Operation Influx
24
0700 March 18th 1949.
Central Asia Army Headquarters. Sevastopol, Soviet Union.
Enemy front line forces were becoming increasingly difficult to harm as they dug in all along the Western Front which forced Hata to order his Dive bombers on deeper strikes.
Shimoyama was finding fairly large numbers of Allied divisions heading south and east towards the Romanian border by and large. The fact that the majority of the enemy forces in Przemysl were West German was not good news as these were the elite of the Allied Armies based in Europe. Other newer enemy forces were also being seen regularly, with Swiss and Spanish troops being the most numerous, but the Dutch troops spotted on this raid were the first to be seen.
General Yamada had completed his advance and captured Stanislawow from the Allies and he easily repulsed a mediocre counter attack. Stanislawow was adjacent to major Allied army presence however, and Hata was not expecting to remain in control of the province for long.
0700 March 19th 1949.
Africa Army Headquarters. Abadan, Persia.
Higashikuni still had a division isolated behind enemy lines in North Africa, although the situation had moved from critical to a more stable footing since Itabana had arrived.
A Brazilian tank division had also been landed to try and further halt Japanese advances along the coast. Itabana and Sakai would deal with this threat too before heading back south where their assistance was also required.
0000 March 20th 1949.
Intelligence Offices. Tokyo, Japan.
Research developments were few and far between for Kuniaki but he made sure his teams were constantly working to try and close some technological gaps with Japans' enemies.
Mitsubishi informed him that they had completed Carrier Group Doctrine research which would place the Imperial Japanese Navy and it's Carriers on an equal doctrinal footing with the Allies. The Mitsui team was given another task, the researching of a Modern Synthetic Oil Plant, which would increase the amount of Oil Japan could produce from it's now vast Energy reserves.
0400 March 20th 1949.
Central Asia Army Headquarters. Sevastopol, Soviet Union.
Air superiority was quickly being re-asserted by Japanese Interceptor wings as both Tanaka and Fukui became available after their return from North Africa.
A large number of Spanish Dive bombers had already been crippled after they attacked Japanese Armoured divisions which allowed the Interceptors free to pursue aircraft that were targetting more Strategic Japanese assets. The Spanish Airforce was proving to be larger than anticipated but it was also very much made up of older aircraft models and there was little chance of such aircraft remaining for long on the Western Front.
One Strategic bomber squadron failed to survive for even an hour after being bounced by both Tanaka and Fukui's highly experienced pilots. The remaining bomber squadrons would not last much longer with none escaping to return to their base.
Hata was keeping a close eye on the reports he was receiving from the Dive bomber missions behind enemy lines and it was becoming increasingly clear that most reinforcements were heading south and they were travelling along a similar route. This information could become useful when the time came for Hata to order his forces forwards as he could exploit the terrain to force the enemy to march over more hostile territory.
0900 March 20th 1949.
BB Division 1 Flagship. IJN Fuso, In Transit.
Ozawa was currently patrolling along the east African coast with very few reports arriving on his desk from sighting reports. The Allies were apparently aware of his force disposition and could avoid contact at times.
The sighting of two Italian Destroyer Flotillas in Cape Plain reinforced this view as they were clearly aware of Carrier Group D's presence to their north. They would still suffer damage as they were required to navigate through seas patrolled by Japanese Tactical bombers on Naval patrol.
0500 March 21st 1949.
The Skies Above the Central Baltic Sea.
Tanaka and Fukui had received new orders for March 21st after a sighting was made of an Austrian Interceptor wing operating over the Baltic Sea, which prevented Japanese Tactical bombers patrolling the seas for enemy invasion fleets.
Unlike the earlier encounters between Interceptor forces this one would progress much differently.
As before the Austrians attacked without hesitating but they would find their enemy much more prepared on this occasion. The Austrian Interceptors were more organised but they lacked the more modern aircraft utilised by Tanaka and Fukui and critically the Japanese pilots were much more experienced now after escorting bomber attacks for months. After two hours one Austrian squadron had been almost wiped out with a second badly damaged. By the time the dogfight ended one Austrian squadron would be destroyed with the rest crippled for months after almost 75% of the attacking aircraft were lost. In contrast Japanese losses were minor.
0500 March 23rd 1949.
Africa Army Headquarters. Abadan, Persia.
Allied advances in central and southern Africa were becoming a problem for Higashikuni and he only had one bomber group to contain the situation. This bomber group was tiring quickly from almost constant rebasing to counter various threats.
Nevertheless Itabana made his way back to Djibouti which placed him in range of the three Allied divisions heading east through Marsabit. He would remain in this area until all three were destroyed. Meanwhile more Japanese landings had occured along the coast as an Infantry division was repeatedly landed and embarked to capture territory as quickly as possible.
0500 March 25th 1949.
Diplomatic Offices. Tokyo, Japan.
Mamoru placed the message back in the folder that he had taken it from as he heard a knock at his door. His assistant opened it and invited a Foreign Diplomat into the office.
Mamoru stood and greeted the Ambassador. "Good morning Ambassador, I trust you are well?"
"Fine thank you Minister Mamoru, yourself?" came the reply.
"Wonderful, thank you. I have asked you here as I have come into possession of some information regarding your Country that you may not be aware of."
"Oh?"
"Did you know that your capital was no longer under Ethiopian control?"
"What! Who would dare to occupy my Countries ancient capital?"
"I have it on very good authority that it was a certain General Anami."
"That sounds like a Japanese name to me." replied the Ethiopian Ambassador suspiciously.
"You would be correct. Anami was operating under the Emperor's orders after all. Look on the bright side Ambassador, your Country is no longer at War as you have no choice but to accept annexation."
"You are right of course. I don't suppose you would care to grant my Country independance?"
"I will have to run that by His Majesty but I would be surprised if the answer was anything but no. Enjoy your retirement Ambassador."
1100 March 25th 1949.
Central Asia Army Headquarters. Sevastopol, Soviet Union.
Hata had known that Yamada would not be able to hold Stanislawow if the Allies wished to force the issue. They did.
Ten divisions were more than Yamada could handle even in Winter which left Hata to order a withdraw back towards Vinnitsa. The War of attrition was far from over just yet.
By March 26th there were some signs of the snows beginning to thaw to the west but another month would be required before the snows melted along the Front if Hata's meteorologists were correct.
Nakajima and Shimoyama continued to ply their trade as they conducted attacks against Kowel and Iasi respectively. Hata did find it interesting to note that there appeared to be some dissent amongst the Allied ranks. Both Romania and West Germany had apparently requested the return of some of their forces to their own control. "Could the Allies be beginning to fracture?" he wondered.
Nakajima would find himself under attack on March 28th as a Portuguese Interceptor wing attacked his force during a bombing run. The presence of Saboru and his escorting wing of Interceptors would see the Portuguese suffer large losses, including one whole squadron, during the dogfight. Nakajima's own Dive bomber wing would find itself grounded after suffering some minor losses but depleted organisation.
0800 March 27th 1949.
Africa Army Headquarters. Abadan, Persia.
Itabana had needed several days to clear the north but he had finally made his way to Madagascar where he could assist the Japanese southern forces which were coming under some pressure.
The Belgian Armoured division in Inhambane would be his first target as it would allow Japanese troops to march north again along the coast. Higashikuni wished to join all of the landing sites as soon as he could to simplify the supply situation.
His two Marine divisions had reverted to an Infantry roll as one made it's way inland before turning south and supporting the other as it attacked Lindi. The support of Itabana and Carrier Group C made it a fully organised combined arms assault which gave the defending British division no chance of holding. Needless to say, Itabana would make sure it did not escape.
0500 March 30th 1949.
Airforce Offices. Tokyo, Japan.
"Hmmm." Minister Jun pondered as he began to read the latest combat reports by his Air Commanders from around the Globe. The one he was currently reading was out of the ordinary to say the least and he would need a confirmation as he always did when new things happened. "Now why has Fighter Command suddenly decided that the Western Front is worth defending?"
The report was from Obata, and that in itself was not likely to be good news, as he commanded the Tactical bomber group covering the Baltic Sea which typically flew without Interceptor cover, preferring to rely on it's own Escort Fighters instead.
Obata's expert pilots would not find themselves engaged with Interceptors but Fighters instead. This was a very rare occurance. The British had upgraded half of the squadrons to the brand new Gloster Javelin model.
Jun need not have been overly worried as Obata had learned his craft well. Far from withdrawing as soon as possibly from the potentially lethal combat he would actually stay for an extra hour before finally ordering his aircraft back to base. The reason was the state of one of the Gloster Javelin squadrons. Obata wished to try and destroy it and he would succeed. By the end none of his own squadrons had lost more than half of their aircraft and most were almost undamaged, in contrast the British had lost one squadron and the remainder were all moderately damaged.
