Fall back?

Whoever doesn't want to retreat, or they can only run, and the building will be empty. The question is how to withdraw? The Royal Navy's Far East Fleet was decimated, the only remaining heavy cruiser was temporarily withdrawn to Bombay, and there were still three old destroyers on the docks, but the straits were blocked at both ends, and anyone who left the fortified guns was mortal. What's more, there are planes in the sky, and on the other side of the Johor Strait are tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers with blood-red eyes. More importantly, China did not declare war, and according to the Neutrality Act, even if its own people fled to West Borneo, they would have to be handed over to Japan to deal with, unless China was willing to take responsibility for entering the war now.

Will China enter the war now? Jokes aside, they wished that the British would be completely defeated and taken over from Japan. Therefore, Pavahir and the others have long since given up the idea of escaping, and now they can keep it for a day, and if they can't keep it that day, they can simply close their eyes and surrender.

Faced with this situation, Lin Mousheng was speechless. Because the British army in the Far East was mainly composed of soldiers from India, Australia, and Burma, there were very few real British soldiers. Coupled with the Dutch army, which has been scattered, it is not an exaggeration to describe it as a rabble, otherwise why would the country provide so many artillery pieces and provide intelligence, and inform the Japanese army in advance of its intention to attack from the Johor Strait, it is still so unconfident. I thought that with this batch of weapons, I could hold it for at least a month, so that it could greatly delay the speed of the Japanese army's continued southward advance into Burma and Bangladesh, but now it has only been a week, and I have no intention of fighting.

Perhaps this is the difference in white people's understanding of war? Not to mention paranoid Japan, even if there are more than 100 main divisions in the country, isn't that ready to "die and don't let the soil"? Fortunately, at least the British army held for a week, and according to intelligence, the Japanese casualties were close to 3,000, which was a small consumption of the other side. However, the Singapore fortress must be completely destroyed, at least not to allow the Japanese army to obtain the huge supplies stored here, and not to use the heavy artillery groups on the coast. Otherwise, the cost of fighting back in the future will be even greater. Moreover, this rescue was not intended by the domestic government, but at the request of the British government, so he immediately took out a telegram and handed it to Percival.

The telegram was sent by British War Secretary Leslie, in which Rice used eager words to implore the Chinese to rescue the senior Far Eastern generals such as Percival and Blashua. The loss of the Andaman Islands and Malaya means that all the British channels to support Singapore are closed, and it is only a matter of time before nearly 100,000 Singaporean garrisons surrender. Moreover, the actions of China and the United States also made Britain realize that these two countries would never take action if they did not end the Asian colonial system. In such cases. The surrender of the soldiers was acceptable, but the high-ranking officers in the Far East put the British in a dilemma, knowing that if Passival and others were captured, it would be absolutely a major humiliation for the Anglo-Dutch government, so they hoped that the Chinese Defense Force, which controlled the Riau province of Sumatra, would come to their aid. Of course, Britain also made quite attractive terms, not only guaranteeing autonomy for Singapore and West Borneo after the war, but also promising to open Indian airspace and China and Britain to jointly build a transit airport in Karachi. In order to allow transport planes to and from Kashgar and Saudi Arabia to obtain a safe transit point.

But on the most critical issues of Burma, the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, Britain is still biting to the death. In the European War of that year, Britain deceived many people with "autonomy" in order to defeat Germany, but after the war, they all broke the treaty, so Yang Qiu had no interest in this kind of "autonomy" without written guarantees. However, considering that you can't completely tear your face with the UK. So I still agreed to come down and let the Military Intelligence Agency handle this matter.

After reading the telegram, Parcival couldn't help but smile bitterly: "Mr. Colonel, I should thank you for your help, but now there are Japanese on all sides. How do we leave? ”

"With submarines, general. We have six submarines in the port of Dumai, if you can arrange some feints and camouflage to distract the attention of the Japanese Navy. Delay a few more days and we'll be sure to get you away. ”

"Really?!" Parcival was taken aback.

The British Far East Fleet also had a few submarines, but because the Japanese came too quickly, most of them had already been damaged, and only two were spared due to the early withdrawal to Cam Ranh Bay. But I didn't expect that when the Japanese army had already blocked the strait, there were still six Chinese submarines hidden in Dumai Port! This shows that Dumai Port may have been targeted by China for a long time.

He guessed right, and after the discovery of the Minas oil field, the Gulf Oil Company began to build a seaport, docks, oil storage tanks and oil pipelines in Dumai. With the island of Rupa in front of the port of Dumai, and a string of offshore islands such as Wangali, Patong, and Langsang to the east, the internal waterways are tortuous and complex, the rainforest is dense, and there are several rivers deep into Riau province as cover, so the navy set its sights on Minas and the surrounding oil fields shortly after the construction began. Because the existence of the Qingdao Treaty did not allow ships to be stationed in the Strait of Malacca, a small base was built in the upper reaches of the river to the east of Dumai, and submarines used the cover of oil tankers to hide under the bottom of the ships to enter and exit the strait. In addition to submarines, the Navy has a stockpile of mines and shore guns here, and even several sets of shore-based large shore-based torpedo launchers.

Because the land in Minas, Riau Province, was bought in the name of the word, and it was inhabited by oil company employees and Chinese, and under the cover of the oil company's security team, this secret has been hidden until now. However, because the water in Malacca is shallow, all the small submarines stationed here are five or six hundred tons, and each one can only carry thirty or forty people if it is used to transport people, and the periscope depth crosses the strait for a round trip, which takes about 10 hours, plus the blockade of Japanese torpedo boats and aircraft during the day, it can only move at night.

Although only two or three hundred people could be taken in one night, it was already invaluable to the British army in the Far East. Therefore, Parcival immediately decided to use the fortress heavy artillery to block the waters within 40 kilometers of the offshore sea, and then let a few destroyers go east along the Singapore Strait, posing as a posture to break through from the Linga Islands to Vietnam, so as to divert the attention of the Japanese navy, and at the same time continue to blockade the Strait of Johor, desperately dragging Japan for a few days in order to evacuate some important personnel and materials.

Parcival was not a general who could fight, but he was definitely a soldier who knew how to save his life, and immediately after making his decision, he ordered the security of explosives in various key areas of Singapore and the harbor forts, and also loaded the destroyers with mines stored in the forts, and scattered the rest around Penang to prevent small Japanese ships from approaching. However, the sudden change of Singapore's isolated island immediately aroused the great attention of the Japanese army, especially after the three destroyers took advantage of the darkness of night to enter the Linga Islands, which were only 17 nautical miles away under the cover of shore guns, which made the Japanese troops who were already in a hurry even more impatient.

Report. The heights of Tima detected enemy movements. ”

"Yesterday afternoon, there was a small riot of soldiers in the enemy city, destroying many buildings and shops."

"Reconnaissance aircraft found traces of enemy tanks in the direction of the Bema River, Jurong."

"Lieutenant General Nagata Tetsuyama hopes that we will speed up, not be frightened by enemy artillery fire, and open the situation as soon as possible."

"Batavia telegraphed that Prince Zaihito had arrived. The 17th and 33rd Divisions also arrived and were preparing to attack and land in Burma and Bangladesh. Senior General Binshan Yuan hopes that we will seize Singapore as soon as possible to buy time for the battle that follows. ”

The dry voice of Communications Captain Goto Yoshio echoed in the war room, and the faces of Yamashita and the officers of the division were all ugly, and the telegrams all showed that the base camp was worried about the delay in continuing its southward advance. When turning to the last telegram. Captain Yoshio Goto hesitated for a moment, which caused the dissatisfaction of the chief of staff, Sosaku Suzuki: "Captain, continue your report." ”

"Hey!" Goto Yoshio hurriedly gathered his emotions and continued to read: "The Ministry of the Navy is in a hurry, the Liaoning aircraft carrier and the battleship Ninghai that have just been commissioned by the China Navy have already returned to the Natuna fleet, and are approaching Singapore in the name of sea testing, and it is expected to arrive on Bintan Island the morning after tomorrow. ”

"Yaga! These people who took advantage of the fire to rob should all be killed! Hearing the news that the Natuna fleet was approaching, Yamashita Fengfumi, who had been keeping calm, was so angry that he slapped the table hard. After his comeback, he was implicated in the 510 incident. Determined to restore his reputation with victory, he led the attack arrows composed of the 5th Division, the 18th Division, and the Guards Division to attack the British army with a fierce attack. This move really made him famous, and some people even called him the "Malay Tiger", but he didn't expect to quickly capture Malaya and force Siam to surrender. But in front of the Johor Strait, he was blocked by a bunch of heavy artillery. What made him even more puzzled was that the Anglo-Dutch coalition forces were obviously a rabble, but because China secretly supported a large number of tanks, artillery and heavy machine guns, they used the strait to rely on artillery superiority to suppress themselves for a week. It also caused more than 3,000 soldiers of the 18th Division to be killed and wounded.

Now the Chinese naval fleet is coming again, obviously afraid that they will persecute the Chinese after entering the city, and may be ready for war. His face darkened even more at the thought of this. Turning his head, he asked, "Suzuki-kun, do you have any suggestions?" ”

"General, I don't think it can be delayed any longer. The Chinese fleet must have arrived to protect the Chinese in Singapore, and if the locals knew that there was a fleet to support them, they would probably be even more brazen in supporting the British army, so they should seize the Timacao 255 position at any cost. The terrain here is high, and after the capture, the field artillery can be mounted on it to support the operation in the direction of Bukit Timah Hill. At the same time, the intensity of the offensive in the direction of the Bema River and Jurong should be strengthened, and the planes should be focused on bombing Penang, so that the British feel that they could no longer escape, and undermine their confidence. In addition, I think that the Eighteenth Division, which is already exhausted from the attack ahead, should have the Fifth Division and the Guards Division attack, and carry out a small assault on the entire length of the Strait, crossing the Strait by kayak, and if it can force a part of the soldiers through, the British will be scattered. ”

"Your Excellency, Lieutenant General, can you let the plane drop paratroopers on Penang? If this can be cut off, the British will have no confidence at all. "It was Chief of Staff Chief of Staff Sugita Daisa, who was also one of Yamashita's most powerful assistants.

Yamashita Fengfumi's eyes lit up, it was indeed a good way to attack from Penang with paratroopers, but Suzuki Sosaku shook his head: "I'm afraid it's not okay." We have lost more than 30 planes in the offensive in the past few days, which shows that the British still have a certain advantage, and it will be very dangerous to use paratroopers before they can completely defeat the planes. ”

Yamashita still believed in Suzuki Sosaku's judgment, and since he said that the parachute landing was not good, it would definitely not work, so he thought about it and said, "Prince Zaihito must have come to Batavia to continue the work of the south. The Chinese Navy has been coveting Malacca for a long time, and if it is attacked by surprise, it will have the strength to fight with the airborne division on the other side of the strait. So we really can't afford to delay any longer. Speaking of this, his tone suddenly blaze: "Just follow Suzuki-kun's method and give the order, and tell every officer that even if their troops are all broken, they are not allowed to turn back!" It is necessary to set foot on Bukit Timah Hill within three days. ”

"Hey!" …… (To be continued.) )