Chapter 44: The End of Operation 101

  Inoue Shigemi sat upright on the ground, propping up a handkerchief with his sharp military sword pointed at his abdomen. In front of him was an order to stop executing Operation 101, which had already been signed. When he learned that Tokyo had been bombed and that these bombs all came from Hankou Airport, he knew it was time to sacrifice himself for the Emperor. He took on all the responsibility faithfully, because the Empire could not lose Lieutenant General Ozawa Tsutomu, an aviation expert, again. Now Ozawa Tsutomu stood in front of him, inviting Ozawa as his assistant in self-destruction.

  With a "huff", Inoue Shigemi gritted his teeth and stabbed the knife into his own abdomen with great force, then laboriously turned his head to signal to Ozawa Jiro. "Hai" Ozawa Jiro bowed to him and ended Inoue Shigemi's suffering with a handgun.

  The 101 combat plan ended like this. From May 13th when the 101 combat plan officially began to September 5th when it officially ended, nearly four months brought great losses to Chinese military and civilians. During this period, the Japanese army dispatched 21 batches and 904 sorties, while the navy dispatched 54 batches and 3651 sorties, with a total of 27107 bombs dropped, weighing 2957 tons. Among them, there were 2023 sorties of air raids in the urban area of Chongqing, dropping 10021 bombs, totaling 1405 tons. The "May 3rd" and "May 4th" bombings made the people of Chongqing experience the cruelty of the Japanese army. He Juncai's arrival did not bring China such great losses in history, but instead, the Chinese air force rose with low combat losses, it can be said that the 101st combat plan was a complete failure!

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  In fact, before the end of Operation 101, due to Germany's rapid victory over European countries, the Japanese army had already set its sights on the Asian colonies of European countries. After the end of Operation 101, the Japanese army put more effort into the Indochina region, and even the Army's 60th Aviation Corps and the Navy's Second Aviation Corps, which participated in the bombing of Chongqing, turned to that area. There was not only oil, rubber, rice, and tin urgently needed by the empire, but also the Japanese army believed that once they occupied the northern part of French Indochina (now northern Vietnam), they could suppress the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, thereby cutting off the grain road from Vietnam to China, and thus accelerate the resolution of the Chinese front.

  The Japanese army then made demands on France and dispatched a surveillance team of over 200 people, led by Major General Isao Yamaguchi, to Hanoi on June 24, 1940, preparing to take advantage of the situation. Next, on the European battlefield, the German Air Force was intensifying its attacks on British soil. Churchill, in order to ensure that the colonies in the Far East did not suffer losses, yielded to Japan's demands on July 18 and agreed to temporarily close the Burma Road and Hong Kong port for three months. This made the Japanese realize Britain's weakness, and the development of the situation became more and more favorable to Japan. The Japanese army took advantage of the momentum to force the obstructionist Konoe cabinet to collectively resign en masse, forming the second Konoe cabinet led by Fumimaro Konoe.

  After the Konoe Cabinet came to power, it issued a declaration proposing the establishment of a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" that would include French Indochina and the Dutch East Indies. This move not only shocked Britain but also hurt American interests, causing the United States to reconsider its economic strategy. In the early stages of the war against Japan, the United States declared neutrality, prohibiting the export of military weapons to China while increasing exports of war resources to Japan. It can be said that every bomb that fell on Chinese heads was thanks to the efforts of Americans!

  Regarding the negotiations for advancing into Indochina, they have been ongoing in Tokyo and Hanoi. The Japanese Navy believed that since the US was currently supplying the necessary iron scraps and oil for shipbuilding and transportation, a military invasion would likely lead to a full-scale American embargo, or even armed intervention. Therefore, it was best to resolve the issue through diplomatic means, with peaceful advancement being the top priority. However, within the Japanese Army, there had long been a tradition of insubordination, and although Foreign Minister Matsuoka Yosuke had already signed an agreement for peaceful advancement with French Ambassador Charles Arsène-Henry in August, the Chief of the Operations Division of the General Staff, Lieutenant Colonel Tanaka Shinichi, actively sought to use force in the south, causing a chaotic situation.

  The reason for this situation is that the Sino-Japanese war has shown a long-term trend, and the Japanese army believes that the hope of "partial settlement" no longer exists. Therefore, Japan relies on the pressure of the Triple Alliance to restrain the Soviet Union, stop Britain and the United States from aiding China, and take advantage of the situation to invade Asian colonies controlled by Britain, France, and the Netherlands to secure resources and prepare for a long-term war between China and Japan. The first step is to occupy French Indochina. Therefore, the Japanese army does not hope to gain only the northern part of Indochina but hopes to occupy the entire Indochina. Next, it will plot against Burma, India, and Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).

  In early September 1940, after the end of Operation 101, Japan gained control of northern Indochina. The original Yunnan-Vietnam Railway was completely cut off, and in July Britain had interrupted the Burma Road and Hong Kong port, leaving China with only a passage to the Soviet Union.

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  The Nationalist Government's ambassador to the UK, Guo Taiqi, was currently having a meeting with the British Foreign Office and Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin. He had come here today to sign the Sino-British aviation technical cooperation agreement. Bevin had never thought that he would be signing an agreement with China, but as the British Empire found itself increasingly at a disadvantage in the Battle of Britain, Prime Minister Churchill and he needed to grasp every straw they could find.

  It's just that if it weren't for the gloomy weather today, the two wouldn't have been able to leisurely drink tea in the Foreign Ministry's office. Since Germany cracked Britain's long-range radar warning system, Britain had lost its initial information advantage. Those things that interfered with the radar were finally figured out by the British - frontline troops repeatedly discovered metal tinfoil scattered on the ground, and the British quickly tested and found this to be the reason for their radar malfunction.

  Since the massive bombing of London on August 31, the German army has continued to launch large-scale bombings against the British mainland, which has lost its long-range warning capability. Every day, more than 1,000 aircraft are dispatched, with a record high of 1,600 sorties on September 2 and 3! The bombing waves came one after another, and the air battles were continuous. At this critical stage, the British pilots had been in a state of high tension for over a month, sometimes taking off several times a day, and were extremely exhausted. Since the start of the air battle, the British had lost 266 pilots killed, 321 wounded, with total casualties accounting for one-third of all pilots! The British Air Force was facing a severe shortage of personnel, especially experienced pilots who were heavily casualties, even some young people around 20 years old were already considered veterans. Ground crew members worked day and night to maintain, repair and salvage damaged aircraft, their physical and mental strength had reached the limit, many fainted while working. In addition, the repair and production of aircraft could not keep up with the loss rate, the British Air Force was seriously injured!

  But China's fight against Japan was a different story, and it has to be said that this is a mockery of the British Empire. Because Britain played an extremely inglorious role in the Anti-Japanese War and even at the beginning of World War II. If we say what Britain is most famous for in World War II, one is the brutal Battle of Britain, and the other is the policy of appeasement.

  To avoid being drawn into the war, the interests of small countries could be sacrificed at will, whether they were allies or not. When German troops entered the Rhineland, Britain did not object; when Germany annexed Austria, Britain did not object; when Germany wanted to annex Czechoslovakia, Britain helped to concoct the Munich Agreement; when Germany invaded Poland, Britain provided a symbolic assistance of four divisions to Europe and hid behind the solid Maginot Line, "watching a Quixotic ally being destroyed by Hitler." What's more, at that time, British Prime Minister Chamberlain and others firmly believed that as long as they continued to appease Japan, they could maintain Britain's interests.

  In May 1938, the United Kingdom and Japan signed an agreement in Tokyo regarding Chinese customs, which would store all tax revenue in the Yokohama Specie Bank and employ a large number of Japanese as customs officials. This allowed Japan to use Chinese customs revenue to obtain foreign exchange and purchase war materials from Europe and America for its invasion of China. In September of that year, Ambassador Kuo Tai-chi declared to Britain that China would request economic sanctions against Japan under Article 17 of the League Covenant at the 102nd session of the League Council. However, British Foreign Secretary Halifax told Kuo that such a request "would be of no benefit to China itself and might even harm the League." At the same time, he informed Japanese Ambassador Shigeru Yoshida that Britain would not support China's request for sanctions against Japan. In late 1938, although Britain agreed to provide a small loan to China under American pressure, it continued its policy of appeasement towards Japan. In July 1939, British Ambassador Robert Craigie and Japanese Foreign Minister Hachirō Arita signed the "Arita-Craigie Agreement" in Tokyo, which stipulated that Britain would restrict anti-Japanese activities in North China, prevent suspected anti-Japanese activists from entering British concessions, and extradite four suspects to the Tianjin puppet government. This effectively recognized the puppet regime. In July of that year, Churchill ordered the closure of the Burma Road and Hong Kong port for three months to ease tensions with Japan, putting China in a suffocating position. It did what the Japanese wanted but couldn't do!

  But today, Britain had to sign a cooperation agreement with this ally who had been betrayed by itself many times. The UK provided production technology and equipment for aircraft engines (currently unavailable) in exchange for radar technology and wireless radio navigation and jamming technology provided by the Chinese government. Two countries facing strategic bombing from the enemy will have a lot of experience to share.

  It is reasonable to say that the UK was one of the first countries to apply radar technology in practice, but it became a pile of scrap metal under the interference of the German army. In contrast, China made full use of radar technology in air defense and even used radar to accurately guide fighter jets to intercept enemies. The radar technology provided by He Juncai is not advanced, as the UK had already been conducting research and could have achieved results within half a year to one year. He Juncai hoped to control the development of science and technology through this approach, causing other countries to gradually give up on independent research and instead purchase technology. Later, European and American countries formally treated China in this way, such as with large aircraft. When China was about to develop the technology, they would quickly sell it at a low price, leading managers of result-oriented research departments to feel that buying technology was easier, resulting in them losing out in the end and being forced onto the path of purchasing technology. It's like taking drugs - once you start, you can't stop.

  He Juncai provided the British with the "high-power multi-cavity magnetron" technology, which bundles the variable teeth of the magnetron together to stabilize it, allowing an output power of 50 kW at 3000 MHz. With this technology, powerful microwave radars can be manufactured. Currently, the German army uses passive interference using tin foil strips, which are aluminum strips with a size matching the wavelength of the target radar, attached to the back with paper or cellophane. When illuminated by radar, they produce resonance and induce an electric charge, which produces an enhanced signal at the same frequency as the illumination, and this induced signal is re-radiated by the tin foil strip and received by the radar as a target echo. After increasing the output power of the magnetron, the radar evolved from a meter-wave radar to a centimeter-wave radar, with better directivity and smaller interference area. In addition, when the length of the tin foil strip is half the wavelength of the radar, the effect is best. Currently, the German army does not know that the British can manufacture 10 cm wavelength radars, so the interference effect will be poor. The length of the tin foil strips currently used by the German army is 50 cm to 1 m.

  Wireless electrical navigation and interference technology refers to the current German military's use of high-power directional wireless radio deployed on the French coast to cross-indicate bombing targets for nighttime bombers, allowing them to accurately bomb through earphone reception of two wireless stations' "interference" waves under blackout conditions. This navigation system is complex, but the interference technology is simple: after figuring out the wireless signal, just set up a few jamming stations.

  The Chinese Air Force obtained the production patent for Rolls-Royce's "Grey Falcon" liquid-cooled V-12 piston aero engine, and could purchase a production line to be transported back to China at its own expense. In fact, by the end of 1940, the National Government had spent a lot of resources to transport this production line to the First Engine Manufacturing Plant in Dadi, China. The development of liquid-cooled engines in China started from this production line, which not only provided the first domestically produced aviation engine but also trained a large number of production personnel. Subsequent improvements to liquid-cooled engines were also based on the technology used by this production line. Therefore, it can be said that the production line introduced at the end of 1940 was the mother of China's air force liquid-cooled aircraft engines.

  Wishing you a happy Mid-Autumn Festival!