Chapter 36 The brave paratrooper

There was no moon that night, and a Dutch submarine suddenly appeared in the middle of the night and fired torpedoes at the troop carrier.Miss, and the sub is gone. The frightened escort fleet hurriedly dispatched a destroyer to search everywhere, but found no trace of the submarine. The Dutch submarine may have really left, but the four destroyers of the US Asian Fleet came, and this happened to be the time when the Japanese destroyers diverted their attention and left temporarily. On the shore, the defenders were destroying the Balikpapan oil well. The burning oil well reflected the sky red, and the outline of the Japanese ship was clearly reflected in the fire, which made it easy for the US destroyer to find the target.

Since the Pearl Harbor incident, the Americans held their breath for too long, and the sailors got excited and fired 48 torpedoes at once, which almost wiped out all the torpedoes on board, and sank three transport ships and one patrol boat. , killing more than a thousand Japanese soldiers. During the entire period of the Dutch East Indies operation, this was the only naval battle won by the Allies, and when the American fleet returned to Java, the sailors were all jubilant.It is a pity that the U.S. military failed to destroy the entire Japanese fleet. What is even more frustrating is that the Sakaguchi detachment had all landed before the raid, and the Japanese attack on Balikpapan was not greatly affected.

Balikpapan fell again.Wavell set up a Malaysian barrier for the Allied forces in advance. Its line of defense was from Malaysia in the east, Java in the middle, and Australia in the east. However, by February 9, 1942, the periphery of the Malaysian barrier had been completely breached by the Japanese army. The Japanese army began to assault the Malaysian barrier, and Imamura was about to take command in person. You can't go without a horse.The 16th Army originally planned to capture Java before April 29, but Terauchi, the commander-in-chief of the Southern Army, advanced the plan by one month and told Imamura that if Java could not be captured within the time limit, there was a danger of being preempted by the Allied forces.

After the Battle of Malaysia, the remaining British fleets scrambled to withdraw to Palembang in southern Sumatra. At the same time, the support forces of the Allied Air Force also tended to gather in Palembang.Palembang is not only an important aviation base within the barrier of Malaysia, but also another large oil-producing area besides the Bali area. Si Nei wants to prevent the Allied forces from launching a counterattack based on Palembang, but also worries that they are slow to move. The oil field and oil production facilities were damaged. During the capture of Tarakan and Balikpapan, the Allied forces blew up some oil refining facilities during the fighting, which made the Japanese very distressed.They went to the East India to grab oil, and they couldn't lose the oil refiners.

Can't wait for Yamashita to capture Singapore, Terauchi took out the Third Flying Group and handed it over to Imamura.This can also be seen as the unique strategy of wearing small shoes in the temple, a combination of public and private, which not only suppressed the mountain, but also left others speechless. The temple was watching closely, and Imamura naturally didn't dare to neglect.He had wanted to join the 38th Division to capture Palembang by storm landing, but he temporarily canceled this decision because he couldn't afford it. In its place was another, more risky form of attack: airborne.

On the morning of February 14, 1942, a group of planes appeared over Palembang. All of them had the identification marks of British aircraft on them, but they were actually camouflaged transport planes carrying Japanese paratroopers. The Japanese airborne troops were established relatively late, and it was only a matter of two years since they were formally established.Immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese army tried airborne operations on the outlying islands of the Dutch East Indies, including Manado and other places, thus accumulating certain experience. Before the airborne, Imamura not only used the third flight group to repeatedly bomb Palembang, but also carried out aerial photographic reconnaissance of the target location. However, no matter how accurate and clear the photos were, they could not reflect the three-dimensional picture of the surroundings, which made the paratroopers suffer greatly. head.

The target location was the airport and the oil refinery, surrounded by bushes and swamps. Half of the parachutes were hanging on the treetops, which meant that half of the paratroopers still couldn't land. Those who finally landed hurriedly looked for weapons. This weapon mainly refers to heavy machine guns. Paratroopers cannot carry it with them. They can only be packed in airdrop bags and can only be obtained after landing. A group of people were looking for guns with staring eyes, but the Allied forces refused to let them go. The soldiers guarding the airport used anti-aircraft guns to shoot flat. In addition, the line of sight in the forest was blocked, so it was not so easy to find something.The paratroopers had no choice but to give up searching for the time being. They pulled out the pistols they were wearing, and as agreed in advance, they charged in groups of three towards the airport and the oil refinery.

The paratroopers have received rigorous training similar to the current special forces. The quality of individual soldiers is very high, and they are also extremely fierce in battle.A paratrooper was surrounded by more than 20 Allied soldiers. He knocked down eight of them by himself, and finally blasted his head off with a pistol while sitting upright.A Dutch lieutenant recalled that he felt a little overwhelmed fighting against such brave Japanese soldiers. Ten hours after landing, Japanese paratroopers took over the airfield, and then they captured two large oil refineries.With the fall of Palembang, Japan has controlled half of the oil reserves of the Dutch East Indies.

On February 15, 1942, Singapore and Palembang changed hands almost at the same time, which marked that a big gap was torn in the barrier of Malaysia, and the time for the center to bloom was ripe. The main force of the 16th Army was assembled in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, and the 48th Division drawn from Honma was also waiting for an opportunity to dispatch at the southern tip of the Philippines, and the sea-crossing operation directly pointing to Java Island was about to begin. At this juncture, Imamura suddenly became worried.