Chapter 89: Changes (Part 2)
Looking down from a global perspective, we can understand why the Japanese army suddenly ended the Second Battle of Changsha.
That’s right, in June of that year, the international situation suddenly changed dramatically. It was this sudden change that forced the Japanese army to adjust, shrink, and end various combat plans that were being implemented or prepared.
The story begins with the changes in the war in North Africa.
Given the importance of Benghazi oil to the German war machine, while General Karl Adolf Hollidt commanded the African Army, the Italian First Army, and the Italian Sixth Army to besiege Tobruk, from April 11, 1941, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring commanded the German Second Air Force to carry out a two-month-long bombing of the island of Malta.
Because the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy Air Force on the island of Malta were pinned down by the German and Italian Air Forces, during the German and Italian bombing of Malta, a large amount of supplies were successfully transferred to North Africa to serve as supplies for the German and Italian advance.
Relying on these precious supplies, especially 96 Type III G/h/J tanks, 42 88mm anti-aircraft guns and 150 Opel military vehicles, Rommel continued to advance rapidly like a tiger with wings.
Not only did they successfully repel Operation Tomahawk planned by General Archibald Wavell, but they also took advantage of the chaos caused by the British army's replacement of its highest commander in the field to quickly penetrate into Egypt and advance all the way to the Fuka area not far from El Alamein.
General Karl Adolf Hollidt was unwilling to let Rommel take all the credit, and relying on the Stuka dive bombers equipped by the 2nd Squadron of the 2nd Dive Bomber Wing and the support of the Italian Air Force, he finally forced the 25,000 defenders in Tobruk to surrender on June 1 with less than 3,000 casualties.
The change of Tobruk's hands was a great stimulus to Britain and anti-British forces. Just when British Prime Minister Churchill was questioned by the British House of Commons because of this, Iraq suddenly declared war on Britain.
In fact, as one of the former British mandate territories, Iraq signed the so-called "Anglo-Iraqi Treaty" with Britain in 1930, which textually confirmed the mutual dependence and support between the two sides in economy and military.
However, since the late 1930s, the Pan-Arab movement has begun to rise throughout the Arab world. Its dominant idea is to exclude the interference of Western powers and establish a unified Arab league.
This movement deeply affected the middle and lower-level officers from poor backgrounds in the Iraqi army at the time. Driven by them, the calls for breaking away from the control of the British Empire became increasingly louder.
After the outbreak of World War II, the then Prime Minister Rashid Ali Zillani, with the support of pan-Arab officers, was forced to break off diplomatic relations with Germany in accordance with the Central-Iranian Treaty, but refused to declare war on Italy and Germany.
Seeing that the opportunity was rare, Nazi Germany began to operate in Iraqi politics, hoping that Iraq would turn against the Third Reich and become the frontier of the Third Reich in the Middle East.
With the support of the Germans, the Pan-Arab faction became bolder, and Zillani subsequently announced a ban on British troops from entering Iraq.
At this time, the British realized the seriousness of the situation.
Once the Iraqis really sided with the Axis powers and took control of the Gulf region, the oil from the Gulf would continue to flow into the fuel tanks of the German steel army, which would be a suffocating nightmare for the British Empire.
However, the British also understood that if they rashly used force at this time, on the one hand, they would face strong military pressure from Germany and Italy, and on the other hand, if they took a wrong step, it would very likely further aggravate the already serious situation in the Middle East and make the Arab world completely side with the Axis powers.
Therefore, from 1939 to 1941, both Germany and Britain launched a powerful diplomatic offensive against Iraq, desperately trying to build up their own representatives in Congress.
However, since the fall of France, Pan-Arab factions have gradually gained the upper hand in Congress.
Many MPs strongly advocated the "liberation" of Syria and Palestine from British colonial rule.
By 1941, the problem had become more complicated.
At that time, the Germans had already established very close ties with the Zillani government, but whether it was because the Germans were still hesitating or in order to confuse the British, Zillani suddenly agreed to allow Britain to send a small number of troops into Iraq.
As a result, the radical elements of the Pan-Arab faction believed that Zillani had sided with the British again and forced him to step down. However, it was not long before Zillani returned to the throne with the support of his four trusted generals.
It was only then that people realized that Zielani had become even bolder, because he had already obtained Germany's promise of direct military assistance and had sternly rejected Britain's request to send additional troops to Iraq.
The British now realized that the time for a showdown had come.
Therefore, regardless of the crisis of the war in Greece and Libya, the British army sent an Iraqi expeditionary force from Egypt, the main force of which was the 10th Indian Infantry Division, commanded by Sir Edward Quinnan.
The clear purpose of the expedition was to restore Britain's dominant position in the Iraqi government and to protect all British interests in Iraq.
The British expeditionary force arrived at the northern city of Basra on April 18, 1941.
At that time, the British army had two important military bases in Iraq, one in the port city of Basra, and the other was a Royal Air Force base on the shores of Lake Habbaniyah, just west of Baghdad.
The Iraqis were well aware of the purpose of the British army's arrival, but the Zillani government knew that it would be difficult to compete with the British on its own, so it had to tolerate it temporarily.
However, with the German and Italian armies' successive victories in North Africa, the British were forced to transfer more troops from the Gulf region to Egypt to stop Rommel's attack, which gave the Iraqis an opportunity.
On May 31, the Iraqi army began to gather on the high ground south of the Habbaniya Air Force Base and sent messengers to inform the British army that no personnel, vehicles or military aircraft were allowed to enter or leave .
The British army rejected the Iraqi army's request and demanded that the Iraqi army withdraw from the area immediately.
After a brief stalemate, at 5 a.m. on June 2, the British army, upon learning that the Iraqis had declared war, suddenly opened fire on the Iraqi army, and the battle finally began.
Although the British's combat effectiveness and command skills could not compare with those of the German army, they had no problem bullying the weak Iraqis. After two days of fighting, the Iraqi army, which had superior forces, was still unable to capture the Habbaniya base.
But at this time, what Churchill was most worried about had already happened. Hitler had noticed the changes in Iraq.
Immediately, the German Air Force Chief of Staff, General Hans Yeschoennak, authorized German Air Force Colonel Werner Junker to command a German air force to reinforce Iraq.
Colonel Werner Junkers quickly organized a flying wing equipped with 14 BF-110C fighters, 7 He-111H bombers, 20 Junkers-52/3m transport aircraft and several Junkers-90s, and flew into Iraq via Greece and Syria.
Later, 11 CR42 fighter jets of the Italian Army's 155th Squadron arrived in Kirkuk.
It was with the support of the German and Italian air forces that the Iraqis barely managed to block the British attack and defend Baghdad with difficulty.
As the saying goes, when it rains, it pours. The problems in Iraq have not been completely resolved, and the more powerful Iran next door has also shown signs of being anti-British.
Before 1925, when Iran was still called Persia, a warlord named Reza Khan officially expelled King Ahmed, put on the crown himself, and used the ancient Persian name: "Pahlavi" as the title of the new dynasty.
In January 1935, Reza Khan changed the country's name to Iran, which means "the country of the Aryans." Although Reza Khan was not interested in Hitler's ideas, he had to take what he wanted from Hitler in order to achieve modernization and recover the consular jurisdiction, oil concessions, fishing rights, telegraph company franchises that had been taken away by the great powers (namely Britain and Russia), achieve tariff autonomy, and cancel foreign troops.
Germany hoped to use Iran to threaten the British Indian Empire and the southern hinterland of the Soviet Union. Iran also used Germany to contain its old enemies Britain and Russia, and attempted to use German technology to achieve industrialization.
By 1936, there were more than 5,000 German advisers working in Iran. The Iranian army's artillery, rifles, and pistols were all made in Germany. There were direct flights between Berlin and Tehran. Germany had become Iran's second largest trading partner, and after the outbreak of the European war, this trade was still carried out through the Soviet Union.
In 1941, the war was approaching Egypt, and Syria was also under the rule of Vichy France, which was dependent on Germany. At this time, some forces in Iran felt that it was time to catch the German express and take back the Anglo-Persian Oil Fields in southwestern Iran and the Bahrain Islands occupied by the British. However, due to the suppression of Reza Shah, this undercurrent was not officially brought to the surface.
However, the situation of uniting with Iran to fight against Britain has attracted Hitler's attention. Although Hitler had already formulated the Barbarossa Plan at this time, if the British could be defeated first in the Middle East, which would lead to the British Empire losing the crown of India, Britain would most likely be forced to compromise with Germany. In this way, the two-front war that the German military has always regarded as a nightmare might no longer exist.
It was for this purpose that Hitler decided to delay the implementation of Operation Barbarossa for one month and further increase investment in the Army Group Africa.
So on June 12, 1941, under the command of Field Marshal Kesselring, the German Remke Parachute Brigade, which had just finished the battle on Crete, and the Italian 185th [Lightning] Airborne Division carried out an airborne landing on the island of Malta.
After a week of fighting, the German army captured this vital Mediterranean island, completely opening up the Mediterranean passage. As a result, the British Mediterranean Fleet was forced to withdraw from the Suez Strait and retreat to Yemen and Somaliland.
On June 22, the German 5th Light Armored Corps and the two Italian motorized infantry divisions, Ariete and Trieste, which received supplies from the rear again, defeated the British army's final counterattack at El Alamein and advanced all the way to the important Egyptian port town of Alexandria.
British officials of all ranks in Egypt fled to Jordan in a panic, and the entire Cairo and Alexandria were in a doomsday scene. As a result, Britain's rule in the Middle East tended to collapse.
In this crisis, the old lion Churchill looked around and found that the only country that could save the British Empire was the United States. However, apart from supporting Britain in the Aid Act in accordance with the Atlantic Charter, the United States was not yet ready to join the war. Therefore, it could no longer be counted on.
So who else can Britain rely on?
For the survival of the British Empire, Churchill had to deal with the devil.
At 11:19 p.m. on June 22, 1941, Britain and the Soviet Union signed a secret agreement in Moscow. Churchill obtained Stalin's promise to declare war on Germany on the condition that he agreed to the Soviet Union's annexation of Poland, Western Latin America, Moldova, Finland and northern Iran after the war.
In order to better contain Germany, Britain also promised to provide the Soviet Union with additional aid worth 250 million pounds per year in machinery, raw materials, arms, vehicles, and gold during the war, and promised to assist the Soviet Union in obtaining support from the United States.
At 3 a.m. on June 24, 1941, the Soviet Belorussian Front, the First Ukrainian Front and other units suddenly launched a full-scale attack on German-occupied Poland, the protectorate of Slovakia, and Axis members Hungary, Romania and Finland.
