0000 February 25th 1947.
Kwantung Army Headquarters. Mukden, Manchukuo.
The Japanese Dive bombers operating from Dalian altered targets on February 25th as they were making little progress in Ulan Hot.
They returned to Xinjing where there was easier prey even though the province remained snow covered. Terauchi needed to closely monitor this province as there would only be small windows of opportunity to remove enemy troops that were moving towards the province.
At 0100 hours a much larger Soviet force arrived in Erenhot province which forced Terauchi to launch a counter attack before even more enemy troops arrived to strengthen the position. General Nishio would be up against General Novikov on this occasion. Three to one odds with the ever present air support would be more than adequate to force Novikov to retreat without too much bloodshed.
Terauchi would attack again on February 26th as he himself commanded sixteen divisions as they launched an assault on Xinjing to remove the Armour that had just arrived. There were still what looked to be substantial enemy forces moving towards the province but Terauchi was doing his utmost to keep the numbers down as much as possible.
On the coast Shima had moved his bombers to Bogorodskoe province directly opposite Ocha and its narrow land connection, which was still blockaded by Japanese Destroyers. Osami would be happy with the news that only two divisions were left in the province and one of these was moving away. Operation Tedious may well find itself something else to target to annoy the enemy.
1400 February 26th 1947.
North China Army Headquarters. Lanzhou, China.
The capture of Baghdad allowed Kondo to move his bombers back to Najaf to check on Allied forces in the province.
The arrival of a Brazilian Armoured division was not a welcome sight but Kondo could assist any attack fairly easily against only two enemy divisions. Around Baghdad the American Strategic bombers arrived in force just to reinforce the fact that they had not been at the provinces airbase when it had been captured.
Lt. General Hitomi led three divisions against the weakened Allied troops in Najaf at 0500 hours on February 28th. The defending divisions had seen their organisational structure relentlessly bombed by Kondo to clear the way for the attack which was over quickly as a result.
Kondo moved further north to take a look around Karbala on the 29th and his report was not something Higashikuni had expected. The Syrian army had not provided any support at all in Persia and had remained behind its own borders.
Nine or more enemy divisions were waiting for Japanese troops to advance into Karbala, Kirkuk or the new Iraqi capital of Mosul. Kirkuk was the only one of these three provinces that had Japanese troops marching towards it and they would continue to do so. Any advance into Syria was not too likely given the forces arrayed against the smaller Japanese forces on this front. Kondo was good at evening such odds but there was still a large Allied presence along the Indian border that needed his attention.
Closer to Lanzhou and Higashikuni another attack was ordered to prevent enemy build up as General Sakai led six divisions towards Yuling to repulse an Armoured division that had arrived in the province. Dive bombers from Beiping were already in attendance.
0200 February 30th 1947.
North China Army Headquarters. Mukden, Manchukuo.
More Soviet troops arrived in Xinjing as February drew to a close which required another respose from Terauchi.
Bombers would support twenty one Japanese divisions as they threw out the latest six divisions to try and set up defences in the former capital of Manchukuo.
2200 February 30th 1947.
North China Army Headquarters. Lanzhou, China.
The progress of Operation Komodo was beginning to bare fruit as Allied troops began to move away from India and towards Iraq in ever increasing numbers. The possible threat of being cut off from their supplies was most likely to be the main motivation.
General Anami marched back into Karachi after being forced to withdraw to Sukkur province. No enemy troops had managed to advance before his return and there was no attack against him as his troops went about re-occupying their previous defences.