The Bear
39
2100 February 12th 1947.
BB Division 1 Flagship. IJN Yamato, Gulf of Mannar.
American fleets had not managed to work out a safe route through the air patrols throughout the Pacific which enabled another Carrier fleet to be detected before it could surprise any Japanese shipping.
This fleet was a more serious threat to the Heavy Cruisers operating around Truk and they would be ordered to wait for night by Ozawa. Admiral Momsen was in command of both the USS Constellation and USS America as Mj. General Kusaka encountered the fleet in the Southwest Marshalls as it headed west towards the Carolines.
0200 February 13th 1947.
Kwantung Army Headquarters. Mukden, Manchukuo.
Enemy ground forces were still arriving in small quantities in Xinjing province in Manchukuo, which forced Teruachi to attack them periodically to prevent any large build up.
General Ando would lead the latest assault as twelve Japanese divisions were used to dislodge the largely Armoured force currently occupying Xinjing. Air support would provide adequate assistance and the battle would not be a long one.
Further north the latest amphibious assault along the Siberian coastline was targetted at Chumikan province to the west of Sakhalin Island. Osami was using this invasion more as a reconnaisance mission than anything else as he wished to know how many enemy troops were further inland.
0700 February 13th 1947.
BB Division 1 Flagship. IJN Yamato, Gulf of Mannar.
Admiral Takasu, commander of CA Division 1 based in Truk, was ordered to set sail to try and intercept Admiral Momsen just before dusk on February 13th.
The Carriers had been spotted as they attempted to transit throught the East Carolines by patrolling aircraft. Momsen's fleet was extremely fast moving which enabled it to avoid contact with CA Division 1 and to also evade any further sightings by air patrols in the region. Ozawa would have to wait and see where this fleet would be picked up next as it had to cross some form of patrol sooner or later.
2200 February 13th 1947.
North China Army Headquarters. Lanzhou, China.
The Japanese invasion of Iraq and Persia was still very much in its infancy but the enemy was already responding with ever increasing force despite the bad terrain in the area.
Mj. General Tsuji was charged with defending the supply lines moving through Basrah where his division was attacked by two Allied divisions that had recently arrived in Najaf. His position was a little precarious but Tsuji was more than equal to the task as he outmanouvered his opponent to buy time for the Tactical bombers to arrive and provide assistance. He would win the small scale battle with relative ease.
1100 February 15th 1947.
Naval Offices. Tokyo, Japan.
The invasion of Chumikan went smoothly as the Soviet fleet stayed in the west well away from the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Osami ordered the Cavalry back onboard the waiting Transport ships after he obtained the information he required. They could easily be forced to leave by the much larger Soviet force to the south west and Osami preferred to do that sort of thing ahead of time. The Cavalry would return to Japan and await their next target of opportunity.
1500 February 16th 1947.
North China Army Headquarters. Lanzhou, China.
The latest reports from Iraq had arrived on Higashikuni's desk and he quickly scanned through them to check on progress.
Kondo had cleared the enemy build up in Najaf to secure the Japanese supply lines in the region and had moved north to check on the defences of Baghdad. The two outdated Infantry defending the Iraqi capital would be systematically bombed to reduce their organisation which would allow an attack by Japanese ground troops. The recent capture of Bakhtaran province to the east of Baghdad allowed two divisions to be available for such an assault when the time was right.
At 2000 hours on February 16th two more divisions arrived in Basrah to support the landings. General Sakabara's Headquarters and a Cavalry division had been picked up in India and transported to the landing zone. The invasion was slowly causing the Allied divisions on the Indian border to alter direction and head away from India as their own supply lines came under threat.
In the early hours of February 17th Higashikuni judged the time was right to attack Baghdad and the orders were sent out to the divisions involved. Lt. General Nishihara, one of the more capable Japanese commanders, would lead the assault supported from Bakhtaran province and by Kondo's Tactical bomber group. The weakened defenders would not put up much resistance from the combined attack.
Lt. General Shimoyama was ordered to attack a Red Army Mechanised division that had entered Yinchuan province to prevent any possibility of it trying to remove Higashikuni's Headquarters from Lanzhou. Soviet forces were arriving in Bayan Nur to the north of Yinchuan in ever increasing numbers which could present some problems once the snow melted along the Japanese defensive line.
