Operation Lynchpin
7
0000 December 9th 1947.
Central Asia Army Headquarters. Babol, Persia.
The redeployments from the rear to forward positions had not taken as long as the previous ones which allowed Hata to order a larger advance onto Soviet soil.
Fifteen divisions, led by Lt. General Okada's Armoured corps, began to move into Chardzhou which would allow further advances towards the resource rich provinces further east.
Allied Strategic bombers had found a new target that was out of range of Japanese Interceptors. They began to target Baku and it's oilfields from their new base in Damascus. Trying to intercept the bombers would be more difficult but Fukudome would continue to patrol in the hope of catching the bombers.
0000 December 10th 1947.
Diplomatic Offices. Tokyo, Japan.
Mamoru had been expecting his visitor as some decisions needed to be made and they had become more urgent of late.
"Come in Minister Ginjiro." he greeted his opposite number from the Industry department.
"Good morning Mininster Mamoru, I trust you are well?" Ginjiro asked politely.
"I am. I find an early morning cup of tea starts the day off well. Can I offer you some?"
"That sounds like a good idea."
"I take it you want to discuss the current Supply problem?" Mamoru asked as he poured Ginjiro some tea and handed it to his visitor.
"Thank you." Ginjiro replied as he took the tea. "You are correct, the situation has deteriorated fairly quickly."
"I thought as much. You can't increase Supply production then?"
"No. I do not have the spare capacity. There is only one way I can think of to solve the problem for the time being."
"I don't think the Military are going to like it very much."
"Starving soldiers would be more of a problem for them I would think, besides, the Emperor said he trusts us to sort it out and we have his backing to do so."
"True enough. So how many trades do you want me to cancel exactly?"
"Quite a few. All are from the same Country though which should makes things a little easier for you." Ginjiro said handing Mamoru a list.
"We have enough Oil to cover all these?"
"I believe we do yes, and we have Abadan at full capacity now with Baku beginning to build up if Hata can keep the Allied bombers away from it."
"I will summon the Venezuelan Ambassador and let him know our predicament then."
"Thank you. I have time to finish my tea I hope?"
"Of course. It will take the Ambassador a while to get here."
"That is good then, I hate to waste good tea."
Two hours later the Venezuelan Ambassador left Mamoru's office looking for another buyer for his Oil reserves as all of Japan's trades for that commodity had been cancelled. The burden on Japanese supplies would drop considerably as a result which would allow the stockpile to begin to increase again instead of rapidly decreasing.
1300 December 10th 1947.
Central Asia Army Headquarters. Babol, Persia.
The Lebanese advance was still moving forwards as Hata had nowhere enough troops in Iraq to halt it. He had one weapon that could stop them over time and he used that whenever there were no Soviet troops to destroy.
Obata targetted the two enemy divisions in Aleppo trying to prevent them from attacking General Abe in Dair az Zawr.
At 2100 hours the Lebanese had also moved into Hims and a two pronged attack began towards Abe's position. He would be left with no option but to withdraw again, this time towards Mosul.
2100 December 10th 1947.
North China Army Headquarters. Lanzhou, China.
The advance of the North China Army had given Higashikuni the opportunity to move his Headquarters forwards if he wished as there was little threat remaining to his position. He chose to remain in Lanzhou and allow other troops to capture territory.
The Siamese Mountain division had completed it's advance into Yushu and was not counter attacked upon arrival. Six Japanese divisions from Kangding began to redeploy forward to support the Mountaineers as they gained a small period of rest after their march. The only enemy troops nearby were the Garrison in Golmud and a small Soviet army to the north west which was heading towards the Indian border and away from Yushu.
At dawn both Japanese Dive bomber wings were in action. Five Soviet divisions in Dunhuang that had retreated from Xinjing were targetted by one group while the other concentrated on reducing the organisation of the Garrison in Golmud to allow an attack by the Siamese Mountaineers.
That attack began at 0600 hours on December 11th as Huntracool led his troops against the demoralised enemy Garrison. The battle would not last long before the Soviet troops surrendered which allowed the Mountaineers to continue to advance towards Golmud.
0000 December 11th 1947.
Kwantung Army Headquarters. Qiqihar, Manchukuo.
Slowly but surely Manchurian troops were taking over the defences along the Amur to allow Japanese troops to redeploy forwards to support Terauchi and the East Asia Army.
Four Manchurian divisions, led by General Zhang Jinghui, had completed their redeployment to Bogorodskoe which would allow a similar number of Japanese troops to leave the province. All six would move at once leaving just the four Manchurian divisions to hold until their other two divisions arrived in due course. There was no risk to the defences of these mountains as the Red Army had weakened it's own position across the river.
0000 December 14th 1947.
Tokyo Airbase. Tokyo, Japan.
Four new Escort Fighter squadrons had just come off the production lines which resulted in the modern Tactical bombers returning to Tokyo to add them to their squadrons.
Air General Kondo had given up his former command to take charge of these bombers as they were heading out to an island base where they would be looking for enemy shipping. Kondo was an expert at this type of combat.