Chapter 41: Planning
During the period after Operation Barbarossa, the Reich continued to recover from the disastrous war and continued to expand the Kriegsmarine. The escort vessels for two more fleets were commissioned, and escorts for two carrier task forces were launched. The projected completion date for the original Plan Z vessels was in August of 1943.
Meanwhile, the 2nd Sino-Japanese War had slowly changed from that of a perpetual stalemate to having Japan slowly gain ground toward the province of Shanxi. It was this development that prompted a Chinese call for assistance. While not a call to arms in the form Romania chose to take when asking for Axis assistance, China's more subtle approach made by ambassador Cheng Tian Fang was directed solely toward the Reich and its new, modern fleet. Cheng's request for assistance was greeted warmly, for the Reich had several reasons to intervene in the war.
To the casual observer, such a decision seems odd. Indeed, with the Soviet Union still existing in the form of a rump state, it is natural to assume that after recovery, the Reich would immediately attempt to destroy its hated enemy. However, declaring war on Japan while the Soviet Union still existed as deemed to be the better course of actions, for three reasons.
Before the Great War, the German Empire had held vast stretches of island chains in the Pacific, mainly for use as coaling stations for its merchant fleet traveling across the Pacific. During the war, Japan had taken most of these islands, and kept them after the war in order to create a protective ring east of its homeland in the event of a war with the United States, Japan's greatest rival. In the event of a war with the United Nations, the alliance created by the USA, the Reich's military planners decided that regaining control of these islands was essential, as they not only allowed access to the UN members of Australia and New Zealand, but could be used as a launching point to take Hawaii, and from there the American West Coast.
A map showing the pre-WW1 colonial empires of various nations. The German Empire's possessions are highlighted in blue.
The second reason was that Japan possessed the world's 2nd largest navy, after the United States. While the ships of the Kriegsmarine are new and state-of-the-art, the Kriegsmarine only numbered at 71 naval units, while Japan had an estimated 120 naval units, including several highly advanced aircraft carriers. The belief was that, while casualties were expected on both sides, if the Reich took advantage of surprise and quickly occupied Japan itself, then the Japanese fleet could potentially be captured mostly intact, sparing the Reich from the debacle with the Allied surrender, in which the RN and MN sailors scuttled their ships before the Reich could take possession of them.
The third reason for choosing to attack Japan while leaving the USSR in its current state, had nothing to do with Japan itself, but rather the USSR. Unlike Operation Barbarossa, which aimed to take the the industrial, cultural, and population center of the USSR, any further attack would not be able to force a quick surrender. Aside from the towns near the Ural Mountains, the remaining population of the USSR was scattered about Asia. While the Red Army was greatly reduced in size and deemed to be inconsequential, the sheer size of Siberia and Central Asia would've been the most daunting obstacle. It was theorized that the Reich would have to go as far east as Vladivostock in order to force a Soviet surrender, an option not deemed desirable. Instead, the solution to the USSR problem was to aid China's struggle against Japan, in the hopes that China would assist in the final attack on the Soviet Union, in order to regain its lost provinces of Mongolia and Tannu Tuva, as well as occupy the Soviet Far East, which the Reich had no interest in.
With the decision to invade Japan being made, a plan was created to quickly take the Japanese home islands, while the bulk of the Japanese army was fighting in China. The forces allocated for the operation, code named Unternehmen Abendsonne (Operation Setting Sun), were four mountain divisions, four marine divisions, six paratrooper divisions, and Armee 1, which had fought in Operation Sealion. The troops would be moved to Hong Kong, and the Reich's 3 full fleets, as well as the five heavy convoy raider fleets, would be stationed along the Pearl River Delta. Once the troops were in place, the marines would quickly take Okinawa while the mountain divisions take Taiwan. After the two islands were taken, 2 divisions from Armee 1 would garrison the ports, and the special forces would be collected and then moved to attack Kyushu, Shikoku, and southern Honshu. After securing the southern portion of the country, the forces would move north and attempt to control the rest of Japan. If required, further landings could be made in Tokyo and the northern ports of Honshu.
The primary function of the Kriegsmarine during the operation would be to destroy Japan's supply convoys heading to China and Korea, and to protect the Reich's own supply convoys heading to any captured ports.
A map of Japan, with the various targets of the invasion circled
The estimated start date of the operation was August 1, 1943, as the distances involved are vast, and many troops were required to be moved to China.
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@HecNev: Welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed it so far, and I'm not quite ready to call it quits yet. As for your question, this chapter answers it
Hopefully there will be some nice naval battles to show off, as my fleet is much larger than what I confronted the Allies with, and Japan's fleet is much more modern than the Allies was.