2225 Crossing the River by Feeling Southern Africa
The result of asymmetric war is one-sided massacre.
In the battle against the Japanese army in the Malay Peninsula, the Southern African Army and the East Indian Army accumulated rich experience and had a good understanding of the strength of the Japanese army. For the Allies, the only thing the Japanese army could offer was the will to fight.
The 71st Division was just formed this year. Most of them are inexperienced recruits. Many of them were born between the two world wars and were severely brainwashed by the Japanese government. They do have the will to fight, but they lack experience.
and the strength to confront the Allies.
A variety of reasons combined together resulted in irreparable failure on the battlefield.
With the cooperation of the "Clouded Leopard" tanks, the East Indian Army easily occupied the Japanese positions with less than a hundred casualties.
The casualties suffered by the Japanese army were very heavy. More than 1,700 corpses were collected, and many people were suffocated to death in underground passages. The exact number is unknown.
Judging from the size of the Japanese army, it was probably a Japanese regiment defending the position.
In this way, the data is very clear. There are about 3,000 people in a Japanese regiment, and the remaining 1,300 people are considered missing.
The East Indian army advanced so fast that they did not even leave behind those who were cleaning the battlefield, and continued to advance towards Kuching.
At this time, Kuching was already in sight. The Japanese did not use their forces on sporadic sneak attacks. Instead, they pushed into Kuching City and relied on the complex terrain in Kuching City to fight to the death with the Allied forces.
Among all war modes, street fighting is undoubtedly the most cruel, and this has been vividly demonstrated in the Battle of Moscow.
Huang Junying, the commander of the East India Army, did not hesitate. After the troops arrived in Kuching, he ordered the artillery to conduct indiscriminate bombardment of Kuching.
Indiscriminate bombardment means using artillery to destroy an entire city, whether it is a military target or a residential area.
"General, you must stop the East Indians. There are still civilians in Kuching. We can't do this." Colonel Hamilton from the United Kingdom firmly opposed it. He did not want to regain a completely destroyed Kuching.
I almost forgot that Kuching is still a British colony. After the war, the British will definitely resume the colonization of Kuching. If Kuching is beaten to pieces, then the significance of colonization will be lost. The British government will not spend money to build a new Kuching.
Jin.
"Since the war started, those who could have run away have already run away. The civilians who are still in Kuching are die-hard Japanese loyalists. They all deserve to die!" Luo Guoxing didn't need to say anything. Colonel Bradley from the United States directly responded.
.
Americans don't care whether Kuching will be in ruins after the war, including Filipino Americans.
The Filipinos were so disrespectful to the Americans that they actually cooperated with the Japanese invasion without caring about the mood of the Americans.
In American terms, they have raised a pack of white-eyed wolves.
Even if Southern Africa doesn't take action, the United States will carry out liquidation after the war, so it's better to wipe them all out now and destroy everything.
"Kuching is the territory of the British Empire, of course you Americans don't care." Hamilton was very angry, and his words carried Luo Guoxing and Huang Junying along with them, carrying guns and clubs.
"How about this? You transfer your troops over and let your troops take over Fujin." Luo Guoxing was also dissatisfied. Hamilton was a staff officer and he had no troops at all, at most he had orderlies.
The recovery of Fujin was a major event for the Allies. Although the British and Americans could not mobilize troops to participate, they could not be absent. Hamilton and Bradley were both liaison officers.
Since they were unable to send troops, they had to make contributions from other aspects. The British and the United States were responsible for the military supplies needed for the Southern African Army and the East Indian Army.
There is no need for Britain and the United States to produce, the United Kingdom and the United States only need to pay, and the Indian Ocean Theater places orders for southern African military industrial companies.
The weapons and ammunition produced by the United Kingdom and the United States cannot be used by the southern African army. The rifles used by the armies of various countries have different calibers, and even the bullets are not universal.
"Luo, don't forget that we are allies. When you are fighting, you must fully consider the interests of your allies." Hamilton felt very sad. If a staff officer does not lead a leader, then nothing will happen. He can only try his best to fight for it.
"Colonel, this is not an exercise. You cannot let Southern African soldiers and East Indian soldiers die innocently to protect your own interests." Bradley laughed. He was happy to see the British deflated.
Britain is also doing its own thing.
If Southern Africa remains within the Commonwealth, the combination of Britain and Southern Africa will be almost unsolvable, and the United States may never be able to break the British colonial system.
Now that southern Africa is its own entity, the Southern African Union with southern Africa as its core has surpassed the Commonwealth to become the most powerful group in the world. Americans are both sad and happy.
I am happy because I see the hope of breaking the British colonial system.
It hurts because Brazil joined the Southern African Union, breaking the United States' monopoly on interests in the Americas.
With Brazil's pearls at the forefront, many South American countries now hope to join the Southern African Union.
Fortunately, Roque still had sense and did not want to overly irritate the Americans and rejected applications from other South American countries. Otherwise, the Americas would have become the Americas of southern Africa.
At least that's the case in South America.
"If there is an indiscriminate bombardment of Kuching, resulting in a large number of civilian casualties, the relevant commanders may be tried after the war." Hamilton reminded that this is also part of the International Convention.
The International Convention clearly stipulates that during war, civilians must not be massacred in any way.
In the case of manslaughter, if it is clearly avoidable manslaughter but the commander does nothing, then it is also a crime.
"If you say that, then Kuching should stop fighting. Why don't you go and persuade the Kuching garrison to surrender." Bradley's expression was gloomy. He wanted Hamilton to die.
"We can surround Kuching, and when the defenders run out of ammunition and food, they will naturally surrender." Hamilton didn't want to persuade him to surrender. That would be like putting a sheep in a tiger's mouth.
"Colonel, this is the Far East, not North Africa. We don't have time to spend in Kuching. We must completely defeat the Japanese as quickly as possible." Huang Guoxing didn't want to talk nonsense to Hamilton and decided to send a telegram to the headquarters later.
Seeing that the war is imminent, even if you don't help, you are still holding back. You are very skilled in finding faults in the eggs.
There is no need for such a liaison officer on the front line. He is so good at quarreling and quarreling slowly back to the British mainland.
Everyone knows that the British are not doing enough work in North Africa. They obviously had the strength to drive Rommel out of North Africa long ago, but they have dragged on the war until now.
Southern Africans don't want to drag in East Asia.
I just want to defeat Japan as quickly as possible so that East Asia can start rebuilding one day earlier.
The efficiency of the East Indian Army is still very high. In terms of heavy firepower, the strength of the East Indian Army is no less than that of the Southern African Army.
There were three divisions of the East Indian Army involved in the attack on Kuching, with a total strength of about 50,000. Not counting light artillery, there were hundreds of heavy artillery in total, enough to level Kuching.
Huang Junying concentrated the use of heavy artillery from three divisions to launch an indiscriminate bombardment of Kuching.
Gu San/span> The city of Kuching is actually not that big. If more than 50,000 people were to attack together, the troops would not even be able to deploy. The volley of hundreds of heavy artillery was still very spectacular. It only took half an hour to destroy half the city.
Jin was completely destroyed.
At this time, the East Indian troops launched an attack on Kuching.
The attack was still led by the "Clouded Leopard" tank, and the infantry accompanied the tank in the attack.
Now the infantry accompanying the tank attack no longer need to take pictures of the turret to contact the tank crew. The "Clouded Leopard" tank is equipped with a telephone. The infantry accompanying the tank attack can use the phone to communicate with the tank crew.
There are also telephones on the amphibious tanks. Bradley's eyes lit up when he looked at the amphibious tanks equipped by the Marine Corps in Southern Africa.
The Americans are crossing the river in southern Africa. They also have a Marine Corps, but their weapons and equipment are obviously much worse than those of the Marine Corps in southern Africa.
The structure of an amphibious tank is not complicated. With the industrial strength of the United States, it is easy to manufacture an amphibious tank. This year, the US military began mass production of the "Sherman" for its troops, which is a copycat of the "Leopard" tank.
Before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the main tank equipped by the U.S. Army was still the M2 light tank.
The m2 light tank is actually an improved version of the Vicker tank. This tank can only seat two people. Its weapon is only a 12.7mm machine gun. Its total combat weight is 11.6 tons. Its overall performance is similar to the tanks that served in the early part of the first world war.
After the Spanish Civil War broke out, the Americans realized that the M2 light tank was seriously lagging behind, so they upgraded the M2 light tank to a medium tank.
Nominally medium-sized, in fact the improved M2 has a total combat weight of only 18.7 tons. Its main weapon is a 37mm tank gun and its secondary weapons are seven M1919 machine guns.
The Americans have maximized the role of machine guns. Up to 9 machine guns can be installed on the M2. The Americans' idea is to use the M2 as a machine gun bunker.
The Spanish Civil War was a watershed in the development of weapons and equipment. Before the outbreak of the civil war, Germany was still conquering the world with the No. 1 tank. By the end of the civil war, it had developed to the No. 4 tank.
The Americans thought that the improved M2 had caught up with the tanks of European countries.
What caught the Americans off guard was that as soon as more than 200 M2s were produced, Germany began producing No. 2. At this time, the U.S. Army had not even had time to become familiar with the performance of the M2, and the M2 fell behind again.
What can we do if we fall behind again? Let’s continue to improve.
At this time, the Americans discovered that there was no room for upgrading the m2, so the Americans began to develop the m3.
The performance of m3 is much better than that of m2. The total weight of 27.22 tons ensures that m3 has better protection. The tank gun has also been upgraded to 75 mm, and its maneuverability is also good.
Of course, there are also disadvantages. In addition to the 75mm main gun, the M3 continues to use a 37mm gun, and the number of machine guns is reduced to two, so the M3 requires six people to operate.
The internal space of the m3 is very small. With six people crammed in, the space is as crowded as a sardine can.
That's the only way Americans can tolerate it.
The problem is that after the Americans produced the M3, the Germans had already started producing the Panzer III tank.
Compared with No. 3, m3 fell behind again.
The Americans learned from the experience this time and no longer aimed their imitation at the Germans. Instead, they developed the Sherman based on the Southern African "Leopard" tank.
This time Americans finally made the right choice.
The total combat weight of the "Sherman" is 33.65 tons, the main gun is still 75 mm, the crew is reduced to only five people, the tank protection has been improved again, it has strong mobility, and its overall strength is already on par with Germany's latest four-wheel-drive
The ability to fight against.
When Bradley came to the Far East, one of his important tasks was to observe the weapons and equipment of the Southern African Army, which served as an important reference for the US military's equipment.
The amphibious tanks equipped by the Marine Corps are actually not very good in terms of overall performance. The protection is not strong enough, but the firepower is pretty good. They also use a 75mm tank gun.
This is the tank most suitable for use by the Marine Corps. After all, the Marine Corps' opponent is not a powerful armored force, but an island defender lacking anti-tank weapons.
With the equipment level of the Japanese army, it is not capable of providing anti-tank weapons to the troops defending the island.
After learning about the number of amphibious tanks equipped by the Marine Corps, Bradley was filled with despair.
The Southern African Marine Corps is equipped with a total of approximately 2,500 amphibious tanks.
The total number of tanks in the U.S. Army now totals only 2,500, including a large number of M2s. Currently, M2s are only used as training vehicles for training tank crews in the U.S. Army. They cannot fight at all. If they are sent to the battlefield, they will die.
Although the "Sherman" is quite capable, it has just started production this year, and it will take time to increase production.
The Southern African army not only has amphibious tanks, but also a large number of "Tiger" and "Leopard" types, of which the number of "Leopard" types alone exceeds 15,000.
To catch up with the equipment level of the southern African army in a short period of time, it is probably unrealistic to rely on the military production capacity of the United States.
Unless the US military purchases weapons and equipment from southern Africa.
As a supplier to the Allied forces, Southern Africa produced approximately 60,000 tanks last year alone. These tanks are supplied not only to the Southern African Union forces, but also to the British and Russian armies, as well as the Free French army, and now the US military.
It seems that the military industrial enterprises in southern Africa still have some spare capacity.
However, this is not the final decision of Bradley. Military procurement is a major matter. Bradley can provide information to Washington, and senior officials in Washington will make decisions.
Senior officials in Washington are also very annoyed. The situation faced by the United States in this time and space is much more serious than in another time and space.
The United States failed to get orders from the Allied forces, and all the Allied orders were taken away by southern Africa.
And the United States still faces a thorny problem.
Southern African troops have begun preparing to land in the Philippines. If the Americans show no sign, will the Philippines still accept American rule after the war?
This problem is very serious. Filipinos have no loyalty to the Americans. They can even accept Japanese rule. Most of them will support the rule of southern Africa with both hands and feet.
At this time, MacArthur, who had returned to Washington, jumped out again and demanded that Washington immediately send more troops to the Far East and let the US military lead the battle against the Japanese in the Philippines.
Europe first, Asia later?
Don't be ridiculous, Southern Africa has gathered a large number of troops in North Africa, and the Americans can't get involved.
Then spend all your energy on revenge against the Japanese.
