Chapter 62 Where is "Shangri-La"

When the first batch of bombers flew over Tokyo, passers-by on the road thought that the Japanese air force was doing a realistic air defense exercise. They all looked up at the top of their heads and waved their hands. air strikes.That kind of horrifying feeling can be described as: dumbfounded! The targets of the U.S. air strikes are mainly military buildings such as steel factories and shipyards, and the Emperor's Palace is not among them.This is because the U.S. military realized that if the Emperor's Palace was bombed, the Japanese would be impatient and desperately fight to the end on the battlefield.

A pilot swooped down to drop a bomb on a steel plant. After dropping the bomb, he looked behind him and saw a scene he would never forget: the steel plant that was shot fell to the ground as if falling apart, and fell into a mass. Black and red clouds. The Japanese counterattack was also considered swift.While sounding the alarm, the ground personnel fired with anti-aircraft guns. The artillery fire was very violent, but the B-25 crew, with their superb driving skills, dodged left and right, and no one was caught. During the Tokyo air raid, Yamamoto was busy mobilizing naval ships to besiege the task force. The Japanese carrier-based aircraft on the aircraft carrier were on standby to take off, but even at the end of the voyage, there was no sign of the task force.

Yamamoto then made a judgment, and the task force knew that it had been discovered, and had given up the attack and withdrew.That's fine, out of sight is out of mind. But at 1 p.m., he received a new report: "Tokyo is under air attack!" The B-25 fleet not only attacked Tokyo, but also bombed Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe and other cities.These reports were sent to the Yamamoto case one after another, which made him at a loss. The Japanese fighter jets dispatched in an emergency were also confused, not knowing which direction the attack came from, and which city to intercept—— Is it Tokyo, or Nagoya, Osaka, or Kobe?

After completing the air strike mission, taking advantage of the chaos, the B-25 fleet flew eastward to the China Sea, and the Japanese fighter jets could not catch up. A total of 80 U.S. military pilots participated in the "B-25 Project". Most of them survived with the help of Chinese soldiers and civilians, and returned to the United States one after another.Doolittle, who served as commander, was awarded a medal by Congress, and then he was promoted from lieutenant colonel to brigadier general. Although the damage caused by the Tokyo air strike to Japan was far less than that of the Pearl Harbor incident, it greatly boosted the morale of the United States and even its allies.Everyone is curious, the sky over Tokyo is so heavily guarded that even a sparrow cannot easily fly in, how did 16 B-25s break into the restricted area and invincible it?

The reporter asked Roosevelt this question, and Roosevelt pretended to be mysterious: "Oh, that was the raid from 'Shangri-La'." The term "Shangri-La" comes from an American novel, which means Wonderland.The humorous president cleverly interpreted this successful sea and air raid with mysterious concepts. In the face of the first air raid in history on the mainland, the Japanese military tried its best to pretend to be indifferent.In English, the name of Air Raid Commander Doolittle has the same pronunciation as "achieve little", so they ridiculed the Tokyo air raid as "achieved little", or even "nothing".

But in fact, the little hearts of the Japanese are almost shattered.The head of the Japanese Navy Command Department, Nagano Shoushen, was sweating all over his face, and he kept circling the conference table, muttering incessantly: "How can this be done, how can this be done." In contrast, Yamamoto, who is regarded as the "Japanese God of War", was quite calm. He commented in a relaxed tone: "This is not a real air raid. For the people of Tokyo, it is just an event that is conducive to raising vigilance." It's just an air defense exercise." However, Yamamoto also felt very useless: "The air raid incident gives people a feeling, as if a smug and high-spirited person has suddenly been fooled by others. What is even more regrettable is that we don't even have a single enemy plane." Shooting down is really a loss of state."

The Japanese, who are used to sneak attacks, have now suffered retribution. The Tokyo air raid made them lose their sense of security.After fighting the cold war all over their bodies, they know that once the United States starts, it will never end hastily. Those B-25 bombers will come again, making the whole of Japan, including Tokyo, fall into a nightmare. Immediately after the air strike ended, the Japanese cabinet held a meeting and punished the relevant personnel responsible for the local air defense.The navy and army have also strengthened their defenses against their own country. The four army fighter brigades that originally planned to fly to mainland China were kept in the country. The navy also deployed two large aircraft carriers and a large number of ships near the Sea of ​​Japan to prepare for raids by US aircraft carriers at any time. come over.

Yamamoto felt that these were far from enough. According to his vision, "a clumsy attack is better than a clever defense", and the best strategy is to use offense as defense. In terms of offense, the Japanese army has always had a dispute about "advancing eastward" and "advancing southward". Since the end of the Java Sea War and the occupation of the East Indies, the Japanese Navy Ministry and Military Command prefer to take Australia as the top priority. Many people advocate Continue south to occupy Australia. The navy puts it lightly, but it is the army that really suffers.There is Mai Shuai in Australia. Although the Australian army under his command is temporarily unable to counterattack the Philippines, it still has the strength to defend Australia. The landing battle is bound to be difficult. Therefore, the Army Staff Headquarters does not agree to directly capture Australia. It believes that it has this strength. It is better to cut off the sea line of communication between the United States and Australia first.

Nagano, the chief of the military command, gathered the views of the navy and the army and formulated a naval battle plan in the Coral Sea aimed at cutting off the communication line between the United States and Australia and isolating Australia. Yamamoto was the eastward faction. He advocated attacking east first and occupying Midway Island. Midway Island is a coral island in the Central Pacific Ocean. It is named because it is located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean route.It is remarkably small in size but extremely strategically important as the northwest gateway and outpost of the Hawaiian Islands.

In Yamamoto's "Z plan", there was originally an attack on Midway Island.When the Nanyun Fleet returned from Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto sent an order saying that if the situation permits, you must air strike Midway Island and strive to destroy it to the point where it can no longer be used. Unexpectedly, Nagumo did not buy this electric order. He refused to execute it on the grounds of bad weather, and said angrily: "It's unreasonable, it's like winning a sumo match, and you have to fight again on the way to victory." It’s like buying a big radish and taking it home.”

Strong soldiers are also overwhelming, and Nanyun is anxious to go home to hold the championship trophy, so he has no time to do other things. In his opinion, Yamamoto is purely deceived by lard and used him as a coolie. The "big radish" was not bought at that time, but now it has appreciated in value, and it will cost a lot of money, but in Yamamoto's view, it is worth spending a lot of money. This proposition of Yamamoto was opposed by most people in the military command, even Nagumo disagreed, and the plan was repeatedly delayed. The Tokyo Raid marked a fundamental turning point in the war.Since Roosevelt said "Shangri-La", the senior staff of the Japanese navy and army have been looking around on various maps to guess where it is. Under the premise of not knowing the US "take off the B-25 from an aircraft carrier", everyone can only think that the plane took off from a land base.There are two bases as options. One is the Aleutian Islands, which are uninhabited and uninhabited. It is unlikely that the rest is Midway Island. Midway Island is the US military stronghold closest to Tokyo, and the Japanese concluded that Midway Island is the legendary "Shangri-La". This undoubtedly provided an important theoretical basis for the Midway Island plan.Yamamoto then insisted again that he believed that the defensive circle must be pushed eastward to Midway Island without hesitation, and the action must be fast, whoever lays the rice first, who eats first, so as to ensure the safety of the mainland to the greatest extent. The big bosses of the military command were also frightened by the air strikes. They felt that the threat from the east was the top priority, and that "going east" was indeed necessary. However, the "Southern Advance" was also reluctant to lose, so Nagano made the decision and compromised the two into a plan that went hand in hand, that is, the "Southward Advance" remained the same, and the "East Advance" would not be delayed. Land and push forward. The Japanese spread their stalls too big, and this eagerness to play was exactly what Nimitz wanted.