor Rong and Di in the Central Plains.

Cai E was from Hunan and had a hot temper. The rise of the Hunan Army left valuable wealth to Hunan. After the wealth gathered in Hunan from all over the country, Hunan emerged in many talents in the following decades. After the army reform, the commanders at all levels of the army from Hunan were almost comparable to those of Fujian in the navy.

The two most elite forces in the Navy, Fujian, the Army, Hunan, and the Imperial Army were perfectly combined on this landing fleet.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, when it was about to arrive at its destination, some ships in the escort fleet were the first to accelerate their departure from the ships and began to cooperate with the advance ships to launch a shelling operation on Sittie. According to the plan, the three-hour shelling should cause the 7,000 defenders in the city to lose more than half of their combat effectiveness, and persuade them to surrender every ten minutes. This can reduce the hostility faced by the army troops after landing.

At around 7 pm, the landing fleet successfully landed without any resistance and sent an advance team to the city.

In the evening that day, the Royal Army had completely controlled this important Myanmar coastal town.

Murrayqing's cruise ship also controlled the waters of the Bay of Bengal, but the difference was that they did not gain any results. The sailing on the sea was peaceful and quiet. They did not encounter any enemies. Yanan Port was an airport, and neither the British nor the French left their fleet there. The remaining vulnerable enemies did not seem to want to give this reign who could become the commander of the Royal Navy Pacific Fleet in the future. Because after Liu Buchan took office as Minister of the Navy, the post of Navy Governor will be abolished with the reform of the national governor's official system. The strongest Pacific Fleet was almost synonymous with the commander-in-chief of the Navy, so Major General Murrayqing needed a beautiful victory to give gifts to his inauguration ceremony.

But he was obviously disappointed. After searching for three days without any gains, he had to order the Sino-German joint fleet he led to be ready for return. According to the judgment of the Joint Staff Meeting, both Chinese and German staff members believed that the British and French fleets had retreated to the West Indian waters.

Mo Ruiqing also agreed with this judgment, but he always felt a little uneasy. As a grassroots naval gunman, he studied at the Imperial Naval University for four years before he led a cruiser alone, then a battleship, and accumulated merits in the Philippine War to become the commander of the squadron. He accumulated rich experience in his long maritime military career. He did not think that the proud British would choose to retreat so cowardly, but the fact was so simple - his fleet did not find any enemy.

In desperation, he could only accept the judgement of the staff first. But he still had a mind. After studying the map and his historical British activity habits, he asked the Manila base, hoping that the submarine troops could reach this sea area within ten days, and his fleet would return to Singapore Port to replenish supplies in ten days. He believed that the British should return here in ten days. Because no matter what, after the attack on the Port of Kolkata, the British could not give up.

They may be hiding in a corner, waiting for the opportunity to attack. Telegrams from another naval fleet also supported his judgment. The reconnaissance results of Kolkata Port showed that there were no signs of fleet activity there. Only some merchant ships were berthing.

After receiving the news that the submarine troops at the base in Singapore will send submarines out of the port on July 1 and will arrive within two days, he issued an additional order, ordering his fleet to prepare for the return of three days. Of course, this is a fishing operation, and he hopes that the submarine troops will discover the traces of the British as early as possible after they leave. It is better to be a larger fleet.

Because if it were a small fleet, he was always worried that the guys in the submarine army who had never fired guns would not be able to control themselves from solving them.

The British army should have more than a dozen cruisers here, and France also has two cruisers worth mentioning. If you are lucky, he hopes to completely resolve them in the naval battle three or four days later.

On the evening of July 2, four submarines of the submarine force arrived in the predetermined waters. On the morning of July 3, the Murrayqing fleet returned. In the afternoon of the same day, the 213th Division and the 218th and 207th Division of the Army conquered Yangon, with the help of the naval battleship formation, captured more than 10,000 Indian divisions.

The four infantry divisions landed in Sethwe also welcomed follow-up troops. After the assembly was completed, the 22nd Army began to advance inland. Their first important goal was to have two Indian divisions stationed, Minjian, a strategic city leading to Mandalay.

Minjian, one of the two major rivers in Myanmar, is located at the intersection of the two source rivers of the Irrawaddy River. The river surface is wide and due to its convenient transportation, it is also a must-pass place to lead from the Indian Ocean coastal area in western Myanmar to Mandalay. The terrain belongs to jungle terrain and there are many floods in summer, which is a big problem for marching and attack. Therefore, although the 22nd Army has the advantage in its military strength, Commander Lu Yongxiang still dared not take it lightly. After Sethi gained a foothold, he immediately ordered his two Guangxi Divisions, who were familiar with jungle combat, to serve as the vanguard. With the help of local guerrilla guides, he quickly opened a passage to the Irrawaddy River area for the large army. This included Cai E's 201st Division.

Since it is fighting deep into the hinterland behind enemy lines, logistics support cannot be as smooth as fighting on the Eastern Front. This battle must be fast. If time goes on for a long time, once there is something wrong with the sea transportation line, the morale and combat capabilities of the encirclement army will be greatly affected. Therefore, although the 22nd Army has far exceeded the enemy's garrison defense forces in terms of force, it is impossible to win easily.

In order to support the rear battle of the 22nd Army, General Cao Kun ordered the Second Front to increase troops to the western front and strengthen the offensive efforts of the Mandalay area. The troops that had already conquered Yangon on the southern front quickly divided their troops, crossed the river all the way and gathered northward to prepare for the final general attack on Mandalay. Once Mandalay fell, the entire Myanmar battle opened up.

This plan is not only to cooperate with the operations of the 22nd Army, but also requires the cooperation of the 22nd Army. After the contribution of Minjian with the cooperation of the large army, the 22nd Army basically completed the task of intercepting the enemy's subsequent reinforcements. The Indians of about ten divisions in central Myanmar will become the dumpling stuffing of the 21st and 22nd Army.

The key points of this plan are the two Guangxi divisions of Cai E's 201st Division and Tang Jiyao's 217th Division.

Early in the morning on July 5, the two Guangxi divisions, with the help of local guerrillas, embarked on the journey eastward. About 50 kilometers ahead of them, they would leave the control of the 22nd Army, and everything that followed would depend on them.

Jiang Baili, deputy chief of staff of the Front Army General Staff, was also paying attention to these two divisions. He even felt that Lu Yongxiang was too bold. The two divisions had to intersperse more than 250 kilometers of enemy areas and were also responsible for the support tasks of this passage. The burden of these two divisions was too heavy.
Chapter completed!