Great time travel

Chapter 29, The Bustling Oriental Ocean

December 29, [-], Singapore

Although the wind and snow were howling and the vegetation was withered in Europe at this time, the Zhangyi Naval Base in Singapore was still sunny and lush.

Under the scorching equatorial sun, accompanied by a long siren, the flagship of the Eastern Fleet of the Royal Navy of the British Empire, nicknamed the "African God of War" battlecruiser Prestige in a certain world, sailed with a large group of destroyers and transport ships. After entering Zhangyi Naval Base, the anchor chain was slowly lowered.

And the long-prepared military band on the shore also played the melody of "God Save the King".

——Four years later, the Union Jack of the British Empire once again flew over the long-awaited Singapore.

If you stand on the bridge of the battlecruiser Renown and look from a distance, the magnificent European-style buildings in the urban area of ​​Singapore, and the wide streets lined with palm trees and flower beds on both sides, are still the same as they were four years ago. Doesn't reflect Victorian elegance.As for the eye-catching Sun Flag and Rising Sun Flag, as well as those banners with slogans in Japanese, they were all torn down by the well-informed Nanyang Army Commander Toshiichi Terauchi.

Under the nostalgic sunset, everything seems to reappear yesterday, as if returning to the heyday of the British Empire.

However, even the dullest person would probably be very clear that the current empire on which the sun never sets has already faded away and changed beyond recognition.

After attending the surrender ceremony held in Singapore's Governor's Palace and watching the new Governor of the Straits Settlements, Lord Mountbatten, take over his command knife from the Japanese Army General Terauchi Shouichi, the commander of the Royal Navy's Eastern Fleet, Bruce Austin. Admiral Fraser did not attend the next dance, but under the eyes of everyone, he took a bottle of whiskey to the balcony, and drank alone with a small plate of cheese.

— Admiral Fraser didn't mind that, though it would certainly come across as insolent and vulgar.Unlike some polite fellows, this general gentleman has always regarded himself as a rough man, claiming that he has never read a novel, lacks neither cultural accomplishment nor political wisdom, and has never been a bureaucratic material, Admiral Fraser Today's status is entirely due to the repeated sacrifices and bloody fights on the battlefield.

Therefore, he never bothered to hide his emotions, and even less liked to put on a hypocritical smirk and pretend to be a polite gentleman.

At this moment, Admiral Fraser is not in a happy mood, it can even be said to be very depressed-it has always been his dream to bring the Royal Navy's Eastern Fleet back to its home port of Singapore, but it is purely a picked victory like now , It really made him feel dull.

—Since the change of Malaya and the fall of Singapore, the Royal Navy's Eastern Fleet has been driven out of the Pacific.But then, before the British came back to their senses, the Japanese United Fleet, which had been driving straight into the Indian Ocean, entered the Indian Ocean aggressively, joined hands with the disaffected rebels in various colonies, and continued to attack the British navy and army in the East. Another violent beating: the fall of Burma, the fall of Ceylon, the Indian uprising, the Arab rebellion, the Persian army captured Basra... Countless tragic defeats continued one after another, important ports were lost one after another, and the British Empire was in turmoil. The achievements of the East's century-old management collapsed in an instant, and finally the British Eastern Fleet was forced to flee the Asian continent in a hurry.

By the time Admiral Fraser came to take over in the autumn of 1944, the Eastern Fleet had been reduced to just one battlecruiser HMS Renown, six destroyers and two submarines, plus several cargo ships converted into "jeeps". "Aircraft carrier" can only dawdle in places like Mogadishu, Dar es Salaam, and Cape Town in South Africa on the east coast of Africa. The former fleet commander, General Somerville, was therefore ridiculed by the public as "African admiral". ...

And the only way this poor fleet can cause harm to the Japanese monkeys is to set off from the east coast of Africa, travel thousands of nautical miles to the other side of the Indian Ocean, drop a bunch of bombs on a Japanese naval base in Southeast Asia or Australia, and then turn around. run.But this kind of harassment mission is actually quite dangerous. Once you are unlucky, you will be bombarded by Japanese planes biting their tails, or chased and intercepted by the Japanese fleet... The remaining battleships of the Royal Navy’s Eastern Fleet after they evacuated from India, Aircraft carriers and cruisers have been sunk one after another in this kind of harassing battle that is not worth the candle.

Therefore, no matter how brave and ruthless Admiral Fraser is, there is no way to create any miracles with such a poor fleet. He can only secretly organize the "African Express" ship from time to time when the main force of the Japanese combined fleet is away. The team smuggled several supplies to the British and Indian troops trapped in Mumbai Port.Once the Japanese Combined Fleet returns to the Indian Ocean, Admiral Fraser can only honestly return to Africa, take up the shotgun and go hunting antelope on the prairie.

After the fall of Mumbai this autumn, Admiral Fraser didn't even have this task, so he could only stay on the beach in Africa and bask in the sun all day.At the same time, they are thinking about when the country will transfer the Renown to fill the huge gap formed after the local fleet was hit by the Soviet atomic bomb.

Who would have thought that after only a few days in the African sun, Admiral Fraser would be stunned by a sudden gift package from the sky: the Yankees went all the way to learn from the example of the Soviet Union, and directly bombed Tokyo with atomic bombs and gas bombs. It crushed the mind and heart of the Japanese Empire in an instant!
Then, the Japanese Empire fell into chaos, and a new Japanese provisional government emerged, calling for Japanese troops to surrender to the Allies.

After a while, although many Japanese troops scattered overseas were still fighting, General Hisashi Terauchi, the commander of the Japanese Nanyang Army in Singapore, announced his obedience to the order of the Provisional Government, and welcomed the allied forces to take over Singapore... so it was almost reduced The British Royal Navy's Eastern Fleet, known as the "African Fleet", jumped out of the valley of failure and jumped to the pinnacle of victory.

The officers and soldiers of the Eastern Fleet, who had long been tired of the long war, naturally celebrated and were ecstatic about this.However, as a professional soldier who has been fighting the wind and waves for half his life, Admiral Fraser hopes to have a good contest with the Japanese Navy and win a real victory with shells and torpedoes.

Of course, Admiral Fraser is also very clear that this may only be a delusion in his heart.

——All the current information shows that although most of the Japanese naval fleet has no intention of surrendering, it does not intend to stay in Southeast Asia and fight against the Royal Navy of the British Empire. Instead, it is retreating eastward in great strides.Not to mention the Dutch East Indies and British Malaya colonies on the north and south sides of the Singapore fortress, the French Indochina Federation a little further away, and even the Philippine Islands on the other side of the South China Sea were all abandoned by the Japanese Navy. China wants to concentrate its forces in the Western Pacific and start a deadly fight with the Yankees.

As for the Japanese army that did not follow, they stayed in the stronghold for three days and sent a telegram, urging the Allied forces to accept the surrender and take over the regime as soon as possible.

But this does not mean that the British Empire can smoothly restore everything to the old way.Because after the hurricanes swept by the Japanese invasion, the colonial order in this part of Southeast Asia has fallen apart, and the aboriginal people from all walks of life have risen up in the chaos, and countless thorns have emerged.For example, General Aung San's "Independence Army" in Myanmar, Ho Chi Minh in the Red River Delta, Sukarno in Java, and a bunch of Sudanese monarchs who established their own countries on Sumatra.In the north of Singapore, on the other side of the Johor Strait, there are countless guerrillas of the Malay Communist Party active at the moment, and they have no favor with the colonial rule of the British Empire.

They were both a nuisance to the invading Japanese for the past few years, but now they are a nuisance to the Allies, and not so long ago, got a huge sum of money from the wretched Japanese - the ones who keep fighting The Japanese navy and some of the Japanese army that refused to surrender almost deliberately left a large amount of ordnance and supplies to these guerrillas and indigenous political forces before withdrawing from various parts of Southeast Asia.

Especially in the Philippines, various guerrillas supported by the Communist Party of the Philippines, religious organizations, and US intelligence agencies, in order to seize the cities and ports abandoned by the Japanese army, had already fought a pot of porridge on Luzon Island and Mindanao Island.The situation in Vietnam was similar. Before abandoning Indochina, the Japanese army released all the French and Vietnamese guerrillas in the prisoner-of-war camps, and left them with a lot of weapons and ammunition.As a result, before all the retreating Japanese troops and overseas Chinese had time to board the ship, the Viet Minh guerrillas commanded by Ho Chi Minh had already fought against the French and overseas Chinese self-police forces in Saigon...

In short, in order to prevent the Western colonists from making a comeback smoothly, the Japanese navy laid countless mines in advance before withdrawing from Southeast Asia.As for the part of the Japanese army waiting to surrender, they were extremely depressed. As long as the bullet didn't hit their chest, they didn't bother to care about anything.

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However, all the turmoil that happened on land has nothing to do with Admiral Fraser, the commander of the naval fleet, for the time being.

As an old sailor, his mission was to sink enemy warships and shoot down enemy planes on the sea, but the Japanese navy had no intention of fighting him at all.And the current internal and external troubles, the British Empire, which is riddled with holes, can no longer support him in launching an expedition deep into the Pacific Ocean.

After the breakdown of the Anglo-Soviet peace negotiations, Churchill's wartime cabinet, which once again came to power, was overjoyed by the exciting news of "peacefully regaining Singapore", and regarded it as "in the darkest of times, finally appeared A ray of light."And in the domestic newspapers, they are trying to inspire the little fighting spirit of the people. However, if they are really required to invest in the few battleships and continue to launch the Eastern Expedition, to the Japanese Imperial Combined Fleet whose main force is still intact, Let's start a fateful battle of revenge... let's save this one!

In fact, the journey of the Royal Navy’s Eastern Fleet has come to an end the moment it arrives in Singapore—just in case, the current No. [-] Downing Street does not even plan to send a fleet to Hong Kong to receive it. Watch the two big sharks of the United States and Japan continue to fight in the eastern ocean.

No matter how depressed and melancholy Admiral Fraser, who had never won a battle in the East, felt in his heart, this was an unchangeable reality.

With the raising of the Mi Ziqi flag in Singapore, his mission on the eastern ocean has ended, and Singapore is the end point where the glory of the empire can shine again.As for the farther east, the most extensive Pacific Ocean on earth is no longer a battlefield belonging to the British Empire.Right now, London Whitehall is lucky enough to be able to pick up the leak and take it back to Singapore, which is already a very good fortune. If it is greedy, it will only lose the last bit of capital.

Just as Admiral Fraser raised his neck and drank another glass of whiskey, another army general came over with a glass.

"... General Fraser, why are you drinking alone here? Why don't you go dance with those ladies?"

Admiral Fraser looked up and found that it was Admiral Odd Wingate who came to Singapore with the fleet to accept the surrender.

This is a maverick and alternative celebrity in the British Army, and a controversial figure who is a headache for the bureaucracy. His name is a legend in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Lawrence of the same name.

General Wingate was a pioneer of long-range special operations, a gifted commander of irregular warfare, and a fanatic for personal adventure.He has participated in counter-insurgency battles in many colonies, and fought against the trend in a series of major defeats in the Pacific War. He recruited a large number of indigenous soldiers and formed the famous "Chindit" special forces. He fought with the Japanese army many times and achieved considerable results.

However, the hard work of a mere special force cannot change the defeat of the strategic collapse of the whole line.With the full-scale outbreak of the Indian uprising, the battlefield of the "Chindit" special forces had to retreat again and again, and eventually they were exhausted in the quagmire of the Ganges River Basin.Admiral Wingate, who was only spared, was also sent to East Africa to accompany Admiral Fraser, the African admiral, to train a black indigenous special forces for the British Empire.Right now, because he has fought in Southeast Asia for many years and is familiar with the environment, Admiral Wingate has been reassigned to Asia to be responsible for the reception of Singapore.

At the same time, Admiral Fraser squinted at the brightly lit and melodious hall, and found that there was indeed a sea of ​​skirts and hairpins flying and singing: Obviously, the civil and military officials in the British colonies who just took office have not yet I had time to bring my family members, so the women who participated in the ball were mainly the wives and daughters of rich local overseas Chinese businessmen and Malay aristocrats, and some white women were courtesans who had just been released from the Japanese comfort station... Although they Probably the wives or misses of those British colonial officials who surrendered four years ago before being forced to sell their meat to survive.

Regarding this, General Fraser could only shrug his shoulders and express his helplessness. After all, in this era of raging wars, there are too many unlucky people whose families have been destroyed. Have fun, but don't intend to make other people become ascetic ascetics.

"...Sorry, my mind is still very confused, and I feel very confused. I really don't feel in the mood to dance with a girl..."

Admiral Fraser raised his glass to Admiral Wingate, "...Speaking of which, how did things come to this point? Until now, I feel like I am dreaming. As if suddenly, we Flying out of the abyss of failure, and then sitting on the throne of the winner, looking at the ferocious enemy who has never been defeated by him, his bones were inexplicably removed, and he knelt at his feet to flatter... Really, this feeling is not comfortable, even more unpleasant, on the contrary, it makes people feel empty in the heart, it seems very unreliable..."

"...who knows? Maybe fate is such a wonderful thing?" Admiral Wingate shrugged indifferently, "...General Fraser, at least in the east, your war is over, you can take a good rest But my war has just begun!
As you probably know, London has thrown me another impossible task: to recover the whole of Burma and Malaya from the rebels!Also wait for an opportunity to invade the Dutch East Indies and lay a foothold for Queen Wilhelmina in exile in London!hell!The War Department gave me only three brigades, one of which was a black African brigade, but asked me to fight a war that even three armies could not win!It's crazy! "

"...As far as I know, London seems to have given you a suggestion, so that you can use the guns and ammunition surrendered by the surrendered Japanese army to recruit soldiers from our prisoners of war who surrendered four years ago, and arm them again. It is used to make up for the shortfall in military strength!"

Admiral Fraser frowned and asked, "...Although they have been tortured in the Japanese prisoner-of-war camp for four years, it is estimated that some people's health is not good enough. But as long as they are fully rested and supplemented with proper nutrition, think about it. It should be possible to pick out thousands of available soldiers, right?"

—Nearly four years ago, in February 1942, the stupid and weak General Parcival raised the white flag over Singapore and surrendered to the Japanese with 2 British colonial troops.Churchill had sadly announced at the time: "The most painful catastrophe in British history, the largest surrender, was in Singapore." Among the [-] prisoners of war, half were British and Australians, and the rest were Indians and Malays. people, and a few Chinese.

In view of the current situation where the available troops on various fronts are stretched and the young and middle-aged males in the country have been conscripted to the limit, the War Department in London has a big brain and hit the idea on these prisoners of war who have suffered so much. The special general recruited troops from among them, and the required ordnance and ammunition were confiscated from the surrendered Japanese army. Army prisoners of war, it is true that they surrendered in Singapore four years ago, but who stipulated that they are still here today?
"...Unfortunately, according to that old monkey in Terauchi, only [-] Australian POWs were left in Singapore after that battle to sweep the roads. The others were all sent to POW camps elsewhere, not in Singapore at all , at least I can't get them over now."

Admiral Wingate complained, "...unless your fleet is willing to do the favor and bring them back to Singapore from POW camp..."

"...Need the help of the navy? Is the prisoner-of-war camp in Bangkok or Rangoon?"

Admiral Fraser raised his head and downed the last bit of whiskey at the bottom of the bottle, smacking his lips a little bit and said.

"...No, it's a little farther away, but it's also by the sea...just south of Hong Kong on China's Hainan Island!"

Admiral Wingate replied with eager eyes, "...Your Excellency, you must be willing to help the Army with this, right?"

Admiral Fraser was stunned when he heard this.He first rolled his eyes, as if he was thinking about the location of the place name, then sighed helplessly, turned around and summoned a waiter with a large tray, took down two glasses of brandy, and stuffed one of the tall glasses into it. In the hands of Admiral Wingate who didn't know why, "...that... Uh, let's not mention these troublesome things, let's continue to drink!"

Admiral Wingate: "..."