Chapter 834: Reinforcements Arrive

If Germany in 1939 was singing a triumphant song on the military front, exuding an air of invincibility, then from the beginning of that year, the Japanese Navy in the Pacific was truly in a tragic state, like a hero marching to his doom.

No matter how much the Japanese Navy provoked, or even how madly the Japanese Army invaded the Indian border near Burma, they could not lure out the big fish, Nimitz. Apart from occasionally harassing Wake Island, the U.S. Navy showed no signs of any large-scale action.

Yamamoto Isoroku was in complete despair. He knew that Japan’s fragile nature—strong at the first push, weaker at the second, and exhausted at the third—had been perfectly grasped by the Americans. The U.S. Navy fleet was expanding at a visible rate. Although there was still a clear gap in the number of battleships between the two sides, the U.S. Navy had recently commissioned three converted escort carriers, and the number of destroyers and cruisers was frighteningly large. This was not what Yamamoto had hoped to see, nor was it the result the Japanese Navy had expected.

As losses mounted and the war spun further out of control, some voices of doubt against Yamamoto began to appear in the Japanese high command. Some even believed that they could not just sit and wait for defeat to arrive. At the very least, they should take a chance with their powerful Combined Fleet. Who knew, maybe the beautiful wish of “Heaven blesses our Emperor” could actually become a reality.

But everything was just as Yamamoto had predicted to his superiors. The Japanese Navy would be invincible for a year, would not necessarily lose in two, but could not guarantee anything after three. Now, a year had not even ended, and the invincibility of the Japanese Combined Fleet had already become somewhat ironic.

Perhaps the year 1939 was just not a good one for the German and Japanese navies. The German Navy was blockaded in its ports due to a fuel shortage, with no chance to even go out to sea and fight. The Japanese Navy was struggling near the Marshall Islands, wanting a decisive battle but also having no opportunity for one. It was truly an unlucky year, where nothing went right.

What made Yamamoto even more furious was not just these things. What truly made him despair was that even now, with the situation deteriorating, many Japanese military men could not see the plight of the Empire. They arrogantly believed that the Great Japanese Empire was at its most powerful point in history, an era they had created with their own hands.

The army and navy continued their habitual infighting, and the intensity of it gave even the Emperor a headache. The army was planning to go and pick on various soft targets, intending to march into India and seize Britain’s colonies there, unrealistically fantasizing about competing with the Germans in speed, to be the first to occupy the Middle East and control more oil-producing regions.

These blindly arrogant fools were completely unwilling to spread out a map and carefully look at the current distribution of the Japanese army. From the so-called “Manchuria” all the way to Hebei, then spreading out from Shandong to Shanghai and Nanjing, and then blossoming in the rich places like Guangzhou. Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Malaysia were all areas where Japanese troops were stationed.

Further east, one had to count Australia, which was practically a giant sinkhole, so large that even if all of Japan were to immigrate there, they could not fill its vast deserts. And to the west, including Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, and Burma—Japan’s military strength had already been spread to its absolute limit. It could not even send a decent army to reinforce the constantly burning Chinese mainland.

To commit so many troops to such a dispersed battlefield, and then to be unable to clench their forces into a fist—the Japanese military men, having lived in an island country for so long, once their desire for vast, boundless lands was released, it was as uncontrollable as a flood or a wild beast. They expanded and aggressed with impunity, but they had forgotten that they were just a greedy snake, not a true nine-heaven divine dragon.

In another timeline, when the Japanese Army launched the Battle of Imphal, the almost idiotic operational plan they had drawn up was proof of just how intoxicated the army officers of that time were with victory. The entire force had set off on a long expedition with insufficient logistical supplies, shouting the slogan of “take Imphal and eat Churchill’s rations,” feeling that victory was right before their eyes.

No one could have imagined that in March of 1944 in another timeline, when the Germans had already been destined to lose the German-Soviet war, and the Japanese Navy had also been beaten senseless by the Americans, a Japanese general nicknamed “Little Tojo,” Renya Mutaguchi, would actually say such a thing: “The army has reached the point of being invincible!”

In the eyes of the Japanese Army officers, if the idiots in the navy couldn’t handle something, the army had to succeed by any means necessary. Since the navy had lost islands and couldn’t win battles, then the army had to win a victory to show the naval generals just who was the most powerful army in the Great Japanese Empire.

So it was not surprising that the army would, while Yamamoto was at his wit’s end with Nimitz, apply for supplies and prepare to launch a “New Battle of Imphal.” No one knew what their thoughts were, but the date they had chosen was similar to that of another timeline—March, just as the rainy season in Burma was about to begin.

Of course, although it now seemed that the Japanese high command’s expansion plans and actual actions were a bit like a comedy routine, the soldiers under them, who were not afraid of death and had high faith, had still managed to get this far despite these unfavorable factors. And the parties involved did not think there was anything wrong with their almost comical strategic plans. They were all seriously solving problems, at least that’s what they themselves thought.

Yamamoto sneered at this plan to attack India. He was not even willing to inquire about the execution of the entire plan. He was now anxiously waiting in the Marshall Islands for his reinforcements, which were a batch of new warships that had been built in a rush, as well as the super-battleship Yamato, which was being hailed as a secret weapon.

The construction of the battleship Yamato had been started by Japan several years ahead of schedule. Because Germany had started the war early, Japan had also accelerated the manufacturing speed of the Yamato. In the end, the completion date of this battleship had been moved up to April of 1939, which could be said to have made the Japanese Navy, in terms of single-battleship strength, the number one naval power in the world, reigning supreme.

Once this battleship entered service, the strength of the Japanese Navy’s battleships would become the first in the world. The dream of no country being able to defeat Japan in a gunnery duel was about to become a reality. Yamamoto Isoroku planned to use this warship as the core to launch a decisive battle against the United States, to use the Yamato to assault the American fleet in a carefully chosen sea area and to sink those annoying American aircraft carriers.

“Your Excellency, Marshal! A telegram came in last night. Because the battleship Yamato is about to enter service, some escort ships have been sent in advance to familiarize themselves with command and coordination matters,” an officer said, knocking on the door and entering Yamamoto’s rest cabin. His face was filled with fatigue. After all, the Japanese Navy had not had an easy time recently.

Frequent small-scale encounters had cost the Japanese Navy a large number of troops. The two sides often engaged in destroyer-level gunnery duels. Although the Japanese Navy had achieved an excellent combat record of 12 to 18, sinking 18 American destroyers at the cost of 12 of their own, no one in the high command of the Japanese Combined Fleet could smile.

In these few months, the United States had launched nearly 20 destroyers. It could be said that the more they fought, the more they had. In the same amount of time, Japan had only launched a pitiful four. America’s vast industrial capacity was first being applied to its navy and air force, so the Japanese were experiencing the pressure of that powerful industry even earlier than the Germans.

“Oh?” Finally, the reinforcements had arrived. This gave Yamamoto Isoroku a slight boost of spirit. Even the most glorious victory could not cover up the fact that the Combined Fleet had lost ships and territory, and had suffered losses in men and officers. So, more than the number of enemy ships sunk, what could boost morale more was the arrival of new warships.

And so, Yamamoto stood up and signaled his aide to bring him his clothes. “Let’s go! To the pier! I want to personally welcome these officers and men of the Imperial Navy who have come from afar! They will become the new strength of the Combined Fleet!”

“Then I’ll make a call to the port and have the captains of the new destroyers and supply ships not leave their posts. Wait for you to go and receive them, Marshal,” the aide said, very familiar with the routine. He picked up the phone and began to arrange this impromptu trip for the Marshal.

Marshall Islands, the temporary anchorage of the Japanese fleet. On a simple pier, the stirring melody of a military band rang out, a sound that had been absent for a long time. The Marshal of the Japanese Navy had personally come to receive the captains of all the destroyer escort fleets that had arrived from the home islands as reinforcements.

Among these destroyers were new ships that Japan had just launched. They could be said to be the newest destroyers in the Japanese Navy. Yamamoto Isoroku, his face beaming, shook hands cordially with each captain and encouraged them with earnest words to fight bravely in the Combined Fleet.

“Seeing you young men reminds me of myself,” he said, walking to the last destroyer captain. After they had saluted each other, he patted the other on the shoulder. “You are the future of the Imperial Navy, the hope of the Imperial Navy! Fight bravely, for the Great Japanese Empire, and fulfill the duty of a naval officer!”

He spoke with great passion, which made these young destroyer commanders’ blood boil. Most of these men had never experienced a real naval battle. They still firmly believed in the saying that the Japanese Navy was invincible. So in their eyes, the moment to achieve meritorious service and realize their naval dreams had arrived.

The young officer whose shoulder was being patted by Yamamoto Isoroku stood at attention with an excited expression and, in his loudest voice, responded to Marshal Yamamoto’s encouragement, “I will lead all the officers and men of my ship to fight for the country to the death! Captain Tobita Kenjiro of the destroyer Yukikaze salutes you, Your Excellency, Marshal!”

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