Although the general did not want to go, it was much like living and dying with the soldiers on the battery, but the officers around him did not think so. Although many things that have happened in this era of backward communications are not known, these officers have heard a little about what the Japanese did to the Dutch in the South Sea Islands, so it is as if the officer just said.

"I'm sorry, but I don't want to go to a Japanese prisoner of war camp yet..."

So, he knocked his boss unconscious.

"Look after the general, let's go..."

After knocking the general unconscious with the butt of a pistol, flicking his wrist, Sartre said casually.

"Understood!"

The other officer nodded, and then called two non-commissioned officers who were closer to him.

"Bring the general..."

"Yes!"

However, just as the two non-commissioned officers were leaving with the general, the officer on the side asked Sartre.

"The general is fine, but what about the rest of the soldiers? I can't say that the motorboat below will take all the soldiers away..."

"In war, there is always sacrifice, and as long as we can walk away, wouldn't it..."

Hearing Sartre say this, the officer was silent for a moment.

"Alright, let's go, we have to leave before the soldiers find out, or else......... We're going to go to a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp together..."

Hearing Sartre say this, the officer finally nodded.

Dead friends don't die poor, and this can only be the case at this time.

As for carrying forward the style and giving up the position to others or something, this kind of thing should be left to other people to do.

――――――――――――――――――――

It is not uncommon in history to use others to anoint the soles of their feet. So there's nothing to it. However, just like in history, those used cannon fodder are still fighting on the front line at the moment, and they don't know that their bosses have begun to grease the soles of their feet.

And by the time they found out, in the harbor. The officers and a handful of soldiers had already left the dock on motorboats.

Seeing his own leader leave him with his own eyes is an absolute blow.

And it was precisely because of this blow that the morale of the Australian soldiers on the battery plummeted, and the position that could have been held for a while was instantly torn into several sections by the Japanese army...

And against these Japanese soldiers who rushed into the position. The Australian soldiers on the battlefield didn't even resist at all, and their hearts were like ashes, probably describing their mood at the moment...

As once said, the harbor's batteries were used to defend against foreign enemies.

The reason why the Japanese did not take Sydney so easily was that there were harbor batteries there. As long as the Australian shore defense guns remained on strong batteries, the Japanese warships could not sail into the harbor to provide direct fire support to the besieging Japanese forces.

And if the battery fell into the hands of the Japanese, although the Japanese could not use the shore defense guns on the battery. But the Japanese warships could go straight in...

And in fact, that's what they do.

"The army's horse manure is too dragged..."

Looking at the sun flag raised from the battery, the captain of the battleship Fuso, Mitsuo Kinoshita, said with a slight mockery.

"If the horse manure had taken the fort earlier, I'm afraid we would have been able to enter the city and enjoy the scenery of Sydney a few months ago..."

Hear the words of Mitsuo Kinoshita. The other officers on the bridge nodded approvingly.

In Japan, the army and navy are notoriously incompatible with each other, and even during the war, this kind of disagreement still exists, so even if there is an opportunity to mock the army at this time, the navy will never let it go. …,

"Forget it. Anyway, the horse manure has finally taken down the fort..."

As he said this, Kinoshita glanced at the turret in front of the bridge, where two twin 356mm guns were pointing ahead.

"It's time for us to play."

Unlike a regular battleship. The Fuso-class battleship is simply a monster.

Of course, this does not refer to the 12 356mmL/45 naval guns it is equipped with, although the battleships equipped with 12 main guns are not many, but at least there are still a few in this world, for example, the Arizona that was sunk by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor is a battleship equipped with 12 main guns.

To say that the Fuso class is a monster does not mean the number of his main guns. Rather, it is the number of turrets of the main gun.

It is different from the regular layout of two front and one back, or two front and two back. Of course, there are also three turrets in the front layout, but this one is relatively rare.

Unlike the usual layout with two front and one rear, or two front and two back, the Fuso class has six main gun turrets. Four of them have a very conventional layout, but in the middle of the battleship's hull, the Fuso-class is also equipped with two twin-mounted main gun turrets...

In addition, as a successor to the Fuso-class, the same was the case with the Ise-class battleships, with six turrets and 12 main guns, but the Ise-class battleships were built in 1915 and belonged to the improved class of Fuso-class battleships.

The third and fourth ships, which were originally budgeted for the Fuso-class battleships, were able to improve the design scheme in view of the various defects of the Fuso-class discovered due to the delay in budget allocation. The main improvement of the gun arrangement in the middle of the hull ensured sufficient space in the engine room. The No. 3 and No. 4 main turrets of the amidships adopt a knapsack centralized arrangement, for which the bow tower is shortened, and the secondary guns are concentrated in the front part of the hull, so as to reduce the impact on the superstructure and mutual interference when the guns are fired. The elevation angle of the main gun was increased to increase the reloading speed, and the power system layout also adopted a new scheme.

In any case, as the captain of the battleship Fuso, Kinoshita Mitsuo is still very proud of his ship. Although the Fuso-class is no longer Japan's most advanced battleship, and the symbol of Japan is already the Nagato-class, and in the future it will be the Yamato-class, but Kinoshita Mitsuo is still proud of his ship.

Without the threat of shore defense guns, the Japanese naval fleet slowly sailed into the harbor of Sydney, and then anchored at a distance from the pier, and aimed all the large-caliber naval guns on the ship at Sydney...

Although it is not far from sunset at this time. But after all, there is still some time, so the Japanese don't mind the navy people training first.

You must know that the largest caliber artillery of the Japanese Army this time is only 240mm, and the Navy has 12 356mm main guns on the Fuso battleship alone, and the gap between the two is incomparable.

"Boom !!"

Didn't aim much at the target. Just aimed all 12 main guns at Sydney, and the Fuso came with a salvo.

The loud noise caused by the simultaneous firing of 12 main guns could almost deaf an unsuspecting person, while the power of the 356mm shells could have bulldozed a fortification.

In fact, after this salvo, although the 356mm guns did not raze any fortifications, several buildings were made to resemble sandcastles on the beach. Dust to dust, dust to dust...

After the Japanese Navy mixed in, the morale of the Australian army plummeted, while the Japanese army was in a brave state.

If it weren't for the fact that the sun was going down soon, and the Japanese had to suspend the offensive, it might not be long before the Japanese could really take Sydney.

And in fact, the Japanese do the same. Due to the smooth offensive of the day, the next day, with the assistance of the army's artillery unit and navy, the Japanese army launched another fierce offensive, and the artillery unit and navy also continued to bombard the urban areas that had not yet been controlled by the Japanese army, as for the safety of civilians or something. cough cough ......,

Who cares...

At least the Japanese don't care ...

――――――――――――――――――――

The resistance of the Australians is tenacious, but in the hopeless situation, they will not die like the Russians, but will be like the French...

So after almost a week of perseverance, although half of the urban area is still in the hands of Australians, it is no longer able to bear it. In the end, the Australians chose to negotiate with the Japanese and agreed to merge into the "new government" formed by the Japanese...

No way, at this time the suzerainty of the Australians, the United Kingdom. It was still struggling with the German bombardment, and the nearest Indian colony was now struggling to resist the combined Japanese and Thai invasions, in other words, the British at this time had no troops and could not draw any troops to save their Australia.

As for another possible savior, the United States? With the entire Pacific Fleet almost completely wiped out, the Americans have shrunk all their forces back to their homeland. Even Hawaii is ready to abandon, in this case wanting the Americans to send troops to the aid ...

Cough. Let's wait a few more years...

And it is obvious that Sydney will not be able to survive a few years of Japanese attack alone, after all, Sydney is different from the British, at least the British have an English Channel to separate him from Germany, and now the Japanese have landed directly...

The fall of Sydney did not come as a surprise to anyone, after all, there was only one Moscow in this era. However, even so, the fall of Sydney was a great blow to the morale of the Allies, after all, Canberra had already fallen under the Japanese offensive.

And unlike Canberra, yes, Canberra is the capital of Australia, but as a capital of just over 10,000 people, Canberra's importance cannot be compared to Sydney, Australia's largest and most important city with a population of more than one million.

After all, Canberra itself is a product of the rivalry between two cities, Sydney and Melbourne...

So if the fall of Canberra was a blow to the Allies, then the fall of Sydney was tantamount to a knife, because the fall of Sydney meant that the fall of Australia was not far off.

In fact, everything is moving in this direction...

Although the offensive against Sydney only took more than ten days, because the Australian army was equipped with a large number of automatic weapons―――――― such as light and heavy machine guns or something...

Because the Australian army was equipped with a large number of automatic weapons, the Japanese suffered heavy casualties during the siege, so after the capture of Sydney, the Japanese army did not rush to attack Melbourne, Australia's second largest city and the seat of the provisional government, but chose to rest in Sydney, and at the same time waited for reinforcements from the mainland.

In addition, there are actually many Melburnians who have been secretly relieved about the fall of Sydney, after all, the dispute between the two cities has lasted for a long time in the past. And most importantly, as a product of the dispute between the two cities in the past, the honorary title of the Australian capital still fell to Canberra, but now...

Now, even to death. Sydney did not become Australia's capital, but Canberra, Australia's second largest city, officially became Australia's new capital, which can be regarded as an end to the dispute between the two cities for many years―――――― at least Melburnians feel so.

Unfortunately, Melburn's happy mood did not last long. Not long after being reinforced, the Japanese army had officially moved south to take Melbourne, Australia's last large city. It should be noted that Sydney, as Australia's largest city, has a population of about 1.3 million, Melbourne, the second largest city, also has a population of more than 1 million, and Brisbane, the third largest city, has a population of more than 300,000, of course, the most pitiful is Canberra. Australia's capital has a population of just over 12,000, and if anything, the whole city is about the size of a regular division...

If the two large cities of Sydney and Melbourne are reliable, then the rest of the cities from Brisbane onwards are all tragic. After the fall of Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra, the capital, Melbourne is Australia's only remaining major city.

In other words, as long as they can take Melbourne, Australia's second largest city and new capital, then it means that the Japanese army has taken this vast and sparsely populated continent.

The rest of the cities are only sporadic obstacles for the Japanese...

Due to the presence of Sydney in the way. So Melbourne is well prepared. And during the recuperation period after the Japanese offensive and capture of Sydney, the Australians also used their little gold and other reserves to buy large quantities of weapons from the United States and China...

Perhaps in order to make the Japanese suffer more losses, this time Yan Guang actually sold even a new semi-automatic rifle to the Australians. And told the Australians.

"Remember to tell us the problems that arise in the actual battle, and we will provide improved services..."

God knows if these Melbanians will have a chance to report these problems.

In any case, taking advantage of this time period, the remnants of the Australian government in Melbourne are still fully prepared. Even after referring to the lessons of Sydney, the Melbourne government not only deployed a large number of troops to protect the fort at the port, but also killed the shore defense guns on the fort. There was not even the slightest possibility of turning it around―――――― not long after the Japanese captured the fort, the Japanese dismantled the shore defense guns from the fort. Then along with the naval guns of the navy, it was aimed at Sydney.

Anyway, the Japanese don't need these shore defense guns to continue their past missions, so even if they are removed, it is nothing, after all, Sydney is unlikely to be threatened from the sea in the short term...

But for Melburnians, it would not be good if the battery fell into the hands of the Japanese, and then the reverse would be against themselves, as Sydney did...

In fact, it can also be seen from this that Melburn himself is not very confident in whether he can resist the Japanese. So early on, the leaders of the Australian government were ready to fly to another city if Melbourne couldn't resist either...

And then...

There by boat, diversion to India, the formation of a new government-in-exile ...

Of course, since India has also been killed by the Japanese army and the Thai army, it is not very peaceful, so the best place for the Australian government is still the United States...

After all, the British mainland is not very peaceful now, almost every day under the bombing of the Germans, if it can, the Australian government will never want to go to such a place, to the United States, although the Pacific Fleet was completely wiped out at Pearl Harbor, but after all, the war did not burn the United States, so it is still good to go there.

As for China...

Although China sold a lot of weapons to Australia during the war, it was clear to almost everyone that China was one of the people behind the war, and if it weren't for China, Japan wouldn't even be able to attack Australia.

In this war, almost all of the resources needed by Germany and Japan to wage war were provided by China―――――― of course, in fact, the materials needed by Britain and the Soviet Union and Australia were also provided by China. …,――――――――――――――――――――

The Australian government quickly changed from the current government to the government-in-exile, because the Australians had only held out in Melbourne for a little more than a month in the face of the Japanese army moving south.

And just as Melbourne was about to fall, most of the members of the Australian government flew at the airport to a coastal city a few hundred kilometers away from Melbourne, where a number of passenger ships and the few small warships left in the Australian Navy were pre-arranged.

Soon after, they will form a government-in-exile on board the ship and leave for India...

Seriously, India is not a suitable place for human habitation, but in this era of war, there is not so much to worry about. Incidentally, the Australian government had already formally established a government-in-exile from the moment it boarded the ship, and the "new government" supported by the Japanese was officially proclaimed after the capture of Melbourne.

After all, at this time, the larger cities on the Australian mainland had already been captured by the Japanese army, and the remaining ones that were not captured were at most a few villages and towns with a few hundred or thousands of people, and they could not form any resistance in the face of the Japanese.

In other words, Australia is now completely owned by Japan...

"In other words, it's time to step in..."

Flicking his finger on the latest information about Australia, Yan Guang looked at everyone in the conference room.