0100 September 22nd 1948.
BB Division 1 Flagship. IJN Fuso, In Transit.
Japanese fleets had moved forwards to assist with the next invasion in the Indian Ocean with the more modern Carrier Group D leading the way. Ozawa's main Carrier strike force encountered an enemy fleet in the South Macarene Plateau during it's voyage.
IJN Zuikaku's aircraft decimated the American Transport Division which had been heading north east. These small encounters were something Ozawa preferred to avoid as it gave the enemy valuable intelligence on the whereabouts of his fleets but could not always be helped.
The small American invasion fleet failed to gain entry to the Persian Gulf which was being blockaded by CA Division 3. None of the ships would be sunk but they would be forced to withdraw.
More American Transport ships were spotted in the Mediterranean Sea at 0600 hours as Itabana's bomber wing conducted a patrol along the coast. It would be Sakai's wing that found the Transports, which were being escorted by two British Destroyer Flotillas, both of which would be sunk.
The final island invasion in the Indian Ocean began at 1700 hours on September 22nd as Banzai led his Marines towards Reunion Island.
He landed on the 25th and would be required to march to capture Mauritius before returning to Reunion to protect the airbase and port facilities. Japanese Tactical bombers would begin conducting Naval patrols across the entire region to detect any possible enemy response to the landings and to provide advanced warning to Ozawa of any impending invasions.
0700 September 19th 1948.
North China Army Headquarters. Kuybyshev, Soviet Union.
Higashikuni had been given little choice but to order some very long marches for his troops as he was required to secure as much raw material reserves as he could in his area of operations.
General Asaka had been the commander to receive the orders to march into far northern Russia to secure the province of Vorkuta, which contained Oil reserves that were much better off in the Japanese stockpile than the Soviets.
2200 September 29th 1948.
Central Asia Army Headquarters. Sevastopol, Soviet Union.
There were no enemy troops left to prevent Hata advancing at will across what remained of the Soviet Union. The sporadic redeployments had stopped and very few new Soviet troops were able to be raised as it's Industry collapsed.
General Yamashita was now on the outskirts of the new Soviet captial of Leningrad and would arrive on October 3rd unless the enemy managed to find some troops from somewhere. Further south the Baltic States were being occupied quickly to further reduce Soviet industrial capacity as the North China Army's Armour made it's way to the Finnish border to the east.
The Central Asia Army's advance into Poland had also gone well recently and Hata had forces close to the border of both Breslau and West Germany. Mj. General Arikawa had captured Stettin and was ordered to move towards the East German capital of Stralsund in order to annex the Soviet puppet. This information had been high on Tanigawa's list of things to know and he would be required to inform his Emperor that Operation Influx could begin at 0400 hours on October 8th 1948.
