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Text Chapter 953 The First Battle on the Subcontinent (6)

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    Two identical straight lines heading south instantly escalated the war in the South Asian subcontinent.  Li Zongren and Cui Kefu coincidentally chose to use their allies as cover, which also created a legend.

    Since the plan was proposed by Chuikov, Yabyshev simply made him the commander-in-chief.  But Chuikov did not want to seize power as soon as he came and wipe out Yabyshev's achievements over the years. Finally, after discussions between Cherepanov and Ranadivi, they decided to continue to let Yabyshev be the commander-in-chief, and Chuikov became the general staff of the Soviet-Indian Army.  Chief, he himself serves as political commissar.  On the night the plan was decided, Chuikov led six main divisions to move towards Nagpur. Yabyshev also handed him a heavy armored train as a headquarters.  Cherepanov and representatives of Ranadivi led two elite divisions composed entirely of Soviet veterans to go north, detouring through the Madhya Pradesh controlled by Nehru, and then turned back to the Narmada River and persuaded Nehru to  Lu opened the channel to surprise Burhanpur.  After the two set off, Yabyshev himself led the remaining two divisions to launch a fierce attack on Eluru, 60 kilometers to the south. He also contacted Shojiro Iida and asked Japanese destroyers to help bombard the port of Megilli Bodenam, holding back the British forces in the east.  The main force of the army was to prevent them from retreating to Hyderabad.

    ??Eluru and Mergilibdenham were the locations of the British East India Company's first factory. There were strong fortresses built in the harbors, so the battle was very fierce.  But the British army didn't know that the opponent they faced was no longer Yabyshev, who had been encircled and suppressed several times and had a familiar fighting style, but another very powerful opponent.

    Soon after the start of Eluru, dozens of trains carrying Chuikov¡¯s main force began to head north and then turned back to the south.  Sitting in the train with the lights turned off and looking out the window, Chuikov had to admit that India was a very strange country and was deeply influenced by British enslavement and colonization.  Even though there are hundreds of millions of people here, the people are almost deaf to the outside world.  Even when the sound of gunfire spread all over India, most locals still watched the sunrise and sunset, or simply fled with their families, completely lacking the will to resist.

    The train speed of 25 kilometers per hour is comparable to a snail, but we have to admit that the Indian railway network is really perfect.  Under the leadership of the leaders of the Grand Party of the Indian Republic, they were able to easily bypass the British defense zone and the journey was smooth.  The rails damaged by the British army were repaired with steel rails brought from Bokaro. Even the bridges were repaired with Chinese Bailey Bridge technology borrowed from Central Asia.  A march like a walk.  Chuikov, who was attacked by Chinese troops every day in Central Asia, lamented that if Central Asia also had such a huge railway network, no matter how slow the speed was, the Soviet Union would not be able to lose Central Asia!

    India is too big, and it is impossible for Orin Lake and Quinan to garrison every city with only 200,000 troops.  We had to abandon the countryside and unimportant small towns first and focus on defending the core cities.  Because of this strategy, the British blockade that Chuikov was most worried about did not appear at all.  So much so that when the orderly told him the next night that he was less than 50 kilometers away from Nagpur, he was stunned for a long time.

    From a geographical point of view, Nagpur is the center point of the Indian peninsula, with the Waingunge River passing through the northeast of the city.  In 1887.  The British built the Queen of India Steel Works here, and all the crude steel exported to Japan in the early days was shipped from here.  Moreover, textile printing and dyeing and other industrial sprouts appeared here at the end of the 19th century, so the city was very prosperous.  With a population of over one million, it is the largest city after Mumbai.

    The people defending here are the 17th British Seal Division, which was formed just after the war.

    Chuikov¡¯s preparation for the attack was very simple. He asked the Sikh soldiers to take off their military uniforms and stand on the roof of an ordinary train.  Then the windows and outside were hung with clutter, making the whole train look like it was filled with refugees from the East.  Then let a battalion of bridge commandos mix in.  Slow down and drive slowly towards the railway bridge.

    "Captain Al, come and see."

    Next to the railway bridge across the Weingange River in the northeast of the city, an Australian sentry from the 29th Punjab Battalion woke up the battalion commander, Captain Ayre from South Africa.  "What is that?" The disguised train did not turn off its lights. On the contrary, in order to confuse the British troops, all the lights were deliberately turned on.  "It looks like a refugee train." After the sentry made his judgment, he handed the binoculars to Captain Al.

    Chuikov¡¯s disguise worked. The messy figures under the lights and on the roof of the car made Captain Al and the soldiers breathe a sigh of relief.  But he still waved his hand alertly: "Get the detonator ready and check immediately when the train approaches." In order to prevent enemy sneak attacks, hundreds of kilograms of explosives have been buried under the railway bridge. Captain Al believed that no enemy could pass under his nose.  here.

    As the train got closer and closer, several sentries began to shake the kerosene lamps vigorously to signal the train to stop for inspection.  Under the guidance of the lights, the train wheels made a harsh friction sound, and then slowed down again.  But just when Captain Ayre arranged for the soldiers to get on the vehicle for inspection, several black spots suddenly sprayed out from the crowd on the roof of the vehicle, and the mortars deployed on the roof of the vehicle accurately hit the outpost 500 meters away.

    "Ula!"

    At the same time as the explosion sounded, hundreds of Soviet veterans came out of theHe jumped off the low-speed train, and the train immediately accelerated towards the other side.  The outpost was torn apart by the violent explosion, and the detonator prepared by Captain Al was destroyed before it could take effect.  The impact caused pushed him and the soldiers to the ground.  "Damn it! Enemy attack! Enemy attack! Manual detonation!" Seeing this situation, Lieutenant Al, whose face was covered with blood, immediately reacted.  Decisively issued the order for manual detonation.  A machine gunner turned around and started firing at the explosive packets on the bridge pier. However, after just one round of bullets, he was torn apart by more than a dozen DP machine guns on the train.  Upon seeing this, Captain Al rushed forward desperately, hoping to take over the shooting, but it was too late!  The train roared past him, and large groups of Soviet soldiers were "sprayed" from both sides like artillery shells, flooding the two sections of outposts in an instant.

    "Attack!" After receiving the signal, Chuikov ordered the attack without hesitation. The leading troops of the two divisions rushed along the railway bridge, like a flood opening, into the bustling city of Nagpur¡ª¡ª

    Mumbai.

    In the British Indian Theater Command, the phone kept ringing.  "Damn it, who's calling so late?" Auchinleck, wearing military uniform and sleeping on the sofa, looked at his watch and cursed.

    He was really tired. Ever since the Japanese army attacked Bengal and Calcutta, he had faced a mess with a shortage of major generals.  On the one hand, it is necessary to reorganize the troops to prevent the Japanese army from continuing to penetrate deeper, and on the other hand, it is necessary to defend the National Congress Party and the Soviet-Indian Army in the north.  If that's all you might be able to handle, there's much worse.  He also needs to recruit and train more Indian soldiers and send them to the Middle East and North Africa to help.  Therefore, he was under great pressure, especially after the Congress Party and the Communist Party of India launched a surprise attack on Pokaro at the end of last month, and hundreds of thousands of troops marched south. The fifty-year-old man basically never rested and could only sleep three or four hours a day.  Even if China promised to send troops and quickly sent Li Zongren, he did not dare to rest.  Because he must ensure that Delhi and southern India are defended, otherwise even if the Chinese troops arrive, if he loses Bombay and southern India.  Then this battle is lost without having to fight.

    Britain without India is unimaginable!

    So he gritted his teeth and persisted, relying on the 200,000 miscellaneous British and Indian divisions formed after the war to resist Japan in the east and defend the powerful enemy in the north. He tried his best to wait until the Battle of Rangpur began.  The Chinese ** Corps officially set foot on the Indian battlefield.  I thought I could have a good sleep, and then get up and join Li Zongren in a two-sided attack to regain the lost ground, but unexpectedly I was woken up by the phone ring just as I fell asleep.

    "What? It's true!" After picking up the phone, after hearing a few words, he stood up from the sofa and said, "Okay, I'll go right away. Call General Quinan and others to ask them to  They all go to you!"

    Auchinleck put down the phone.  He grabbed his pistol and rushed to the war room next door. His hurried steps startled the orderly who was napping at the door. He quickly stood up and saluted: "General, what happened?"

    ¡°The Italians have begun to attack Greece!¡±

    "Greece? Why did Mussolini attack Greece? Didn't Metaxas declare neutrality? And he was Hitler's uncle (slang. Ironically, Metaxas sympathized with Hitler). General, will our logistics be affected?  Interrupted? Can Cairo and Suez still be defended?" The orderly asked a series of questions that Auchinleck could not answer.

    Like the orderlies, he was also very worried about the security of the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal.  To know.  The Battle of the Andaman Sea caused the Royal Navy to lose two Prestige-class battlecruisers, and the Battle of the Seychelles resulted in the loss of two battleships, the HMS Arenas, the Avenger, and the Ramillies.  Trebuchet in action.  The Hood was lost, and five battleships were damaged, making it impossible to undocking before Christmas!  Coupled with the losses in the Atlantic Ocean, the Royal Navy is almost no longer able to assemble a decent fleet!  Therefore, after the Soviet Union sold nearly a hundred ships to Nazi Germany not long ago, Whitehall had to withdraw half of the Mediterranean fleet to strengthen the domestic fleet.  In this case, once the entire Italian navy is dispatched to attack Greece, what should the Mediterranean fleet do?  Will Cunningham fight it out?  If it fails, Egypt North Africa and the Middle East¡­.

    He couldn¡¯t even imagine it!

    Porcaro has been lost. If the Suez supply channel is lost again, the war will really be over.

    So as soon as he entered the staff room, Chief of Staff Bogdic handed him Wavell's telegram: "The situation is very bad. General Wavell is worried that the Soviets will take the opportunity to attack Baghdad and Turkey, and attack the Bosporus with Italy.  Strait, so he wants us to immediately reinforce three to four divisions This is a telegram just received from General Cunningham. He is also worried that the Soviets will cooperate with Italy to attack the Strait. He asked me to tell you,  There are more than a hundred warships in the Black Sea! If they are released, the entire Mediterranean will be destroyed! So he also asked us to immediately support General Wavell and never let Turkey and Greece fall!"

    How could Auchinleck not know that there was a giant beast trapped in the Black Sea, butHow many troops do you have now?  Counting what was consumed during this period, there are less than thirteen divisions left in total, and three of them are in places such as Eluru and Hyderabad, which are being fiercely attacked by the Soviet army.  To make matters worse, Nehru's declaration of nationhood and the joint boycott of the Congress Party and the Communist Party of India prevented him from recruiting more suitable soldiers.  Of course, there are many Indian soldiers, but the only ones who can fight are the Sikhs and a few other ethnic groups. Even if the rest are recruited into the army, it will be a waste of food. He is not willing to send a group of soldiers who are likely to defect at any time to Wavell, which will only cause chaos.  .

    Now we have to take away three to four divisions at once, what should we do?  Auchinleck's cheeks were sunken, and he looked at Quinan: "What should I do?" Quinan gritted his teeth and counted every part of his force several times before raising two fingers: "I can use the ones I'm training.  Recruits fill the gap, but there are only two divisions at most, this is the limit!"

    "Okay." Auchinleck pursed his lips, nodded seriously, and turned to Chief of Staff Bogdich: "Contact General Li Zongren in China and please tell them that the two divisions in the Persian Gulf must arrive within a week!  "Bogdich is a strong and energetic officer who picked up the phone immediately after receiving the order.  But as soon as his hand touched the phone, the ring rang, and then a more serious news exploded in the conference room!

    Nagpur was attacked by tens of thousands of Soviet soldiers!

    Nearly half of the 17th British Indian Division suffered casualties!
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