In the middle of Mersing City, a meandering river of the same name runs from southwest to northeast and finally flows into the sea.

A battalion of the 20th Brigade on the West Bank was completely unable to cope with such a ferocious attack, and the crumbling defensive line was in dire straits from the outset.

Although the field fortifications they built were well preserved, with only dozens of casualties under the shelling and bombardment, the ground fortifications were basically destroyed, the field telephone lines were also interrupted in many places, and even the heralds could only rely on the heralds to convey orders on foot, and the command efficiency plummeted.

This is actually the important role of firepower preparation - it is very rare to destroy and reduce the enemy's defense and command system, and it is very rare to defeat a qualified army by firepower alone.

Later, the 112mm howitzer battalion of the 1st Marine Brigade Mountain Artillery Regiment switched to obstructive and interdiction fire on the east bank of the Fengsheng River to reduce fire from the other side of the river.

The 80mm howitzer battalion began to experiment with the use of the Xujin barrage of fire to suppress the enemy in front of them and support the friendly attack.

On the front of the attack, the officers and men of the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Mobile Brigade who carried out the central breakthrough could only feel that their blood was surging, and the shells fired by their own field artillery group fell more than 100 meters in front, and some of the shells landed at relatively remote locations, even only a few dozen meters away.

The shock wave of the shell explosion rushed to the face like a howling hot wind; Immediately after, the flying earth fell on his body.

In total, there were four lines of shelling during the assault, and the artillery units fired 2 rapid and 4 equal rapids at each line, and then moved on to the next line of shelling.

During this period, the infantry of each platoon and squad had to end their concealed posture and alternately leap forward to launch an assault to destroy the enemy who were dizzy in front of them.

A Vickers heavy machine gun group arranged on the flank opened fire in a grand manner, and a series of bullets fired diagonally from the right front, knocking down three or four people in succession, and the rest quickly lay down and hidden.

The enemy who could survive the previous heavy shelling and air raids was naturally not very good, and even before a whole canvas cartridge belt was finished, these Australian soldiers quickly moved to another bunker with heavy machine guns.

For a time, the combined fire of several Lewis light machine guns and Vickers heavy machine guns suppressed the three teams on the right in a dilemma.

Although the Type 33 light machine gun was better than Lewis, the latter's large cartridge took advantage of the ammunition capacity.

"I'll fuck his grandma's, so cunning on a dog day!"

"Hey! Smoke in my direction at ten o'clock, and I'll take a group of men around their trenches! ”

"Don't worry! Wait! ”

The ensign, who was stunned, tried to break into the trench directly under the cover of smoke bombs, but was denied.

The tank is just following behind, what's the hurry?

The tankmen with limited visibility were sluggish, because friendly forces were in front and did not dare to shoot at random until the situation was fully confirmed.

The Australian heavy machine gun team, which had been intimidating for a few minutes, was quickly overwhelmed by the accurate direct-aim fire.

A machine gunner with a Lewis light machine gun got a little lost and ran out of two reels in a row, which then attracted several shells and a sloppy round.

The completely suppressed Australian soldiers had only sporadic resistance left, and they appeared weak.

A few soldiers who leaned out of their upper bodies to aim and shoot only fired two shots, and they were immediately noticed by the machine gunners of the second platoon and the second squad.

Lying on the ground, he was about to stand up and leap forward, but when he saw this, he immediately lay down again, quickly turned the muzzle of the gun, and with a slight aim, he continuously pulled the trigger.

"Da-da-da-"

Several double-shot short bursts were accurate and deadly, and the 7.36×56mm heavy tip bullet flew out at high speed, and although they were 200 meters apart, the two Australian soldiers were knocked down in the blink of an eye.

The bullet pierced through the fragile MkI Tommy helmet without hindrance, and the force of the impact lifted the steel helmet away, and the brains of the unlucky eggs who were shot in the head burst.

Suddenly, several dazzling muzzle flames flashed one after another in the second-line positions of the enemy in front of them!

The four QF2-pounder anti-tank guns, which had remained silent, had not opened fire until now, because the Anglo-Indian 9th Division had told the Australians that the Ming army had invested heavy tanks and that the anti-tank guns could not penetrate at medium and long distances.

Therefore, the Australian anti-tank artillery waited patiently for the Ming tank platoon to approach to a position of only 300 meters before opening fire in unison.

Shells trailing straight light trails flew towards the advancing tank formation, but their precise attacks were ineffective, and the 40mm tracer shells hit the front of the heavy tank's hull to no avail.

The angle of incidence is relatively vertical, and they are basically smashed; If the angle of incidence is skewed, most of them ricochet, splashing a ball of sparks, and the whole trajectory is like a broken line.

However, the frontal armor of the hull of the Type 38 heavy tank is 50mm armor steel with a 12° inclination, and the Brinell hardness of the YH23B, that is, the Type 23B surface-hardened armor steel used by the Ming Army is 520HB, and this small-caliber projectile cannot pose a threat even at a very close range.

The Ming army's heavy tank equipped with 80mm short-barreled cannon is a pretty good anti-fortification weapon, it itself is a direct 12-type mountain gun slightly adjusted into a tank gun, 6.7kg heavy anti-explosive bomb loaded with a full 900g TNT, the strike effect on soft targets is excellent.

"Boom!"

The flames and smoke of the explosion burst out from an anti-tank gun position, and four or five Australian anti-tank artillery men were instantly knocked down.

Compared to the right, which suffered some obstacles, the attack on the left was much smoother.

"Follow me!"

"Throw thunder! Above! ”

The Ming infantry, who were the first to rush into the enemy formation, jumped into the trenches one by one and swept away the scattered remnants of the enemy!

Several Australian soldiers suddenly found that the opponent had jumped into the trench on the left, so they hurriedly took their guns and fired, but a few seconds later, they saw a smoking grenade being thrown over.

"Boom!"

Fragments were scattered, and the servants were injured and fell.

The green smoke had not yet dissipated, and as soon as they struggled to get up in pain and dizziness, they were immediately swept away with a submachine gun by a figure who rushed out of the smoke and dust.

The corporal with the bayonet mounted on the three or four submachine guns was a lean man, and in a flash of lightning, a dozen rounds of bullets knocked down two of them on the spot, but at this time they also happened to run out of magazines.

He stepped forward with a decisive lunge, and as soon as the other picked up his Enfield rifle, he saw a cold bayonet coming at him, and was immediately stabbed through the stomach.

Red blood flowed from the blood groove on the side of the sword-shaped bayonet, and the wide-eyed Australian soldier subconsciously let go of the gun, holding his hands on the bayonet inserted into his body.

In the next second, the bayonet was pulled out with a "bang", and a large stream of blood poured out of the wound, and the soldier also sat down on the ground.

The corporal casually pulled out the magazine to replace it, and admonished a few soldiers in the back: "You have to be fast, you can do it, you can do it, you can shoot if you aim at it, what you want is the momentum to take the lead!" ”

At this point, the Australian defense line on the north bank of the Fengsheng River completely collapsed.

The two Type 38 medium-tanks even drove straight to the front of the front-line headquarters, opened fire at the observation port, and accurately fired a 48mm anti-explosive bomb into it.

If the central breakthrough of the tank units and motorized infantry was the autumn wind sweeping away the leaves, then in the west, the offensive of the 1st Marine Brigade, the 2nd Battalion, and the 3rd Battalion was a whirlwind.

The Ming tanks stopped on the north bank of the river and fired at the other side of the river in a grand manner, covering the Marine infantry to force the crossing of the Fengsheng River in small boats.

The 20th Brigade of the Australian Army had no choice but to even push the QF18-pounder field gun to the front line, temporarily serving as anti-tank fire to bombard the Ming tanks.

The threat of this MkV 84mm field gun was even greater, and three or four vehicles were damaged one after another, and even the platoon commander of the first and second platoon of the assault vehicle battalion was damaged by the turret seat and had to withdraw from the battle.

But this had bought quite some time, and the hundreds of Marine infantry who had crossed the river quickly set up positions on the river beach.

They vigorously wielded shovels to dig bunkers on the spot, heavy machine guns were arranged on both flanks, and the positions of each platoon and squad were staggered, forming a protrusion that was not easy to gnaw at in just a few dozen minutes.

Brigadier General Weize, the brigade commander who was so anxious to turn around, had no choice but to ask the division headquarters for help, hoping to transfer some tanks to assist in launching a counterattack.

However, Major General Cecil could provide little help, and could only transfer a battalion from the neighboring 19th Brigade to support.

As for the tanks, the Royal 3rd Tank Regiment had not dared to move easily since the battle with the Ming tank forces, and now they had received orders to withdraw from Singapore, because the Far East Command was still counting on these tanks to defend Singapore.

"The British have stretched the front too long, the Eastern Front has already been broken through, and there is no need to hold on to the Western Front any longer."

"Now they should shrink as soon as possible and concentrate their forces in the south of the Malay Peninsula."

"In this way, we can get sufficient material support with our backs to Singapore, and we will not be bombed every day."

Zhou Changfeng commented on the opponent's defense with some condescending meaning, but he didn't know that Lieutenant General Arthur Ted, the commander-in-chief of the Far East, was only a staff general, and his own personality was a little hesitant.

And the planning of the defense is basically the responsibility of the staff officers of the headquarters, there are many people, there will always be different opinions, in this case, it is obvious that there is a great need for a superior who can make a firm decision, but Lieutenant General Arthur is obviously not.

At this time, Zhou Changfeng also received a telegram of inquiry from Deng Siquan.

It was to the effect: Did you attack well? If you don't have enough ammunition, don't force it, I'm afraid it's the end of the crossbow after these days.

To tell the truth, the assault cluster is indeed in the state of the end of the crossbow, and the daytime attack has basically run out of shells, with an average of less than ten shells left for each suppression gun.

But the so-called taking advantage of his illness to kill him, the afternoon attack showed that these Australians had nothing to fear, except for being brave and morale-high, they were still not capable of stopping their own side.

According to the Aerial Reconnaissance Post, the eastern beach south of Mersing is relatively gentle, and the civilian map also mentions sandy beaches and coconut groves.

Obviously, the attention of the Australian army has been completely absorbed by the frontal Ming army, and what would be the effect of attacking from behind their flanks?

The flanks are the lines of defense of another force? Then take a detour to the sea!

There are no shells for the field artillery group? The Air Force's dive bombers are the equivalent of flying cannons!

As the sun set and the sunset was like blood, the anxious Australian officers and soldiers did not know what fate they would usher in after a sleep.

The floating chariot battalion of the 1st Marine Brigade took advantage of the night to go to sea, and two teams of the 1st Regiment and 1st Battalion also followed in small boats.

Since mines had been laid off the coast of Mersing, the officers and men were very cautious in their actions and sailed as close to the coastline as possible.

In order to cope with the roundabout action, the Ming troops on the entire front were constantly firing cold guns and firing cold artillery, and from time to time they also fired flares at the Australian positions.

The roundabout troops sailed over the sea for more than an hour and successfully landed in the middle of the night.

During this time, they almost hit a mine that drifted out of the laid sea, and two more Type 35 amphibious tanks were abandoned due to unstoppable water ingress.

But in the end, the troops still got ashore without danger, and more than 30 tanks and dozens of small sampans rushed to the beach one after another.

They immediately regrouped and launched a surprise attack directly behind the Australian line.

Half an hour later.

"Sir! We're in trouble! A panicked major staff officer rushed to the road, "A large number of Chinese tanks and infantry have appeared in Saru Village!" ”

At the same time, several field telephones in the headquarters also rang one after another.

"What?!"

"Communications Company B and Field Engineer Company A are exchanging fire with the Chinese army, but they can't hold on."

One can imagine how collapsed the Australians were at this time - God, where did these Ming troops come from?

Brigadier General Weiz, the brigade commander, hurriedly left the headquarters and picked up his binoculars to look southeast.

In the vast night, countless tanks from left to right marched through the field, and the fire would briefly illuminate them every time they fired.

The flying tracer bullets were like daggers piercing through the black curtain, as if they were about to tear the night apart.

"Whoa—"

A 76.2mm mortar flare lifted into the air and hung high above the field, and the huge light it emitted made the situation below even more terrifying.

At least thirty tanks, at least three hundred infantrymen.

At this moment, Weiz only felt cold in his heart.

The line of defense in the south of the peninsula has failed, and the 20th Brigade must retreat, otherwise it will be finished at dawn!

The 20th Brigade of the Australian Army, which retreated in a hurry, did not even have time to send a telegram to the division headquarters, so it fled in a hurry.

It's not that they are not responsible, but the Ming tanks and infantry who detoured to the rear are attacking everywhere with impunity, and the small Type 35 amphibious tank has actually become an invincible iron horse.

At dawn the next day, the Ming officers and soldiers crossed the river one after another and set foot on this position, which had been abandoned overnight.

The Australian retreat was so hurried that the aluminum folding marching beds in those field tents still had a trace of residual warmth to the touch.

They left behind a large number of heavy weapons and provisions, and more than a dozen QF 4.5-inch howitzers and QF 18-pounder field guns became trophies of the Ming army.

Arthur Ted, who couldn't sleep all night because of the bad fighting conditions, fell asleep in the early hours of the morning, but was woken up as soon as he closed his eyes - the battle situation on the front line had changed abruptly, the 20th Brigade of the Australian Army had retreated, and the southern part of the peninsula was torn open by the Ming army!

Tens of thousands of troops on the Western Front are still resisting, and if they move any more slowly, they will be cut off from the back route, and even retreating to Singapore will become a luxury.

At this point, the Commonwealth troops in the Malayan Peninsula were in a dead end.

The next morning, the bomber formations of the Ming Air Force arrived as scheduled, but this time they did not drop aerial bombs, instead of countless leaflets falling like snowflakes.

At its core, it asks the souls of the soldiers of the Commonwealth Army: "Why do you want to sail across the ocean to serve your suzerain? Is this your war?"

(End of chapter)