Empire Conquest

Chapter 562 - 558: Successfully Landing Ashore

The operation advancing toward Boss Bay was also extremely smooth.

Over the next three days, two Special Mixed Fleets took turns going into battle and quickly destroyed the defense system that Boi Country had built around controlling and blockading the Hormuz Strait.

The key point was, they barely suffered any losses.

Apart from over 20 ship-borne aircraft being shot down by enemy aircraft and High-altitude Guns, the only loss was a Destroyer that hit a mine and sank while carrying out a suppression mission during the day on the 15th.

By the 17th, the Empire’s Navy had essentially cleared the remaining enemy forces from the northern coast of the strait.

Since they encountered no significant resistance, the Army’s Air Force did not participate in combat operations.

Even though the action was timely, the Royal Bulan Navy and Boi Navy had not managed to lay mines in the main shipping route, but affected by the Destroyer hitting a mine, the Navy still arranged minesweeping vessels to enter the Hormuz Strait. In addition to clearing the main shipping route, they also opened up several alternative routes.

It was not until the 22nd that the Landing Fleet finally entered Boss Bay through the Hormuz Strait.

In fact, it was a mixed fleet.

Though the main force consisted of landing ships of various sizes, the majority were actually transport vessels.

To achieve the goal of tactical deception, the outward claim was that this was a Landing Fleet, whereas the convoy responsible for transporting weapons, equipment, and combat materials was still behind.

The crucial point was that the transport ships that followed the Landing Fleet into Boss Bay were not carrying combat materials and weapons, but rather combat troops.

Indeed, this was Liu Xiangzhen’s arrangement.

Based on previous battles, Liu Xiangzhen boldly judged that they would not encounter much staunch resistance in the Boss Bay area, so there was no need to worry about logistical support for the time being, nor was there a need to deploy many Armored Forces. This allowed the troops to advance lightly equipped and achieve a sufficiently fast progress rate.

Simply put, it meant letting the infantry mount vehicles to launch a blitzkrieg.

It wasn’t out of the question.

The key point was, there was simply no worthy opponent in the Boss Bay area, so there was no need to worry about encountering stiff resistance during the attack.

What really needed consideration was the logistical support, specifically whether combat materials could be sufficiently supplied.

This was also the key reason Liu Xiangzhen proposed using as few Armored Forces as possible.

In a blitzkrieg, the highest logistical demands come from the Armored Forces, which not only need fuel and ammunition but also have very high consumption rates.

By contrast, the consumption for motorized infantry was much less.

However, this wasn’t the whole picture.

According to the operation plan submitted by the Army, once the landing was successful and they entered the ground warfare phase, they were to launch an attack in a brand-new manner.

By utilizing air transport to bypass the enemy’s main defense line, they aimed to directly seize the enemy’s strategic locations behind the lines.

Of course, this required the use of a sufficient number of transport aircraft, which would mainly carry Airborne troops.

After the attack began, they would also have to rely on air transport to deliver combat materials to the front lines.

Actually, this was also a method born out of necessity.

The reason was simple; in Boi Country, the conditions simply did not exist to launch a large-scale ground offensive.

First and foremost, apart from the plains of the Southwest region, the entire territory of Boi Country was a highland, and to the east lay a sparsely populated desert.

It was this desert that blocked the Boi forces, allowing Gwadar to become the forward base for the Imperial Army’s advance into Boss Bay.

However, the complex terrain also limited the combat effectiveness of the Armored Forces.

The situation was similar to that on Ice Storm Peninsula.

The difference was that when the Empire’s Army attacked Ice Storm Peninsula, they not only operated with the support of the homeland but also could rely on support provided by the Upper High Kingdom, significantly reducing the burden of logistical support. On the other side of the Giant Continent, the Empire’s Army had little to rely on.

Additionally, there was the issue of poor infrastructure.

This was also a problem that had to be faced in remote areas.

Due to the lack of transportation infrastructure such as roads and railways, and the absence of navigable inland waterways, it was difficult to provide logistical support to the combat troops.

In fact, tanks might not be able to keep up with camels.

If the Armored Forces had no role to play and logistical support couldn’t rely on ground transportation, then was there a need to launch attacks in the traditional way?

The answer was clearly negative.

The key point was that the Boi Country’s military and the local Bulan forces were also primarily infantry-based.

Of course, in addition to the infantry, there were several hundred thousand camel cavalry.

Since the enemy had no armored strength, there was no need to consider anti-armor combat.

Returning to an era where battles were decided by infantry with machine guns, trenches, and barbed wire, the Empire’s Army’s air transport capability was sufficient to sustain several hundred thousand troops.

This tactic of launching attacks relying on airborne drops and supplies, also imposed strict limits on the scope of operations.

Simply put, the main objective was to capture transportation hubs.

Tactically, once the Airborne Force successfully carried out a surprise attack and seized positions, they must immediately shift from attack to defense, relying on defensive positions centered around airfields to block the enemy.

As long as a defense line was established and sufficient support obtained, it was possible to wear down the enemy through defense combat.

In a sense, this was also the attack tactic with the least commitment and minimal losses.

That’s why, after the successful landing in Boss Bay, the first thing to do was not to urgently advance inland, but to establish a forward base centered around the port and the airport, and to quickly complete the initial preparations to ensure an attack could be launched before the enemy could react.

Clearly, such limited-scope combat operations lacked any challenge.

During the landing operations, what the 2 Special Mixed Fleets needed to guard against was actually the threat from the direction of Boi Country, such as a reprisal from the Bulan Royal Air Force.

At this point in the battle, the Bulan Royal Air Force could not possibly be in the dark about the Imperial Army’s strategic intentions.

Although on the Xifan Canal front, the pressure from the Tiaoman forces hadn’t lessened and was still immense, the Bulan Royal Air Force withstood the pressure and sent a tactical air squadron to Boi Country, possessing around 100 combat aircraft, and a number of these were "Mosquito" Bombers.

This was a highly threatening and formidable type of twin-engine Bomber.

In fact, these were the same "wooden planes" mentioned before.

Because they were so light, their maximum flight speed exceeded 600 kilometers per hour, faster than many Fighters that had entered service at the outset of the war.

That’s why "Mosquito" Bombers were also converted for use as Night Fighters.

In addition, they were very cheap to produce and could be equipped in large numbers.

Most importantly, these twin-engine Bombers were capable of carrying torpedoes to attack Battleships, and could also be equipped with bombs for dive-bombing.

Unfortunately, their numbers were too few.

It was not that too few were deployed, but that the operational consumption was too great.

Just in the defense operations on their home soil, the Bulan Royal Air Force had already lost over a thousand "Mosquito" Fighters.

Between October 27 and 29, after two attacks that caused tremendous attrition, almost all of the augmented Bulan Royal Air Force combat aircraft were destroyed.

As for the results, they only managed to heavily damage two Heavy Cruisers of the twelfth Special Mixed Fleet, forcing them to withdraw ahead of schedule.

By the last day of October, the 2 Special Mixed Fleets received orders from the Navy headquarter and left Boss Bay one after the other.

Three days prior, on October 28, the Marine Corps had already rotated out with the Army, handing over the front-line positions to the Army.

According to the plan, the following combat operations were to be undertaken solely by the Army, with the Navy only responsible for transporting combat materials to the front lines.

However, the operational actions of the 2 Special Mixed Fleets were not yet over.