Add Bookmark | Recommend this book | Back to the book page | My bookshelf | Mobile Reading

Free Web Novel,Novel online - All in oicq.net -> Historic -> Mixed in the war

Text Chapter 566 The British Commander¡¯s Speculations

Previous page        Return to Catalog        Next page

    Many people thought Qin Wei was fooling around.  But there are also many people who see the "deep meaning" behind Qin Wei, even though these so-called "deep meanings" may not even Qin Wei himself have thought of.  Among them, Archibald Percival Wavell, Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army of the British Empire, is the one who most associates with his profound meaning.  Wavell, the future Field Marshal of the British Army, was taciturn, loyal and gentle, and was considered a better general than Churchill and many other British generals in later generations.  And he does meet this evaluation.  At that time, shortly after Germany invaded Poland, Wavell was ordered to go to Egypt to take over as the commander-in-chief of the British Army Command in the Middle East, commanding the only 50,000 British troops in the Middle East.  What he needed to face were the two armies in North Africa led by Italian Marshal Rodolfo Grazia, with a total of 250,000 troops, and the army led by the Duke of Aosta, stationed in Abyssinia, that is,  Later, Ethiopia and the Italian East African Army in Somalia totaled 300,000 people.  50,000 people faced an enemy of 550,000 people. Although the number of British troops gradually increased after that, the situation faced by Wavell was still cruel.  Because he not only has a small number of people, but also has a serious shortage of personnel in the troops under his jurisdiction. These troops are poorly trained and extremely short of equipment and ammunition.  But he not only wants to use these people to defend the Middle East, but also to keep the communication lines of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea open.  In addition, he also faced the blind command of someone from London. This person was Churchill When the battle with the Italians was about to begin, Churchill actually ordered Wavell to redeploy his few troops.  Part of it supports the European battlefield.  Fortunately, John Greer Dill, then the Chief of Staff of the British Army, knew that the situation faced by Wavell was extremely bad and discussed it with him.  Secretly suppressing Churchill's order and deliberately delaying it, this ensured that the British army in the Middle East would have a certain strength after the two armies went to war.  But in this way, Wavell also offended Churchill.  Later, in the battle in North Africa, Wavell led the British army to advance more than 800 kilometers in two months with exquisite command.  The troops led by Rodolfo Grazia were defeated. Not only did they force Rodolfo Grazia's troops back to Tripoli, they also captured more than 130,000 officers and soldiers from nine Italian divisions and seized nearly 400 tanks.  and one thousand two hundred and ninety pieces of artillery.  After the decisive victory in the North African Campaign, Wavell did not let the troops rest. Instead, he transferred some troops directly to East Africa to support the British army fighting against Aosta in East Africa.  after.  War after war broke out, and the British army forced the Italians to retreat. They successively liberated Abyssinia and Somalia and achieved a great victory in East Africa.  Unfortunately, just when the war situation was going smoothly, Prime Minister Churchill, who was described by Hitler as "a bad soldier among politicians. A bad politician among soldiers" came to interfere with Wavell's actions again and asked him to transfer the main force of the four divisions to  The Greek battlefield was under attack by the Axis powers.  As a result, the British army was short of troops on both battlefields at the same time. It was unable to save the crisis on the Greek battlefield and also left Wavell lacking sufficient troops to pursue the Italian army.  This allowed Mussolini's reinforcements to quickly join up with the defeated troops after landing in North Africa.  Gained a foothold and moved into counterattack.  And this battle.  The British army lost. Although the losses were not large, the war situation began to turn against the British army.  Eventually, Wavell had to withdraw his troops to Egypt and watch Italy reoccupy Libya.  Later, in order to shirk responsibility, Churchill decided to change horses after repeated consideration.  After discussing with relevant parties in the cabinet and military circles, he decided to let Indian Commander-in-Chief Auchinleck serve as Commander-in-Chief in the Middle East, and let Wavell serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army.  Unexpectedly, Wavell would have to face the crisis of Japanese attack soon. ?¡­ ?Since the beginning of World War II, the Middle East and the Soviet Union have received more attention in the entire British strategic decision-making, and have also received priority in the allocation of manpower and materials.  Compared with these two regions, the air force with a strength of 300 to 500 fighters that Malaya hoped for has never been realized.  The British Army in Malaya also hoped to have enough tanks, but until the Japanese invaded the Philippines, they failed to obtain support from a single tank or even an armored vehicle from the British mainland.  After Wavell took over the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, through his understanding of the situation in Southeast Asia and South Asia, he pointed out that the Indian military was extremely weak. Therefore, the government should also include Myanmar under the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in India, that is, under him.  But it was not until the Japanese army officially invaded the Philippines that London approved his request. By the way, Malaya, which was also in trouble, was also handed over to him.  Afterwards, Wavell quickly formulated a "Operation Matador" plan with British General Brooke Popham stationed in Singapore, hoping to lead the British army to preemptively invade southern Siam and destroy possible Japanese landing sites to prevent the Japanese invasion.  After these places, get the pedal south.  But thisThe plan failed to gain the consent of the British government at the beginning, especially Churchill The prime minister who always opposed Wavell insisted that as long as the Chinese troops stayed in Vietnam and Cambodia for one day, it would be impossible for the Japanese to attack directly  Siam.  And if the Japanese can invade Siam, it will be more beneficial to the British war situation in Southeast Asia The Japanese cannot ignore the presence of the Chinese army in French Indochina in any case.  If they take Siam, they will inevitably have conflicts with the Chinese army in Vietnam and Cambodia.  In this way, the pressure on the British side will naturally be reduced.  They even only need to threaten the Burma Highway a little, and the Chinese will have to fight the Japanese to the death between these three small countries.  After all, China cannot lose its external lines of communication.  Without this line of communication, it would be difficult for them to obtain large-scale assistance from foreign countries, which would be extremely detrimental to the entire anti-war situation in China.  Although Churchill did not stick to his point of view in the end, he also felt that the hope of the British Empire could not be placed on other countries, so he agreed to this "Matador Plan".  But when Wavell and others received the order, the Chinese army suddenly withdrew from Cambodia and southern Vietnam.  Wavell and Popham were immediately stunned by this move.  If the Japanese really get a landing site in Siam and use it as a stepping stone to move south.  Cutting off the connection between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, where can the Chinese get assistance?  They do this.  Haven't you thought about the consequences?  And then, another trouble came: Churchill sent a telegram to Popham, claiming that Popham had been relieved of his duties and that the War Cabinet would send a much younger man to replace him.  As a result, Popham had no intention of working.  They are all going to be laid off, so why fight like this again?  If we win, we will face a fierce attack by hundreds of thousands of Japanese troops. MacArthur can be considered a famous general.  They were all beaten to the point of being unable to fight back, can you do it yourself?  And if defeated, the end will definitely be even worse.  You can't even beat the Siamese, how dare you?  Anyway, that young man is coming soon. If he waits a little longer he is already a general. It doesn't matter whether he earns the title of marshal or not, right?     that's all.  Even though Wavell was good-tempered and well-educated, he almost didn't get mad at Churchill and Popham.  He suspected that these two people were his nemesis, especially Churchill, who always caused him trouble at the most critical moments.  If he hadn't known that it was impossible, he would have even considered fighting that guy.  Although he was blinded in one eye during World War I.  He became a "one-eyed dragon", but he was confident that it would not take much effort on his part to deal with that short fat man.  However, after getting angry, Wavell found that his luck still had not improved.  He seemed to be an outcast of God.  After Churchill, we actually had to face two big troubles: the Chinese and the Americans. ?¡­ ?¡°Military exercises?¡± Calcutta.  At the Indian Army Headquarters, General Wavell, who had always been taciturn and mild-tempered, finally burst out uncontrollably: "This is simply the biggest joke in history The war is about to break out, but they still have the leisure to have fun there? They are simply  Deliberately, deliberately¡ª¡ª" "The Chinese insisted on establishing an Asian theater and wanted to dominate the United Kingdom and the United States on this land. Now that they find it impossible, they are slightly tilted towards the Americans" "Arthur Pere.  Sibal, a British Army Lieutenant General, was the "young man" sent by Churchill to replace Popham. He was not impressive in appearance and had an unremarkable manner, but he was considered to have a strong character and superhuman courage. He had trained and taught at the Staff School.  , was highly valued by the upper echelons of the British army. He was also sent to Malaya to study local defense, and all the plans he drafted were adopted. Perhaps it was because of this that he would definitely take over the position of chief of staff of the British army.  Churchill valued him and sent him to replace Popham at this time of war. But before he arrived in Singapore, the British lieutenant general who had high hopes began to have a headache. "If I were MacArthur, I would definitely not.  Would pass up such a great opportunity.  As long as it can win and gain military dominance in Asia, the United States will be able to take the lead in the distribution of post-war interests in most of Asia in the future.  " "More than that, my friend.  "Although he was angry at Churchill's temporary replacement of Popham, Wavell did not spread this emotion to Percival. He took a breath and sighed: "The so-called exercise is just what they want.  Just an excuse to sit back and watch the Japanese attack us.  They want to use the power of the Japanese to reduce our military presence in Asia, especially Southeast Asia.  " "They are playing with fire.  "Percival said solemnly, "Our defense strength in various departments in Malaya and Singapore is very insufficient.  Our air force only has 158 aircraft, while Japan has 560. We have no tanks, while the Japanese have more than 200.   We have two armies, but the Malayan Army only has two brigades, and they are entirely local troops, not regular troops; as for the other Indian Third Army, although there areA division, but they have never been trained in jungle warfare.  I heard General Popham say in a telegram that these people are not even willing to leave the few roads in Malaya" "I can send two divisions to reinforce you, but I hope you can do it as soon as possible.  'Project Matador'!  Only by seizing the possible landing sites for the Japanese troops in Siam can we gain the upper hand.  "Wavell said. "Thank you, General.  "Percival saluted Wavell. "Be careful.  The actions of the Japanese have always puzzled me greatly.  It stands to reason that after they surrounded MacArthur in the Philippines, they should immediately deploy troops to attack Siam, and then use it as a springboard to attack Singapore and Malaya, and then enter Indonesia But now they have used airborne troops to seize the two major areas in Indonesia.  The oil fields, most of the army and navy are still in the Philippines they must have something up their sleeves.  "Wavell said. "Then do you think they want to take advantage of this so-called military exercise to target China and the United States?  "Percival asked suddenly. "You mean" "That's right.  "Percival nodded heavily, "If it were me, I would definitely not give up such an excellent opportunity.  After all, just by attacking us, Japan may be attacked from the side and rear by the Chinese at any time. I think this should be the reason why their military operations are always so slow.  But if they defeated the Chinese first, the situation would be completely different.  " ""
Didn't finish reading? Add this book to your favoritesI'm a member and bookmarked this chapterCopy the address of this book and recommend it to your friends for pointsChapter error? Click here to report