Episode 48 Attack on Batavia!

The remaining Dutch planes in the East Indies probably adopted a strategy of preserving their strength at first, and when the first two rounds of Ming planes attacked the port artillery group, they did not take off, but evacuated and hidden, but later, somehow, the commander probably changed his attention, and the only remaining four dive bombers and four torpedo planes, escorted by more than 20 fighters, flew to the sea to attack the Ming aircraft carrier formation, in an attempt to hit one or two torpedoes like last time and force the Ming fleet back.

But this time the fleet of the Ming army was much larger, and the protagonists were aircraft carriers. The Dutch fleet was spotted by vigilant Kingfisher fighters more than sixty nautical miles away, and then soon the thirty Dutch planes were "one-sidedly slaughtered" by fourteen Kingfisher fighters, and within ten minutes, all the Dutch planes were dragged into the sea with black smoke. At this point, the Dutch air power in the East Indies was completely lost.

From 12 p.m. to 3 p.m., the Tianshu carried out five more waves of air raids. Several Dutch military camps in the vicinity of Batavia, including the western half of Batavia, were subjected to unprecedented rounds of bombardment and strafing. For those Dutch soldiers, it was their first taste of air raids. The bombers flew down with bombs whizzing, tongues of fire on the wings continued to spray, and a large number of Dutch soldiers were killed in all directions.

Dive bombers don't drop bombs easily, but only drop a bomb when they see particularly valuable targets, such as heavy artillery positions, munitions depots, commanders' offices, and a large number of Dutch soldiers in a row. Of course, each of these bombs played a huge role, either dozens of stumps and broken arms flew all over the sky, or heavy artillery and ammunition piles exploded into the sky.

In the horror that they had never seen in their lives, these Dutch GIs, who had never fought before, had a complete nervous breakdown, and there was only one thought in each person's mind: to save their lives and live!

When the dive bomber roared and pounced, every soldier had the feeling that this was coming for him, and he was desperately running and trying to find a place to hide.

This is where the dive bomber is irreplaceable in relation to the horizontal bomber: to inflict a huge mental panic on the enemy forces on the ground. It is widely said that this was mainly due to the mental terror caused to the enemy by the shrill screams of the dive bombers installed with howlers. There are, of course, reasons for this. But more importantly, the dive bomber's precise, overhead feeling is the kind of "this is coming for me" feeling that every enemy soldier has.

The bomb load, destructive power, and lethality of large horizontal bombers are all incomparable with dive bombers, but because of the high-altitude bomb dropping, there is no such feeling of "coming at me at hand", and the mental fear of the enemy troops on the ground is far inferior to that of dive bombers. It's as if soldiers can brave artillery bombardment, watch their comrades around them be blown up, and charge desperately, while the enemy's sniper can make hundreds of soldiers lie on the ground in fright, and no one dares to advance.

In addition to the Osprey dive bomber, greater casualties came from Kingfisher fighters. The Kingfisher was armed with four 7.92mm machine guns, which were twice as lethal as the osprey, and far more agile and fast than the osprey, and the fighter pilots were more skilled, and could fly very low, almost grazing against the roof of the barracks.

The first two attack waves, both of which were Osprey bombers dropping bombs and were about to return home. Later, in the second round, the experience was discovered, and the bombs were only used against high-value hard targets, and against the enemy infantry on the ground, mainly by strafing. After the bomb was dropped, it continued to dive and strafe until the fuel did not allow it, and then returned home.

By the fourth round of attacks, there were basically no one in the Dutch barracks, only corpses and wounded struggling and groaning, and the living Dutch soldiers had fled to the forest outside. In other words, it is basically broken up, and it is estimated that there is no establishment anymore. In the last round of air strikes, before leaving, the bombardier of each Osprey pushed open the cockpit and threw out a bundle of leaflets. Leaflets with the words of persuasion were immediately distributed both inside and outside the Dutch barracks. The leaflet promised that the Ming army would treat every Dutch soldier who laid down his arms with kindness and guarantee him all the treatment he deserved.

The Dutch soldiers, who had just experienced extreme terror, had no fighting spirit at all, and after picking up the leaflets and reading them, they were immediately filled with great hope of life, except for a few with a strong sense of honor, most of them made up their minds to surrender when they had the opportunity. Because in their opinion, the Ming army's promise to surrender is still more credible. The Ming and Qing wars just now attracted the attention of the whole world, and the Ming army captured more than 100,000 Qing soldiers, including the thousands of Qing soldiers captured in the suburbs of Nanjing, or the Eight Banners Division that participated in the massacre of civilians, and they were all Manchurian.

In this way, the Ming army gave them good treatment: warm barracks, good food, timely and best treatment, as much freedom as possible in the prisoner camp, and a commissary, where they could buy cigarettes and all kinds of food...... Journalists from various countries and representatives of the International Red Cross Society visited the museum and praised it, saying that it would not be easy for the armies of the Christian countries in Europe to do this against the enemy's prisoners, even if they were at war.

As a result, the Ming army's good reputation of "preferential treatment of prisoners" was also heard of by these Dutch soldiers. In addition, the Dutch soldiers knew very well that this war must be very short, and the Dutch army could not resist twice, so they might sign a treaty in two days, and they could go home soon if they surrendered. This strengthened their desire to "surrender when they have the opportunity".

……

At four o'clock in the afternoon, the Ming fleet sailed into Batavia Bay, and under the cover of aircraft, prepared to enter the port and land.

At this time, several white flags had been erected in the harbor. On the wharf, piles of wounded soldiers were lying on the ground, there were hundreds of people, and a few lightly wounded soldiers stood there, carrying bamboo poles and carrying white sheets, waving vigorously at the approaching warships, for fear that the warships would fire at the docks. Hundreds of Chinese have gathered spontaneously in Hong Kong, mostly young people, male and female students, and people who lost their families in the Chinese exclusion massacre. When they saw the Ming destroyer approaching, they immediately held aloft a welcome banner in Chinese characters and unfurled a Ming flag.

A destroyer sailed into the harbor first, observed for a while, then lowered the dinghy and sent a team of sailors and Dutch-speaking officers ashore. As soon as these sailors came ashore, they were immediately surrounded by a large group of Chinese. The female students, in particular, rushed forward to hug and kiss them, shoved the flowers they had picked into their arms, and put wreaths around their necks. How could these young men have received such treatment in China, they were all very excited, and their faces were red with shame.

Amid the cheers, several sailors were suddenly lifted up by the Chinese students and thrown up at once. The sailors were also dizzy with joy, wearing beautiful tropical flowers and enjoying the fragrant kisses of the schoolgirls, and they all forgot what they had come to shore for.

The sailors on the destroyer were not happy, and began to make noise, clamoring to go ashore. The sailors climbed the deck railings, shouting and whistling to the shore, desperately trying to get the attention of the schoolgirls......

The ship's whistle roared twice, and then the captain's voice faintly came from the radio horn:

“…… That's pretty much it...... What did you do ashore......"

When several sailors heard that the captain was upset, they hurriedly struggled to get down from the crowd and let their compatriots lead them to the wounded Dutch soldiers.

Those Dutch wounded soldiers had been watching from the sidelines for a long time, and they were so envious that they felt more and more homesick. The Ming sailors were led by a naval captain who majored in Dutch. He led his men to a few wounded Dutch soldiers and asked in Dutch:

"Where is your Supreme Commander here?"

A Dutch corporal stood up with a wooden stick and saluted him. Then carefully said:

"Sir, our highest-ranking officer here is Captain Murray, over there, I'll take you there."

This captain of the Ming Navy led his sailors, surrounded by a large group of Chinese youths, and followed him to a dozen meters away, in front of another pile of Dutch wounded soldiers. The difference is that this bunch of wounded soldiers are all officers. The Dutch corporal saluted one of them and said a few words. Then a Dutch captain slowly stood up. He had one arm bandaged and hung from his chest. His face was full of gunsmoke and dust, he looked up and down at the captain of the Ming army who was in the same rank as himself, straightened his military uniform with his other hand, and said slowly:

"I'm Captain Carl Van Maury of the Dutch Army."

"I'm Huo Tianying, captain of the Ming Navy. How many of you are there? ”

Captain Murray turned his head and pointed faintly:

"It's all on this dock, there are about 150 people, all of them are gathered from various units, mainly artillerymen, most of them are not my subordinates, but I have the highest rank here."

Captain Huo Tianying also looked around and nodded:

"How's that, are you willing to surrender?"

Captain Murray nodded indifferently:

"Yes. We are here to wait for you. I'm here to represent them. ”

Then he slowly took out his spear and handed it to Huo Tianying. Huo Tianying took it, put it in his waist and said:

"I now accept your surrender on behalf of the Ming Empire's navy and army. Now let them gather their weapons. ”

At the command of Captain Murray, more than 100 Dutch officers and soldiers in the harbor slowly stood up, threw their weapons into a pile, and then gathered together and sat on the ground waiting for containment.

Captain Huo Tianying asked the two sailors to watch them, and then took several other sailors and hundreds of Chinese volunteers to quickly search the nearby dock buildings, and there were no more hidden Dutch troops.

Then, on a building more than a hundred meters from the shore, the Dutch flag on the flagpole was lowered. A Ming flag was quickly raised.

Suddenly, there was cheers on the wharf, and more than 100 Chinese looked at the Daming flag on the flagpole with tears. The captain and the sailors were lifted up by the crowd again.

The first batch of Ming troops to land on Dutch East Indies was only seven sailors. However, the seven sailors accepted the surrender of one hundred and fifty Dutch soldiers and occupied the port of Batavia.

……

Amid cheers, two troop carriers and transports pulled into the harbor, tied cables, lowered the gangway, and landed in a steady stream.

The local workers in the port have long since run out, but the Ming army's engineering units have specially trained the port to operate, and they operate dock cranes and other machinery no worse than the port workers. Soon, not only infantry, but also small and medium-sized artillery, mortars, baggage trucks, ammunition, as well as four Lightning-1 tanks and four armored personnel carriers, were also disembarked and on standby in the harbor.

The East India Expeditionary Division of the Ming Army established a division headquarters in the port, and the reconnaissance battalion of the division also spread out to the perimeter of the port, and advanced to 500 meters to one kilometer around the port, establishing a warning circle, and no battle occurred.

Every Ming soldier who disembarked had the feeling that this was not landing on the enemy's shore, it was simply a tourist. The Ming army calmly completed the reorganization in the port and began to advance towards the city according to the established route. The main direction of advance was four routes, radiating south from the port area at the northernmost point of the city, each covered by a Lightning-1 tank and an armored personnel carrier.

The street was empty, with slow-flying and low-flying Ming planes overhead, the cover of tanks and armored vehicles in front, the fire support soldiers pushing machine guns, mortars on their backs, and flamethrowers on their backs, and the infantry in the middle carrying rifles and submachine guns, marching quickly on both sides of the street. Although they were still cautious, listening to the roar above their heads and on the ground, they really felt the strength of their own strength, and the fact that they had not been resisted all along, the excitement in their hearts was obviously more than fear.

Among these soldiers, many officers have small gold swords on a black background with their collar badges. They were all People's Guard officers. When this expeditionary division was formed, many officers who had participated in the street battles in Nanjing and Pukou were specially selected from the People's Guard, and they had rich experience in urban warfare, and it was most suitable for them to lead their troops to capture Batavia. Including the eight tanks and armored vehicles, they were also drawn from the People's Guard, and the commander and crew members all participated in the defense of Nanjing.

As we moved deeper into the city, the Chinese character "Huaren" occasionally began to appear on the doors of houses on both sides of the street. The soldiers were full of Dutch and Malay characters in the city, and when they happened to see Chinese characters, their hearts were immediately very friendly. Whenever he encountered such a Chinese residence, the sergeant leading the team would stop temporarily, knock on the door, and ask the Chinese owner about the movements of the Dutch army and whether there were any Dutch troops nearby.

When the local Chinese opened the door and saw that it was the soldiers of their own country, they were very excited, and some of them hugged the Ming soldiers tightly, lying on their shoulders and crying. The soldiers of the Ming army were not used to it at first, but later they saw that almost every Chinese household wore a black gauze armband on their arms, incense candles and spiritual tablets were offered in the house, and some still had several spiritual cards, and they all understood.

Later, the soldiers discovered a pattern: whenever there were burned-down or smashed houses and shops on both sides of the street, no matter whether the word "Chinese" was written on the door or not, as long as they came forward and knocked on the door, most of the people who came out to open the door were Chinese.

Of course, almost half of these dwellings are unopenable.

"Anyone doesn't? Anyone? We are the Ming Army! ”

A Ming soldier looked up at the shop. This is another two-story building, with shops below and residences above. Several windows were smashed to the ground, leaving the windows open and lifeless. On the walls and gates of the first floor, blood-red paint was painted with hideous Malay characters, and there were some strange totems.

Another soldier next to him pushed open the hidden door, knocked a few times, and shouted inside. There was no movement for half a day. A soldier said:

"Let's go inside!"