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Chapter 1,377: Battle of Zhejiang and Jiangxi (please vote for me)

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    Pacific battlefield. Off the coast of Japan.

    A mixed mobile fleet composed of aircraft carriers, cruisers, and destroyers is heading towards the core defense area of ????the Japanese coast. They are the 16th and 18th mobile fleets of the U.S. Navy.

    This fleet was launched from the Alameda base, and this trip was to carry out a top-secret major military operation - bombing the Japanese mainland!

    The bombing of the Japanese mainland was an act of retaliation by the United States for Japan's undeclared attack on the Pearl Harbor base. It was personally decided by President Roosevelt.

    As early as the beginning of the declaration of war between the United States and Japan, at the Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting held in the White House, Roosevelt instructed the participating members that the military should organize retaliatory strikes against Japan as soon as possible.  Later, Colonel Francis Rohr, the U.S. Navy's deputy chief of staff, proposed a plan for twin-engine land-based bombers to take off from the deck of an aircraft carrier and bomb the Japanese mainland nearby.

    The plan was quickly approved by the U.S. military for implementation, and retired U.S. Army Aviation Lieutenant Colonel James Harold Doolittle was appointed to plan the plan and lead the operation.

    In early March, all crews for the 24 aircraft were recruited and headed to Minneapolis, where the modification center is located.

    Since then, these pilots have successively driven 24 modified B-25Bs to Eglin Airport in Florida.  There, crews undergo three weeks of intense training

    On March 31, the United States determined that a total of 16 fighter planes could carry out the mission of bombing the Japanese mainland, and then these fighters flew to the Naval Air Station Alameda in California.

    A few days later, the aircraft carrier Hornet arrived in Alameda, and 15 of them carried out bomb-dropping missions and were the first to move onto the aircraft carrier.  However, regarding the boarding of the 16th B-25, the Navy was worried that there would not be room on the deck, so it has been obstructing it.

    The Doolittle team continued to negotiate with the Navy, and it was not until the last moment before the aircraft carrier was about to set off that the Navy agreed to release it, allowing the 16th B-25 to squeeze onto the deck of the Hornet and participate in the air strike.

    The entire operation was kept highly confidential, and all members involved were not informed of the mission until after the Hornet set off from San Francisco.

    The 18th Mobile Fleet led by the Hornet left Alameda. A few days later, the 16th Mobile Fleet, commanded by the famous Lieutenant General William "The Bull" Halsey and centered on the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier, fought in the waters north of Hawaii.  The 18th Mobile Fleet rendezvous.  Fighters and patrol aircraft aboard the Enterprise provided aerial protection for the Hornet and the entire fleet.

    After rendezvous, they sailed westward with radio silence throughout the journey.

    On the afternoon of April 17, after the supply ship replenished fuel for the fleet, it and the eight destroyers retreated eastward. The aircraft carrier and cruiser continued westward, advancing rapidly toward the waters controlled by the Japanese army at a speed of 20 knots.  There, 16 B-25s prepared to take off.

    However, an emergency situation occurred in the early morning of the 18th. The mobile fleet was still 650 nautical miles away from the Japanese mainland. The Japanese patrol ship Nitto Maru 23, which was cruising in the waters, discovered them and immediately sent a radio warning to Japan.

    The U.S. Navy fleet made a prompt decision and dispatched the Nashville to sink it. In addition to the captain's suicide on Nitto Marugami, 5 of the 11 crew members survived and were rescued aboard the Nashville.

    This accident shocked everyone. The fleet was discovered by the Japanese so early before it arrived at the take-off location.

    Because they are worried that Japan, which has received the warning, may have dispatched troops to block the attack, it will be very dangerous for the fleet to move forward.  Doolittle and Hornet Captain Mark Mitchell decided that all B-25s would take off immediately - 10 hours earlier than originally planned, which meant that the B-25s would fly an additional 310 kilometers.

    In the next hour, all 16 B-25s took off successfully.

    For the U.S. military, this is the first and only time that land-based bombers take off from an aircraft carrier to perform a mission.

    After taking off, the B-25s flew to Japan one after another. At the beginning of the flight, they were divided into groups of 2 to 4. After that, they dispersed and flew close to the sea at low altitude to avoid Japanese radar.

    Six hours later, 16 B-25s flew over Japan one after another at noon Tokyo time, bombing 10 military and industrial targets in Tokyo, 2 in Yokohama, and 1 each in Yokosuka, Nagoya, Kobe, and Osaka.

    Although some B-25s encountered anti-aircraft fire and pursuit and interception by Japanese aircraft, no B-25s were shot down. Only Lieutenant Joyce's No. 10 aircraft was slightly injured and a hole was punched in the fuselage.  Among the 16 bombers, only No. 4 failed to carry out the bombing due to machine gun failure. The Japanese planes persisted and threw bombs into Tokyo Bay.

    After the bombing, 15 of the 16 bombers flew southwest along the southern coast of Japan to eastern China. According to Doolittle's plan, several airports in Zhejiang would light up beacons to guide them to land, and then refuel before flying again.  ???Chongqing - the wartime capital of the Kuomintang.

    The other one, due to excessive fuel consumption, obviously could not reach the Chinese coast and headed for the Soviet Union, which was closer to the coast.

    This U.S. air strike caused a great shock, especially to the people in Japan. Since an air defense exercise was being conducted near Tokyo that day, many troops and people thought it was a Japanese aircraft during an exercise when they first saw it.  airplane.  It wasn't until the bombs dropped from the sky that they discovered in panic that a US military plane was flying overhead.

    Even a group of senior Japanese military and political officials and the emperor who were meeting at the Imperial Palace had to adjourn the meeting temporarily and hid in underground air defense fortifications.

    In anger, after being bombed, the base camp staff headquarters immediately reported the situation to the Chinese Dispatch Force in Nanjing and ordered it to intercept the US military aircraft fleet retreating towards China.

    On the evening of the 18th, the enemy's 22nd Division stationed in Hangzhou reported to the dispatched force that they discovered two aircraft of unknown nationality passing over Hangzhou to the west in the evening. However, due to time constraints, they were unable to get their fighter planes into the air to intercept them.

    That night, the China Dispatch Force received a report from the 11th Army stationed in Wuhan that a US military plane hit water in the Yangtze River northwest of Nanchang. The five pilots on board had parachuted in advance and were all captured.

    Later, based on comprehensive information from various aspects, the Japanese army learned that among the 16 aircraft, one flew to the Vladivostok area of ??the Soviet Union, and 15 flew to China. Among them, one made an emergency landing in Xiangshan, Zhejiang, and one made an emergency landing near Nanchang. Eight pilots  Captured.

    In addition, one aircraft made an emergency landing in Yihuang County, Jiangxi Province. One of the five crew members was seriously injured, while the other four were unharmed and were all sent to the rear.  The last 12 planes made emergency landings in Quzhou, Ganzhou, Changsha and other places, and none of them was intact.

    Out of anger, the Japanese army immediately executed the eight captured American pilots.

    This bombing had a great impact on Japan¡¯s army, navy, government, and royal family.  They began to feel that their homeland was no longer safe and had doubts about the combat capabilities of their own aviation and anti-aircraft artillery units.

    Because these 16 bombers were not escorted by fighter jets, after bombing major Japanese cities during the day, they flew straight west and passed over many air force bases, without any of them being shot down.

    On the second day, April 19, there was another false alarm in Japan: it was reported that a fleet of US military aircraft was found flying along yesterday's route again, so the local fighter units all organized to take off to intercept, and the anti-aircraft artillery units also  In preparation for battle, air defense sirens were sounded in various cities.

    Since they were bombed by US planes yesterday, the citizens believed this warning. As a result, some big cities suddenly fell into chaos and panic.

    The China Dispatch Force also received this notification at 13:00 on the 19th, so it ordered the 1st Flight Regiment to take turns to take off the air in Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Zhoushan Islands, Hangzhou Bay and other places to alert, but no aerial targets were found until the evening.

    Subsequently, the Japanese base camp conducted research on the US bombing, and believed that the US military fleet took off from aircraft carriers to bomb Japan, and then went west to land at airports in Zhejiang and Jiangxi areas of China. This shuttle bombing method used on the European battlefield,  Will continue to use it in the future.

    Therefore, it was decided on April 18 to bomb Quzhou, Yushan, Lishui, Jianou and other airports.  While strengthening the local air defense system, it was decided that the navy must strengthen air security in the sea east of Japan, conduct air intelligence reports, and seize the U.S. naval and air force bases Midway Island and the Aleutian Islands.

    More importantly, the Japanese base camp issued a combat order on April 21, ordering the Chinese dispatched troops to stop the security operations in Guangde and Ningguo areas in the south of the Yangtze River, concentrate their forces to capture the areas along the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Railway, and completely destroy the airport cluster in this area.  So the battle between Zhejiang and Jiangxi broke out.

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