The Japanese army had another problem in the Mariana Islands, that is, the Mariana Islands were originally stationed by the Japanese Navy, but now they have transferred the Japanese Army to garrison. However, the Japanese Army and the Navy were not in harmony, so they did not buy each other's accounts...

This is actually a solid attack on Hideki Tojo. When he was the chief of staff, he swore that he could lead all the troops alone to eliminate the gap between the troops and unite them together, but in the blink of an eye, such a problem occurred on the Mariana Islands.

And this problem can be said to be very serious.

There are five main islands that Mariana needs to defend, from south to north, namely Guam, Rota, Tinian, Saipan and Pagan.

These islands are large islands, and the eleven Japanese airports were distributed on five islands... Two of them were built only in the form of emergency airports due to insufficient materials and equipment.

Therefore, when allocating army defenses, the army must be scattered on these islands, with the headquarters located in the middle and second largest area (Guam is the largest area).

This will inevitably lead to a problem: the ranks of the army officers of the Shanghai Army vary from one another... Some islands have higher ranks of naval officers, while some islands have higher ranks of the army officers, so who do you obey the command?!

The Navy said... we must listen to the Navy, because we are more familiar with naval warfare and landing warfare. How could the army's local buns know about sea and air coordination?

But the Army said that we must listen to the Army. When Americans go ashore, they are fighting land wars. Moreover, our military rank is high. Why do we have to listen to the military ranks of low ranks? Aren’t this generation messed up?

In the end, there was no other way, so Toyota Deputy Take could only order: "The ranks of each island shall be subject to, and the rank of Gao is the commander of the island!"

This seems to be a fair and useful method, but it leads to new problems... Some islands are commanded by the navy, while others are commanded by the army.

In other words, there are two command systems for five islands in the Mariana Islands. The two command systems are not well mixed together. When the command center located on Saipan wants to issue an order to an island, it must first check whether the island is under the command of the army or the navy.

This makes the defenses of the Mariana Islands each form a scattered sand.

Lieutenant General Gao Pinbiao, the commander of the 29th Division, also commander of the Mariana Islands Army, once reported this issue to Toyota Deputy Warrior, but Toyota Deputy Warrior did not take this matter to heart.

The reason is that Toyota Masato knew that the core of this battle was not the island defense of the Mariana Islands... If the war was fought until the US military could conduct full island landing operations, then there was no hope of defending the Mariana Islands. Even if the troops stationed in the island were elite, no matter how well the command was, it would be useless.

Toyota Masato's idea is correct. Island combat is different from inland combat... Inland combat, when losing its sea and air superiority, you can continue to survive and fight protracted wars with the depth of defense, and even interspersed and surrounded and broke into the enemy's rear.

But island combat... the enemy is behind the sea, and the troops on the island can never be interspersed, and the island has no depth. They cannot survive without supplies, so they cannot fight protracted wars.

So Toyota Masato simply let the chaos and weakness of the island defense be ignored, focusing on the organization and preparation of the sea and air teams, which also resulted in almost no artillery bunkers in the Mariana Islands, and no mines and barbed wire were laid, so the overall defense was not strong at all.

In terms of the Navy and Air Force organization, Toyota Deputy Takeshi and Kusato Ryunosuke agreed that the main force of the Flight Division must be placed on the aircraft carrier.

The reason is that the United States is likely to bomb the airports on the island at the first time. If the main force of the flight division is placed on the island, it is very likely that it will be destroyed by the United States before it takes off.

Therefore, except for some land-based fighters that cannot take off and land on aircraft carriers, most fighters are placed on eight aircraft carriers.

The airports on the islands made models of fighter jets in advance to confuse the US military.

The idea of ​​Toyota's Mashop Takeshi and Kusato Ryunosuke was... When the US aircraft carrier bombed the island airport as usual, the position of its aircraft carrier would be exposed, and then the Japanese fighter jets would be caught off guard by the US Navy. If possible, they could kill two or three US aircraft carriers as soon as possible and deal a severe blow to the US Navy.

At this time, the Japanese army faced another embarrassing problem, that is, the destruction ships and frigates escorting these eight aircraft carriers were seriously insufficient.

In the end, there was no way. Toyota Juntake could only give up the flagship Musashi to the combat troops, and he raised the flag of the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet on a light cruiser "Dadian", which was less than 10,000 tons. In other words, the "Dadian" became the flagship of the Combined Fleet.

This matter seems nothing on the surface, but it is actually quite small.

Since the Japanese army established the joint fleet in 1894, "Matsushima", "Mikasa", "Fishijima", "Asakura", "Kingang", "Yama Castle", "Namen", "Muo", "Yamato", and "Mushashi". The flagship of the joint fleet has always been the largest warship of the joint fleet. This is the spirit of the Japanese joint fleet, the pillar of the joint fleet, the spirit of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and the pillar of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

But now... this spirit is no longer reliable, and this pillar is already shaking. The United Fleet and the Imperial Japanese Navy finally knew this fact.

It should be said that they finally admitted this fact because they actually knew this since the Battle of Guadalcanal, but they have been lying to others and themselves.

At that time, a principal of the Japanese Navy School named Inoue Naimi proposed: "If the battleship is not repaired, the heavy patrols are not repaired, and the manpower and financial resources are concentrated to repair aircraft carriers, light patrols and destroyers."

This suggestion is obviously correct, because at that time it was proved that the era of "cannon giant ships" had passed, and battleships and heavy cruisers were actually just fancy clothes... They require a lot of resources to maintain in normal times, and the role they can play in war is not much greater than that of destroyers, and will even become a good target for the enemy air force.

Therefore, these ships will not be repaired or repaired so that there will be few resources on more useful aircraft carriers, light patrols and destroyers.

But this suggestion was scorned in Japan at that time, and everyone thought... Does the Japanese Navy need to save like this?

Now, when Toyota Vice Takeshi uses the "Dadian" light patrol as its flagship, it gives everyone a positive answer.

(To be continued.)
Chapter completed!