Chapter 813 What to Do if You Are Mentally Retarded?
March 19, 1943, Tokyo, Japan.
Amid the shouts of celebration for the great victory in the Panama Campaign, the most powerful ministers or chief ministers of the Japanese Empire gathered in the Prime Minister's residence in Nagatacho. Each of them looked extremely solemn, without the joy that should have come after a "decisive victory".
Because each of them saw from the war report of the "Great Victory in Panama" the terrible prospect that the Japanese Empire would be drowned by the American aircraft carrier sea and aircraft sea - even if the Panama Campaign had achieved the goal of destroying the canal locks, it only postponed the arrival of the aircraft carrier sea and aircraft sea by 6-10 months.
"Gentlemen, although the Panama Campaign was won under the hard work of the Imperial Army..." At the beginning of today's emergency cabinet meeting, Navy Minister Isoroku Yamamoto once again emphasized that the result of the Panama Campaign was victory.
Then this "Japan's first meritorious official" was silent for a long time, his eyes swept across the faces of every important person present, and finally fell on the face of Tojo Hideki, who looked quite calm.
Yamamoto lowered his tone and said word by word: "But victory still cannot conceal the fact that the strength comparison on the Pacific battlefield has changed! The victory of the navy in the Panama Campaign only bought the empire 6-10 more months. If we can't make good use of these 6-10 months to strengthen the navy's combat power and complete strict defense in the Hawaiian Islands, the Aleutian Islands, and the Gilbert Islands, once the Panama Canal is reopened, the empire will fall into an unprecedented bitter battle!"
On the surface, these words are about preparing for war and deployment, but in fact they are still asking for money and resources.
And Tojo Hideki, the housekeeper of the Japanese Empire, is a "clumsy woman" and has few "rice" in his hands. Except for some rare metals and rubber, which are relatively abundant, there is no shortage of major strategic resources.
Among all the very scarce resources, the most bottleneck and the most unsolvable one is undoubtedly oil.
Other resources, such as steel, electrolytic aluminum and copper, can be imported from the European Community to make up for it. However, oil is almost not for sale in the European Community. Only the Roman Empire (that is, Italy) can get a monthly quota of 200,000 tons. Although the Germans now have more than 40 million tons of oil, they also have to bear the consumption of a huge Europe, and they also have to maintain a navy that dominates the Atlantic and an army that can defeat the Soviet Union. They are not very rich.
The Japanese Empire, which has an annual production of 8 million tons of oil, can only use more than 6 million tons to maintain the Japanese economy and the war against the United States due to the attacks of British and American submarines and commerce raiders. With the current scale of the Combined Fleet, the fuel consumed in one day is more than 10,000 tons!
The fuel that can be obtained from more than 6 million tons of oil after refining will not be much after maintaining the consumption of the Combined Fleet's high-intensity combat for a whole year. Although the Combined Fleet will not float on the sea for a whole year, the Japanese Navy is not the only one that consumes a lot of oil. Once a war of attrition is launched in the Pacific, the lives of naval aviation pilots will be consumed! And these pilots are all fed with oil.
The Americans can now take out tens of millions of tons or even 100 million tons of oil to feed, how much can the Japanese take out?
After seeing the report submitted by Ozawa Jisaburo on the confrontation between Japanese and American fighters and the heavy losses of carrier-based aircraft pilots, Yamamoto Isoroku's first thought was that the training of naval pilots must be strengthened, and then he would seek high-performance fighters from Germany.
Moreover, Yamamoto Isoroku also knew that it was unlikely that the Japanese Navy would obtain high-performance fighters from Europe in the short term.
Because Germany's fighter development ideas were too different from those of the Japanese Navy, the Germans pursued "airspace advantage". They divided daytime fighters into several major categories such as extremely high altitude, medium-high altitude, and medium-low altitude according to the applicable airspace, and each major category had corresponding models and engines. What they pursued was absolute airspace advantage, not cross-airspace advantage.
However, this approach may not be applicable to Japan, because dividing daytime fighters into three airspaces is equivalent to dividing limited fighters into three parts. And the invading enemy aircraft is likely to concentrate its strength in a single airspace, which will further expand the American's numerical advantage.
In addition, Isoroku Yamamoto discovered that the overall aviation force of the Japanese Navy is in a serious shortage. Before the Battle of Panama, Japan was on the offensive in the Pacific battlefield, and the United States was on the defensive. Therefore, Japan does not need to set up defenses everywhere on the vast battlefield, but can concentrate its forces on the offensive. Naturally, there is no problem of insufficient aviation force.
But now, Japan is about to become the defensive party. At this time, Yamamoto discovered that there are many places that need to be defended!
In the Central Pacific battlefield alone, there are three places that need to be heavily defended, namely the Hawaiian Islands, the Aleutian Islands and the Gilbert Islands. And the Midway Island, Wake Island, the Marshall Islands and the Mariana Islands behind the Hawaiian Islands cannot be abandoned.
Moreover, these islands that need to be defended are far away from each other, and the aircraft distributed everywhere cannot form a joint force in wartime, and can only fight on their own. Therefore, Isoroku Yamamoto found that insufficient numbers are the biggest problem facing Japan in the future protracted defensive war.
Therefore, it is simply impossible for the Japanese Navy to establish an aviation force focusing on airspace superiority along the lines of the German Air Force/Naval Aviation. In this way, the Germans cannot use their convenient Fw-190 series and Fokker Zero D aircraft to the Pacific battlefield - and Germany's advantage in the Atlantic is based on the Ju288 and Ju288 equipped with 24-cylinder liquid-cooled engines. Based on the remote control gliding bomb, even with the capabilities of Japan's aviation industry, it is too exhausted to build a 24-cylinder liquid-cooled weapon that can be equipped with troops.
Therefore, after repeated thinking, Yamamoto Isoroku discovered that the most realistic strategy for Japanese naval aviation in the defensive operations that may begin after 6-10 months is to seek more numbers.
Not only the number of aircraft must be pursued, but also the number of aircraft carriers, especially fleet aircraft carriers that can move quickly. Because Japan simply does not have enough aircraft to deploy to many Pacific islands such as the Hawaiian Islands, Aleutian Islands, Gilbert Islands, Midway Island, Wake Island, Marshall Islands and Mariana Islands-if all possible attacks The important islands attacked by the United States have been deployed accordingly, so even if Yamamoto has 10,000 shore-based aircraft, they may not be enough.
Therefore, Yamamoto Isoroku's plan is to concentrate his forces (referring to the naval aviation shore-based forces) to defend the Hawaiian Islands, and use a small amount of troops to defend the other important islands (the worthless Army Red Deer can be used more). At the same time, a powerful mobile fleet was established for mobile defense in the Pacific.
For this reason, Japan must go all out to produce the Zero 52 (including the upgraded version of the Zero 52), the Comet ship bomb (the Tianshan ship attack), and the production can be reduced, because the U.S. Navy currently does not have many battleships available, and they are all a bunch of inexperienced battleships. (exploded aircraft carrier) these two fighters, as well as the cheap and high-quality Yunlong-class aircraft carrier. At the same time, investment in pilot training must be increased to train more carrier-based aircraft pilots.
But at this time, the Japanese Army was still preparing for war on the northern front and an invasion of New Zealand. Deploy a large number of army aircraft on the Korean Peninsula, Northeast China and islands in the South Pacific.
In addition, the Japanese Army has also proposed an ambitious tank development and equipment plan, hoping to establish a powerful armored force including 4 tank divisions and 7 independent tank brigades.
The army's big red deer want to use this powerful armored force to complete the three major missions of the decisive battle on the northern front, Pacific island defense and Australian raids.
"Your Excellency, Marshal," Tojo Hideki looked at Yamamoto Isoroku, who looked worried, and said calmly, "The Empire has won the Battle of Panama after all, and the canal will not be navigable in the next 6-10 months. These 6- 10 months can be used both to set up defense and to organize offense."
"Attack?" Yamamoto Isoroku was stunned for a moment. Now that the defensive power is insufficient, how can he still attack?
"Where to attack?" Chief of Naval Command Nagano Shushen, who wore the same pants as Yamamoto, immediately asked the question for Yamamoto.
"New Zealand." Chief of Staff Headquarters "Idiot Gen" Sugiyama Gen took over the topic and replied, "As long as New Zealand is captured, the United States will not be able to launch a counterattack from Australia. Then the empire can concentrate on defending the Pacific... and it does not need to be guarded for too long. I estimate that the Soviet Union will not survive next fall. Once Russia is destroyed, our empire will be able to win the war. Therefore, the situation is not very pessimistic, and victory is in sight!"
His analysis is not completely unreasonable. No matter how severe Japan's situation is, it is still much stronger than the Soviet Union. At least in 1943, it was difficult for the United States to organize a truly powerful offensive on the Pacific battlefield. Germany is likely to defeat the Soviet Union in 1943. Once the Soviet Union is defeated, the United States will naturally be left alone. The current crisis in Japan is just a false alarm.
"But the empire has to prepare for the worst!" Yamamoto Isoroku shook his head, "If the Soviet Union does not collapse in 1943, then our empire will be in catastrophe, so we must deal with it with all our strength."
Hideki Tojo nodded and said: "In 1943, we can go all out to build the four aircraft carriers Taiho, Unryu, Amagi and Katsuragi. The materials used for the two battleships Shinano and Kii must also be 100% guaranteed. Kasagi, Ah Su, Ikoma and other three ships (also Unryu class) strive to persist in the first half of 44 years.
However, the Army's southward and northward plans must also be carried out simultaneously. The move south was inevitable, while the move north should take place when the Soviet Union collapsed. Therefore, there must be a certain amount of resources to guarantee... The budget and resource allocation plan for Showa 18 should not be adjusted too much. As for Showa 19, it will depend on the situation of the Soviet-German War. "
In fact, Tojo made some concessions and agreed to accelerate the construction of 4 aircraft carriers and 2 battleships under construction. But at the same time, he was unwilling to give in on the issue of oil quotas, because he, many red deer in the Japanese Army, and the living gods in the Tokyo Imperial Palace have not forgotten about the northern advance... Of course, in the Soviet Union When they were about to lose the war, they pounced to snatch the piece of fat in the Soviet Far East and solve the Manchuria issue at the same time.