.Sakhalin Island, also known as Sakhalin Island, was owned by China in the early days. During the period of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Japanese government sent troops to occupy the island. In 1644, the Edo Shogunate drew a national map and included it in Japanese territory. In 1689, the Sino-Russian Nibchu Treaty stipulated that the island was Chinese territory. However, because the Qing government did not formally garrison on the island, Russia sent an expedition to kill the indigenous people at the northern end of Upper Sakhalin Island at the beginning of the 19th century and built camps and mine coal mines, and then occupied the southern part of Kuku Island at the end of the 19th century.

During the same period, Japan also set up markets in the south of the island. The Japanese and Russian military and civilians had many conflicts, and the two countries negotiated to divide Sakhalin Island. The Sino-Russia Beijing Treaty in 1860 was signed. This island, the size of two Taiwan islands, was officially owned by Tsarist Russia in terms of sovereignty. Subsequently, Tsarist Russia signed the "Sakhalin Island Thousand Islands Exchange Treaty" with Japan, using 18 islands in the Kuril Islands to exchange with Japan. Since then, Sakhalin Island is all occupied by Tsarist Russia.

In 1905, Tsarist Russia failed in its war against Japan and was forced to ced the southern part of Sakhalin Island to Japan, but it was reclaimed during the reign of Diana I. As one of the terms of the 1928 German-Russian peace treaty, the island fell into the hands of the Germans after several twists and turns.

In early August 1928, the first batch of German marines landed on Sakhalin Island and then began to hand over defense with the Russian garrison. The Russian residents and troops on the island immediately evacuated one after another with the help of the German navy. By early October, the Russian soldiers and civilians had completely evacuated the island, and the number of German officers and soldiers on the island increased to more than 17,000, and there were also an ominous indigenous people who made a living by fishing and hunting.

As early as mid-August, the German army dispatched special engineering troops from Qingdao to land on Sakhalin Island, and selected areas with terrain in the central and southern regions with relatively ideal terrain. Because of the use of mechanized tools such as bulldozers and road rollers, the four airports were completed in a short time.

Although Germany and Japan began negotiations on land exchange for land soon, a large number of German fighter jets entered the island airports one after another, some of which flew directly from Qingdao base, while others were transported directly from Germany by ship. In addition, 61 air defense artillery companies and a batch of radar equipment added from Germany also arrived one after another before October. At each airport, a tight air defense firepower network was deployed at the ports. According to the description of the Japanese intelligence department, "1 The German army is doing its best to permanently occupy this island and has no intention of using it for exchange of land along the Bay of Bengal."

The Japanese military also attached great importance to the information provided by the intelligence agencies. After the "Nagoya Tragedy", the German government urgently announced the termination of negotiations and recalled all diplomatic personnel in Japan, the Japanese military once regarded this as a signal that the two countries were about to get into evil. So it put the previously formulated "Iron Cavalry Operation Plan" on the agenda. The plan was quite similar to the Battle of Lushun in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, that is, the characteristic of using the sea cucumber and Sakhalin Island to quickly seize these two strategic locations with a sudden attack by the army and navy. Since the Japanese advance assessment believed that Germany would take at least half a year to consolidate the two bases of Sea cucumber and Sakhalin Island, the "Iron Cavalry Operation Plan" was originally only prepared to be put into the main force of the joint fleet, one army division and some marines.

In mid-October, the Japanese base camp established due to the invasion of Oceania and the war of aggression in China was revised in the latest intelligence. With the personal participation of Supreme Commander Emperor Showa and Prince Miyao Saihito, the new plan is ready to invest in m Army standing divisions and an air force. The navy invested the main force of the joint fleet including the three aircraft carriers of "Canglong", "Shokha" and "Ruihe" and 8,000 Marines, and after the war started, at least 52 submarines were invested to block the Yellow Sea and the Sea of ​​Japan. According to this plan, the Japanese Army, which has an absolute advantage in numerical numbers, will attack Sea Cucumber Via from North Korea and Northeast China. The mission of the Marine Corps and local army forces is to land on Sakhalin Island with the assistance of the Navy.

At the time when the debate was over whether to implement the "Iron Cavalry" and when to implement it was too late. Two very important situations made this debate temporarily stand aside. First, Germany agreed to restart the previously suspended negotiations on the condition that the Japanese government punished the murderers and dereliction of duty and compensated the victims with a total of 10 million yen of pensions. Both requirements were within the acceptable range of the Japanese government; second, the Kanto Army quickly occupied most of the three northeastern provinces in just one month, and the Chinese northeastern army retreated into the pass without resisting, and the German government unexpectedly did not interfere. Overjoyed, the Japanese government thought that this was a signal that the Germans were preparing to give up the Far East, so it turned its main attention to negotiations with Germany and consolidating the northeast of China. The army and naval forces that were originally preparing to assemble quickly returned to their respective garrisons.

Diplomats fought for as much time as possible at the negotiating table, and the German Far East Expeditionary Force and the Pacific Fleet were also making final preparations in full swing. A very important event was that the German Emperor personally issued an order. The air force stationed in Sea Cucumber and Sakhalin began to reconnaise important local military targets in Japan from November 20.

The first reconnaissance mission was carried out by three ultra-long-range bombers equipped with aerial radar, reconnaissance cameras and radio listening equipment. For this reason, the German Far East Expeditionary Force General Command also specially selected three crew members with the richest experience. The three captains participated in the bombing of the United States in the 1924 German-US War and the bombing operations against Sea Cucumber Via a few months ago. The total number of attendances during the war exceeded 125 times, which is already a very high record among the German aviation forces.

From selecting crew members to making careful arrangements and preparations, the scheduled date soon arrived. Good news came from German meteorological experts who have been engaged in meteorological data collection in Japan for a long time. In the past two days, most parts of Japan have had good weather. Although it was early winter, the visibility is expected to be quite good.

At 4 a.m., at the end of the main runway of the No. 3 military airport in central and southern Sakhalin Island, accompanied by the low engine sounds and clear smoke from Kurakura, the three-blade propellers of the two super bombers began to rotate one after another. Since this time was a high-altitude reconnaissance mission, and the distance to Tokyo was less than 1,000 kilometers, the three bombers did not need to carry bombs or excess fuel. They only installed three Leica 27 aerial cameras specially used for high-altitude reconnaissance at the bomb bay. The radio telegraph room was also simply modified, and a radio listening equipment was installed and equipped with a dedicated radio monitor, so that the total number of crew members reached 12. That is, the chief and co-pilot, navigator, bomber and former machine gunner, mechanic and machine back turret operator, wireless telegrapher and ambulance, radar operator, 4 machine gunner and 1 additional radio monitor.

At 4:05 a.m., the authentic Dao Niel ii bomber numbered 171-022 took the lead in flying off the ground. It will go to the sky above Honshu for reconnaissance. Three minutes later, the bomber numbered 171-051 also took off, and its target was the farther Shikoku; almost at the same time, the Dao Niel ii bomber numbered 166-019 took off from the No. 2 military airport of Sea Cucumber, with the target of Kyushu Island in Japan.

Ten minutes later, three bombers disappeared on the monitoring screen of their own alert radars. These new land-based radars were deployed at the commanding heights of Sea Cucumber and Sakhalin Island and near the coast. Under normal circumstances, they could monitor 40 kilometers of outbound aircraft and ships 10 kilometers away. During wartime, they would provide valuable early warning time for their fighter jets. Therefore, Germany deployed special monitoring forces at three bases in the Far East. Among them, there were 7 "Prophet I" radars and 5 early "Prophet I" radars along the coast of Jiaozhou Bay, 5 "Prophet I" were deployed at Sea Cucumber Wai bases, and 11 "Prophet I" were deployed at Sakhalin Island.

At 4:45 local time, the three bombers finally "departed" from their air warning monitoring range. In fact, the current early warning aircraft of the Luftwaffe is not a special early warning aircraft. Instead, it uses airships equipped with airborne radars or Dornier II-type, ii-type bombers to leave air alerts near the base. The airships stay in the air for a long time, but are greatly affected by the weather. Dornier bombers can stay in the air for up to 20 hours as a warning flight. The base's warning distance can be pushed forward about 150-200 kilometers.

At 5 o'clock, the bomber 171-022 and 171-051 formed a land-based dual-plane formation over Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido, Japan. The instruments on the aircraft showed that the two aircraft were flying at a height of 10,000 meters at a speed of 450 kilometers per hour. The Japanese only had their own 5-inch anti-aircraft gun shells. In non-war periods, foreign reconnaissance aircraft that were driven out of unknown identity usually relies on fighter jets rather than dense anti-aircraft gun fire. After analyzing the Japanese fighter jets and their engines seized on the German-Russian battlefield, the Germans clearly knew what extent the Japanese supercharged engines reached. As experts expected, no Japanese fighter jet could fly to an altitude of more than 8,500 meters at this time. To break through this limitation, engine technology is the primary factor.

On the two bombers, the radar operators stared at the screen of the onboard radar. As long as a Japanese fighter jet took off within 30 kilometers, their radar could detect it. The bomber also closely watched his sight. Perhaps he could not hear the sound of air defense alarm on the ground, but the light column of the searchlight could not escape his eyes no matter what. However, in the half hour of flying over Hokkaido, the ground was always pitch black, and no fighter jet took off. Japan's "North Gate Key" actually opened in the air. In addition to being surprised, the German commander had a clearer understanding of Japan's local air defense forces.

If Hokkaido is considered to be relatively remote and primitive among the Japanese islands, then the narrow and long "original land of Japan" - Honshu Island is an unbiased central and prosperous area. It is not only the political center of Japan, but also the core area of ​​Japan's economy and industry. Ninety percent of the total national economic output value are concentrated here. Tokyo Bay, Osaka Bay and Seto Inland Sea are all important industrial areas.

Needless to say, Tokyo is the royal family, government, and army base are all in this heartland, and the Yokosuka Naval Base located along the coast of Tokyo Bay is one of the main home ports of the Japanese Joint Fleet and the location of the Japanese Navy's base.

At 5:30 am Tokyo time, there is nearly one and a half hours before sunrise. It was the darkest time of the day. With an extremely slight roar, German bombers 171-022 quietly flew over Tokyo, and the altitude was still around 10,000 meters. At this time, Tokyo was sleeping soundly, and the ground was silent. In the darkness, German aircraft could not take photos in the air, so they just hovered nearby. In the end, the soldiers guarding the Imperial Palace heard a strange sound from the air and reported the situation to their superiors. Only then did the Japanese army become alert. At 5:42, the Tokyo Security Command ordered a fight.

Turn on the searchlights, but the three searchlights used by the Japanese army - 90 cm, 110 cm and 150 cm searchlights, with only 4,000 meters, 6,000 meters and 8,000 meters, were only 4,000 meters altitude, and it was impossible to observe German bombers at a height of 10,000 meters with the naked eye. The air defense listeners could not locate the aircraft at such a distance. The Japanese army on the ground could only stare at them, while the observers on the German bombers unceremoniously deployed and photographed the approximate number of Japanese searchlights. According to the monitoring results of the radio monitors, the Japanese side did not use radio detection equipment throughout the process.

At 5:47, the 171-022 airborne radar discovered that four Japanese fighter jets took off from the western suburbs of Tokyo, but the other party could not fly to the altitude of the Donier iii bomber as expected. Since there was neither an onboard searchlight nor a permit to fire, the only function of these aircraft was to judge from the sound that there was indeed an aircraft flying over Tokyo.

At 5:50, 171-022 left Tokyo and flew southward. When they arrived over Yokosuka Military Port, it was just dawn. The airborne radar detected a large number of ships parked in the military port and began to move. At the same time, many Japanese fighter jets took off to attempt to intercept, but they still failed to pose a substantial threat to the German bombing agency flying high. With limited light, 171-022 barely took a set of pictures of Yokosuka Military Port, and then turned around and flew back over Tokyo, and took another set of photos there. At this time, the Japanese army on the ground finally could see the gray plane through a telescope. At 6:43, it was already dawn, 171-022 flew southwest under the gaze of a large group of Japanese fighter jets, and the two bombers heading to Shikoku and Kyushu did not have such good "treat".

They photographed more than ten Japanese cities and military bases, but the Japanese on the ground seemed quite calm during the whole process. It was only around 7 a.m. that the Japanese army suddenly sent a large number of fighter planes to air, but the two German planes quickly left with satisfaction.
Chapter completed!