Chapter 599: The Big Pit

The Germans suddenly appeared in the Balkans, unleashing a long-awaited surge of power. The Luftwaffe’s 400 fighters secured an unparalleled advantage in the skies. With the P-40 and Zero fighters now in service in large numbers, the Germans’ mainstay FW-190D fighters were no longer able to completely crush their opponents. However, the air forces of several Balkan nations lagged behind global trends.

Apart from the Greek Air Force, which was equipped with 11 improved P-40 aircraft, the fighters of the other Balkan countries were mostly on the same level as the Polish Air Force. One can imagine how much of an impact they could make against the ferocious German Luftwaffe.

Seventeen hours. That was the time it took for the German fighter groups under Kesselring’s command to completely destroy the air forces of several Balkan countries. The 300 enemy aircraft, apart from adding to the German pilots’ kill counts, achieved almost no results. In fact, the number of German fighters shot down by the Balkan air forces was lower than the German accident crash rate.

That afternoon, the German Stuka Type 2 attack aircraft began to dominate the ground under the cover of fighters, and the obsolete Stukas also joined in the slaughter. The strategic air force appeared over Crete in swarms, bombing the British military facilities on the island. Within 24 hours, the entire Balkans was covered under the wings of the German eagle.

Under the command of General Hoth, the 8th Mechanized Infantry Corps advanced at high speed, just as they had in France. In many places, they were even warmly welcomed. The local Serbs saw the German army as liberators. They were willing to join the leadership of the Steel Axis and share the fruits of victory brought by the war.

Even Hoth himself could not believe how smoothly the war was progressing. The Yugoslav forces on the main front had collapsed at the first touch due to their overly heavy casualties. According to battlefield experience, a daily advance of 25 kilometers was by no means slow. In fact, the Yugoslav forces on the German front had already been worn down by the Italian army, which was why the Germans had gotten such a good deal. But in the eyes of Mussolini, who did not know the truth, it was a force that the Italian army had failed to defeat in two days that had been routed by the German army in four hours.

The local political situation was extremely complex. Therefore, in some places, they even threw flowers at the German soldiers entering the city, and many people eagerly hung the swastika flag of the German Third Reich. But unfortunately, this place would soon be handed over to Italian jurisdiction. Germany had little interest in these non-strategic areas.

The good times did not last long. After passing through some pro-German and pro-Italian areas on the border, the resistance began to intensify. The Germans had no choice but to bypass the cities and use their most skilled field encirclement tactics to first annihilate the Greek and Yugoslav forces that had come to reinforce them. And the cities behind them were surrounded by Italian and German infantry and subjected to an endless bombardment.

The Balkan Peninsula was undoubtedly of unparalleled importance to the North African strategy of the German and Italian forces. Once the Balkans were occupied and the navy and air force were deployed on Crete, not only could they link up with Turkey and become back-to-back allies, but they could also move the transport line from Italy to North Africa forward, placing it on the route from Crete in the Balkans to Egypt. The distance was shortened by almost half, and the route was much safer.

Once the Balkans became a new supply base for the German army, the Romanian oil fields would be completely secure. Germany’s strategic depth would be further expanded, and its military operations in North Africa would receive more support. Rommel’s Afrika Korps would receive a multiplied amount of supplies, and it would become questionable whether the Allies could even hold the Suez Canal, let alone a vast area like Egypt.

If the port of Alexandria in Egypt were to be lost, the supply of the British and American forces in the country would collapse even further, and the oil of the Middle East would fall into the hands of the Axis. At that time, the resources controlled by Akado would exceed those of the United States, and the United States, with its vast production capacity, would be plunged into a production crisis due to a lack of raw materials.

Of course, all of this was just a simulation. Things were not entirely playing out according to Germany’s script. Neither the United States nor Britain would stand by and watch the Germans gain an advantage in the Middle East. They were unwilling to give up their oil interests there, not even a part of them to Germany.

The British army was also making a final, desperate struggle. They did not want to see their Middle Eastern region eventually become a German-occupied territory. So about 20 divisions of the British Indian Army were on their way to the Middle East, hoping to reach Egypt and stabilize the situation before the chaos in the Balkans ended. These Indian divisions were not highly effective in combat, but they had the advantage of numbers. The British army had armed this force of nearly 350,000 men with many of the obsolete weapons in their local inventory. Some of the old howitzers were even produced in 1898, behemoths from 40 years ago.

To hold the Middle East, the United States had even discussed the issue of the Chinese Expeditionary Force going to the region with the Chinese special envoy. The U.S. government was even willing to offer 0.5% of the local oil share as a condition for China sending troops. However, because China had never sent an expeditionary force so far away in its modern history, and the American logistical supply could not be guaranteed, this exciting plan ultimately came to nothing.

Another thing that contributed to the failure of this plan was that, due to the collapse of the U.S. Navy and the Japanese invasion of Australia, the supply line between the United States and China, which spanned half the globe, was broken. The Chinese Expeditionary Force in Burma, due to a lack of ammunition and equipment, was defeated and forced to retreat back into China.

The Japanese army was riding high in the Pacific theater. Even some American congressmen had begun to feel that Japan had won the war, and that if the United States wanted to avoid greater losses, it could only choose to withdraw from the war at the right time. Because now the American government and public were united in their hatred for the enemy, and the people’s calls for a decisive battle with Japan were high, the American high-level officials who questioned the outcome of the war only dared to grumble in private, and it was far from reaching the level of congressional will.

Under these circumstances, the United States mobilized 40 divisions of homeland defense forces to prepare to meet a possible Japanese landing. At Roosevelt’s insistence, four divisions of elite American troops were sent to the Middle East, including 300 newly produced M4 Sherman tanks. Roosevelt hoped to strengthen Patton’s forces and win the war in North Africa to stabilize the situation.

On this point, Roosevelt had a serious disagreement with several of his senior military generals. The commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Nimitz, and the Supreme Allied Commander, General Eisenhower, both hoped that the United States would launch a counter-offensive in the Pacific first, while Roosevelt personally felt that the United States should solve the North African front first.

In the end, the American generals’ faction won. They would send the majority of the American soldiers to the Pacific to defend the islands to the death and to delay the Japanese offensive. And Roosevelt could only, within his power, secure four divisions of American GIs for Patton. However, the number of tanks was reduced to 200, and there were only 110 planes. Compared to the strengthening of the German forces in North Africa at the same time, these forces could only be considered barely sufficient.

However, another piece of news came from another direction that made the Americans a bit depressed: the execution of the Australian withdrawal was not complete. In fact, everyone knew that to have the Australian troops abandon their homeland and retreat to the United States was an extremely difficult order. Those local troops would never abandon their homes.

Various problems had indeed arisen during the execution of the order to abandon Australia. The biggest problem was that the young and able-bodied soldiers were unwilling to abandon their families. The United States had no choice but to use all the ships it could find to rush the families of the Australians to South America and the United States, in order to motivate the Australian army to leave with them.

But in the end, there were still four divisions of the Australian army that remained on the mainland. They refused to board the ships and retreat but instead picked up the heavy weapons that the American soldiers had left behind and headed in the opposite direction. There, they were determined to fight the invaders to the death. At the same time, opposite them, the Japanese were struggling to advance east through the desert, hoping to find the rich Australian cities and launch their new round of attacks.

The whole of July was pretty much all good news for the Japanese. The Japanese Navy, after annihilating the U.S. Pacific Fleet, had, after more than ten days of cruising, provided cover for the infantry to take control of the entire island system of Southeast Asia. The Japanese army had found the oil resources it lacked, and its strategic situation was excellent.

The Imperial General Headquarters was drawing up a plan to land on Oahu. Once Oahu was taken, Yamamoto Isoroku believed that the United States would obediently come to the negotiating table and sue for peace with Japan in humiliation. In this way, Japan’s biggest gamble would end in victory, and Japan would become the new hegemon of the Asia-Pacific region.

The Japanese flag had already covered northeast China, North China, and the entire southern coastal region, as well as Vietnam, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines in Southeast Asia, and the northwestern part of Australia. In the eyes of the Japanese high command, the war would end in the next three months. Once the United States withdrew from the war, Japan would have the opportunity to turn back and teach the constantly troublemaking China a harsh lesson.

But the fantasies of these high and mighty officials in no way changed the personal experience of the grassroots Japanese officers and soldiers. In the deserts of Australia, the seven divisions of the Japanese army were at a loss, terrified by the vastness of the territory. They had repeatedly requested support from the Imperial General Headquarters in distant Tokyo, not because they had encountered stubborn resistance, but because they simply did not have the manpower to deploy on such a long front line.

As the Japanese frontline commander, General Ogawa, was repeatedly moaning in his heart: for the Japanese Army, not to fight for Australia was impossible, but for the soldiers of the Japanese Army, the vast and boundless territory of Australia was definitely a bottomless pit that could never be filled.

Published: 2025-09-09T03:35:03.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2026-01-15T17:29:28.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c599-big-pit-138475747

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