Empire Conquest

Chapter 560 - 556 Smooth Sailing

On Socotra Island, there indeed weren’t many military targets worth bombing.

Over the course of three days, nearly 500 sorties were flown by the air wing of the Twelfth Special Mixed Fleet, yet not a single aircraft was shot down in combat. Instead, three aircraft crashed due to malfunctions, and one "Vermilion Bird" went missing on its return leg, with two crew members declared dead.

By October 6th, the landing operation had been initiated.

To call it a battle was actually inaccurate.

In just half a day, the Marine Corps not only completed the beachhead tasks but also advanced several kilometers inland. The forward recon squads even reached the outskirts of the airfield.

After confirming that the garrison inside the airfield had evacuated, the Marine Corps accelerated their advance that afternoon.

Furthermore, that evening, the Army arranged transport planes to deliver an Airborne Force to the airfield, seizing it ahead of the Marine Corps.

This unplanned action nearly resulted in a friendly fire incident.

In the early hours of the 7th, as the Marine Corps was preparing to march on the airfield and, being unaware that the Airborne Force was already stationed there, mistook them for the enemy and called in for artillery fire.

Fortunately, the Fleet Support Commander wasn’t confused and asked an Army liaison officer before ordering to fire.

Otherwise, the consequences would have been unthinkable.

Overall, the landing operation went very smoothly.

As for issues, the only one was that Socotra Island lacked a deep-water port. Therefore, the Marine Corps had to construct several pier-style docks near the airfield for ships to dock and transport equipment and supplies. To prevent submarine attacks, anti-submarine nets also had to be deployed around the landing area.

Fortunately, these were all minor problems.

Because the operation to march onto Socotra Island had been completed successfully, on the night of October 6th, two Special Mixed Fleets executed the contingency plan.

They headed to Aden Bay and deployed ship-borne aircraft to bomb Jibu Fortress.

In simpler terms, they initiated the attack on Jibu Fortress ahead of schedule.

After one night, both Special Mixed Fleets launched their attacks simultaneously the next morning, with each commencing their assault before and after dawn.

By coordinating their strikes, they not only increased the intensity of the attack, hoping to cripple the garrison at Jibu Fortress after the first round and depriving it of the ability to counterattack, but they also created confusion for the enemy. This meant the enemy could not deduce the Special Mixed Fleet’s whereabouts based on the scale and arrival time of the Attack Aircraft Group.

Sufficient intelligence proved that Jibu Fortress was not heavily garrisoned, and the Royal Bulan Air Force had far fewer combat aircraft deployed there than expected.

After landing on Socotra Island, the Navy began to monitor Jibu Fortress using patrolling aircraft stationed forward.

Just in the past few days, the Royal Bulan Air Force had redeployed a large number of combat aircraft from Jibu Fortress.

The key lied on the opposite side of the Narrow Sea.

In order to alleviate pressure on Malta and to support the Empire Navy’s attack on Jibu Fortress, the Tiaoman Army initiated an operational march towards Xifan Canal on October 2nd. They also committed significant air force resources, forcing the Royal Bulan Air Force to withdraw troops from Jibu Fortress to deal with the Tiaoman Army’s advance.

Because the sea routes had yet to be opened, and the North Xuan region was under the control of Tiaoman forces, the Royal Bulan Air Force had to reroute combat aircraft from Nara Fortress towards Xifan Canal by detouring south around the Xuan Continent. They were forced to transfer over thousands of kilometers with hardly a few fully equipped airfields along the way.

The difficulty of this task was exceptionally great.

According to earlier reconnaissance, there were fewer than 200 combat aircraft stationed at Jibu Fortress, primarily consisting of fighters.

A key point was that the garrison at Jibu Fortress severely lacked long-range reconnaissance capabilities.

Previously, the Bulan Royal Navy had deployed some long-range patrol aircraft on Socotra Island, and they posed a significant threat to the Empire’s vessels operating in the Mua Sea. After making the decision to withdraw from Socotra Island, the Bulan Royal Navy sent all these patrol aircraft to Arisa Port, to be used in the direction of the Land Heart Sea.

It was evident that the Bulan forces had no intention of staunchly defending Jibu Fortress.

The military operation was carried out smoothly, managing to incapacitate the Air Force of Jibu Fortress within a single daytime.

Although they did not participate in the battle for Socotra Island, and their ammunition was quite plentiful, according to the plan, the 12th Special Mixed Fleet was to withdraw on October 8th to replenish their ammunition, preparing for subsequent operations and once again taking on the main task.

This arrangement ensured that the 11th Special Mixed Fleet maintained sufficiently high combat effectiveness at all times.

As a result, the 11th Special Mixed Fleet only launched two waves of attacks that day, primarily focusing on air defense escort, and did not undertake many offensive missions.

In Li Mingbo’s words, they busied themselves all day, but were essentially just going through the motions.

Actually, this also caused dissatisfaction among many staff officers.

As Zhou Yongtao said, the defense deployment of Jibu Fortress was so easily breached; hadn’t the 11th Special Mixed Fleet, previously commanded by Liu Xiangzhen, been active in this area for several months, just to spectate?

Clearly, such a statement was a bit biased.

Before this, the combat aircraft stationed at Jibu Fortress had always numbered over 500, many of which were state-of-the-art new fighters, such as the "Spitfire" equipped with new engines capable of carrying out anti-ship missions, and the "Mosquito" bombers.

The key point was that Jibu Fortress was at the westernmost edge of Aden Bay.

To the east, up to Socotra Island, the north-south span of Aden Bay was narrow, trumpet-shaped.

Even if the Empire Navy’s ship-borne aircraft had sufficient range, the Special Mixed Fleet still had to venture deep into Aden Bay in order to strike Jibu Fortress.

Since the chances of achieving surprise in the campaign were negligible, they had no choice but to mount a frontal assault.

The previous 11th Special Mixed Fleet had only 3 Fleet carriers, with fewer than 300 aircraft, and without having occupied Socotra Island, there was simply no possibility of mounting a frontal assault on Jibu Fortress. Venturing into Aden Bay to attack Jibu Fortress would have more likely resulted in misfortune than good fortune.

Indeed, this was why, in the months prior, Liu Xiangzhen’s 11th Special Mixed Fleet had not risked entering Aden Bay but merely operated a few times to the south of the Mua Sea.

It couldn’t be said that Liu Xiangzhen was timid; rather, there was no necessity to attack Jibu Fortress.

During these months, the 11th Special Mixed Fleet had visited in turn the main cities and ports along the western coast of the Fanluo region, which lies on the eastern side of the Mua Sea, declaring through their actions that the national Navy had returned and creating immense psychological pressure on the local Bulan forces there.

This was a key reason behind the Bulan Kingdom’s decision to give up the Fanluo region.

It was clear that just by bloodlessly destroying the Bulan Kingdom’s colonial rule in the Fanluo region, the 11th Special Mixed Fleet had established a great merit.

Over in Boss Bay, the 11th Special Mixed Fleet also played a pivotal role.

According to intelligence provided by the Sixth Bureau, the Bulan Kingdom had always been inciting Boi Country to dispatch troops to attack Gwadar, and the Boi authorities also entertained a similar idea. They even amassed a ground force of over 200,000 troops, 50,000 of whom were camel cavalry adept at desert warfare.

However, this troop never moved out.

The reason was simple; no one could ignore the Special Mixed Fleet operating in the Mua Sea.

As long as the Special Mixed Fleet arrived, with hundreds of combat aircraft sortied in rotation, it would not matter if it was 200,000 or two million troops—they certainly would not reach Gwadar.

In front of the modernized war machine, the cavalry that once dominated the era of cold weapons were utterly vulnerable.

Thus, during the Bai Zhizhan and the attack on Transfer Island, the stability of the situation in the Fan Flame Ocean was maintained thanks to the 11th Special Mixed Fleet, commanded by Liu Xiangzhen.