The day after Lieutenant General Cunningham's last battle of his life, in the far South Pacific, northeast of Australia and north of the Fiji Islands.

In the sky, a group of F4F Wildcat fighters and SBD dreadnought dive bombers swept across the sky, flew over the Japanese island of Fiji and dropped aerial bombs one after another, and gray-black miniature mushroom clouds rose from the ground.

On the sea, hundreds of landing craft cut through the waves and rushed to the predetermined landing target.

Behind the landing craft troops, on large and small warships, the muzzles of naval guns of various calibers spewed out thick black smoke, pouring steel and death on the heads of the Japanese troops on the island.

Under the suppression of two Essex-class fleet aircraft carriers and two Independence-class light aircraft carriers, more than 30 planes of the Japanese air force on the island were wiped out in an instant, and the battle situation then took on a one-sided posture.

With the support of naval artillery and aviation, the vanguard of the 1st Marine Division of the German Marine Corps successfully landed on the island, seized a beachhead in the northern part of Fiji Island, and then attacked deeper into the island.

After successfully suppressing the fire of the island's defenders, a flotilla of up to fifty transports swaggered through the northern Fiji Islands, escorted by destroyers and cruisers, heading straight for its destination, the eastern coast of Australia.

A day later, on board the Essex-class aircraft carrier No. 1 "Essex", a TBF Avenger torpedo bomber was unarmed and took off with two passengers on board.

After a stopover in Caledonia for refueling, the plane took off again and flew non-stop to Brisbane in eastern Australia.

After the plane landed at Brisbane Airport, two passengers, Lieutenant General Stein, commander of the 1st Marine Corps of the German Marine Corps, and Major Lorenz, the accompanying adjutant, boarded a car provided by the Australian Army and headed for downtown Brisbane.

It was 2,700 kilometers from the Fiji Islands to Brisbane, and Lieutenant General Stein did not have time to sit on a ship and sail across the ocean at the speed of a turtle, so he decided to take Major Lorenz to Australia as fast as possible to meet with MacArthur and discuss the next battle plan.

After spending the night in a hotel arranged by Australians in Brisbane, the two left for MacArthur's headquarters in Brisbane at 9 a.m. sharp.

MacArthur welcomed Lieutenant General Stein's arrival politely and modestly.

In addition to the tall MacArthur, Lieutenant General Stein also met with General Thomas Bremen, commander-in-chief of the Australian Army, with a round face and a gray beard, and Lieutenant General Freiberg, the commander-in-chief of the New Zealand Army with a thin body and a black mustache.

After a few pleasantries, MacArthur said: "Our German friends are recovering the Fiji Islands, and our supply lines with the American mainland have been opened, so we can safely carry out the next counteroffensive operation." Lieutenant General Stein, do you see the future of the war? ”

Lieutenant General Stein saw that MacArthur and the others were looking at him, and said unhurriedly: "Before leaving Germany, General Rosen looked for me. ”

General Rosen? Hearing this, MacArthur's attention became more focused.

He said that there are many islands in the Pacific Ocean, and if we continue to fight with the Japanese island by island, victory will be far away. So, he developed a new tactic called frog jumping. ”

MacArthur's cheek muscles involuntarily twitched a few times, and he hurriedly asked, "Frog jump tactics?" What do you mean? ”

"The frog jumping tactic, also known as the island hopping tactic, is a tactic that does not take the recovering of the islands one by one. Instead, after recovering an island, skip the next island and capture the next one. In particular, to skip over the Japanese islands that were well defended. Capturing the weakly defended islands through island-hopping, and then isolating the islands with strong Japanese defenses by means of air and sea blockades, cutting off their supply lines, forcing them to surrender with starvation, or greatly weakening their combat effectiveness before capturing them, can greatly improve the progress and efficiency of reconquest. Lieutenant General Stein said.

Hearing Lieutenant General Stein's words, Lieutenant General Freiberg, Admiral Bremen and others looked at each other with MacArthur and others, and were collectively confused.

In the days of passive defense before the launch of the counteroffensive, MacArthur and others were not idle, and collectively worked out a combat plan that was basically the same as the tactics Stein said, not only the content was the same, but even the name of the plan was completely the same, which was called the frog jumping tactic.

God, their own people certainly didn't tell the Germans about this tactic, how did they know about it? Even the name was the same, and MacArthur looked confused, feeling that he was about to lose the patent for this combat plan.

Perceiving MacArthur's bewildered expression, Admiral Bremen chuckled and said, "I agree with this plan. ”

Lieutenant General Freiberg followed: "I also agree with this plan. ”

These two guys are not good people.

MacArthur scolded secretly, and then said: "General Stein, before you came, we also worked out a battle plan similar to the one you said, called the kangaroo tactic. ”

Hearing the improvised name "Kangaroo Tactics", MacArthur, Admiral Bremen almost burst out laughing, and this high-flying guy also had bad luck, and the Germans came at a good time.

As more and more U.S. troops entered Australia, MacArthur's rude side was gradually exposed, putting on a posture of God boss, US president second, and MacArthur third, from time to time showing his identity as commander-in-chief of the Allied forces in the southwest Pacific, pointing fingers at the deployment and command of the Australian army and the New Zealand army, and Admiral Bremen and Lieutenant General Freiberg had been patient for a long time.

Lieutenant General Stein didn't know what was going on, but he noticed that the expressions of Admiral Bremen and Lieutenant General Freiberg were a little strange, and he immediately continued: "Since the content of the battle plan is basically the same, it means that there is no difference between us. So can we be specific ······ on the frog jump tactic?"

MacArthur interrupted: "It's kangaroo tactics, let's study the details of kangaroo tactics below, and I suggest that we follow the previous plan, starting the counteroffensive from Papua New Guinea first, and then the Bismarck Islands." The task of fully occupying the island of Papua New Guinea was carried out by the Australian Army, with the New Zealand Army and the German Marines who had completed the task of recovering the Fiji Islands in reserve.

After we regained Papua New Guinea, we should have shipped more than ten U.S. divisions to Australia, and that's when we officially started Project Kangaroo, with the U.S. Army as the main attacker, isolating the Japanese islands that were heavily defended and letting starvation go against them. What do you think, General Stein? ”

Lieutenant General Stein said: "I agree, but we need to unify command first and bring my troops into your chain of command." ”

MacArthur smiled and nodded, "It's easy to talk about this matter, and we'll unify the contact information after the meeting." ”

After speaking, MacArthur turned his head to look at General Bremen, whose face was ugly: "General Bremen, General Stein and I have agreed to recover Papua New Guinea first, what do you mean?" ”

"I also agree, it's just that my troops need time to prepare." Admiral Bremen said with a blushing face.

Lieutenant General Freiberg prayed secretly for Admiral Bremen that the reconquest of Papua New Guinea should be the worst battle, and this burden was forcibly imposed on the Australian Army by MacArthur.

MacArthur, the Yankee, is really even more vicious than the Japanese.

After several people studied the details of the operation, the meeting ended.

The next afternoon, Lieutenant General Stein checked into the headquarters provided to him by the Australian military, and MacArthur then sent someone to bring him the much-needed codebook.

The German First Marine Corps was integrated into MacArthur's forces, and in order to be able to get MacArthur's command in a timely manner, a unified codebook was indispensable.

Knowing that the Germans were about to arrive in Australia, MacArthur had the codebook prepared early and handed it over to Lieutenant General Stein as soon as possible.

After receiving the code book provided by the U.S. military, Major Lorenz, who was on a major mission, immediately transcribed a copy.

After confirming that all the ciphers had been transcribed correctly, Major Lorenz left Lieutenant General Stein and set off for Germany.