Cross the Songhu battlefield and rise to become the most powerful warlord

Chapter 817: British Army Surrenders Collectively

817 British troops surrendered en masse

“Commander, General Stilwell sent someone to inform us.

Let's go to his headquarters for a meeting."

Ye Qingshan was in the Expeditionary Force Headquarters when Chief of Staff Luo Zhuoying came in with a telegram and said to Ye Qingshan.

"Um?

General Stilwell let us through?

What happened? "

Ye Qingshan asked doubtfully.

After all, the distance between the two people's command centers is not very close.

It takes a certain amount of time to get there.

So, generally speaking, unless there is something important, Ye Qingshan and Stilwell now communicate by phone.

Now, Stilwell directly let Ye Qingshan go over.

That means there must be something important.

"Not sure. General Stilwell didn't say that in his telegram."

"Fine.

Then, Chief of Staff, I'll leave the command here to you. I'll go see General Stilwell.

Let the guard battalion get ready, I'll be leaving in half an hour."

“Yes, Commander.

I will ask the guard battalion to prepare."

After hearing this, the young martial artist behind him immediately went out to inform the guard camp.

Half a day later, Ye Qingshan arrived at Stilwell's headquarters in a military jeep.

As soon as I walked out of the tent, I heard Stilwell roaring inside: "Idiots, they are just a bunch of idiots.

What did Roberts promise me?

Is this what he meant by foolproof?

One hundred thousand people, they were wiped out in one battle..."

Ye Qingshan stood outside the tent and listened for a moment, and seemed to understand something.

"The British landing operation failed?"

Ye Qingshan had a blank expression on his face, but huge waves were surging in his heart.

Just at this moment, an American military staff officer walked out of the tent. When he saw Ye Qingshan, he was stunned at first, and then immediately saluted.

Now, Ye Qingshan couldn't continue eavesdropping outside.

Just go in.

"General Stilwell, what's the matter that has you so mad?

I heard you roaring from outside."

Ye Qingshan came in and said with a smile.

"Ye, you're here."

When Stilwell saw Ye Qingshan coming in, he suppressed his anger and greeted him.

"The first landing force sent by Roberts failed.

One hundred thousand vanguard troops, all gone."

Stilwell told Ye Qingshan about the situation.

"what!"

Ye Qingshan pretended to be shocked: "How is this possible?

Doesn’t the Japanese only have one division in the Malay Peninsula and Singapore?

Even the first batch of 100,000 British troops who landed did not land smoothly.

But it is unlikely that they will be completely wiped out in such a short time."

Hearing Ye Qingshan say this, Stilwell became even more annoyed.

He slammed the telegram directly on the table: “You think the same as I do.

But this is the fact, and I can’t understand how the British could do this.

You can read the telegram yourself."

Ye Qingshan picked up the telegram on the table, which contained a more detailed battle report sent by an American military officer accompanying the army.

After reading it, Ye Qingshan looked surprised on the surface, but there was some joy in the depths of his eyes.

According to the report from the American staff officer, everything was going smoothly for the first landing force sent by British Commander Roberts.

From the time we set out from the port to the time we were about to arrive at the waters of the Malay Peninsula, everything was safe and sound.

They didn't even encounter any Japanese warships at sea.

This is natural.

Last year, the main force of the Japanese naval fleet was severely damaged and defeated by the US Pacific Fleet in the Western Pacific.

At this time, the Japanese navy had neither the energy nor the ability to take into account the situation in the Indian Ocean.

The British landing fleet naturally had no obstruction.

But in the end, something went wrong just before the British fleet was about to land.

Several destroyers and cruisers they were escorting were suddenly attacked by underwater submarines.

In a very short period of time, two warships were sunk.

This directly caused panic among the entire Japanese fleet.

This immediately forced the British commander to order their landing ships to land immediately.

The British commanders were worried that if they did not land, their landing ships would be attacked by underwater submarines and the losses would be heavy.

Therefore, the British soldiers on the landing ship launched the landing operation in advance.

No more detailed reconnaissance was conducted.

Soon, the British troops began to land, but they soon discovered something was wrong.

The Japs had actually set up an ambush on the shore in advance.

The British troops who landed first suffered heavy losses after being ambushed by the Japanese.

We have not yet been able to capture the beachhead and establish a bridgehead.

Now, the problem is big.

There were still a large number of British landing ships on the sea, constantly rushing onto the beach.

The British troops that landed first were trapped on the beach and were unable to open a way forward.

Soon, the number of British soldiers gathered on the beach increased.

Chaos begins.

If I go forward, I can’t open a passage; if I retreat, I will have no chance either.

Just because they had rushed onto the beach in a landing craft.

Basically, all the landing ships were stranded.

There is no chance to retreat back to the sea.

In this way, tens of thousands of British troops trapped on the beach continued to launch wave after wave of attacks on the Japanese beachhead positions.

But they were unable to break through the Japs' defenses.

This time, the British army had no carrier-based aircraft to assist.

Originally, their firepower relied entirely on the naval gun support of their destroyers and cruisers.

As a result, the British warships are now busy fighting against submarines and saving lives at sea.

They had no energy to use naval guns to provide any fire support to the landing British offensive forces.

Now, without the fire support from the naval guns, the landing British troops were defeated by the defending Japanese in terms of firepower.

The Japs were originally the defending side, occupying the Malay Peninsula.

Not only were artillery pieces prepared in advance, there were even airports from which bombers could be dispatched continuously to bomb the British army.

The British soldiers on the beach didn't even have any shelter.

They could only continue to endure the Japanese artillery fire and bombs dropped by bombers, and suffered heavy casualties.

In this way, the attacking British army was trapped on the beach for two days, suffered heavy casualties, and its morale completely collapsed.

Originally, most of these British soldiers were from India.

The fighting spirit is as weak as paper.

When the battle is going well, there is still some fighting power.

Faced with the current situation, the morale of the army collapsed and they had no desire to fight.

So, starting from the third day, some British troops began to surrender to the Japanese.

With the first British army unit surrendering, it was like a domino effect, and other British troops soon followed suit.

Two days later, all of the 100,000 British troops were killed except for the few thousand who were killed in the initial battle.

The rest surrendered to the devils collectively.

This five-day landing operation ended in a rather magical way.

After reading the battle report, Ye Qingshan finally understood why General Stilwell was so angry.

If it were him, he would also be very angry.

A full 100,000 people didn't even last five days.