First of all, Chu Tian, ??the leader of the special operations detachment, did not disappoint Tang Qiuli. He led more than 300 special operations team members and chased the remnants of the Royal Army's Sumatra Island First Corps who fled into the rain forest. More than 2,000 people entered the depths of the rain forest. After going through many hardships, they finally found out where this puppet army was hiding.
Chutian did not alert the puppet troops, but used the radio to call in the "Falcon" Parachute Regiment, six reinforced battalions directly under the ninth and tenth brigades of the Corps, carrying a large number of mortars and more than 16,000 troops. , deployed an airtight encirclement around the hiding place of the remnants of the puppet army, and then called in two bomber regiments and one fighter regiment. The style of attack adopted was similar to Feng Jiwu's, which was also a superimposed and covering bombing. Add artillery fire.
Because the area of ??bombing and shelling was very concentrated, the density of firepower was astonishingly high. It is said that after the battle, even though it was in a tropical rainforest area with abundant rain, there was still no grass growing in that area for more than a year.
More than 2,000 remnants of the First Corps of the Imperial Army in Sumatra were wiped out. The captain, the Japanese Colonel Fukuoka, the deputy captain, the Indonesian Budinoyo, and the chief of staff, the Japanese Mishima, were all killed. They were lucky enough to escape the bombing. and the puppet soldiers who bombarded them, but only a few hundred of them were all taken prisoner.
Chu Tian personally interrogated the prisoners. He also had another task, which was what the division commander had specially asked him to do. The truth about the massacre of a rear field hospital in the Ninth Brigade. After the interrogation, Chu Tian got what he wanted to know.
Chu Tian is a soldier who has experienced big scenes, and battlefields with mountains of corpses and seas of blood are commonplace, but after listening to the confessions of these prisoners, he still couldn't help feeling murderous in his heart. He understood what the division commander meant by "trying to keep as few puppet prisoners as possible!" I don¡¯t even have the energy to bring these damn Indonesian monkeys with me.
"Execute on the spot!" Chu Tian gave the order coldly, and these prisoners were just like their previous accomplices. Met underground.
After receiving the telegram from Chutian, Tang Qiuli finally expressed his inner depression a little. These puppet soldiers were definitely a hidden danger of instability after occupying the Southwest Pacific region. The division commander pointed out the order to suppress the puppet troops. , for the puppet soldiers who don¡¯t know how high the sky is and how high they are, and who want to cut off the Japanese rear. It was absolutely fatal. The "Southwestern Pacific Imperial Alliance Army of the Empire of Japan" troops, which numbered hundreds of thousands and were distributed on battlefields in various places, gradually collapsed and finally disappeared.
When the puppet troops cut off the rear for the Japanese, in accordance with the order of the general staff of the base camp, the first batch of Japanese troops to retreat, about 100,000 people, took boats from various battlefields. With the joy of escaping, I headed towards Australia.
The Banda Sea is the only way for Japanese troops on Sulawesi to retreat to Australia. The Japanese 27th and 29th Divisions, most of the troops, and the remnants of the 54th Division were oppressed by the powerful force of the Songhu Garrison Corps. About 60,000 people arrived in Makassar, the southernmost tip of Sulawesi Island. But here comes the problem, transport ships. It can only transport about 30,000 people at a time, so there won¡¯t be that many ships!
Everyone wants to leave this ghost place first. Behind them are nearly 200,000 troops from more than a dozen brigades of the China Division. Makassar is less than five days away, and the troops of three divisions have reached Makassar. The time is about the same. Who comes first and who comes last? This is a difficult problem. Everyone knows that if you leave Sulawesi a minute earlier, you will have more ways to live. Who doesn¡¯t want to leave first? With the current war situation, everyone will be ruined if they stay. the result of.
For this reason, Lieutenant General Okui, the commander of the 27th Division, Lieutenant General Kawaharaki, the commander of the 29th Division, and Lieutenant General Tomatsu, the commander of the 54th Division, were quarreling red-faced and furious. They started talking, slapping the table and glaring, almost going to the knife on the spot, but after arguing for a while, no one could convince anyone, and there was no other way. The three lieutenant generals of the Imperial Army, His Excellency the division commander, gave in to each other and jointly signed a letter to Chief of General Staff Mine. General Guangyi sent a telegram explaining the situation and asked the Mi Cabinet to rule on which division should be evacuated first?
General Minai Koichi, who was worried about the lack of transport ships and had no solution. After reading the telegram, he was so angry that he immediately called back, "I am very heartbroken that when the Southwest Pacific battlefield is unfavorable to the Imperial Army, you three A senior officer of the empire is arguing over who should escape first, which is shameful!"
After scolding, we still have to solve the problem. After all, the one who evacuated first will be wrong. "Disputes cannot solve the problem. I order that the troops be evacuated one by one according to the order of combat. The last troops to evacuate will consciously shoulder the task of blocking the attack of the China Division troops!" "
With one word from General Miuchi Yoneuchi, the dispute came to an end. The 29th Division became the first batch of troops to evacuate to Australia because it had the advantage in the combat sequence. Because there were still surplus transport ships, the first part of the 29th Division, Fortunately, he followed Zhan Guang'er and became one of the first batch of more than 30,000 people to evacuate.
There is no other way. Most of the remaining 29th Division and the remnants of the 54th Division can only follow the orders of General Minaiguang and go out to the Watamboni line north of Makassar to build blocking positions. Prepare to block the attack of Jiang Yanming's regiment.
There is another difference here. The remnants of the 54th Division, with about 10,000 troops, are deployed on the Watamboni line at the forefront, while the 29th Corps with more than 10,000 troops is deployed In an area less than fifteen kilometers away from Makassar.
Lieutenant General Tomatsu, the commander of the 54th Division, was angry. He went to Lieutenant General Kawaharaki, the commander of the 29th Division, and asked him, "Why are you deploying like this? Mr. Kawaharaki, you know it. From Sulawesi The China Division attacking from the north of the island has nearly 200,000 troops, and its firepower is several times greater than ours. Our division's strength of more than 10,000 people will never be able to successfully stop it! "
"The best deployment is for you and me to deploy on the Watamponi front line. Only by increasing the thickness of the troops and the depth of defense of the blocking line can we support it for a longer time. Otherwise, the first blocking line will collapse. Mr. Kawaragi, Your troops are not immune, right?"
Lieutenant General Kawaragi's answer made Lieutenant General Tomatsu almost vomit blood, "Tomatsu-kun, don't forget the order from the Mi Cabinet. According to the order of operations, our division is the second batch of evacuated troops. Your division's mission is to complete Just cover our division¡¯s boarding mission!¡±
Lieutenant General Kawaragi's words made Lieutenant General Tomatsu speechless. "Oh, with my troops, I will cut off the rear of your 29th Division!" With anger, Totomatsu said Lieutenant General Matsu returned to Watamboni angrily. Sitting on the bumpy car, he felt upset. He was not only dissatisfied with the order of General Mitsuichi Minai, but also envious of the 27th Division who was able to be the first to retreat.
As an inland sea surrounded by huge islands, unless there is particularly bad weather, the Banda Sea will always be calm and calm. The same is true today. The afternoon sun shines on the sea, making it quite spectacular. With beauty, the troop transport carrying more than 30,000 Japanese soldiers gradually moved away from Sulawesi, the place that made the Japanese people tremble.
There was no wind and no waves. The huge formation of troop carriers sailed smoothly and quickly on the huge emerald-like Banda Sea. The sterns of the ships dragged out long waves and left the battlefield. The relaxed Japanese soldiers also had a sense of leisure, in twos and threes. People crowded onto the deck to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the Banda Sea in the afternoon. There were Japanese noises and wild laughter everywhere. The Japanese soldiers discussed the most topics like flower girls.
About a hundred kilometers away from Sulawesi Island, five warships are moored quietly on the sea. From the flags on the tall masts, it can be recognized that they are a squadron of the First Fleet of the Division Navy. , behind the warship, there are more than forty high-speed gunboats equipped with naval combat-type "Thunder" rocket launchers, and further away, there are two submarines, which are slowly diving into the seabed.
According to the order of division commander Tang Qiuli, this is one of several squadrons of the Navy's First Fleet that entered various coastal waters of the Southwest Pacific theater to perform interception and killing missions. It is designated as the Third Squadron. It had entered two days ago. In the Banda Sea, waiting for the formation of Japanese troop transport ships coming from the direction of Sulawesi Island.
Colonel Tu Guoxi, commander of the Third Squadron, originally served as the deputy director of the Operations Division at the Fleet Headquarters. He only took up this position after the First Fleet was detached. He has been with Fleet Commander Tang Qiuquan for many years and learned the skills of commanding naval battles. .
However, Tu Guoxi is obviously not very interested in the Japanese troop transport fleet that is about to arrive at his door. According to intelligence, the Japanese troop transport fleet does not even have an escort ship that can be called a warship. There were only fifteen small gunboats, which served as escorts.
In Tu Guoxi¡¯s opinion, maybe the so-called gunboats of these little devils are also temporarily modified. Installing an artillery gun on the deck of a civilian ship becomes a gunboat?
Tu Guoxi's judgment was well-founded. After the division's Southwest Pacific Campaign was launched, the fleet of the Southern Flying Group immediately boarded all Japanese warships in the theater, including offshore patrol boats and small ships, and other naval forces. Fried cleanly.
"Facing such an opponent, I can't keep my spirits up. Tu Guoxi shook his head and thought,
"Report to Commander, the shipboard radar has not found the target so far!" The combat staff put down the phone and turned back to report to him.
Tu Guoxi was very calm and said: "Don't worry, order the radar to continue searching for the target. What is supposed to come will come sooner or later. Since the division commander has asked our fleet to divide its forces into multiple routes and go to fight in various sea areas, there must be a big move to be made!"
More than an hour later, a report was received from the shipboard radar, "Report to the headquarters, the radar search found that the Japanese troop carrier formation has appeared in the target sea.The domain is still seventy kilometers away from our fleet! "
(To be continued) (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novel will be better and updated faster!