The Japanese plan to defend the Mariana Islands soon began. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Its general operational idea is to use the islands and the land-based fighters on the islands to cooperate with almost all the aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft that the Japanese army can mobilize, and to make full use of the aircraft carriers, which can move to take off and land, and to maintain the superiority in the number of air fighters on the airfields on the islands, in an attempt to fight a decisive battle with the US forces in the Maria Islands, severely defeat the US forces, and even defeat the US forces.

Under this operational idea, first of all, it is necessary to increase the airfields on the islands.

As Ryunosuke Kusaka said, the island airfields must be able to accommodate at least 500 warplanes and provide them with fuel, and in addition, they must be prepared for some of the island airfields to be bombed by the United States and unable to take off and land fighters, so it is necessary to store fuel and add at least four airfields, increasing the original seven airfields to 11 airfields.

This may seem simple, but it's almost impossible to do.

The reason for this was that Japan continued to increase its troops in the Mariana Islands at this time......

Reinforcements were also necessary, as the Mariana Islands had been defended by the Japanese Navy until then...... At this time, Hideki Tojo decided to hold on to the Mariana Islands, so of course he had to increase his troops and build some fortifications, which would also ensure that the airfield would not be easily taken away by the US Marines.

Hideki Tojo originally planned to transfer the 3rd and 13th Divisions, which were still fighting in China, to the Mariana Islands to organize defense, but these two divisions could not get out of China for the time being, and only an advance team of 300 men of the 13th Division was transferred to Guam, and its main force remained in China to participate in a new round of offensives.

This also fully shows that Japan at this time has a shortage of troops, and Hideki Tojo is unwilling to give up the main battlefield in China even at the last moment......

It should be said that his decision was correct, because it can be said that there is basically no chance to give full play to the advantages of the outstanding infantry transferred to the Pacific theater, and the characteristics of the Japanese Army are that they are good at long-distance interspersed encirclement, and they are good at fighting tough and hard battles, but in the Pacific theater, there is no room for interspersed encirclement, and the Americans do not play any hard or hard battles with the Japanese army, but directly use equipment to pile up...... Under the bombardment of warships and warplanes, there is not much difference between the quality of the army trapped on the islands and whether it is good or not.

On the other hand, Hideki Tojo also had another hope, that is, if he could capture Chongqing and occupy the entire territory of China before the American army could reach the Japanese mainland...... Although Hideki Tojo was very reluctant to make this assumption, he did not want to face the situation that the Japanese mainland would one day face the situation of troops coming to the city, but in today's situation, he still had to make some preparations.

For Hideki Tojo, if he can do this before then, that is, completely eliminate the Chinese regime, then even abandoning Japan is optional...... Hideki Tojo knows very well that Japan, as an island country, once the navy is unable to confront the United States, then Japan will eventually fail, because the US Navy only needs to use their powerful sea and air forces to blockade Japan, and for this island country that is seriously lacking in resources, the US military does not even need to land on the island to fight, and it will not take long for Japan to collapse.

But if it occupies the whole territory of China, it will be different, Japan can transfer the people and industry to China at the last moment, which is inland, and there are still a large number of Koreans and Chinese in Korea and the puppet state of Manchukuo that can be used as military sources and cannon fodder, and then Japan can deal with the United States in the same way that China has done with Japan.

Hideki Tojo was convinced that the almost primitive Chinese army could entangle the Imperial Japanese Army, and the Imperial Japanese Army would definitely be able to entangle the Americans.

Therefore, even at the last moment, Hideki Tojo was reluctant to transfer those experienced troops on the Chinese battlefield to the Pacific.

In the end, there was no way, so Hideki Tojo had no choice but to transfer the 29th Division stationed in the puppet Manchurian State to the Mariana Islands...... The 29th Division, formed in Nagoya, Japan, and later sent to Manchuria, was a type B division, although it did not participate in many battles, its combat effectiveness was not satisfactory, because it had been actively training in preparation for war against the Soviet Union.

This can also be seen from this...... In fact, the impact of the Pacific Theater on China's battlefield was that the frontal forces did not have much impact, but the defensive forces of the rear side in the direction of the Soviet Union were constantly being emptied, so that when the Soviet Union later agreed to send troops to the northeast, it occupied the northeast as if it were in a no-man's land.

However, this does not seem to be a good thing for the Mariana Islands.

The reason is that when there are more soldiers, they need more supplies, which makes the Japanese army's transport ships and supply ships constantly go back and forth, either to transport people, grain and equipment, and then to transport fuel for warships and fighter planes and materials for construction and fortifications.

But the problem is that by this time the American problem torpedoes had already been solved, and the combat strategy of American submarines was completely different from that of the Japanese...... Japanese submarines are used to attack US aircraft carriers and warships, and their torpedoes "disdain" to attack transport ships, while US submarines are mainly attacking Japanese transport ships, and they are generally "far away" from warships and heavily defended aircraft carriers.

In addition, the Japanese army suffered huge losses of warships in naval battles, so there was a serious shortage of escort ships, so they were constantly attacked by American submarines during transportation, and the losses of personnel, materials, and equipment were very heavy, for example, the 29th Division lost 1,800 people and a considerable part of its equipment in the attack of American submarines, which made the 29th Division even have insufficient equipment when the Battle of Mariana began.

This was the case for the Army, and the construction of additional airfields was also in a relatively stagnant state due to lack of materials and equipment, and finally Vice Takeshi Toyota had to change the original plan to add 11 airfields to 9.

In this regard, Toyota's vice president also explained to Kusaka Ryunosuke: "I don't think it's necessary to build so many airfields, some fighters can be parked on aircraft carriers, and some fighters will be lost in battle." With these factors in mind, nine airports are more than enough! ”

Kusaka Ryunosuke could only accept it reluctantly, although he knew that this was an untenable excuse...... If we take into account the fact that aircraft carriers can be parked in wartime or that fighter planes are lost, then why not think about how many airfields are on the map of the Americans and cannot take off and land at any time due to bombing?

But what else can be done now? At this time, there was a shortage of materials everywhere in Japan, and building a few more airports seemed like an easy thing to do before, but now it is difficult, so you can only do your best! (To be continued.) )