"General, it looks like the Japanese have laid quite a lot of mines..."

After receiving the information from the front-line ships, Lin Yin'an smiled at Mu Qingping on the side and said-1-

According to the information just circulated, the Japanese had laid a considerable number of mines in all areas suitable for landing, including Darwin and Brisbane, in order to prevent possible landing operations by the Wehrmacht.

It has to be said that mines are indeed a very effective weapon.

The low cost and ease of laying of mines make them a weapon often used in asymmetric warfare, and in general, mines are 10 to 200 times more expensive to remove. To this day, some of the mines laid during World War II have not been cleared due to cost. International law requires that when a fighting party lays mines, the extent of mines must be clearly declared so that civilian vessels can avoid them, but in practice this rule is difficult to enforce, and in World War II Britain only claimed in general terms that it had laid mines in the English Channel, the North Sea and off the coast of France.

In the First World War, the two sides laid a total of 310,000 mines of various types, sank a total of 148 surface ships, sank 54 submarines, and sank 586 merchant ships, totaling 1.22 million tons.

During the Second World War, the use of mines reached its peak in the belligerents, with the exception of the First and Second World Wars, when 1.1 million mines were laid and more than 3,700 sunken ships were bombed.

1952年朝鲜战争中，朝鲜人民军在元山港外布放了3000多枚水雷，美军出动了60艘扫雷舰和30多艘保障舰船，外加不少扫雷直升机进行清扫，结果使美整个登陆计划推迟达8天之久。 在此后的越南战争、中东战争、海湾战争中，水雷都得到充分的应用，发挥了巨大的威力。 In particular, during the Gulf War, the Iraqi Navy basically achieved nothing, only laying more than 1,200 mines, damaging nine ships of the multinational force, of which four warships of the United States alone were damaged.

Therefore. If these mines are not cleaned up, I am afraid that the landing war will not be so easy to carry out.

But at this moment, whether it is Lin Yin'an or Mu Qingping. They don't seem to worry much about the Japanese tricks.

"It's time for us to play..."

To Mu Qingping, the Japanese mines seemed to be non-existent...

And it seems that this is exactly the case...

After Mu Qingping's order was issued, nearly 100 ships were allocated from the fleet.

Confession. Mu Qingping was only a rear admiral, and he couldn't have such a huge fleet at all, and he was not the commander of the fleet for this landing operation at all.

But there are other very special reasons for being able to command so many ships...

And the reason is simple, that is, these ships are ships used in anti-mine warfare ...

Moreover. There are a lot of very special members of this...

――――――――――――――――――――

"Strange, what are those Chinese doing? Are they looking for death? ”

Just when a Japanese military plane was carrying out a warning and reconnaissance mission over Brisbane, the pilot of the military plane saw a large group of ships driving in the direction of the minefield without hesitation...

No wonder they were so shocked, after all, they knew very well how many mines were hidden in the minefield. There are so many mines that it would normally take at least a week for even a naval power to clean up.

However, now, how can the opponent not surprise them by ignoring the existence of the minefield and rushing straight over?

"Leave them alone. Anyway, they are looking for their own death. We just have to watch here! ”

With that, the pilot flew the plane in the direction of the minefield's hinterland, lest it be knocked down by the fleet's anti-aircraft fire. …,

At this time, the fleet, which seemed to the pilots to be looking for death, continued to move towards the minefield. Finally, after a few minutes. Several ships took the lead in entering the minefield.

However, at this time, the pilot also felt that something was wrong, although he was an air force in the army. These days, he has also had a lot of exchanges with the pilots of the navy―――――― but there is no way, and the pilots of the Japanese army are almost dead after several battles. So there is no difference between the army and the navy.

What's more, these days, there is not much difference between the pilots of the army and the navy.

After all, their opponents now are basically the navies of enemy countries...

However, it is precisely for this reason that the pilots understand that when the navy is sailing, it will sail in formation and formation of queues like the air force.

The ships in front of them were crowded and dense, and there was no formation at all. Such a fleet, in the eyes of the opponent's air force, is basically like a live target, and basically only a fool would let his troops form such a formation.

But in past engagements, pilots have been well aware that their opponents are not such fools.

However, at this time, the ships on the sea entered the minefield, and they only needed to watch a good show here.

"Damn the Chinese, soon you will understand how stupid you are..."

Thinking so, the pilot sneered and waited for the sound of a mine being triggered and detonating below. The pilot was not disappointed, and just a few minutes later, the hull part of a warship erupted, and the violent explosion even caused a huge column of water nearly 100 meters on the side of the ship.

And soon, another ship caused a mine to explode.

Seeing this scene, the pilot sneered in the sky above, wanting to see the panicked expressions of the Chinese below.

However, at this time, a scene that shocked him happened.

Not only did those ships not stop after being hit by mines, but even the two ships that were hit by mines just now continued to move forward without hesitation, as if nothing had happened just now.

"What's going on? Are the Chinese all crazy? ”

Looking at the scene below, the pilot muttered.

At this time, the deputy sitting on the side also said strangely.

"And it's strange that although the two ships were blown up by mines, they didn't seem to have suffered much damage, and even the speed of sailing didn't seem to have been affected..."

Listening to what the deputy said, the pilot seemed to have noticed this as well.

At this time, after hearing the news from the front line, Mu Qingping, who was standing on the bridge, smiled coldly.

"No, Japanese. Your mines don't work at all in the face of minebreakers ...

――――――――――――――――――――

Minebreaker, other names: minefield breakthrough ship.

It is a kind of ship that uses the strong magnetic field and noise field generated by the hull collision or the strong magnetic and noise fields generated by the hull collision itself or the special equipment to induce the detonation of the mine fuse.

Anti-mine ships were developed on the basis of minesweepers. The so-called minesweeper is a ship used to sweep away mines in the blockade of sea areas. It was developed on the basis of mine traps. The first minesweepers were born during the Russo-Japanese War. At that time, minesweepers were converted from fishing boats and old ships, and used twin boats to tow minesweepers for minesweeping.

Later, a single-ship towed cutting minesweeper was developed. This is a cutting tool in which 16 cutters are divided equally into the stern of the ship by two sweeping cables, and then dragged by the minesweeper to cut the anchor anchor cable. When the sweep line moves with the ship. If the cutter encounters the anchor cable, the thunder rope will be cut due to the power of the ship, so that the mine body will surface, and then the mine will be destroyed by water blasting methods such as artillery. …,

Later, people successfully developed a minesweeper that combines cutting and bombing. This minesweeper was equipped with five blasting canisters on each of the two sweeps of the earlier minesweeper. When the cable slides onto the blaster, the blaster is forced to explode, thus breaking the cable. After the emergence of non-triggering mines such as magnetic mines, acoustic mines, and hydrostatic mines, people have developed electromagnetic minesweepers with the function of generating a strong magnetic field, and the acoustic minesweepers that drive the iron chain to strike the vibrating pole, and the underwater evasion method of using sonar to discover the hydrostatic mines and then avoid them.

Military scientists have come up with a primitive but extremely clever way to use some of the superior mines that minesweepers cannot remove, that is, to use some dilapidated ships of little use to open a channel for the real fleet. Later, minebreakers specially designed to detonate mines were also born. These minelayers are about the same as ordinary warships. It's just that the compartments below the waterline at the bottom of the hull are very smallly divided. When the hull enters the minefield and detonates the mine, even if the shock wave and shrenzon generated by the explosion of the mine penetrate the hull and cause perforation, the minebreaker can still continue to carry out its minebreaking mission because the foam filled in the ship's hull can provide buoyancy to ensure that the body is not sinkable.

However, minebreakers can generally only be used in a wide sea area, because minebreakers use their own physical fields to passively detonate mines. Therefore, it is in great danger if it is blown up and sunk in a narrow waterway. It's easy to block the entrances and exits. Therefore, it can only be used to some extent as a supplement to other anti-mine ships, and can never replace the status and role of minesweepers and minehunters in anti-mine ships.

Minebreakers first appeared during World War II. During World War II, more than 100 merchant ships were converted into minebreakers, which were ships whose cabins were filled with plastic and other items to detonate mines in front of the fleet. Not surprisingly, more than half of the ships sank while on duty.

At the beginning of World War II, the British Navy converted merchant ships such as the "Boulder" with a displacement of more than 5,000 tons into minebreakers for breaking magnetic mines. In 1961, Britain designed and built a minebreaker with a displacement of 3,000 tons and a length of 90 meters, which was sunk due to a mine explosion during the test. In 1969, the United States converted the "Liberty Wheel" into a minesweeper, called the "Special Minesweeper" (MSS-1), which was mainly used for testing the removal of hydrostatic mines. By the 70s of the 20th century, the navies of various countries no longer had minebreakers in official service, after all, the limitations of minebreakers were too great.

But for now, minebreakers are still very useful.

After all, it's a landing operation, and they just need to get out of the safety of the landing fleet...

Therefore, after it was decided to launch a large-scale landing war against Australia, many ships that had been converted into minebreakers were transferred from China.

Most of these minebreakers are relatively old merchant ships, but some are combat ships that have been mothballed in the past.

In the first ten years of the establishment of the national government, although the development of the navy had made great progress, the family foundation was still a little thin at that time. In addition, although the Washington and London treaties at that time limited the number of capital ships, but did not limit the number of secondary ships such as destroyers and cruisers, every time a combat ship was decommissioned, these ships would be mothballed for the next day...

Admittedly, although there may be some gaps in performance. The ships of World War I may not be unusable in World War II. At least a few battleships and cruisers built during World War I were still in use in World War II, and they were used as capital ships...

Of course. This refers to battleships and battle cruisers, such as destroyers and light cruisers during the First World War, unless there is an emergency, I am afraid that it will not come in handy.

And according to China's current national strength. The possibility of this happening is even smaller, and it can't be smaller. …,

In fact, the national government at that time planned to use these mothballed ships as naval equipment after the establishment of other dependent states. In other words, it is intended to wait for those vassal countries, and of course you can also call them allies of the Chinese Alliance.

Almost all of the member countries of the China Alliance are some countries that have been colonized. Therefore, after the independence of these countries, there is no doubt that they are poor and white in all aspects, and at this time, China, as the mastermind country, naturally needs to stand up without letting it go.

It's just that getting China to satisfy so many countries is also quite a troublesome thing for China.

After all, not to mention anything else, there are more than 10 countries in the entire China Alliance, and there may be more countries in the future, and Yan Guang also wants to develop the China Alliance into an organization similar to the combination of NATO and the Warsaw Pact, so he requires the member countries to have strong combat power.

In this case. Mothballed ships will naturally come in handy.

When the time comes, you can casually make a 10% off. Half sell and half give away.

What the? No money?

Then you owe it first, and you can calculate interest in the future anyway.

Originally, the national government planned to do so, but now...

It's also time for these mothballed ships to come in handy, and it can be regarded as giving them a second spring, although this second spring is almost the last one...

――――――――――――――――――――

On the surface of the sea, a large number of old ships of the Jinghai class and other types that exude the brilliance of the second spring. On the surface of the sea took on the task of a death squad.

Although in their path there are countless mines. But these ships are still moving forward without hesitation.

Even if you are hit by a mine on the way, you have no intention of stopping.

In fact, even if it is hit by a mine, it is not a big deal. Anyway, the inside of the ship is filled with filler, and even if it is hit by a mine, the ship will never sink into the sea.

On the other hand, the Japanese in the sky were also watching this scene in front of them in amazement.

They could never have imagined that the Chinese would dare to use more than 100 ships as death squads to use mines. In fact, this is probably only possible with China and the United States, after all, only China and the United States have strong enough industrial strength and enough resources to waste.

But I have to say that this works really well.

After about an hour, although the minebreakers on the sea were almost half sunk, there were basically no mines on the sea surface under their sacrifice. In other words, there will be no more obstacles in front of the landing force.

On the other hand, after learning of this situation, the Japanese army was dumbfounded.

To know that so many mines, even for the Japanese is a big difficulty, originally they also hoped that these mines could block the Chinese for a longer period of time, who was so easy to be ...

It was while the Japanese were still taken aback that the landing battle launched by the Wehrmacht began.

Due to the absence of mine interference, the support of bombers of the Air Force, and the appearance of a large number of landing craft and even amphibious combat vehicles, the landing operation proceeded quite smoothly. Basically, it only took a few hours to successfully grab the beach in Brisbane.

Of course, there are many reasons for this, such as the fact that the Wehrmacht is equipped with a large amount of armored equipment, etc., and the most important thing is the serious decline in the combat power of the Japanese army. After all, in many battles in the past, the losses of the Japanese army were too great, especially those soldiers with more actual combat experience.

And a considerable part of the soldiers did not die under guns, but under the ambush of submarine forces and VX poison gas ...

Infested with rookies, the defenders on the beach simply could not stop the landing force.

After all, the Wehrmacht is stronger than the Japanese army not only in terms of equipment, but also in terms of combat effectiveness. Moreover, the Kokusha government has an extremely strict military service system, and in terms of population, it has more than 10 times the population of Japan, and there is no shortage of reservists at all.

After the successful beach-grabbing, the landed Wehrmacht moved directly to Brisbane after a short break. It's just that although the process of seizing the beach was very smooth, in the urban war, it was more or less troublesome, after all, it was too beneficial to the defenders in the urban war.

Even so, the landing force took Brisbane in three days and drained the city's defenders.

Moreover, to the surprise of the landing force, many Japanese soldiers surrendered in the city this time, which was never possible in the past, but it also confirmed the fact that the well-trained soldiers of the Japanese army were almost dead.

Not long after the fall of Brisbane, two cities, including Darwin, fell to the Wehrmacht.

The only targets to enter are Sydney and Melbourne... (To be continued......)