In fact, the United States does not know clearly about the idea of ​​Britain defending India. The United Kingdom has actually invested a lot of enthusiasm and efforts in defending India.

After General Henry Maitland Wilson led the remnants of the 10th Army, which had retreated from Iran, to India, the British quickly reorganized the Indian troops, and divided them into three armies:

The Eastern Army, which was deployed on India and Burma for a long time, was reorganized into the 14th Army, with Lieutenant General of Europe as commander, and was in charge of the 15th Army (5th, 7th Indian Division, 81st West African Division), the 4th Army (17th, 20th, 26th Indian Infantry Division and 254th Indian Tank Brigade), the 33rd Army (2nd, 36th Indian Infantry Division), the total force exceeds 200,000;

After the 10th Army was combined with the original troops stationed in India, it was still called the 10th Army. However, the army was weak and had a total of 6 divisions. Among them, three troops who retreated from the Iranian battlefield were supplemented, and the full rate was still less than 70%;

The main force in the south, also known as the 12th Army, is unifiedly commanded by the Army Command located in Ceylon. It was originally intended to be organized into the 11th Army Group with the 14th Army Group. However, Japan cut off the Indian Ocean to the outside world. The British side realized the importance of Ceylon's status and set up the army separately. In addition to the 3rd Division and the 2nd African Division in southern India, the forces on Ceylon Island mainly include the 19th and 25th Indian Division, the 50th Tank Brigade and the 99th Indian Infantry Brigade.

Overall, the British ground forces in the Indian direction include 17 division numbers and 8 brigade numbers, and then add the Royal Air Force troops stationed in India, the Chinese troops stationed in India, the US Army Air Force stationed in India, etc., with a total force of more than 400,000.

Originally, Britain had an Eastern fleet stationed in India, but the first Ceylon Battle was ravaged by the mobile fleet commanded by Nagamo, and later it was defeated by Horitiki in the Indian Ocean Battle to almost destroy the entire army. Therefore, the Royal Navy had almost no strength in India except for 2 auxiliary cruisers, 4 destroyers and more than 10 offshore patrol gunboats or supply ships. However, in Mumbai, Kolkata, Colombo, Tengmali and other places, there were some shore defense, air defense, and land combat troops. All the personnel under the command of the navy could gather about 10,000 people.

In summary, the total British troops are about 120,000 and Indian troops are 250,000 (the British are officers). Among the 250,000 Indian troops, there are several pure Sikhs and Guerks, with a total force of about 20,000, and very strong in combat, even stronger than pure British troops. The remaining 200,000 Indian troops are not worth mentioning, but the level is still a little higher than the Burmese Independence Army and the Siam Royal Army that was temporarily formed by Myanmar.

From the book, the troops stationed in India also have a large number of equipment, with more than 500 tanks of various types and more than 400 aircraft, but they are mainly old models. Taking tanks as an example, most of them are the Crusaders and Valentines, as well as the Grant Lee, who was aided by the United States in the early days. There are less than 100 of them are relatively new Shermans, and the newly produced Churchill and Fireflies in the United Kingdom are not in the possession of the Indian Army; most of the aircraft are old models, and most of the fighter jets are hurricanes, with only more than 40 fire spitting fires. It is not the latest Fire Spitting Fire 14, but Fire Spitting Fire 8.

During the period when the 10th Army retreated to India and was occupied by the Germans, Britain actually transported a lot of military supplies, equipment and personnel to India through South Africa, but the scale was far from being compared with the previous sea control power. Most of the time it was carried out in the form of 1-2 merchant ships secretly. In the eyes of Americans, it would do nothing.

However, this small-scale smuggling is actually not bad. The 10th Army retreated from the Middle East has barely recovered its vitality through such efforts. Moreover, the Royal Navy has made a very accurate judgment on the situation. Although the Joint Fleet issued a statement to block the North Indian Ocean, in fact, the main force of the fleet has been participating in the war. It is impossible to truly block such a large ocean. Large fleets may suffer losses, and there is no need to worry about small-scale transportation.

Later, it was discovered that the main force of the joint fleet was invested in North America. After the Panama war, its control over the Indian Ocean became weaker. Except for the Arabian Sea near the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, the rest were unable to monitor. The personnel and business exchanges between India and South Africa still maintained a medium-sized pattern. They just had to go around a large circle and could not follow the East Africa route. They had to detour the periphery of Madagascar. It was not until May that the island was lost that the passage was finally cut off, but the material exchanges between India and Australia were still continuing, and the materials allocated to the Hump Route were mainly transported from Australia.

The biggest dissatisfaction with the Indians was the chaotic overall thinking and military logic of the British: except for the Southeast Asian theater where Mountbatten was the commander-in-chief, accepting the management of the China-Indian-Myanmar theater, nothing else passed through the China-Indian-Myanmar theater. Not only did the United Kingdom not report the idea of ​​defending India to the Allies, nor did it explain the next combat plan and plan, nor was it willing to incorporate all the troops into the unified management of the China-Indian-Myanmar theater. So much so that on the land of India, the British, US and Chinese troops stationed in India all did their own things, which made Stilwell often furious. In his opinion, the British were not easy to deal with than the Chinese.

This complaint and "chaos" reached Roosevelt's ears, which made him mistakenly believe that Churchill did not want to defend India.

In fact, the British have deeper considerations. They regard India as their ban and do not want the Americans to intervene before India is clearly threatened. Whether it is the army stationed in India or the American air force, they are all temporary deployments that Japan was busy in Myanmar when launching an offensive in Myanmar. According to the British idea, once the war in Myanmar comes to an end and India does not have a particularly serious threat, these troops should be cleared out.

Although the British Empire could not give India to Japan, it could not tolerate the United States. China extended its hand to India. This is the reason why Mountbatten and the United Kingdom have always been lukewarm and sarcastic towards Stilwell. In the eyes of the British, relying on existing forces to deal with the 15th army deployed in Myanmar, the other side had only 100,000 troops and less than 100 aircraft. In the eyes of the British, Japan's best 97 tanks were not worth mentioning at all.

Therefore, the British side was reluctant to let the Chinese intervene in India, and only agreed to the Indian army to receive training in India to prepare for a future counterattack against Myanmar. Even the British in the US air force in India wanted to intervene in management, but they had no choice but to ask the United States in other places and couldn't speak.

The most concentrated focus of the three-party conflict is the counterattack of Myanmar. Stilwell made efforts to promote this matter, and ******* was considering opening the Yunnan-Burma Highway, which was conducive to material delivery, and it was also more active. However, India refused to send ground troops to participate. At most, it was dispatched to the air force. It even believed that the ultimate goal of the Chinese army stationed in India was to assist Britain in regaining Myanmar, China sent troops to fight Japan and then let Britain take over Myanmar. This made Chiang extremely dissatisfied. He believed that if the 100,000 Japanese troops were attacked by China, without 300,000 people participating, and 100,000 to 150,000 casualties would definitely not be taken down. Even if there was such a force deployed in Yunnan, it would not be possible to do this. Can the British watch the Chinese bleed and sacrifice, fight with the Japanese and then pick the results of the victory in vain?

He felt that he could not speak even if the British were willing to send troops as long as they achieved results. He also did not want the United States Airlines to get rid of the fire for the British. After a while, the plan to counterattack Myanmar continued to delay until Lieutenant General Mutaguchi, the 15th Japanese Army, reported to Tokyo to demand an initiative to attack India.

The combat plan caused internal controversy among the Japanese army in Myanmar. Chief of Staff Major General Otabata Nobura firmly opposed it, believing that the troops were insufficient and the supply was not effective. The entire combat plan was very wishful thinking, "completely neglecting the enemy's resistance." Mudaguchi Ryo also forced to push, and later sent a telegram to Tokyo to ask for the removal of his chief of staff, but the final result surprised everyone: Mudaguchi Ryo, who advocated the attack, was also transferred back to the country by the base camp to be transferred to the reserve service. This is not the most shocking thing. The most inexplicable thing is that Lieutenant General Honma Masaharu, who had been transferred to the reserve service, was re-activated and planned to serve as the commander of the 15th Army of Myanmar.

The appointment caused a strong shock in the General Staff Headquarters. Everyone did not understand why Ishihara Kanir did this. Although everyone felt that Mudaguchi might not be very competent, he was completely more capable than Honma Maharum. He was not without a better candidate to serve as a military senator. Seishiro Itagaki, who had a deep friendship with Ishihara Kanir, hinted that he was willing to take the post of commander of the 15th Army under the rank of general, and only wanted to go to the front-line troops to lead troops to fight, and also refused to Ishihara Kanir.

Even the backstage of Ishihara Kanirami, Tokuramiya Minorhiko, was very surprised. On the surface, he signed and released the letter without hesitation, but privately asked Ishihara Kanir why he chose a famous coward like Masaharu Honma as the commander?

"He fought a bad fight in the Philippines, and always complained about inaccurate intelligence, chaotic logistics, lack of manpower, and completed the task four months later than the time required by the base camp, and let MacArthur go... Why do you need to re-activate such a person?"

"Your Highness, do you think the Battle of Myanmar can be won?"

King Minorhiko Higashimiya shook his head first and nodded again: "It's very difficult, not as optimistic as Mudaguchi Ryo, who said it was, but if there were capable generals, we could fight."

"I don't think so. Printing from Myanmar is completely unfavorable. We have no advantage in military strength, very lack of logistics, and no naval support. It will be very difficult to go forward every step forward." Ishihara Kanir explained, "Honma Masaharu is relatively timid, but he has the advantage of being timid and will not be impulsive. As for Itagaki, I am afraid that he will be in a stalemate in the direction of India..." (To be continued.)

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Chapter completed!