Chapter 897: Dragon Plan

Tojo Hideki probably didn’t know it yet, but his choice was arguably the most correct one the Japanese army could have made in its northern advance plan. This Lieutenant General named Ishiwara Kanji was one of the few truly talented army-group-level commanders in the Japanese military.

However, this poor “talent of a famous general” had a bit of bad luck. While stationed in the Kwantung region, he had accidentally injured his own “little brother” with his officer’s sword—and so he suffered from chronic hematuria, an incurable disease. Although it was not intended as a slight, it was a fact that this designated frontline commander of the Japanese northern advance plan was childless, and very likely a…

In any case, it’s not very auspicious for a writer to mention those two words. Generally speaking, the group Ishiwara belonged to was a team that produced heroes. In terms of high rank and power, there were the likes of Wei Zhongxian, Liu Jin, and Wang Zhen… There were also those with supreme martial prowess, such as Dongfang Bubai, Lin Pingzhi, and Yue Buqun—truly a land of outstanding individuals.

Back in the day, someone had made a concrete analysis of the military strength of the world’s great powers. For example, France could only win a war when led by a woman (Joan of Arc); the Italian army shouldn’t be expected to win unless they outnumbered the enemy two to one; the Germans, though valiant, would waste their efforts if they couldn’t escape a two-front war; and Russia had never gained an advantage in a war it had initiated—now there was Japan: when the Japanese were fighting a battle of destiny, they were accustomed to using generals who had practiced the Sunflower Manual…

If Italy, the German ally, had, from the beginning to the end, displayed the level expected of a supporting actor, then Japan, the behemoth that dominated Southeast Asia, was definitely a stand-up comedian. Because just as its army had decided to risk its life for the future of the Empire, the navy had come along to drag it down again.

Yes, Yamamoto Isoroku’s naval fleet could no longer hold off the American naval attack. The Battle of the Solomon Sea had begun just as the Japanese army had started to gather its forces to go north. The strategic decisive battle between the Japanese and American navies had begun so abruptly.

America’s vast wealth was finally showing in the war. While the Japanese were still racking their brains on how to replenish their pilots, three of the U.S. Navy’s aircraft carriers, originally custom-built for the British Navy, had, almost at the same time, completed their sea trials and had arrived just in time for this brutal air and sea battle.

This time, the naval forces in Yamamoto Isoroku’s hands had not recovered at all. A portion of the carrier fleet was still in the waters of the Philippines and Taiwan, replenishing and training their pilots. Several of the high-end battleships were in the home islands, undergoing radar installation and modification. At a time like this, Yamamoto Isoroku certainly did not want a decisive battle, but he dared not casually abandon the Solomon Islands either.

News had just come in. Just as the Japanese army in Australia was approaching Sydney and other places, the American army had re-landed in Australia. A full 100,000 American troops had at once made the Japanese army in the Australian region not dare to act rashly anymore.

Japan’s strategic intention to completely occupy Australia had also completely turned into a fantasy, and the Solomon Islands, which were close to Australia, had become a screen to cover the flank of the full 230,000 Japanese troops on the Australian continent. Once the Solomon Islands were lost, then these soldiers would be doomed to become an isolated army, with no ammunition and no food, and no way to be rescued. This was a loss that Japan could not afford, no matter what.

The Kongō-class battlecruisers were all gone. The Japanese Navy’s fast-attack warships had lost more than half their number. This not only meant that the Combined Fleet had lost three capital ships for no good reason, but it also meant that the Japanese Navy’s tactic of using them to cover a fast battleship assault was basically impossible to implement.

On the other hand, the Japanese Navy, lacking a sufficient number of naval aviators, had long since forced the carriers Sōryū and Hiryū of the Second Carrier Division to retreat to Taiwan to reorganize. This had further reduced the air power in Yamamoto Isoroku’s hands. The current Combined Fleet, it could be said, could not even reach half of its peak strength. To fight a decisive battle at this time was truly infuriating.

But to just run away was also not a solution. The retreat without a fight at the Marshall Islands had already earned Yamamoto Isoroku the nickname “the runaway marshal” in the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters. If he were to run again at the Solomon Islands, he wouldn’t have to go back to Japan. He might as well just commit seppuku in Rabaul and be done with it.

“Nagumo-kun, in this situation, our fleet has just refueled from the supply convoy at the Rabaul transport and supply base. We can hold on for a little while longer, but what I’m most worried about is the scale of the American fleet this time,” Yamamoto Isoroku said, looking worriedly at the map on his map table to the commander of the First Air Fleet, Nagumo Chuichi, beside him. “The Americans have been playing the turtle for half a year. For them to suddenly be so eager for a fight, there must be something wrong.”

“Your Excellency, Marshal, we have always judged that the Americans should have three aircraft carriers capable of competing with ours. I personally think the intelligence department’s information is inaccurate. The Americans should have at least five carriers in their hands now,” Nagumo Chuichi said, staring at the map and pointing to Wake Island and the Marshall Islands behind them. He glanced at Yamamoto Isoroku before continuing, “The speed of the American counter-attack, from very, very slow to now, can be said to have undergone a very huge change. It took them about two months to completely retake Hawaii and to counter-attack Midway.”

Then, as he spoke, he pointed to places like Wake Island. “Then the Americans retook Wake Island and forced us back to the Marshall Islands. This took another month or so… But they attacked the Marshalls from Wake Island in just 23 days.”

“I know, I know! The U.S. Navy’s combat capability is increasing, and its fleet is also getting larger and larger,” Yamamoto Isoroku said with a helpless nod, acknowledging Nagumo Chuichi’s deduction. “But what can we do? What can we possibly do?”

As he spoke, he pointed to a document on the table and, after a bitter smile, continued, “Nagumo-kun, those bastards in the army are simply treating the future of the Empire as a child’s game! While we are fighting a hard battle with the enemy at sea, they are working tirelessly to screw us over!”

Faced with this problem, Nagumo Chuichi did not know how to answer. In fact, the Japanese Navy had also screwed over the Japanese Army in the same way, and more than once. The dirty tricks he knew of included the Japanese Navy’s transport ships being sunk by American submarines, but not telling the Japanese Army about it. The result was that the U.S. Navy would often find that just after a Japanese transport had been sunk, another clueless Japanese vessel would pass through the dangerous waters.

If one were to really ask who was better at screwing over the other, the Japanese Navy or the Japanese Army, one could answer with a proverb: a pot calling the kettle black.

It was the same last time. The army had first, without telling the navy, withdrawn the land-based fighter planes from the Marshall Islands. The navy, not to be outdone, had directly abandoned the army on the Marshall Islands and had fled all the way to the Solomons. With this kind of “I’ll stab you eighteen times” spirit, even a bitter and deep-seated enemy country would probably not have been able to do it.

But this time, the army had really gone a bit too far. Because they had once again transferred a large portion of the planes from the Solomon Islands and Australia, this had reduced the number of Japanese land-based fighter planes in the entire Pacific to a pathetic level. The Solomon Islands now had 172 planes. It sounded like a lot, but their actual combat capability was really not much.

Most of these planes were relatively backward models. Japan, this nouveau riche, its shortcomings were immediately exposed when it was at a disadvantage. The equipment in its hands was really too little, so most of it had to be filled with inferior things.

If Germany had always been plagued by a shortage of raw materials and an inability to integrate the production capacity of the occupied European territories, then the current situation in Japan was—we simply don’t have much production capacity. Let’s just talk about how the spirit of Bushido can defeat the enemy’s planes and cannons!

Most of Japan’s weapons were distributed throughout the country’s industrially developed regions, existing in the form of cottage workshops. So, in another timeline, America’s strategic bombing had been fatal to Germany, but it had never been able to cut off Japan’s weapon production (of course, it had cut off a large part). But at a time like this, to count on a pile of cottage-workshop-style production enterprises to be able to stand up to an industrial behemoth like the United States was absolutely a fool’s dream.

If you have no guns and ammunition, use a bayonet to finish off your opponent. If you have no cannons, use a rifle to finish off your opponent. But if you have no planes and warships, then you really have no way to stand up to an enemy who is armed to the teeth. After all, spiritual strength cannot make the enemy’s tanks stall, nor can it make the enemy’s planes crash.

“I hear a relatively reliable commander in the army, Yamashita Tomoyuki, has already arrived in the Philippines… Perhaps our situation can be better after that,” Nagumo Chuichi finally squeezed out this sentence. What he really wanted to say to Yamamoto Isoroku was, “If it really doesn’t work, let’s just give up the Solomon Islands.”

Yamamoto glanced at Nagumo Chuichi. He of course knew the real meaning behind his subordinate’s words, but he waved his hand helplessly, as if to dispel Nagumo’s fantasy, and also as if to strengthen his own confidence. “To thwart the U.S. Navy here, to turn the tide of defeat… that is what a soldier of the Great Japanese Imperial Navy should do…”

“Execute ‘Operation Dragon.’ Let the U.S. Navy know that the Japanese Navy is the true number one in the world!” Before Nagumo Chuichi could persuade him, he had made up his mind. He clenched his fists and said to his subordinate, “I will personally lead the battleship fleet to lure the U.S. Navy south! You will enter the battlefield from the west and launch a pincer attack on the U.S. Navy! Annihilate the U.S. Pacific Fleet in one fell swoop!”

“Hai!” Nagumo Chuichi bowed his head and replied, “Your Excellency, Marshal, since you have already made up your mind, then I will return to the carrier Kaga to prepare!”

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