binnovel Chapter 726 Operation No. 1
Chapter 726 Operation No. 1
On New Year's Day in 1944, the China-India Highway was officially opened to traffic to Xinpingyang, and the headquarters of the Chinese Army in India also moved to Xinpingyang.
At the same time, the Chinese Expeditionary Force, which had been training in China, had basically completed its reorganization. It was divided into two groups. The 11th Army was composed of the 2nd Army, the 6th Army, the 71st Army and the 200th Division. The 20th Army was composed of the 53rd Army, the 54th Army and the new 22nd Army.
However, after the new 22nd Army was re-equipped and trained in Yunnan Province, it was directly withdrawn by the highest level of government. It will not participate in the subsequent combat operations of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, but will be used on the battlefield in China.
The reason is very simple. A senior intelligence officer lurking in the puppet government of Nanjing passed on a message to the intelligence forces of the Chinese government that the Japanese army might launch a large-scale attack. However, the lurking intelligence officer only learned about this by chance when he was drinking with a senior staff officer of the Japanese Army's China Expeditionary Force Command.
At that time, this senior staff officer of the Japanese Army's China Expeditionary Force Command had drunk too much. When the Chinese intelligence personnel expressed some concerns about the current war situation, the senior Japanese staff officer casually told them not to worry too much, as the situation on the Chinese battlefield would soon change drastically.
When the Chinese intelligence officer heard the news that the Japanese army might launch another large-scale attack soon, he was also shocked. So in the subsequent drinking party, the Chinese intelligence officer kept toasting the senior staff officer of the Japanese Army's China Expeditionary Force.
However, until the very end, this senior staff officer of the Japanese Expeditionary Force in China did not say more about the time period and direction of the upcoming attack, which made the Chinese intelligence personnel even more anxious.
That same night, this high-level Chinese undercover intelligence agent reported this intelligence without actual evidence to the intelligence headquarters in the mountain city through exclusive channels. The Chinese government attached great importance to this incomplete intelligence. The highest level of the government even asked the intelligence department to find out as soon as possible in which direction the Japanese army would launch an attack. At the same time, the Chinese government’s Military Commission was also organizing all the existing intelligence and studying the direction and purpose of the Japanese army’s next possible attack.
This senior staff officer of the Japanese China Expeditionary Force was not bragging, because in January 1944, the Japanese Imperial Headquarters issued an "Operation No. 1" order to the Japanese China Expeditionary Force Command with the goal of opening up transportation lines on the Chinese mainland.
In this "Operation No. 1" plan, the Japanese military headquarters required the Japanese China Expeditionary Force to concentrate its forces to launch a new strategic offensive against Henan, Hunan, Guangxi and other provinces along the Pinghan, Yuehan and Hunan-Guangxi railways on the Chinese front battlefield, so as to completely open up this important axis.
There are four main reasons why the Japanese military headquarters decided to launch "Operation Number One". The first is that after seeing the Japanese army's successive defeats under the attacks of the United States army in the Pacific battlefield, the Japanese military headquarters has seriously realized that Japan's maritime defense line is not stable.
Therefore, the Japanese military headquarters began to formulate a plan to maintain a long-term war. The combat goal of the Japanese military headquarters was that even if all the defense lines in the Pacific battlefield were broken through by the American army in the future, the Japanese army must ensure that it has a sufficient foothold on the Chinese mainland.
Then, through the occupied areas on the Chinese mainland, they can connect with the 500,000 Japanese troops in Southeast Asia whose sea transportation may have been cut off. Moreover, the Japanese army can use the rich resources in the vast occupied areas of China to provide supplies for the later wars. This will allow the Japanese army to persist in the long-term war, that is, to use the rich resources of the Chinese battlefield and Southeast Asia to maintain the Japanese army's future long-term war needs.
The second point is that the Japanese troops in China should first open up the connection between the northern and southern Japanese-occupied areas of the Chinese mainland, so that a large corridor leading directly to the south can be formed on the Chinese battlefield.
The so-called opening up of the mainland in the "Operation No. 1" plan of the Japanese military headquarters was an attempt to occupy and repair the southern section of the Pinghan Line from Xinxiang to Hankou on the north bank of the Yellow River, the northern section of the Yuehan Line from Wuchang to Hengyang, and the Xianggui Line from Hengyang to Liuzhou, and to build a new railway transportation line from Liuzhou via Nanning to Lang Son.
The Japanese military headquarters believed that as long as "Operation No. 1" could succeed, the Japanese army would be able to connect Korea, Manchuria, China and Indochina with railway lines, which would further consolidate Japan's occupied areas in East Asia.
The third point is the changes in the situation on the Chinese battlefield, which has attracted the great attention of the Japanese military headquarters. That is, although the combat effectiveness of the Chinese government’s army is gradually decreasing after the Battle of Three Towns, the Chinese government’s army is still the main opponent of the Japanese army on the Chinese battlefield.
The strength of the joint air force of China and the United States is also gradually increasing, which poses a direct threat to the Japanese mainland. In particular, the bombing of the Japanese mainland by American aircraft taking off from bases on the Chinese mainland has become a major concern for the Japanese government and senior officials of the Japanese military headquarters.
In addition, the guerrilla forces and local armed forces in the Japanese-occupied areas continued to carry out large-scale guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines in the vast occupied areas, which made the Japanese army exhausted in the occupied areas and also seriously affected the public security issues in the occupied areas.
Moreover, by the end of November 1943, the United States Air Force deployed in China had a total of about 230 fighters and bombers, of which most were deployed in Guilin and the southeastern coastal areas.
For the Japanese government and the Japanese military headquarters, these American planes that could take off from bases in the areas controlled by the Chinese government fully demonstrated that the American Air Force could launch large-scale air strikes on the Japanese mainland from both the Pacific islands and the Chinese mainland. This was a result that the Japanese government and the top brass of the Japanese military headquarters could not bear.
Not only that, these American planes that took off from the areas controlled by the Chinese government would occasionally attack Japanese ships in the East China Sea, which seriously threatened the Japanese transportation lines in the East China Sea. Therefore, destroying the American air force bases in the areas occupied by the Chinese government and fundamentally eliminating the possibility of air strikes on the Japanese mainland on the Chinese battlefield became one of the main goals of the Japanese headquarters.
What made the Japanese military headquarters feel relieved was that most of the bases of the United States Air Force in the areas occupied by the Chinese government were concentrated in the southeastern coastal provinces of China, which was exactly the same as the combat area in the "Operation No. 1" plan to open up the transportation lines on the Chinese mainland.