On November 10, 1944, in a basement ward at the Imperial University Affiliated Hospital of Nagoya, Japan.

I saw a man with a blood-faced face lying on the hospital bed. His eyes were closed, his eyes were deep, his face seemed to be withered, and his whole body was motionless, like a clay sculpture.

If the chest was not still rising and falling and the mouth was still trying to open and close, it would be easy for others to misjudgment that the man was dead, but in fact it was just a cold corpse.

This man who was about to die was not an ordinary little man, but Wang Zhaoming, the supreme leader of the Wang puppet government.

Wang Zhaoming was shot and injured while attending the Sixth Plenary Session of the Fourth Central Committee of the Kuomintang on November 1, 1935. Although he was cured, the bullet was not taken out.

In August 1943, the old injury relapsed, and then the Japanese Army Hospital in Nanjing performed an operation on him, took out the bullet, and once controlled the condition.

However, by mid-January 1944, Wang's condition began to worsen again. He was diagnosed with spinal compression neurosis and needed to be sent to Japan for treatment.

On March 3, Wang Zhaoming went to Japan for medical treatment and was admitted to the Nagoya Emperor Affiliated Hospital. The hospital organized Japanese medical authorities to perform surgery on Wang. His condition improved for a while, but it soon continued to deteriorate.

At this moment, the US military began to bomb Nagoya, and the hospital had to move Wang to the basement.

Wang's condition suddenly worsened, his body temperature was as high as 40.6℃, his pulse was 128 beats per minute, he had difficulty breathing, and had no appetite.

As his life dies, no one knows what he is thinking, whether he is afraid of the current end of the road, or whether he regrets what he did at the beginning.

But one thing is certain, that is, if he could start over, he would not have made the same choice!

On November 12, Wang Zhaoming's body was transported back to Nanjing and was buried in Meihua Mountain, Nanjing. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, his tomb was blown up by the National Government.

Starting from November 1944, the US military began to carry out strategic bombing on 98 Japanese cities. This unprecedented strategic bombing will last for 10 months until the eve of Japan's surrender.

During this period, the US Air Force dispatched 33,000 b29 bombers, dropped 160,000 tons of bombs, killed 230,000 people, and injured 350,000 people. 24% of the houses in Japan were turned into ruins, 1,600 aircraft were destroyed, and 1,650 ships were sunk and injured.

The US military conducts a truly large-scale bombing, starting from November 24, 1944, and the US military sent 88 bombers to attack Tokyo, intending to carry out a precise daytime bombing.

The aircraft dropped bombs at an altitude of 10,000 meters, but only about 30 aircraft found the bombing target, about 10% hit the predetermined target, and only one aircraft manufacturer suffered minor injuries.

This was a failure for the US military and was far from meeting the strategic requirements.

After summarizing experience, the US military changed its bombing method and decided to carry out carpet-type incendiary bomb bombing at night, sending bombers to bomb large Japanese cities at an altitude of 1,500-2,000 meters, and placing the "experimental" incendiary air strikes to a new order to prioritize.

Because the US military discovered that the best way to bomb Japan was to use incendiary bombs, because most of Japan's buildings were made of wooden and were easily burned.

Under the focus of the US military, Tokyo has become the city that has been most severely damaged by conventional bombs and the city that has died the most frequently damaged by conventional bombing in the world.

Three bombings in 1945 alone killed 140,000 people, burning more than 50% of the city's houses, leaving more than 1 million people homeless.?

The United States used incendiary bombs to bomb Tokyo's residential houses, killing 100,000 people, most of which were civilians, causing great controversy. In addition, the casualties caused by the subsequent atomic bombing forced Japan to surrender unconditionally.

The purpose of this strategic bombing is mainly to destroy Japan's ability to produce war materials and to reduce the morale of the Japanese. In the theory of total warfare, this offensive is an acceptable behavior.

Although some relevant people later condemned the United States, pointing out that the US military's bombing of Japanese civilians was an "anti-human" act.

But I can only say that I will have to pay back sooner or later. At that time, Japan was crazy about the "Chongqing Bombing" and other indiscriminate bombings, which were already destined to be a good cycle of reincarnation in the way of heaven, and sooner or later they will suffer the consequences.

After the Normandy landed, the Allied forces advanced bloodily on the battlefield on the Western Front of Europe, restraining most of the German troops.

At the same time, on the Eastern Front battlefield, the Soviet Red Army was not idle. Finally, on October 21, 1944, the Soviet Red Army captured the first village in Germany: Nemersdorf, East Prussia.

At this time, the war approached the German mainland from the east and south sides, and the German Supreme Command secretly planned a large-scale battle plan.

The plan was designed by the German head of state himself, who tried to force the Allies to withdraw from Germany and regain the initiative on the Western Front through the last offensive on the European Western Front.

The main content of this combat plan, named "Rhine Guard", is: concentrating superior forces, quickly breaking through the Allied defense line, forcing the Maas River, seizing the Allied's main supply port Antwerp, and dividing the Allied into two.

Then surrounded and eliminated the four Allied armies, forcing the Allied forces to negotiate under the conditions of the Axis powers' dominance.

If this battle is successful, the head of state can concentrate all his efforts to deal with the Soviet Union. The plan for this battle is completed under extremely secrets and almost completely under radio silence.

Although Allied intelligence personnel showed signs that the Germans would launch an attack, the Allied forces ignored the possibility of the raid.

In addition, due to the blind confidence of the Allies, busy with offensive plans, and insufficient aerial reconnaissance, the US 1st Army lacked combat experience, which further provided an opportunity for the German assault.

The Battle of Ardennes started on December 16. 2,000 German cannons shattered the 8th Army's dream. The three full German armies had a total of 275,000 troops, and rushed towards the 8th Army like a tide.

The 8th Army was composed of the 101st Airborne Division and its Special Condemnation Team, the 28th Infantry Division, the 9th Armored Division and some artillery units, and was no match for the German army at all.

Soon, the German army surrounded it in several narrow areas such as Bastoni, and advanced 30-50 miles to the depth of the US military.

The casualties of the US military were mainly concentrated in the first three days of the battle, and two of the three regiments of the 106th Infantry Division of the US military were forced to surrender.

By December 22, the British and American Air Forces had completely controlled the German supply line. Although the German Air Force pilots made the greatest sacrifice, they still had no way to reduce the burden on the ground forces.

The fierce air attacks of the Allied forces have almost completely cut off the transportation of ammunition and supplies that German combat forces most urgently needed, especially fuel supply.

The German offensive troops used fuel today and there was no tomorrow. Finally, with overwhelming air superiority, when the German vanguard was only 4,000 meters away from the Masshe River, the Allies finally blocked the German advance.

Overall, the Battle of Ardennes was a bloody battle of the United States in World War II. The number of US troops killed 15,000, injured more than 71,000, missing more than 14,000, and died in non-combat for more than 73,000, totaling 172,963.

On the German side, 12,500 people were shot dead, 56,000 people were injured, and 13,000 were captured, totaling 81,500 people.

The Battle of Ardennes was the largest counterattack on the Western Front, and Germany consumed its last elite troops and had no reserve force to replenish. Therefore, the Battle of Ardennes became the last attack launched by the German army on the Western Front.
Chapter completed!