Operation Blossom
16
0000 November 14th 1949.
Central Asia Army Headquarters. In Transit.
Despite the advances by the Central Asia Army the Italian Army was still refusing to be drawn from its totally defensive stance but Hata had high hopes that the latest conquest by his Army would force a response.
Mj. General Kokubu had moved south after capturing the Swiss capital and was now occupying Turin in northern Italy. Maybe this would be enough to convince the Italians that they needed to move troops north.
Hata's communications with his Army Command in Tokyo continued to be common as his forces captured more enemy Countries. Albania would be the latest to fall.
To: Army Command
From: Central Asia Army Headquarters
At 0200 hours on November 14th 1949 forces from the Central Asia Army, namely 36 Gundan commanded by Mj. General Koiki, captured Viore. This was the only province controlled by Albania and it has no other territory of Strategic importance.
Field Marshall Hata
Commander Central Asia Army
The usual flurry of diplomatic activity followed as Mamoru informed the Albanian Ambassador that his Country's War with Japan was indeed a short one and that he was now out of a job. Not surprisingly Albania yielded nothing in resources.
2200 November 14th 1949.
Army Headquarters. Tokyo, Japan.
"Good morning Minister Osami." Satoru greeted his counterpart in the Imperial Japanese Navy.
"Good morning." Osami replied.
"Would you like some Tea before we discuss some business?"
"Tea would be good, thank you." Osami replied and took the cup that was offered by Satoru. "So what business do we need to discuss today?"
"I think it would appropriate to transfer the Command of an area from the Navy to the Army as I now have a Commander in the field of sufficient rank and forces numerous enough to assume command of the region in question."
"North America?"
"Yes."
"Do you have a name for this Army of yours?"
"I have thought long and hard on an appropriate name for this particular Army. I came up with something completely original."
"Sounds intriguing, but I hope you didn't hurt yourself with all of that thinking?" Osami asked sarcastically.
"I did have to take a few naps to prevent myself from burning out as it was a particularly difficult task." Satoru replied laughing.
"What name did all this thinking come up with?"
"The America Army."
"Ah. I can see why it took so much effort to think of such an obscure name for such an Army given its location. The name would be appropriate though."
"Thank you. I take it you are happy to transfer control of these forces to my Command?"
"Certainly. Grand Admiral Ozawa has enough to worry about without adding ground troops to his list. Who is going to be Commanding this Army?"
"Field Marshall Sugiyama. He transferred from Hawaii with the forces that you were kind enough to transport. He is an expert on defence and it is probably more fitting to have such a commander in this region as we are not thinking of being particularly aggressive for the time being."
"Good choice." replied Osami as he sipped his Tea and the conversation turned to more trivial topics.
Field Marshall Sugiyama was soon in action after being granted control of the Japanese land forces in North America. He led the attack against two organisationally weak American divisions in Juneau. The battle would be a victory because of the air support at Sugiyama's disposal, but he made no effort to push forwards as the travel times were excessive in North America during winter. He would be content to allow the bombers to destroy the now retreating enemy and bide his time until the Spring if the Allies did not significantly increase their forces in this area.
1100 November 15th 1949.
BB Division 1 Flagship. IJN Fuso, In Transit.
Ozawa was happy to let the Army take control of the land War in North America but he was still in command of the fleets supporting the region and he would ask for, and be given, command of the Tactical bombers in Anchorage less than twelve hours after Sugiyama took control of the land forces. The reason for such a need was contact between BC Division 2 and an American Carrier Task Force in the Northeast Aleutian Trench.
Needless to say Ozawa was less than thrilled about the prospects of the relatively weak BC Division 2 beating any American Carrier Task Force but he was relieved to find that Admiral Hall only had one Fleet Carrier, the USS Phillipine Sea, at his disposal. The naval battle that ensued was fought at night which gave Admiral Mikawa the advantage but he lacked the firepower to inflict much more than minor damage to the American fleet and the reverse was also true for Hall. Hall would be the one to withdraw after four hours of combat but he had a much bigger problem to deal with when Kondo arrived overhead with half of his Tactical bombers and two Naval bomber squadrons. Hall would escape major damage but he was forced to leave the area.
1600 November 16th 1949.
Central Asia Army Headquarters. Reims, France.
Hata had been forced to halt his advance across France after an Allied Mountaineer division had moved north into Compiegne to block his path. He had called for air support from Shimoyama which had arrived quickly.
Shimoyama did not need very long to destroy both the Infantry division that had blocked the Japanese Armour advance in Vichy and the Mountaineer division in Compiegne. Both Hata and the Armour were soon moving forwards once more with no enemy troops in sight.
General Tanaka Shizuichi doubled the Japanese presence in northern Italy at 1800 hours as his Infantry corps occupied Trento. It was too soon to know if the Italians had responded to the original incursion with only one division moving towards Venice from Yugoslavia so far. Hata would not send aircraft to the south as the anti-aircraft fire in this region was far too high and he had the time to wait and find out the Italian response.
0000 November 17th 1949.
Intelligence Offices. Tokyo, Japan.
November was shaping up to be a busy month for Kuniaki as he stepped up his espionage efforts to encompass every remaining Country in the World. His research teams were also producing results as the month progressed.
The Tokyo Arsenal completed its research into Advanced Motorized Divisions and was further tasked with researching Improved Mountain Divisions. Sumimoto completed its project of Advanced Material Science and was switched to research into Basic Semiconductors. Advanced Material Science would have a fairly large effect on Japanese industry and provide a larger output.
0000 November 17th 1949.
Industry Offices. Tokyo, Japan.
Ginjiro was pleased about the increase in Japanese factory output which would allow him to begin the expansion of an old project which had been idle for many years.
The old Rocket Test facility in Osaka was to be upgraded for the next couple of years to assist in Japanese research as more modern types of just about any military formation required rocketry to some degree. The gains in research times would be relatively minor but any such gains were of advantage as Japan could only research so much at one time.
0000 November 17th 1949.
Central Asia Army Headquarters. Reims, France.
Another signal made its way back to Japanese Army Command on November 17th as the Central Asia Army continued to push forwards in southern Europe.
To: Army Command
From: Central Asia Army Headquarters
At 0000 hours on November 17th 1949 forces from the Central Asia Army, namely 34 Gundan commanded by Lt. General Muto, occupied Agrinio, the capital of Greece. Greece no longer has any territory of Strategic value.
Field Marshall Hata
Commander Central Asia Army
The Greek Ambassador took one look at the report and headed back to his offices to begin packing his bags. Minor amounts of Energy and Metal were all that was found in the Greek resource stockpile.
0700 November 17th 1949.
Kwantung Army Headquarters. Qiqihar, Manchukuo.
General Kawabe had little to actually do other than administer and control more than one third of the combined ground forces of the Japanese Alliance. He controlled nearly 130 divisions of the 317 that the Alliance currently possessed. Fifty four divisions alone were dedicated to partisan control in the Far East Siberia region of Asia. These divisions were all from Mengkukuo and that Country's Government allowed Japan to control their deployment within this region but they were not authorized to operate outside of it. A further sixty eight divisions were deployed throughout mainland China and it was a report from one of these that drew Kawabe's attention today.
Mj. General Miyazaki had managed to complete his move from the Chinese coast inland where he began to crush the partisan uprising in Wuchang province. He would have little difficulty in overcoming the weak defences as his much more modern Infantry division ovecame the outdated Militia that it faced. His Infantry was not as modern as those of the Japanese Army as Mengkukuo, which supplied much of the anti-partisan forces in China, did not possess the technology to modernise to the 1947 standard as of yet. As well as the large number of troops from Mengkukuo there were also a substantial number of Japanese Garrison divisions deployed throughout China to assist in controlling uprisings in the region. Miyazaki would make his way back to his coastal defence position after re-occupying Wuchang province.
2000 November 17th 1949.
Central Asia Army Headquarters. In Transit.
Hata disliked losing territory but there were occasions where he had absolutely no control over such losses. Only a massive intervention by the Imperial Japanese Navy could have prevented the loss that had occured and even then there was a distinct possibility that such intervention could have caused the Navy substantial losses.
The annexation of Denmark had also granted Japan control over both Iceland and Greenland and it had already been determined that both islands were indefensible. Even to try to defend them would place the Imperial Japanese Navy at a severe disadvantage. The nearest port outside of Iceland was in Algeria, which would mean a long journey, and getting ships to Iceland would almost certainly mean a confrontation with the Royal Navy. Whilst the Royal Navy was not as large as it had been it still possessed enough capital ships to cause the Imperial Japanese Navy considerable losses. Better to leave that enemy guarding it's own shores than to invite potential disaster.
The loss of Reykyavik was therefore unavoidable and the entire island would soon be in Spanish hands. The fact that the Spanish had invaded the small island was a little bit of a surprise given its proximity to the United Kingdom and it did have one positive point for Hata. All he had to do was annex Spain and Iceland would once again be Japanese without the need to risk the Imperial Japanese Navy.
In Yugoslavia progress was becoming swifter as the defensive line collapsed from the south and east. Having rested his forces in Zrenjanin General Itagaki was now ready to begin the march towards Belgrade but he was likely to have to fight his way into the city as Yugoslav divisions were also marching in that direction.
Mainland France was rapidly becoming Japanese territory as several corps advanced across the mostly undefended Country. Lt. General Okada was forced to engage a newly arrived Mountain division in Clermont as he advanced towards his longer term objective of Perpignan on the Spanish border. He would easily overcome the defences and Shimoyama would remove the enemy force soon afterwards.
Hoshinato had completed his march across northern France and had captured the entire coastline facing the English Channel. He now turned south and would head towards Bordeaux to secure the west coast of France. Yamashita had already marched into Limoges after leaving Paris with his current destination being Pax on the Spanish border. Nishio was marching on Saint Etienne before heading south east towards Marseille to isolate Italy from Spain.
At 0200 hours on November 20th Hata would finally receive a report that indicated a major policy shift in an enemy Nation.
Mj. General Kokubu had been forced to withdraw from Turin after he came under attack by eight Italian divisions from Genoa and Milan. He withdrew towards Bern. The attack itself could have been nothing more than a reaction from local Italian forces, but there had been a significant force build up in the area by the Italians that led Hata to believe that the Italian High Command had finally decided to react. The Italians had also taken control of Allied forces in France also pointing towards a more active involvement. Bombing attacks against Genoa and Milan would not follow as both provinces had substantial air defences but Shimoyama could and would respond to any Italian troops found in southern France.
Only one such division currently existed but it disappeared after a few hours of aerial assault from the Japanese Dive bombers under Shimoyama's command.
1100 November 20th 1949.
24 Gundan Headquarters. Casablanca, Morocco.
Mj. General Kim had arrived in Casablanca a few weeks ago and his Infantry division had spent that first week or two digging in to provide defensive fortifications in case of attack. During that period the Haitian Airforce had mercilessly bombed his troops as they tried to enhance their defences. Kim had just left the crude hospital tent that looked after any casualties that 24 Gundan received. The doctor in charge had informed him that the one soldier that had been hurt during the Haitian bombing runs would soon be fit for active duty after recovering from a sprained ankle.
This was good news for Kim as he liked to have his entire force at his disposal should they actually have any need to fight. The bombing had turned into something of a game over the last couple of weeks after Kim had ordered his engineers to build a decoy set of trenches and headquarters buildings away from the real ones to keep the Haitians entertained. The bombers were finding it difficult to hit the camouflaged real defences and he wished to keep them around to provide something for his troops to do in case they grew bored. He had ordered the decoy trenches to have no camouflage to give the bombers more chance of scoring a hit.
The whole plan had grown into something of a game for his troops as they strove to enlarge the decoy defences every night in the hope that the Haitians would actually hit something the next day. The bets were beginning to mount up after several days of very badly targetted bombing during rain storms. The headquarters building in the decoy system was now almost ten times larger than any such building would ever be for a division sized unit after the engineers had made a large upgrade overnight, and there were high hopes among the men that the Haitians would be able to successully bomb this building today.
Kim stood just outside of his real headquarters with his second in command as the bombers arrived for their daily ritual. A quick glance through his binoculars indicated that the Haitians were going to spend another day targetting the decoy trench system after several bombs landed a few hundred yards from their target. Much to his surprise a large explosion occured almost directly in the center of the enhanced decoy headquarters.
"Who had the largest bet on them hitting that part of the structure?" he asked.
"That would be Corporal Takagi Sir." came the reply.
"I guess he is going to be a little richer today then."
"Actually Sir he won't be."
"Oh?" Kim asked.
"The rules stipulate that the damage must come from a Haitian bomber."
"Yes I know."
"Well Sir I think the damage actually came from one of those American Destroyers over there." came the reply as his second in command pointed to the ships off the coastline. "They seem to be conducting some Naval Gunfire Support to suppress our defences."
"And why would they be doing that?"
"I expect it has something to do with those two Infantry divisions that are landing along the coast."
"Why do the Americans have to interfere with our harmless fun?"
"You can ask them that shortly. They appear to be attacking us."
Kim sighed. "I guess I better inform Field Marshall Higashikuni of this development."
The Americans were not using their own troops of course. They preferred to use Allied troops for such dangerous assaults. Lt. General Galves Serrano would gain some immediate credibility as Kim was ordered to withdraw towards Cueta. The commander of the invading force would achieve a rare victory against the Imperial Japanese Army during his first ever combat mission.
Unfortunately for Galves Serrano he had teamed up with Admiral Spruance who had gained some notoriety over the last few years having had just about any fleet he commanded blown out of the water by Japanese bombers. There would be no change in fortunes for Spruance and shortly after 1600 hours on November 21st Galves Serrano would find himself swimming for his life having failed to actually make landfall on the beaches of Casablanca.
Kim would spend a few days marching to Cueta and then back to Casablanca to continue his game with the Haitian Airforce as side bets erupted as to whether anything would be damaged while they were gone.
1700 November 21st 1949.
America Army Headquarters. Anchorage, Alaska.
Sugiyama had another three Infantry divisions at his disposal, after they had made their way from Umnak Island in the East Aleutians, which brought his total command up to nine divisions. He would have liked to advance towards Juneau but it would take several months to make the journey and his troops would very likely meet resistance during their march sapping all of their organisation. He would choose to utilise his force in a different manner.
Lt. General Yanagawa had just captured Seward Peninsula to the north of Anchorage and Sugiyama ordered him to march towards Fairbanks. The march would take over two months to complete given the hostile terrain during the Winter months. Sugiyama would use the eight divisions in Anchorage to support his advance into Fairbanks rather than try to move south during the Winter.