Chapter Seventy-Three: Melbourne Winter (II)

Although located on the other side of the world, Melbourne's climate is strangely similar to that of the south of England, with a rainy temperate oceanic climate. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info every autumn and winter, it will last for a few days of rain from time to time. In the dim light of the day, the wet cold and mist permeated the gray city all day long, seeping into every wall and every ceiling. The rain of bullets crackling down on the windows often lasted for days. The river and lake swelled in the rain, and soon the gardens and mountains were in a mudflow......

However, the British, who have come from thousands of miles to Melbourne, are comfortable with it, because they are used to the weather in their homeland.

- Melbourne, located in southeastern Australia, on the north shore of Port Phillip Bay. It's a relatively young city, and until 1835, Melbourne was a desert. It took another fifteen years for Melbourne to become a small town. But in 1851, an unprecedented mega-gold mine was discovered in Melbourne, and it was so easy to mine that thousands of gold prospectors flocked to Melbourne, including a large number of Chinese laborers. In the midst of a frenzied gold rush, Melbourne's population exploded, quadrupling its population in just three years. The abundance of its gold reserves overshadowed San Francisco (San Francisco), which was extremely rich in gold, so Melbourne was also called the New Gold Mountain by the Chinese gold diggers - until modern times, there are many Chinese-run schools, shops, and companies in Melbourne with the name "New Gold Mountain" in their names.

Because of the amazing magic of gold, by the 1880s, in just 30 years, Melbourne had developed from a remote town to a highly developed metropolis, once reported to be the richest city in the world at the time, and one of the most populous cities in the British Empire at that time.

With their abundant financial resources, the Melburnians began to spend money and build a lot of money, so that their city was full of all kinds of luxurious buildings, especially various Victorian-style cathedrals, including the famous Wesleyan Church, St. Paul's Cathedral, Scottish Church, St. Bartley's Cathedral and St. Michael's United Church, etc., the number of which is second only to London in the world, so it is known as the "City of Churches" in the southern hemisphere.

-- But all this prosperity, splendor and opulence of Melbourne is now on the verge of destruction......

Leader of the Australian Labor Party and the 14th Prime Minister of Australia, John Brown. His Excellency Katyn, now standing by the window of his Prime Minister's office, gazed melancholy at the streets of Melbourne shrouded in gloomy rain and fog. In recent days, it has been raining before dawn, and when it is bright enough to see clearly, it will most likely turn into a torrential rain. The Yarra River, which flows into downtown Melbourne, rises a full five feet, and rotting corpses are washed down from upstream every day. Because the sewer system has long been silted, the streets are full of water, and even jeeps will turn off.

Just across the window from Prime Minister Katyn's office, a blue Southern Cross flag of the Commonwealth of Australia soaked up the rain, looked wet and dirty, tangled like a rag around the flagpole outside the window, but no one seemed to bother to lower it.

-- In the early days of the Commonwealth of Australia, Melbourne served as the capital for 27 years. It wasn't until 1927 that the Australian federal government moved to Canberra...... However, when it came to John. Prime Minister Katyn's tenure, Australia's capital and central government were moved back to Melbourne.

But for Melbourne, this did not mean any glory and decency, but simply because the legal capital of Canberra was captured by the Japanese.

When John. When Katyn first assumed the presidency of Australia, he had a land almost the size of the United States. But just a year after the Japanese landing, Australia, which belonged to the white people, was exhausted, leaving only a corner around Melbourne.

By this time, even Melbourne, the last refuge, was crumbling under artillery fire and gunsmoke......

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Although it was dark as night in the rain, there were hardly any lights in the city because Melbourne's electricity and water supply had long since been cut off. Every remaining house in the field of vision was blown apart by artillery fire and aerial bombs, and the walls were full of bullet holes with eerie mouths. Katyn's prime minister's office has a machine-gun bullet hole visible on the roof. It was left behind by a 12.7 mm machine gun bullet a week ago that pierced the ceiling two feet from the head of His Excellency the Prime Minister, blew the head of a guard, and splattered blood and brains on Prime Minister Katyn's face.

At the moment, the bullet hole was dripping rainwater in a ceramic spittoon that had been placed in advance. From time to time, some splashes of water splashed out, wetting the expensive carpet underneath...... Still, Prime Minister Katyn has to thank for the rain – it was because of the continuous rain for several days, which obscured the view and made the field airfields in the frontline fields unusable, that Melbourne was temporarily protected from the indiscriminate bombardment of Japanese aircraft.

Before the rainstorms began, Melbourne was on average under at least five or six bombings a day, and the Japanese bombers flew almost to the tips of a person's hair. The Australian soldiers and civilians in Melbourne had to continue to work and live in the midst of such a deafening and terrifying howl, and at the same time have to be on guard against the Japanese throwing poison gas bombs - after a series of poison gas feasts, the lack of anti-poison equipment and experience have all died.

Therefore, this continuous winter rain that made the city damp and muddy gave the exhausted Allied troops a rare respite. Prime Minister Katyn was able to briefly step out of the dark, depressing underground shelter and get out to the surface to breathe

However, although the continuous winter rain could prevent the bombing and release of poison gas by Japanese aircraft, it could not prevent the arrival of another advanced weapon...... Listening to the ominous screech of the rain mixed in, John. Prime Minister Katyn retracted his thoughts for a moment, turned back to sit back at his desk, and waited quietly.

It wasn't long before the shock from the violent explosion followed, heavy and violent, humming the coffee cups on the table, and a wisp of dust fell from the roof, staining the papers on the table...... Then, the sound of an explosion like thunder reached my ears, and people couldn't help but tremble.

This is a Japanese-to-ground bombardment of the city of Melbourne from the nearest forward position to Melbourne, the town of Broadford, 50 kilometers to the north, using V1 cruise missiles imitating Nazi Germany. Although none of the Japanese army's giant artillery could shoot such a long range, a mere 50 kilometers of distance for a V1 cruise missile with two small wings was a piece of cake - according to the original design of Nazi Germany, the V1 cruise missile had a maximum range of 370 kilometers and could carry 700 kilograms of explosives. Since there is no need for such a long range on the Australian battlefield, the ammunition load of the improved V1 missile used by the Japanese has been increased to as much as a ton of frenzied hearts!

Since it uses an incredibly fast jet engine, it is difficult to intercept both anti-aircraft guns and propeller fighters.

Therefore, although the accuracy of the V1 cruise missile is poor, any ground target is simply indestructible as long as it is hit...... Since the first V1 cruise missile landed on the campus of the University of Melbourne five days ago and blew up an ammunition depot inside, the Japanese have launched a V1 cruise missile at Melbourne every hour, 24 pieces a day, rain or shine, day and night, and the interval is as accurate as a clock, which not only makes the remaining soldiers and civilians in Melbourne always full of fear and sleepless at night, but also like an invisible clock telling the time, announcing the change of the times in this land of Australia -- the old Australia belonging to the white race is about to disappear. And the new Australia belonging to the yellow race is rising in the dawn......

John. Prime Minister Katyn, of course, did not want to see such a thing happen, and tried his best to fight it, but to no avail. In the midst of this unprecedented and brutal war, the white people of Australia have almost bled out, but they can only watch what they know gradually disappear.

Perhaps, in Mexico four hundred years ago, the last emperor of the Aztec Empire and his subjects were also in such a desperate and sad mood, watching their country, cities and civilization being crushed and destroyed little by little by strange foreign invaders from across the ocean?

The tremors caused by the explosion subsided for a while. Prime Minister Katyn struggled to bring his thoughts back to reality and motioned for his personal servant to open the door. Then, the commander of the Australian Army, Thomas . Admiral Bremmy walked in and gave a hasty salute to the Prime Minister.

“…… Prime Minister Katyn! Everyone who can come is here, so please go to the underground shelter as soon as possible! ”

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In the midst of the long and brutal war, the Australian federal government, which had moved to Melbourne, had long since moved underground to escape the never-ending air raids. Fifteen metres below the ground level of Melbourne City Hall, the federal government has carefully excavated and built a sturdy underground shelter. It is all reinforced with reinforced concrete, equipped with its own power generation equipment, self-contained, not dependent on the outside, and designed to withstand a direct hit from a one-ton bomb.

But, despite being far superior to the ancient castles in terms of defensive capabilities, the conditions of the bunkers were not to be expected too highly, after all, the place was for refuge rather than a holiday - in short, the underground shelter was very small, it was not at all breathable, and the humidity brought by the rain made the air so muddy that it was like the worst of private prisons, or the ocean-going submarine that had been on a voyage for many days.

Everyone who has been in the bunker for a long time will feel bored and unbearable, and they will be looking forward to going out and getting some fresh air all day long, even if it means risking their lives.

Having said that, in the midst of the Japanese Air Force's bombardment like a rain of flames, only such a place can give people a sense of security.

So, now this cramped bunker is crammed with soldiers and staff, and many secondary departments can't even find a place to plug in, so they have to work in offices on the ground floor without any protection...... When Prime Minister Katyn walked to the conference room in the underground shelter, it was already crowded with people -- the cabinet team of the Australian Commonwealth, the liaison officers of the US military to aid Australia, the staff officers of the Royal Navy Liaison Office and the special envoy of the New Zealand government. On the map in the center of the conference table, a few thick arrows and a bunch of models are used to vividly show the desperate situation of the Australian Allies at this time:

The whole line was defeated, crumbled, and demoralized. Moreover...... There is no escape!

-- In the past two weeks, the Allied and Japanese forces have fought the "Battle of Moy-Morwell" at the foot of the Australian mountains east of Melbourne. The 60,000 Allied troops that Admiral Bremi managed to cobble together were routed by 100,000 Japanese troops in just one day, and had to rely on the release of nerve gas to cut off the battlefield to barely survive.

However, the 60,000 Allied troops who went out to meet the enemy on the Eastern Front were also defeated, and the entire defense line was cut to pieces by the Japanese army who drove straight in. In addition, due to the rapid attack of the Japanese army, a considerable part of the Allied combat forces are now divided and surrounded in the Cape Wilson Peninsula and the eastern foothills of the Australian Mountains, and cannot be withdrawn at all. As a result, Melbourne's defenders were seriously underwhelmed. However, the Japanese army approached the outskirts of Melbourne from three directions, east, west, and north, and the Japanese army in either direction was only about 50 kilometers away from the city center.

Although the Allies built strong fortifications in the suburbs around Melbourne during the long tug-of-war before, the problem was that the Allies simply did not have enough troops to replenish those forts and fortresses, and many of the artillery that was originally fixed on the defensive line was also dismantled for the reconquest counteroffensive, and then abandoned hundreds of kilometers away as the counteroffensive finally failed......

Fortunately, a continuous heavy rain fell at this time, causing the stream to swell, the mountain floods, and the mud everywhere, temporarily blocking the advance of the Japanese troops from all directions, so that these yellow-skinned dwarfs did not chase the butts of the defeated Allied army into the city of Melbourne.

When the fighting on land was vigorous, Port Phillip Bay, south of Melbourne, was as calm as ever, but the problem was that a powerful Japanese fleet was now waiting outside the harbor, and the ships in Melbourne's port that had not been lucky enough to be sunk by Japanese planes could not get out at all.

To put it more figuratively, Port Phillip Bay is a large cloth bag that is 50 kilometers long from north to south and 40 kilometers wide from east to west, but the mouth is very small. Today, the entire coastal area of Port Phillip Bay was still in the hands of the Allies, but the exit of the bag was firmly blocked by the Japanese naval fleet, and Melbourne's sea traffic was basically abolished - just like the Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet, which was blocked in Port Arthur by the Japanese Combined Fleet during the Russo-Japanese War.

What's worse is that with the current Allied forces in Melbourne, they can't hold such an exaggerated big pocket.

“…… If we are to hold Melbourne, we must hold the whole of Port Phillip Bay, which would be at least 250 kilometres long, equivalent to two-thirds of the Maginot line in France......"

Commander of the Australian Army, Thomas. Admiral Bremi pointed to the map with his long stick and said with a gloomy face, "...... Although we had a number of ready-made fortifications and fortifications at our disposal on this new front, the French had deployed three million men on the Maginot Line, while Melbourne was now able to muster only fifty thousand troops, and the rest were isolated behind enemy lines, and the number of ammunition and artillery in stock was grossly insufficient......"

“…… In other words, we're doomed to lose our stay of Melbourne now, right? Checkmate? ”

John. Prime Minister Katyn said with a painful look on his forehead. And the others at the venue couldn't help but sigh sadly.

“…… Yes, I advise you to abandon Melbourne as soon as possible, shorten the front, and move to more easily defended terrain, just as General MacArthur abandoned Manila on the Philippine battlefield, Your Excellency. "Commander of the Australian Army, Thomas. Admiral Bremmy replied.

“…… Abandoning Melbourne? But this is already the last big city in the hands of the Australian federal government! ”

John. Prime Minister Katyn sighed, "...... If you can't even hold Melbourne, the Commonwealth will only be left with Tasmania! Moreover, the Japanese fleet has blocked the sea routes, and the entire continent is occupied by the Japanese, so even if we abandon Melbourne, where can we retreat next? ”

“…… It is possible to withdraw to Cape Shank on the southern shore of Port Phillip Bay, shorten the battle line to about ten kilometers, and then hold on to reinforcements with fortifications. ”

Commander of the Australian Army, Thomas. Admiral Bremmy pointed with his stick to a headland on the map facing the open sea, guarding the exit of Port Phillip Bay, "...... Just like when General MacArthur withdrew from Manila and retreated to the Bataan Peninsula...... Although the existing 50,000 troops of our army cannot hold Melbourne, it is still enough to hold Cape Shank. And there are strong shore defense batteries there that can be used, enough to make the enemy hit his head and bleed! ”

“…… This ...... "John. Prime Minister Katyn still seems to be a little hesitant, but Thomas. Admiral Bremi was already getting impatient.

“…… Your Excellency, please make a decision as soon as possible! We don't have much time left! As soon as the weather improved, the Japanese went into action again. Or if they brave the rain and force their attack, then it will take a maximum of three days to besiege all of us in the city! ”

Admiral Bremi poked his stick at the map and shouted, "...... At that time, even if you want to, it will be impossible to transfer! ”

“…… Well, I see, General! Now the worst has come. We have to make up our minds. ”

John. Prime Minister Katyn took off his glasses and wiped them, "...... Now please vote, and those in favor of moving to Cape Shank, please raise your hand! ”

After a brief silence, everyone in the conference room of the underground shelter exchanged a few glances with each other, and began to raise their hands one after another......