The Third Reich in Desperation

In other words, as long as the US aid to the Soviet Union is hung with the Soviet flag, the Japanese have an excuse not to attack it.

Of course, the arrogant headquarters finally made a decision: If the German government refused to agree to Japan's proposal, they could only choose to suspend the signing of the treaty with the Germans.

The Japanese base camp, which has given up on the northward advance, now has no desire to provoke the Soviet Union at all.

At least, in the short term, they will not have this urge.

If the German side had to ask them to attack the Soviet Union, then the Japanese base camp had no choice but to choose: reject the request of the Third Reich.

However, the Japanese need not worry so much.Reinhardt didn't actually insist that Japan fight the USSR as well as the US.

As for why, not only the militarists in Tokyo or anyone else did not understand, but even many people in the German Foreign Office did not understand.

However, joining forces with the Japanese army is not a calculation where one plus one equals two.

First of all, if Japan divides its energy and goes northward to the Soviet Union, then their power for US military operations will be greatly reduced.

Reinhard knows that even Japan, which is going all out, is not an opponent of the US military. If they are allowed to devote their energy to joining forces with Germany to deal with the Soviet Union, the US military may easily push Japan.

Furthermore, from the bottom of his heart, Reinhardt did not want the Third Reich to join forces with the so-called Great Japanese Empire.

Now Germany has a very high reputation in the world and internationally.Moreover, the German propaganda team has been trying to make the image of the Third Reich internationally as a symbol of justice.

In contrast to Japan, they not only abused biological and chemical weapons and conducted inhumane experiments, but also massacred massacres, and their international reputation is extremely poor.

If it joins forces with Japan, then Germany has carefully prepared before.The image was burnt to the ground.

In the end, just from an emotional point of view, Reinhardt doesn't like Japan, a crazy country, at all.

Now that Japan can slightly agree to help block the materials shipped by the United States to the Soviet Union, of course Germany readily agrees.

But if Japan wants Germany to make any promises, then sorry, Reinhardt will not give any black and white responses.

In any case, Japan has made up its mind to deal a heavy blow to the United States in the Pacific.

As early as May 1940, Roosevelt ordered the Pacific Fleet, which ended its annual routine exercise, not to return to the west coast of the United States, but to stay at Pearl Harbor to deter Japan.This has already touched the psychological bottom line of the Japanese navy, leaving the foreshadowing of war.

Of course, this is like Roosevelt's obvious stimulus to Japan, as if he is forcing Japan to declare war on the United States.

And the Japanese base camp actually endured it. In this regard, I have to admire the endurance of the Japanese.

As a result of patience, Roosevelt immediately made an inch and announced a comprehensive oil embargo against Japan. This is undoubtedly fatal to Japan, which is extremely scarce in resources.

For this reason, the unbearable Japan had no choice but to attack Pearl Harbor and make a deadly gamble.

Gambler Yamamoto 56 analyzed that the purpose of attacking Pearl Harbor was to eliminate the main force of the US Navy in the Pacific Ocean.Even if the U.S. Navy cannot be completely defeated, it can at least temporarily destroy the main battleships of the U.S. military in the Pacific.

According to Japanese intelligence, the U.S. military stationed three large aircraft carriers, 3 cruisers, and 16 destroyers in Pearl Harbor.If such a powerful force is wiped out in one fell swoop, as Yamamoto 40 himself sees, just this one success can bring a strategic advantage for about 56 months to a year.

Taking advantage of this period of strategic advantage, Japan can attack resources producing areas in the Dutch East Indies and other regions without the obstruction of the US Navy, and ensure that its own strategic resources can be supplied.

From the very beginning, the purpose of Japan's "Southern Movement" was actually to demand Indonesian oil and to redistribute the Southeast Asian colonies.

Today, the remaining forces of the British army in Southeast Asia are not to be feared and can be easily eliminated.The trouble is the United States. The US military owns the Southeast Asian colonies of the Philippines and Guam. Their Pacific Fleet directly poses a threat to the flanks of Japan's north-south line of communication.

Theoretically, if Japan wants to completely defeat the United States, it needs to "occupy the islands of Hawaii and the Aleutians in the North Pacific, completely destroy the US Pacific Fleet, and then use a powerful navy and air force to carry out landing operations on the US mainland, and finally destroy it by the army." U.S."

This idea is too huge, so huge that it far exceeds Japan's war capabilities and logistical capabilities, and there is almost no way to implement it.

Therefore, the strategy actually implemented by the Japanese army was the stalemate strategy proposed by Yamamoto 56, not the winning strategy.

The essence of this strategy is to quickly take over Southeast Asia after weakening the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and rely on the obtained resources to continue confronting the U.S. in turn.

In the final analysis, Yamamoto's strategy was to "transfer from quick combat to defense", and the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was only to achieve a tactical goal of the final strategy.

Now, the Germans are willing to help and strengthen the momentum of the Japanese army internationally, which is of course the best.Even if the Germans did not support Japan, the Nagumo Chuichi Fleet, which had already arrived at the combat position and set the final strategy, would not be able to just turn around and turn back.

The time has come for the big fight, and nothing can stop the showdown.What's more, Nagumo Tadashi still has a feasible combat plan given by Germany long ago...

Text 732 Tiger!Tiger!Tiger!

update in about an hour

On July 7, Chuichi Nagumo's fleet had reached its final attack position.

At this last moment, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs once again played its usual diplomatic tricks on the Third Reich.

The Japanese Foreign Minister stated: "We hope to avoid an armed conflict with the Soviet Union before the strategic conditions are ripe."

In order to let the German government understand their concept, and to prevent Reinhardt from insisting on exchanging diplomatic notes on the Japanese army going north to the Soviet Union at least for the time being, the Japanese side also explained many reasons to Germany in detail:

Although Japan cannot launch an attack on the Soviet Union, they can guarantee that once war with the United States begins, the Japanese navy will intercept all ships bound for the Soviet Union from the United States.

This is a very intriguing answer.

The Japanese are always good at playing intrigue, such as their commitment to Germany this time.

Although the Japanese army did not want to provoke the Soviet Union in the north, but because the Japanese army went to war in the United States, they could cut off all supplies from the United States to the Soviet Union by the way.

This is equivalent to helping the Germans in disguise.

At the same time, even if the material aid from the United States to the Soviet Union was cut off, it did not directly provoke the Soviet government. This was also a means for Japan to avoid enmity with the Soviet Union.

However, the Japanese Foreign Minister finally stated that if Ribbentrop still insisted on asking the Kwantung Army to make a guarantee on the issue of the northward advance of the Soviet Union, we had no choice but to issue a statement under such circumstances:

In principle, Japan would prevent the United States from sending war supplies to the Soviet Union through the Sea of ​​Japan.

But from a strategic point of view, the Japanese base camp believes that they still need to avoid the Soviet Union fighting against Japan in the short term, that is to say, the Japanese navy cannot intercept the entire Soviet Union.

Such a statement is equivalent to a huge discount on Japan's commitment to assist the German army in blocking the Soviet Union.

Yes, the Japanese could indeed intercept American transport ships.But if the Soviet Union sent its own transport ships to transport supplies from the United States, then the Japanese Navy would let these Soviet transport ships go.

In other words, as long as the US aid to the Soviet Union is hung with the Soviet flag, the Japanese have an excuse not to attack it.

Of course, the arrogant headquarters finally made a decision: If the German government refused to agree to Japan's proposal, they could only choose to suspend the signing of the treaty with the Germans.

The Japanese base camp, which has given up on the northward advance, now has no desire to provoke the Soviet Union at all.

At least, in the short term, they will not have this urge.

If the German side had to ask them to attack the Soviet Union, then the Japanese base camp had no choice but to choose: reject the request of the Third Reich.

However, the Japanese need not worry so much.Reinhardt didn't actually insist that Japan fight the USSR as well as the US.

As for why, not only the militarists in Tokyo or anyone else did not understand, but even many people in the German Foreign Office did not understand.

However, joining forces with the Japanese army is not a calculation where one plus one equals two.