Time Slip Reiwa Japan

113 - China Upheaval - Period of Natural Truce

The United States is planning a large-scale offensive in the spring to wait for the war with China.

At this point, the participating countries had surpassed 10 countries, including the Frontier Republic, the Siberian Republic, the four states of the Japanese Federation, France, and the Netherlands, and had become a de facto allied force of the League of Nations. The total military strength, including military personnel in the army, navy, and air force, as well as military attaches exceeded 600.000, and the number of divisions was 30. With the full support of the Japanese Combined Armed Forces (Maritime Self-Defense Force) and the maritime industry, the military forces from around the world had largely gathered by the time of the spring offensive. It was the power of the Japanese maritime transport force (Maru Fleet), which boasts a cruising speed of over 20 knots. *1

Thanks to this, the soldiers who gathered in Manchuria from all over the world were able to spend enough time getting used to the new American- and Japanese-made equipment they were given. But even with 600.000 well-trained soldiers with state-of-the-art equipment, the Chinese army was not an opponent to be taken lightly. The Chinese, who gathered (were rounded up) with the cry of 100 divisions and 1 million soldiers, received what can only be called crash training, and were deployed to the front line north of Beijing and the Yellow River by the time winter came. The number was 400.000. The new unit was named the Hebei Garrison Command. *2

The Chinese media touted it as an elite force defending the great Central Plains. However, the state of their equipment was poor. Small arms and machine guns were one thing, but heavy weapons such as field guns were not enough, and most units were not even adequately supplied with uniforms. However, it was sufficient if they were to hunker down and resist – At least the East Eurasian Army Group's general staff judged that they were an obstacle as an enemy. On top of that, the original elite force, the Northern Expeditionary Command, a mobile force, was also being reorganized, and had recovered its pre-war size in terms of numbers, if not quality. The American East Eurasian Army Group decided to revise its offensive plan to wait until the winter was over in order to end the war quickly.

. . .

United States: East Eurasian Army Group

Faced with China's construction of trenches reminiscent of World War I, the US initially considered using powerful weapons (nuclear weapons) jointly controlled by Japan and the Republic of Guam (USFJ) as a means of breaking through. After all, nuclear weapons, which can easily incinerate large areas, were the best in terms of efficiency (cost performance).

There was also a simple desire to use such a powerful weapon. However, due to strong opposition from Japan and the USFJ, which also opposed it due to concerns about residual radiation, the idea was abandoned. *3 As a result, the US decided to destroy China's defense line by force (quantity). They prepared enough aircraft to gain air superiority, and together with bombers, they prepared nearly 500 ground attack aircraft. In addition, the US government demanded that the Guam Special Autonomous Region's military (USFJ), which had refused to use nuclear weapons, provide Japanese support supplies as compensation for the refusal, specifically requesting (practically begging) for the priority supply of a large quantity of 4-ton (medium-sized) ML-3s. This was because they planned to modify the ML-3s and prepare self-propelled multiple rocket launchers (MLRS). Although the US could have prepared the trucks on its own, it judged that they were insufficient for MLRSs, which were required to accompany the front-line troops and be mobile, due to their poor off-road performance. *4

The first attack was carried out with ground-to-ground rockets, followed by the advance of the armored units. If any surviving units showed themselves to resist, they would be dealt with by the ground attack aircraft units. It was a trench-trampling tactic that knew no mercy.