The large-scale, large-scale campaign deception had a huge effect, and for several months MacArthur had believed that the Tang Marines would land in Brisbane, with the main purpose of seizing the port of Brisbane, securing support points for ground troops, and then advancing south along the coastline and deep into the heart of Australia. Based on this judgment, within a few months, MacArthur was working hard to strengthen Brisbane's defensive forces, and even set up an independent defense command in Brisbane, appointing Bradley, who had just been arranged to be transferred, as the commander in charge of Brisbane's defensive operations. Bradley arrived in early June, months later than scheduled!

As early as June, shortly after Yan Guozhong sent troops to capture Lord Howe Island and Borspiramid Island, some staff officers of the US Southwest Pacific Theater Command proposed that the Tang Imperial Marines would not land in Brisbane, but would choose to go ashore a little further south. At the time, MacArthur did not take this seriously, but he did not ignore the issue and asked the staff officer who gave the comment to produce a full report.

The report was handed over to MacArthur at the end of May, but MacArthur never paid attention to it, or even read it in detail. In this report, it is clearly mentioned that the Tang Empire's bombing campaign on the Brisbane side was only to divert the attention of the US military, and the real intention of the Tang Empire was to let the US troops hold Brisbane, while the Tang Empire Marines landed in the south. The report did not mention a specific landing site, but it was judged to be a transportation hub not far north of Sydney. It can be said that this speculation is not far from ten. Computer station.16

MacArthur did not recall the report until June 6, when Bradley arrived and suggested that the Tang Marines were likely to choose a different landing site, but it was too late to judge the landing location of the Don Marines. Don't say anything else. It takes a long time just to collect relevant intelligence, and to confirm this information, and to analyze the combat operations of the Tang Imperial Marine Corps during these months. The next day, June 7, MacArthur assigned the relevant work to Bradley, asking Bradley to determine the possible landing location of the Tang Empire Marines while trying to find a way to thwart the Tang Empire task force outside Brisbane.

MacArthur was indeed a scheming fellow. On the surface, he attached great importance to Bradley, not only handing over the responsibility of Brisbane's defense to Bradley, but also asking Bradley to coordinate the information obtained by the US military and make judgments based on the intelligence. But in fact, MacArthur asked Bradley to analyze the offensive direction of the Tang Imperial Marines at this time, and made a clear judgment that he wanted to shift the blame to Bradley. At the time, MacArthur had already recognized. All his judgments had been wrong for the past few months, and it was possible that the Don Marines would land at any point on the line of defense hundreds of kilometers south of Brisbane, to Sydney. And it is almost impossible to rely on the little force in hand to defend these hundreds of kilometers of ground defense.

It is conceivable that if the Tang Empire Marines landed in Brisbane, and the American forces under Bradley's command defeated the landing force of the Tang Empire. MacArthur would be the biggest beneficiary, after all, he asked Bradley to come over and command the American army, and gave Bradley huge power. If the Tang Imperial Marines did not land in Brisbane, then MacArthur could shift the blame to Bradley, at least part of the responsibility to Bradley, because Bradley was responsible for judging the landing direction of the Tang Marines in the later period. It's a win-win-win-win arrangement, win or lose. For MacArthur, the benefits were indispensable, and he did not have to take on too much responsibility. Of course, as the commander of the theater of operations, if Australia was captured by the Tang Empire, he still had to bear most of the responsibility.

The new Bradley did not play a role in saving the situation. MacArthur gave him too little time. In other words, the Tang Imperial Marines gave him too little time, and MacArthur assigned him several important tasks, and during this time, he also had to be familiar with the internal relations of the US troops in the Southwest Pacific Theater, familiar with the situation of his staff officers, and familiar with the situation of various combat units, even if Bradley did not eat, drink or sleep, it was impossible to turn the whole situation around in ten days, he was just a general.

Bradley put the task of defeating the Don Imperial fleet off Brisbane in the first place. He arrived in Brisbane. Or the 2nd Task Force operating outside Brisbane. Over the course of several days, Bradley had several chances. They were all close to catching Task Force 2, but they let Task Force 2 slip away. At that time, several small-scale attacks launched by the US military against the Second Task Force did not have any effect, and most of the bombers were gone, but the Second Task Force was always active on the battlefield. By the 10th, the Second Task Force had withdrawn from the battlefield, and the next day, the Fifth Task Force had arrived, at this time, Bradley had figured out the situation of the ground air force deployed in Brisbane, and removed several incompetent commanders, replaced them with several capable officers, and gave a death order that the Tang Empire's task force must be captured and shore-based bombers dispatched to destroy it.

The attack on Task Force 5 was not personally commanded by Bradley, who was only an Army general, not a U.S. Army Air Force general, so he was only responsible for arranging the mission, and the implementation of the mission was carried out by his Army Aviation officers. It can be said that "the attack on the Fifth Task Force on 8 August was relatively successful, and the US air force concentrated more than 300 tactical planes (only about 240 were finally dispatched), and after several days of observation, they found out the pattern of the Fifth Task Force's actions, and on the night of the 17th, the reconnaissance planes searched for the Fifth Task Force, and the next morning, a submarine operating outside Brisbane and a returning night reconnaissance plane discovered the Fifth Task Force again. Immediately, Bradley gave the order to attack. At about eight o'clock, the US bombers set off one after another.

Judging from the combat capability of the air forces of the two sides at that time and the quality of the pilots, the US air force was able to destroy the "Dianchi" aircraft carrier and forced the aircraft carrier out of battle. If the reconnaissance plane on the "Dianchi" at that time could have taken off at the scheduled time. Then this aircraft carrier will be able to return to the core of the battle group when the American bombers arrive, and be covered by many escort warships. In addition, the fighters on the aircraft carrier are also able to take off fifteen minutes earlier, which can increase the combat time by at least fifteen minutes. At that time, I am afraid that the attack on the "Dianchi" will not have any effect. In war, luck is often crucial. It can also be said that Jiang Zhongmin's luck is indeed bad. The bombers of the US military arrived at the most critical moment.

After being attacked, the Fifth Task Force immediately evaded the southeast, and the two groups of US bombers that arrived later failed to find the Fifth Task Force, and it was not until the afternoon that a long-range patrol plane of the US military discovered that the Fifth Task Force had withdrawn, and the pilot of the reconnaissance plane did not dare to get too close to the Fifth Task Force, but only circled around the periphery of the Fifth Task Force and then went back. And in the telegram sent back, it only mentions the discovery of a large number of escort warships. And there is no mention of whether there are aircraft carriers or not. Therefore, Bradley judged that the Fifth Task Force had lost its combat effectiveness and was returning to Nouméa or Port Vila, and it was even possible that it would withdraw from the Southwest Pacific Theater and return to the Tang Empire itself. It can be said that this was a fatal mistake made by the US military. If you want to blame it, you can only blame it on the quality of the pilots of the US reconnaissance planes.

On the night of the 18th, Task Force 3 arrived in the sea near Tari and launched a heavy artillery bombardment of the American defensive positions in Tari. At this point, neither MacArthur nor Bradley doubted that the Don Marines would not land in Brisbane, but in Tari, or on some stretch of beach near Tali. Tari is the land transportation hub connecting Brisbane and Sydney, and after the Tang Imperial Marines captured Tari, they could go south to attack Sydney, or they could go north to block the American forces in Brisbane. That night, MacArthur gave Bradley an order to immediately organize a mobile force. Rush to Armidale within 24 hours, if the Tang Imperial Marines land in the tower, they must be defeated at all costs, and the Tang Imperial Marines must not be allowed to successfully land!

The order was given, but the problem was that the road from Brisbane to Armidale was 500 kilometers long, and the U.S. armored troops were only marching at a speed of about 50 kilometers per hour, and most of the armored vehicles needed to be refueled twice along the way. Officers and soldiers also need to rest, and it takes time to assemble and mobilize troops. If you get rid of that time, you'll only have a maximum of 10 hours to march. In other words, during these 10 hours, the US troops were able to advance as fast as possible, without the slightest delay on the way, otherwise it would not have been possible to reach Armidale on the night of the 19th.

In fact, even if the US military arrives at Armidale on the night of the 19th, it is impossible to reach Tari on the 20th, and there is still a 250-kilometer road mileage from Armidale to Tari, and on the 20th, the first task force, the second task force, the fifth task force, and the southwest Pacific theater fleet will all be concentrated on the periphery of the landing site, and the four fleets will have at least eight fleet aircraft carriers, six small aircraft carriers, and more than 1,000 combat aircraft, and it is impossible for these bombers to allow the US military reinforcements to reach the landing site safely.

At that time, the Fifth Task Force did not withdraw, but turned back on the night of the 18th and continued its bombing mission. Then, arriving in Brisbane that night, a shore-based night reconnaissance plane discovered that the US military was assembling and mobilizing. The information was immediately transmitted to the Fifth Task Force, and Jiang Zhongmin immediately readjusted the fleet's bombing operations the next day according to the backup plan, and at the same time, the Fifth Task Force moved to about 50 nautical miles east of Middleton Reef at night and made preparations for bombing.

At eight o'clock on the morning of the 19th, the vanguard of three divisions, led by Bradley himself, had just left Ipswich when they were spotted by a reconnaissance plane sent by Task Force 5. At that time, Bradley was also very annoyed, and he asked for the organization of eight divisions as mobile units, but during the night, only three divisions completed mobilization, and the other five divisions needed to leave until the night of the 19th. Therefore, he could only go on the road first with three divisions, and the large army set off a day later. The problem was that Bradley couldn't have made it to Armidale at all.

At about 10 o'clock, the ground bombers of the Fifth Task Force took off one after another, and at that time, the number of fighters on the two aircraft carriers of the Fifth Task Force exceeded the rated number, and some of the fighters on the "Dianchi" were transferred to the other two aircraft carriers. Jiang Zhongmin tried his best to arrange the take-off sequence of the fighters as reasonably as possible, and divided the bombers into three echelons to reduce the intensity of the use of the aircraft carrier and let the aviation service personnel have enough time to prepare for the bombers to take off. The bombers caught up with the US mobile unit at about half past eleven, and the bombing began immediately. At this point, Bradley also realizes that the road to Armidale is full of dangers, and perhaps he will never get to Armidale.

In the ensuing battle, US fighter planes were also quickly dispatched to desperately intercept the bombers of the Fifth Task Force. Because there were only two aircraft carriers left in the Fifth Task Force, its air strike capability was greatly reduced, and Jiang Zhongmin had to reduce the number of bombers in each batch in order to achieve the purpose of continuous bombing. In addition, all the fighters of Task Force 5 were assigned to escort bombers. At noon, he called the shore base troops on Lord Howe Island, and the HNA provided a squadron of air defense fighters for the Fifth Task Force while replenishing the Fifth Task Force with a fleet of bombers.

At 3:30 p.m., when the 1st Task Force was attacked by US bombers, the Southwest Pacific Theater Fleet arrived at the battlefield at the scheduled time and joined in the bombing of US mobile units. At this time, all Bradley's hopes were dashed, two fleet aircraft carriers, six small aircraft carriers can carry a total of more than 500 fighters, and the number of bombers is more than two-thirds, that is, there are close to 350 bombers, even if these bombers only fly three sorties during the day, they can also dispatch thousands of bombers and drop thousands of bombs, and for the US military, these thousands of bombs are thought to be destroyed!