Time Slip Reiwa Japan

020 - Shanghai Incident - 2

The United States Marine Corps deployed with only small arms in hand, but the support was plentiful. On the sea, a US Navy cruiser was anchored in Kwantung, and in the sky, SDF and USFJ aircraft were flying. Rather than lamenting his own disappointment, a Marine second lieutenant wrote in his journal that he was excited to see the rumored armies of Emperor and the future power of America.

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Shanghai Incident: Warlord Armies

It was a large army of about 100.000 strong, but since it was a mishmash, there was little discipline and movement was sluggish. In addition, there was a shortage of food and fuel, so the troops were requisitioned in the towns on the way to Shanghai. The situation was similar to that of bandits or locusts.

In the end, about 10.000 soldiers arrived at the periphery of Shanghai as the advance troops of the warlords on the eighth day after their departure from their home base. After arriving in Shanghai, they demanded the mayor and the Provisional Authority Committee, which was made up of the leaders of the powers, whether they would surrender Shanghai.

They refused.

On the contrary, to destroy the face of the warlords, they were accused of controlling the roads from Shanghai to the interior and blocking the logistics. The commander of the advance troops killed the messenger who had made such a petty remark, and also announced to the world that he was going to attack Shanghai on the pretext that the armies of the powers were still there.

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Shanghai Incident (D-Day)

The defenders were optimistic, as the SDF's UAV and helicopter reconnaissance had captured the vanguard troops. This was because they could see that the vanguard was light infantry with vehicles but no heavy equipment such as tanks or field artillery. The size of the force was about 10.000, but it was not cohesive. It would have been a threat if they had attacked dispersed around the perimeter of the vast city of Shanghai, but there were no signs of such an attack.

It was also significant that preparations had been made, albeit for a short time. The large-scale civil engineering equipment brought in by the SDF, combined with the slow arrival of the warlords, enabled the construction of trenches and anti-tank shelters to protect Shanghai in time. For the next two days, the situation was so bad that a soldier who had served in the World War wrote in his memoirs, "It was just like the Somme." Of course, this was only the case for the attackers. Already on the morning of the second day, the warlords' ability to clash had disappeared.

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Shanghai Incident: Air Strike

Since the main objective was to destroy the field forces of the warlords, and since it was the advance troops that were currently facing them, the Japanese refrained from launching a full-scale air attack. The strategic bomber groups, led by the B-52s, were a tad bit too large to target the field forces. The infrastructure for aircraft operations in Shanghai was too inadequate for the introduction of light attack aircraft. Most importantly, ammunition was in short supply due to the Soviet-Japanese War effort.

Therefore, Japan gathered the helicopter units of the SDF and the Republic of Guam's military (USFJ) and put them on the Izumo as the flagship of the task force. *1 The reason that the helicopter unit had not been deployed to the front lines was the problem of the helicopter unit's operating rate due to the depletion of spare parts and aging equipment. It would be meaningless if they were worn out during the outpost phase and could not fight against the main force of the warlords. That was the judgment of the Shanghai Defense Command.