693 Battle of Augusta (4)

Coral Sea. 【 I want: super fast update 】

Anyone who sees the size of this fleet will be amazed by the size of the beautiful shipping lanes in the northeast of Australia.

7 large ocean liners, 15 landing ships, 5 ro-ro ships, 160 10,000-ton ocean freighters, and 20 oil and water ships! There are 207 huge ships, lined up in six columns, and the black smoke that rises can almost be described as covering the sky and the sun.

If you look closely, you will find that not only do these ships have a deep draft, but the deck is full of all kinds of small boats, and even the stern of the ship is towed by a few by cables, if you add them all up, I am afraid that there are thousands of them.

On the mast, the sailors scanned the surroundings over and over again, and the radar never stopped rotating since the departure, even though the Coral Sea has now become the Inland Sea, but due to the inconsistent speed of the ships in the fleet, it can only maintain a speed of 12 knots, and although the Australian Grand Fleet is broken into sand, there are still more torpedo boats and small warships, although these things are a one-shot death, but several of the offshore submarines are more threatening, so in order to ensure safety, the Second Fleet still invested a lot of strength to escort this fleet, Even a heavy fleet carrier supporting the Marine Corps in Noumea rushed over, plus 2 light carriers, 6 light cruisers, 20 destroyers, and 21 coast guard frigates, almost wrapping the fleet in layers.

Such strict protection, mainly because this fleet is too important, not only loaded with hundreds of thousands of tons of urgently needed supplies, but also includes elite troops such as the Electric Leopard Armored Regiment, but also carries another 2 armored regiments and 5 infantry divisions, as well as nearly 5,000 trucks, they will not only be the first to land in Eastern Australia, but also the last force, and will also become the main force to maintain the territory of the empire in the future.

It is important that this will be an exercise, a real combat exercise for a big landing battle in the future.

For any country, a transoceanic landing battle is a difficult military operation, and even in later generations, it will be extremely challenging to organize and respond to the navy, so it is a very good choice to use Australia and Medan, which are not too strong, to conduct exercises.

Inside the light cruiser of the Yarlung Zangbo River, the flagship of the escort, the radio was constantly ringing, and battle reports from Australia were relayed here through this channel, so that the command could grasp the situation there in time.

For China now, the Battle of Augusta is undoubtedly the most important of all battlefields, not only because it entered the core Wales from west to east, but also because it attracted nearly 700,000 Australian allied troops, knowing that the whole of Australia, including the militia, is only 2.3 million, including about 400,000 logistics personnel, which has almost wiped out all the men aged 15 to 45 in Australia.

In the Soles they lost 150,000, Noumea 250,000, plus more than 200,000 in the early stage, and now the total strength has dropped to 1.7 million, of which Solomes and Noumea lost regular troops, although the strength seems to be enough, but in fact, the regular troops have dropped to about 700,000, and in Augusta there are 400,000, not to mention 300,000 militia, the significance of eating the other side is no longer need to be explained. (Full text reading, all in. (.i. Want. Wen. Learning Network)

But it's not easy to eat the other party, no one is stupid, they will run away if they can't win, and if the hundreds of thousands of troops scatter and run, no one wants to block it, so it becomes extremely important to cut off the opponent's back road.

1 armored division, 3 infantry divisions, it seems that the strength of this interception is seriously insufficient, but in fact they can get the support of the air force throughout the whole process, not to mention that all the battlefields are linked, the Northern Route Army and the Central Route Army have dragged about 500,000 Australian coalition troops, and if they land on their own, they will have to drag more than 300,000 coalition troops, at that time, even if they arm women, it is not enough!

On the contrary, if Augusta does not complete the total annihilation and attrition, these troops scattered into the hinterland of Australia will be reduced to pieces, and I am afraid that there will be fights in the future, so even Zhang Shun, the commander-in-chief of this landing battle, can't help but be a little anxious.

"Report, an hour ago, reconnaissance aircraft detected that two more Australian infantry divisions had arrived at Flinders Ridge."

"Oh? Another 30,000! ”

Xiao Tianzhi was not surprised, the more Australian coalition troops invested in the direction of Augusta, it means that they have not yet realized that the landing battle is about to break out, so that the resistance encountered in the landing battle will be smaller, and it can also make the "gift" on Huang Fuqi's side more abundant.

"How's the progress on the Western Route Army?"

"Beginning early this morning, the 3rd Air Division launched another large-scale bombardment, according to the observation that Port Augusta was basically destroyed, and at present the enemy forces have basically retreated to the Flinders Ridge defensive line, and according to the front command, they will launch a general attack at noon tomorrow night."

"Tomorrow at noon?!"

"So early, isn't it

"Yes." The staff officer nodded: "After General Wu Peifu occupied Mali last night, he did not choose to go south in a straight line, but bypassed Lindhurst and continued to cross Lake Flåm to the north, and has now crossed to the town of Frommdowns, and it is expected that the railway line from Augusta to Sydney will be cut off within 12 hours!" ”

Seeing the staff officer's finger on the map, Xiao Tianzhi high-fived and said: "This Wu Peifu insisted on getting it, not only came up with a plan to outflank him, but also bypassed the 3 divisions that were intercepted, and pointed directly to the railway line!" ”

Well, it's good, but Zhang Shun nodded, and his face was full of joy and said: "The emperor has also paid special attention to this person, and it seems that he is really a good hand." ”

"Hehe, now it's up to him to see if he can cut off the railway line smoothly, if he breaks it, then hehe, hundreds of thousands of troops will escape with their feet in such a wide place, and they will be tortured to death by armored forces!"

"Isn't it bad to torture to death?" Zhang Shun handed Xiao Tianzhi a cigarette, and the corners of his mouth hooked: "The more you die, the better, so that some people can be obedient after the war!" ”

Xiao Tianzhi's eyes lit up, and he understood what Zhang Shun meant, only a large number of killing and wounding the enemy's living force, so that even if the Australian government surrendered immediately, I am afraid there would be no room to sit down and negotiate!

"Wait, I hope there will be good news before we land." Zhang Shun took a hard puff of his cigarette.

"Boom, boom

MacArthur raised his head and watched as 20 large airships wreaked havoc overhead, dropping bombs one after another, and the corners of his eyes fluttered.

The Chinese have already taken out all their strength, so after controlling air supremacy, even airships are sent, these large airships that can carry several tons of bombs at a time are simply a big nightmare, they carry more bombs per bomb than hundreds of planes, and they can hover in the sky for a long time.

Bombs rained down from the sky and rose along the trench, and in the blink of an eye, the hundreds of meters long trench was filled with flames, and the soldiers screamed and rushed out of the trench, and in less than a moment they were reduced to a mass of charcoal.

MacArthur's brows were squeezed into a line, in the past, everyone only thought that the gap between Britain and China was just an airplane, but now it seems that this is not the case at all, people are not only airplanes, even airships and bombs are already in the lead.

No one knows what kind of bomb it is, and the flames they release are known as hellfire, and everything that is stained with sparks burns, even steel is burned through and melted.

How can this kind of battle be fought?

He rushed into the headquarters hidden and buried in the mound, and before he could open his mouth to report the situation of the defensive line, he heard Major General Jim shout with a red face.

"What's going on? Why report now! Damn it. ”

"Block them, you have to block them, tell Steven, either block me or I'll shoot him myself!"

MacArthur was slightly stunned, and immediately grabbed his partner next to him and asked quietly, "What's wrong?" ”

"Too bad that last night there was a force that took Mali at night, and

"What!"

"Yes, Colonel Rhodes and they have all been captured, and less than a thousand have escaped, and we have just received the news, and at the moment our partners are nagging, but MacArthur can't listen to it at all.

Mali is an important defensive line in the middle of Flinders Ridge, so there is a whole infantry division there, but I didn't expect it to be broken through and occupied overnight, and it was almost completely annihilated, so Augusta was facing a complete cut off by the enemy!

Major General Jim is going crazy, the enemy's army has not yet seen it, the small town of Port Augusta was reduced to ashes in less than a day, and now the enemy, after mastering air supremacy, has begun to bombard Flinders Ridge continuously, and even airships have been sent, in the face of this kind of war with almost no power to fight back, no matter who it is, the corners of the mouth are bitter.

In fact, everyone knows that relying on the air force to fight people cannot kill people, Flinders Ridge trenches are long, the terrain is complicated, only the real investment in the army can solve the problem, although the Chinese on the opposite side have strong weapons, but they still occupy a geographical advantage, condescending may not lose.

So now it's important to stay up until the opposing army appears!

Persistence, originally he could have used the geographical advantage to hold on, but with the occupation of Mali, this insistence became very dangerous, and once the other side occupied Yanta, it would almost be a catastrophe!

"Douglas." Major General Jim turned his head and looked at young MacArthur.

He and the elder MacArthur have been friends for many years, although he is reluctant to let MacArthur take risks, but Yanta is too important, and he lacks enough good officers around him to lead the troops to snipe, so he gritted his teeth after thinking about it.

"We have 120 tanks in Yanta, and we have an infantry division, and I have ordered three infantry divisions stationed north of Flinders Ridge to support Yanta, and now I need a commander to lead them."

MacArthur understood that Major General Jim was ready to let himself lead this force, although it was not yet known how many troops broke through to Mali, but to be able to defeat an infantry division in one night, it must be quite a lot.

If there is no Yanta, let alone delaying and sniping the main force of the Chinese army here, I am afraid that hundreds of thousands of troops will all be lost here, and even the state of South Wales behind them will be quickly swallowed up.

There is no choice now.

"General, I'm ready." Kearthur took a deep breath, straightened up and saluted, he knew very well that this place had become a decisive battle!

RA！ ~！