mesbooks Chapter 349: Battle for Chittagong (1) John’s people take the lead
Chapter 349: Battle for Chittagong (1) John’s people take the lead
The meeting in Number 10 Downing Street continues.
Many ministers are still struggling.
They can't just sit there and do nothing, because that would mean completely admitting defeat.
They couldn't fight head-on, as that would mean losing more troops and resources, and Great Britain could no longer withstand further consumption.
And the Anmin Army is still pressing forward step by step.
"Do we...negotiate?"
Finally, Attlee, who was in charge of colonial affairs, spoke up: "Are we going to negotiate?"
Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden glared at him: "Impossible!"
Once negotiations begin, it would be a disguised concession, which would be a huge blow to Eden himself and the prestige of the ruling party, and would only benefit Attlee, the leader of the opposition.
"But Prime Minister," Attlee looked at Churchill, "if we don't want to continue losing, negotiation may be our only option."
Churchill's eyes darkened and the conference room fell silent again.
After a long time, he slowly spoke in a low voice: "Send someone to test it out."
"Just a test."
"If those yellow monkeys dare to ask for too much, then tell them that Great Britain will never bow its head."
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Go back to a few days ago.
At this time, Chittagong was run like an iron barrel by the People's Security Army.
Under the pretext of helping to restore local order and prevent the resurgence of the Chandra elements, the lackeys of the Japanese devils, the People's Security Army stayed in this port on the northeast coast of the Bay of Bengal with a high-sounding excuse.
At this time, Sindhu had not yet split up, and Chittagong still belonged to the Sindhu colony directly under the John people. The port city area was less than 30 square kilometers, and the urban population, including laborers and migrant population, exceeded 10.
However, about 40% of the "citizens" were actually wartime refugees with no fixed residence. These refugees fled the war in Southeast Asia and lived in abandoned cargo containers at the docks or sugarcane bagasse houses.
The entire Chittagong area, a prosperous region along the Bay of Bengal, has a population of 280 million.
Previously, in order to transport supplies, the Allied forces expanded temporary docks, warehouse areas and military camps in the suburbs. Now these buildings are naturally taken advantage of by the Security Army.
Considering that there were too many irrelevant civilians in the port area, which was not conducive to defense, Zhang Chi directly instructed Bai Minghui, who was in charge of the local area, to distribute the seized John banknotes and supplies to these refugees, allowing these Indians and natives to leave the city and fend for themselves.
In order to prevent John's spies from causing sabotage among outsiders, the entire city basically entered a mode of allowing exit but not entry.
Since the People's Army of the Security followed the Japanese army to occupy Chittagong, the 14th Army of the John people dispatched a large number of troops to surround Chittagong. Although they did not dare to take the initiative to attack at the beginning, they also confronted the People's Army of the Security in Chittagong.
安民军3个步兵师在吉大港外布置了多条防线，而斯利姆将军则在外围聚拢了第5、7、23三个身毒师，外加来自本土的第36步兵师，来自西阿非卡的第81、82两个殖民地师以及第50装甲旅。
Although only the 36th Division and the 50th Armored Brigade in the mainland can be considered elite, and the rest are weak troops, but with so many numbers in hand, General Slim's confidence still grows day by day.
As he continued to send orders to Prime Minister Qiu for war, Prime Minister Qiu, who had originally wanted to resort to force to resolve the situation and teach Zhang Chi a lesson, finally overruled the opposition and issued an order to attempt an attack.
On August 27, at 9:27 a.m. local time in Chittagong, the Qionghaojing-1 early warning radar in the port detected signals of a large number of aircraft taking off from the northwest, more than 8 kilometers away.
Because they did not believe that the Chinese could develop large radars, the arrogant John Air Force commander insisted that the huge rotating antenna of the Qionghaojing-1 was a model put up by the People's Security Army to scare people. Therefore, these takeoff planes did not try to dodge at low altitudes or make decoy flights in other directions, but flew straight towards Chittagong.
This should have been a successful raid. John's people made a lot of preparations in advance and strictly isolated the offensive plan from the White Eagle's allied forces. It can be said that no news was leaked at all.
Unfortunately, the Anmin Army has radar.
After receiving the notification from the radar station, Bai Minghui immediately judged that the John people's takeoff of such a large fleet was not an exercise, but was heading for Chittagong.
He was extremely vigilant and ordered his troops to enter a state of combat readiness. At the same time, he contacted Zhang Chi in Pegu via radio to inform him of the situation.
At 9:21, as the alarm sounded, 36 combat-ready P-47 fighters of the 13th Air Division deployed at the airport in the port immediately took off. After a short time of formation, they began to climb and occupied a favorable altitude and position.
At the same time, the remaining crew quickly warmed up the engine. The ground crew shouted slogans and pushed a cart loaded with long, yellow ammunition belts for the 12.7mm heavy machine gun.
这些弹链每一节是400发或是450发，其中每2发穿甲弹后搭配2发穿甲燃烧弹再搭配1发传家燃烧曳光弹用于校准弹道。
The P47D-28 fighter jets equipped by the 13th Air Division had a total of 8 12.7mm Browning aircraft machine guns installed in their thick wings. The burly ground crew members stood on the open wing skins, placed the ammunition belts in the space inside the wings one by one, and loaded the 4 heavy machine guns with ammunition one by one.
A 12.7mm bullet weighs about 40 grams, and a 400-round belt weighs more than 16 kg. Even with the help of equipment, holding the belt to install it is still a hard job, no less effective than lifting weights in the gym for muscle training.
In the hot weather, the ground crew member with his hat tilted on his head quickly broke out in sweat, cursing:
"F**k off! Last time, it took me half a day to stuff eight belts and 3400 rounds of ammunition into the wings, but Ou Chengren, on his first flight, held down the trigger and wouldn't let go, and he blew them all away in just a few minutes!"
Another ground crew member who was checking the engine smiled and said, "It's a common thing. Even though these guys are fine during training, they tend to get too nervous when it comes to live-fire shooting."
At 9:31, another 14 P47 fighters were ready, and the pilots carrying parachutes quickly climbed the boarding ladder and jumped into the cockpit.
The ground crew, wearing their hat askew, patted the fuselage of the plane and shouted, "Handsome boy from the Ou family, fight well and don't embarrass yourself!"
At 9:35, the Qionghaojing-1 early warning radar in the port made new discoveries.
The radar soldier quickly reported:
"Due west, 80 kilometers away, another 30 or more signals appeared. Based on their speed and signal size, they are suspected to be Swordfish biplane attack aircraft!"
Since there is a one in ten million chance that the John people will still be bluffing like in the exercises a few days ago, and the two sides are at least still allies in the same camp, Bai Minghui, the commander-in-chief, did not order to open fire directly.
Inside the command center, facing a group of officers and soldiers who were already eager to try, he calmly gave orders:
"Commander Zhang's exact words were, 'We can choose not to fire the first shot, but we must prevent the Ansa Japs from firing a second shot.' Yes, load up all the guns with live ammunition, and have the anti-aircraft artillery install the VT fuses!"