The Western European battlefields became calm after the end of the German-French War. Reinhardt, who had stayed up late for more than a month, could finally relax a little and enjoy the fruits of victory.
The former French Marshal Foch said after the end of World War I: "This is not peace, this is just a 20-year truce!"
Now, his words have come true.
The truce between Germany and France finally ended, and a large-scale decisive battle began that would determine the fate of Europe.
This decisive battle broke out so suddenly and ended so quickly. Even before many people had time to react, the European continent had already become the domain of the Third Reich.
The war in Europe has finally come to an end, but on the other side of the world, Japan, in the Asian battlefield, still has many battles to fight.
As a small country with poor resources, if Japan wants to complete its so-called "self-salvation", it must continue to invade other countries to meet their economic development and the various materials, human and financial resources they need.
It can be said that Japan's practice of invading other countries to enrich its own economy is vividly reflected.
Reinhard knew that Japan was like this in history. While it was invading China, it was also at war with Southeast Asian countries and the Soviet Union in the north.
Even in the end, he secretly attacked the United States in the Pacific War and set himself on fire.
It can be said that the island country of Japan is a kingdom that is truly the birthplace of war madmen.
Of course, it is the same in this time and space.
Japan's unsatisfactory progress in the Southeast Asian battlefield did not dissuade them from stopping their offensive.
On the contrary, the calculation of the staff of their combat department is to continue this war thoroughly.
They desperately want to seize the two springboards of Southeast Asia and India, and then further develop the Pacific battlefield and connect themselves with the African battlefield through West Asia.
In fact, Japan's combat staff has made too many fatal mistakes.
They miscalculated the war situation on the East Asian battlefield and believed that the Japanese army that occupied the big cities would win the war in a short time.
However, the fact is the opposite. Although they spent a lot of military power on the East Asian battlefield, they were not able to take over China in a short period of time. As a result, they were unable to spare the troops to form a new army when opening new battlefields.
If Major General Umekawa was still alive, he might be able to make suggestions to the Japanese Combat Staff so that this group of short war madmen should not step into the huge quagmire of China to disturb a giant they cannot afford to offend.
You must know that in the time and space before Umekawa Kuko and Reinhardt traveled through time and space, Tsuji Masanobu, who was known as the "Showa Third Staff Officer" together with Ishihara Kanji and Sejima Ryuzo, made such an amazing move after the war.
Surprising review.
This Japanese staff officer, who fought against China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States during World War II, and had plans for almost all the famous battles that can be heard today, mentioned after the war: Although the quality of Chinese soldiers is inferior to that of the Japanese army,
But it far exceeds that of the US and Soviet armies.
Of course, in his book, Japanese soldiers are naturally described as the strongest. But he also admitted that excluding weapons and equipment, Chinese soldiers are the best soldiers among their many enemies.
He wrote in the book that many Chinese squadrons on the battlefield would fight until the entire army was annihilated and beat the last man. The last man would also fight to the death when facing the overwhelming Japanese army, without any intention of surrender.
He once made such a high evaluation: Among the many countries including Britain, the United States, China and the Soviet Union, only the Chinese army can fight to the last man.
Unfortunately, that was the tragic realization he came to after the war. Now Tsuji Masanobu is still clamoring for expanding the war.
Unfortunately, insufficient military strength has led to the island country Japan's inability to face the war. In addition, it is fighting with many countries and regions at the same time, which has seriously affected the rhythm of their war.
But in fact, they had only one thought in their minds at that time, that is, they must continue this war no matter what, and they must not give up the results achieved by the army before.
The purpose of the southward strategy proposed by the Japanese cabinet, that is, to attack European countries' colonies in Southeast Asia, is to continue the war of aggression against China that is about to completely bring down Japan.
A few of them already have a vague premonition that the East Asian war with China may be a war that is about to bring them down!
Therefore, they are eager to find areas that can provide them with more strategic resources as their foundation and continue to provide them with war resources.
Because relying solely on their own national strength, they can no longer provide such a large army with the war resources to fight outside the country for several consecutive years.
They need fresh blood from the resource-producing areas of Southeast Asia to fill Japan's dried-up blood vessels so that their war machine can continue to operate and complete their planned conquest of East Asia.
As for why Japan finally chose French Indochina as the first springboard for those staff plans, it was not just because of its special geographical location.
More importantly, this is also a bold test by the Japanese government on the attitudes of European and American countries towards Japan.
In other words, these dwarfs want to see the bottom line of tolerance in European countries.
You must know that although the Japanese have made achievements in the Far East battlefield and the Asian battlefield, so far, they have never taken the initiative to provoke the real European and American countries.
However, now that France has been defeated in the European battlefield and the French government has become a puppet government of Germany, the Japanese War Staff feels that it is time to be a little bolder.
It is conceivable that if the French behave resolutely, the Japanese may make further prudent decisions when considering invading their colonies.
Of course, if Pétain's Vichy government turned a blind eye to Japan's actions, or even ignored them, then the Japanese would certainly not give up this excellent opportunity.
The Japanese Army has done a lot of preliminary work for this.
The southward advance plan is related to the core interests of the Japanese Army and must not be allowed to fail. What they want is a one-time success and the acquisition of their own strategic resource base in South Asia.
However, in fact, facing the French Indochina Federation, the Japanese Army was actually a little scared.
Not only because the French Army was once known as the strongest army in the world, the invincible European army.
Moreover, the French Army has always been a role model in the hearts of the Japanese.
After World War I, the Japanese Army carried out targeted reforms, imitating and learning from French military technology and strategic and tactical thinking.
Even the Japanese Army non-commissioned officers repeatedly studied the tactics and strategic thinking of the French Army in school classes.
Japanese instructors repeatedly preached about the classic battles of the French Army in World War I. Military academies throughout Japan once became obsessed with all the thinking of the French army.
Not only the French army's tactical and strategic thinking, combat methods, but also their equipment and combat clothing, they were trying to imitate the French army.
However, in the bloody and tragic battlefields in the later stages of World War I, although the Battle of Verdun was successful, the French army also suffered huge losses, which suddenly dimmed the halo of the French Army.
On the contrary, although Germany was defeated, its advanced combat ideas and beautiful uniforms became the objects of pursuit of the Japanese army.
But even if the French army was defeated and lost to Germany, France was still extremely powerful compared to Japan.
After all, France is a European country, and their loss to the powerful Germany does not prove anything.
In short, France is also an established power anyway, and its temporary defeat must not be used as an excuse. Therefore, the Japanese government hopes that it is best to solve the problem through diplomatic channels, and it is better not to have a head-on conflict with the French army as a last resort.
This is an operational guideline formulated by the army's top brass and the cabinet, and was issued in clear written orders to the Japanese army's execution units, ordering them to strictly implement it.
