SFS Chapter 335 Planning Lion City
Chapter 335 Planning Lion City
Let’s go back a few days to the afternoon of August 23, 1945, when King Mahadev of Siam read out the “Letter to All Citizens”.
Zhang Chi's bulletproof car, protected by a convoy of guards, arrived at a group of manors near the port of Yangon.
This manor was originally the private property of a local John nobleman, but was later occupied by the Japanese and used as a division headquarters.
After the An-Nation Army liberated Yangon, considering that the land was huge and close to the military port, Zhang Chi decided to allocate it to the navy for use as an office space.
Not long after, in a large room in the manor that had been converted into a war situation room, Zhang Chi met Zhang Guangjun, the current number one man in the Anmin Army Navy with the rank of lieutenant general.
As soon as he entered the door, Zhang Chi said anxiously:
"Forget the formalities. Tell me what's happening in Lion City right now."
Considering that Zhang Guangjun was a latecomer to the navy, Zhang Chi spent a large amount of gold to equip him with a large number of synthetic human staff to help him sort out intelligence, formulate plans and conduct training.
Then Zhang Chi saw a familiar-looking colonel staff officer come out and begin to explain:
On February 8, 1943, the Tigers of Malaya, led by General Tomoyuki Yamashita, gradually approached the United Kingdom's "Gibraltar of the East" - Singapore.
On February 9, a large Japanese army crossed the Johor Strait and officially began to attack Singapore.
On February 12, under the fire suppression of the 3rd Regiment of the Japanese Field Heavy Artillery, two Japanese divisions began to storm the fortress area despite the firepower of the defenders.
On February 14, the Japanese captured Bukit Timah Heights.
Then something outrageous happened. The commander of John's garrison, Lieutenant General Percival, believed that continuing to resist was a waste of lives, and with the destruction of Fleet Z, it was impossible for reinforcements to come to the Far East, so he surrendered directly the next day.
2月15日，10万守军投降，其中包括7万白人和3万土人辅助军。
That day, the Japanese drove directly into the Lion City Fortress.
In this way, the Lion City Fortress, known as the Gibraltar of the East, only resisted for 7 days at most, which was not as good as the Pavlov Building.
This also resulted in John's defense facilities throughout the Lion City, especially the 381mm coastal artillery and fortress groups facing the sea, being transferred to the hands of the Japanese almost unscathed.
“全岛共30余门大口径岸防炮（包括381毫米、234毫米、152毫米等），包括5门381毫米巨炮（射程35公里），可覆盖马六甲海峡入口。”（图）
"Considering that the defenders of John surrendered directly, we reasonably suspect that the artillery firing tables and stored ammunition have all fallen into the hands of the Japanese. Although most of these guns are fixedly mounted facing south, it would take several hours to turn them inland. However, they would pose a huge threat to targets in the sea to the south."
"The above is the current situation of the defense facilities on the south side of Singapore facing the Strait of Malacca."
Zhang Chi touched his nose after hearing this: "So what you're saying is that an amphibious landing directly from the sea is basically unfeasible?"
The senior staff officers present looked at each other and finally focused their attention on Zhang Guangjun.
Zhang Guangjun had no choice but to step forward and admitted awkwardly:
"The Strait of Malacca itself is confined. Once our main naval forces enter, it will be impossible to engage the coastal defense turrets by roaming. Furthermore, aerial reconnaissance, as well as information from some of the prisoners we liberated from the Lion City garrison, indicate that the coastal defense fortresses are constructed of thick reinforced concrete, making it difficult to suppress them with airstrikes."
Of the 10 defenders who surrendered at that time, some remained in the local area and were taken to the Changi prisoner-of-war camp in the northeast of Singapore. Some were sent to Siam to build the Bangkok-Yangtze River "Death Railway", and some were taken to the mines as coolies.
The People's Army rescued many such European prisoners of war in various battles. After obtaining enough intelligence, they would usually give it to General Stevenson as a credit.
Therefore, the People's Army of An is not completely ignorant of these former colonial areas.
After hearing what Zhang Guangjun said, Zhang Chi nodded regretfully.
He came to the large hanging map and pointed at the Malay Peninsula:
"So what you're saying is that even if the main Japanese defenders have been drawn forward to Pattani and Penang, the small number of defenders remaining in the fortress could still use coastal artillery to deliver a fatal blow to our amphibious landing?"
A look of shame appeared on Zhang Guangjun's face. He didn't say anything, but just nodded.
The navy, which had been trained at great expense, had never fought a serious fleet battle so far, and now it couldn't even cover the landing of the amphibious forces. Naturally, as the naval commander, he felt ashamed.
Zhang Chi didn't care too much about it and even thought it was quite normal.
After all, the navy has always been the weak point of Chinese civilization. It has been like this since the middle of the Ming Dynasty. In the later period, when facing the armed merchant fleets of the Franks and the Dutch during the Age of Discovery, they had to rely on the power of great pirates such as Yan Siqi and Zheng Zhilong.
The navy is weak, which can be said to be a historical problem.
He also knew that the main force of the navy was the three "Helena" light cruisers, and it would be unreasonable to use them to fight against the 381mm coastal defense guns.
As for those imitation Roberts-class shallow-water heavy gunboats that he ordered from the White Eagle Shipyard with the blueprints?
That thing does have enough firepower. While maintaining the general configuration of the Roberts-class shallow-water heavy gunboat, the main guns were changed to twin 356mm turrets and spare gun barrels in White Eagle's inventory (stock of old BBs), the deck armor thickness was 102mm, the side of the ship was 127-152mm, the displacement was 9900 tons when fully loaded, and the speed was 18 knots.
However, Zhang Chi estimated that it would take at least 45 years from the completion of construction to the formation of combat effectiveness, which would definitely not be enough to catch up with the upcoming attack on Lion City.
So he just felt a little regretful.
Fortunately, he had a backup plan.
"If I need the Marines to conduct a landing operation behind the enemy lines in Pattani and Penang, cooperate with the Army to wipe out the 3-plus enemy troops there in one fell swoop, and then quickly turn south, force a crossing of the Johor Strait, and attack Singapore, how confident are you?"
Hearing Zhang Chi's question, Zhang Guangjun's eyes lit up. He quickly discussed with the staff around him, walked to the map, and said while gesturing:
"We have several planned landings on the west side of the Malay Peninsula. Now that we have the floating docks coordinated by General Stevenson, we can follow the planned plan and send two Marine regiments south of Penang to the floating docks for supply maintenance.
After that, we will quickly capture the port of Penang and allow the army and mechanized amphibious forces to quickly land. One part will outflank the enemy defenders from behind, while the other part will advance directly towards Singapore along the highway.
In the previous operations in the south to Malaysia, the Marine Corps had always been carrying out small-scale amphibious infiltration missions. Now that it was mentioned that a large-scale amphibious landing was going to be carried out, Zhang Guangjun became excited.