Part 30
20th of December, 1943 to 11th of January, 1944
With Ecuador fallen, rumours are running wild of where we will strike next. None of us doubt that we are going to attack somewhere else, but we all are wondering where. Some say Columbia, others say Peru. I'm somewhat doubtful about both of those. Columbia is too close to the US, and attacking Peru would allow the US to send a fleet behind us and take out our entire navy when we are concentration on an amphibious attack. I think we will attack the Panama canal.
Indeed, my suspicions were correct. Our destination will be Panama. Today, some planes from our escort carrier were sent to scout out the Panama canal. It seems the United States has reinforced it with a garrison division and a small fleet of cruisers. Hopefully no carriers and battleships come.
This is possibly the most terrifying attack we have ever made. So far, we've attacked small countries, or the British (who have an ancient navy). This is the United States, with a very large and very numerous navy. Command has recognised our fear, and have ordered us to attack the country of Panama instead of attacking the port directly. Our soldiers can push from the country of Panama to the canal.
Today, we declared war on Panama.
Our fleet had been beginning a naval invasion of Panama when the inevitable happened. A powerful US fleet came to greet us. Complete with carriers and battleships.
Somehow in the mess of planes and cannonfire, we actually sunk a powerful US ship. At the cost of a transport fleet and of a destroyer. I'm very surprised that our entire fleet wasn't completely wiped out by the US fleet. I guess those must have been older ships. There's no way we would have stood up to the modern carriers of the US navy. That said, expeditionary command has told us the US is mourning the loss of their battleship dearly. I expected that to be propaganda, but they showed me newspapers - it's become a nation-wide grief for them, to lose their pride of the fleet.
Many of our ships were damaged and many people injured on the ships. I was luckily not injured.
On the plus side, we have taken over the country of Panama and are now able to launch an attack on the canal.
After a short but intense battle, the canal garrison surrendered to our 3-division strong assault force. They were hopelessly outnumbered. With the canal closed from the US, I've heard that we might be able to take South American countries now. The path is sealed for the US, and we are free to exert our dominance over the South American Pacific countries.
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