When it comes to artillery, there is a lot to say, coincidentally, the M7918 155mm howitzer equipped by the US military is also something that the Ming army is currently considering.

Because of the expansion of the army, the Ming Army found that the number of existing field heavy artillery brigades was insufficient, and the required 144mm howitzers were also in short supply.

According to the 36-year establishment table of Zhichang, the field heavy artillery brigade has two battalions of 18-gun howitzers and two battalions of 18-gun cannons, while the army-standard 35-type 144mm howitzer has excellent performance, but the output is not high.

Although the 17 standing field heavy artillery brigades have been reequipped with a total of 612 guns in peacetime, I am afraid that it will not be able to meet the needs of the next army expansion.

If it is only to meet the needs of the newly formed field heavy artillery brigade, then it is fine, and the Shenyang Army Artillery Factory and other arsenals are expected to be able to reach the level of about 600 units per year in wartime, and if the production line is expanded, nearly 1,000 units will not be a problem.

However, the Ming Army is full of rather crazy ideas - the current firepower is not strong enough, and the infantry division cannot do without six-inch artillery!

Although the firepower of the Ming Army's 36-year infantry division, which was attached to the field heavy artillery brigade, was not inferior to that of the infantry divisions of the Western powers, the army felt that it was not enough.

The Army wants to add a battalion of 12-gun 144mm howitzers to each infantry division, as well as a number of trucks, to give the division an overwhelming advantage in firepower.

However, the hundreds of 144mm howitzers needed for a while could not be generated out of thin air, so the Ming Army set its sights on the old artillery in stock.

After the end of the European War, the Daming Military Observation Group submitted a request to the French Schneider company to purchase a production license for the Mle-7917 155mm howitzer, and then finalized the production, which is the origin of the Type 19 144mm heavy mountain gun.

This was the result of a horizontal comparison of many similar artillery pieces of the Austrian, British, German and national guns at that time.

However, in order to encourage the country's military industry, the Ministry of War still ordered a batch of bidding plans for the Shenyang Army Artillery Factory, but it only took a few years to sell it to North Korea at a low price.

Schneider Mle-7917 was originally designed for the Russian army, but it was also adopted by the French army because of its high cost performance, and then the American military also thought it was quite good, and listed it as a standard artillery and copied a large number of them.

China, France, Russia, the United States, Spain, Italy and other countries are its loyal users, which shows its excellent performance.

The total combat weight was only 3250kg, the weight of the shell was also 43.5kg, and the body barrel was only 15 times the diameter but had a maximum range of 11.3 km - the shortest barrel diameter of the same kind of artillery to achieve the longest range at that time.

Therefore, both the Ming army and the U.S. army have never forgotten it, and the Ming Army intends to re-use these old and strong artillery, and the U.S. Army will continue to produce it on a large scale after replacing it with a new open-foot gun mount.

However, the operation against Australia is imminent, and there is no time to reorganize the howitzer battalion at the moment, so we can only wait for the rotation and rest in the future.

On September 14, the 39th year of Zhichang, after a total of 14 large and small meetings in the past few months, the General Staff Office of the Metropolitan Governor's Office finally finalized the battle plan for the expedition to Australia.

The action number is "A/557/No. 2/Change 4", and the code name is "Void Dizzy".

From a macro point of view, the entire battle plan is divided into two levels, one before and one behind, roughly as follows:

First, capture Darwin, a small city in northwestern Australia, and gain a foothold there.

Next, using Darwin as a springboard to attack Papua New Guinea and capture the important port city of Moresby in the southern part of the peninsula.

After all this was done, hundreds of thousands of Ming troops set off through Moresby to land in Cairns and Townsville in northeastern Australia, successively sent large forces ashore, and after assembling, they attacked south and swept across Australia.

The plan was based on Australia's topography and population distribution – a savannah climate in the north, a rainforest climate in the northeast, and a humid subtropical climate in the east.

The troops responsible for attacking Darwin and Moresby were still shouldered by the 1st Marine Brigade, and in the end they could not escape the heavy responsibility of becoming the vanguard of the Ming army.

Zhu Lingjing naturally hopes to hand over the first battle to her own henchmen, and the military bigwigs are not stupid - it's not a big deal, then cater to the emperor's wishes.

What's more, those shrewd fellows know very well that this first battle will not be as easy as before - invading the gateway of the Australians, the morale and will of the Australian army will probably be quite amazing, and it will be a tough battle.

If that is the case, then why bother asking for hardship? Just wait for the 1st Marine Brigade to solve the problem, and let's wait for the landing in Australia and pick up some small fruits with the large army.

Therefore, the sequence of the first echelon includes the 1st Brigade of the Marine Corps, the 27th Infantry Division of the Army, the 1st Assault Vehicle Battalion of the Army, the 4th Engineering Brigade, the 3rd Field Heavy Artillery Brigade, and the 2nd Aviation Service Brigade, with a total strength of 36,000 troops.

The follow-up large forces were the main forces of the Australian corps such as the Fifth Army and the Sixth Army, but they would be on standby in Java until Darwin and Moresby were captured.

In addition to this, there was a more isolated expeditionary force.

This force is mainly composed of the 3rd Marine Brigade, with two medium combat convoys and a number of support units, with a total strength of about 9,000 troops.

They will set out from Yokohama, Japan, and go straight south across thousands of kilometers of the vast ocean to seize Guam and Saipan; Continue south to capture the Truk Islands in Micronesia.

After all this is done, the Solomon Islands will be seized further south, and a field airfield will be built there, so that the route from the United States to Australia can be blocked, and the United States and Australia can be cut off.

Throughout the operation, the air units planned to participate in the battle consisted of the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 4th, 6th, 1st, 2nd, and 2nd transport detachments.

Such a large air force was unified into the Second Air Army, which contained a total of about 1,100 aircraft of various types.

At the last meeting of all the generals, Cheng Han, the chief of staff of the Governor's Office, Song Zhongkai, the governor of the Navy Department of the Governor's Office, and Lin Xi, the minister of national defense, were all present at the scene.

The Second Chamber of the Governor's Palace had never been so star-studded, and this was the first time since it was completed.

In addition to the generals of the air force and navy, the army alone has more than 30 military chiefs, adjutants, and supervisors at the division and brigade levels, not counting several senior staff officers of the General Staff Office of the Governor's Office.

“…… Most of the BDA coalition fleet was wiped out, and only a small number of warships fled to Australia, and then with the signing of the defense agreement between the United States and Australia, in addition to the arrival of two divisions of the army in Australia to assist in the defense, there was also a naval detachment, but there was no capital ship. ”

“…… Our army is menacing, and the enemy will inevitably not respond to the battle in the vast seas, but will concentrate in small and complex places such as the Torres Strait or the Solomon Sea. All officers and assistants of the navy must not underestimate the enemy, and aerial reconnaissance and destroyer sentinels are indispensable. ”

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Zhou Changfeng is not interested in the actions of the Ming Navy, his own side has a crushing advantage in both quality and quantity, and he can win by sprinkling rice on the keyboard and letting the chicken peck at the keyboard......

Ahem! Anyway, as long as you don't really close your eyes and fight around.

He was more concerned with the landing operation, how to capture Darwin and Moresby at the lowest cost?

The island of Papua New Guinea is the largest island in the South Pacific Ocean, and the eastern peninsula is bordered by the United States and Australia to the east and Australia to the south.

If there is to be a major offensive into eastern Australia, then the Papua Peninsula is a bridgehead of great significance, and both sides are strategically determined to do so.

For the attackers, the island must be taken; For the defenders, the island is also an outpost for the defense of the mainland.

At the heart of the Papua Peninsula is the port city of Moresby, to the southeast, where much else is untouched by pristine bushland.

The terrain of Papua New Guinea is complex, with jungles and mountains, as well as valleys, ravines, streams and swamps. In the middle of the island are east-west mountains, with the towering Owen-Stanley Ridge averaging 3,000 meters above sea level.

What's worse is that the weather is also unpredictable, sometimes sunny, sometimes lightning and thunder, and torrential rain.

Zhou Changfeng only knew that there had been one battle around Moresby in history, but he didn't know the details. Maybe it's because it's small and there's no bright spot to speak of, so it's not famous enough.

This was the Papua Peninsula Campaign – one of the most difficult battles in the early days of the war.

He asked: "I've been thinking these days about whether to add an auxiliary operation, and at the same time land on Moresby from the sea, can we correspond to the flanking attack from the land?" ”

A colonel replied, "If you land in the northern part of the peninsula, you can try to cross the Owen Stanley Mountains." ”

"I looked up a lot of information, but it wasn't detailed enough." Zhou Changfeng said a little helplessly: "The Australian army's deployment in Moresby is still very tight, to be honest, I am a little worried that the landing loss will be very large." ”

"I know there's a road to pass." At this time, an elderly German man spoke, "Landing in the northeastern part of the peninsula, there is a sheep's gut road called 'Kokoda', which leads through the mountains to Moresby. ”

After saying that, he added, "But I don't recommend considering that hellish place, it's narrow and bumpy, and full of mosquito miasma. ”

The old man's name is long, and the key to this is August-Muller-zu-Sauerbrunn, an old nobleman of the Emperor who had his ancestral fief in Sauerbrunn.

The reason why he hurriedly dragged his family to Daming back then was mainly because he did everything possible to oppose the German Society, and it had reached the point of completely tearing his face, so he wanted to run as far as possible.

Britain, France and Russia seem to be too close, so they came to the other side of the continent - ruthless, afraid of death is really afraid of death.

In short, Auguste had served for a time in the Empire colony of New Guinea, and he loved to explore – because there was nothing to do but explore. That's why he knew a lot about Papua, Solomon, and so on.

"It's really difficult." Zhou Changfeng thought for a few seconds and said, "But this is only used to deal with it, to disrupt the determination and deployment of the enemy army. ”

August breathed a sigh of relief, "I thought you had some crazy idea, that would be tantamount to suicide." ”

"Ladies and gentlemen, in view of the extremely special operational conditions for crossing mountains and mountains in the jungle area, I think it is advisable to specially transfer some Guangxi troops...... If you can, with some Annan troops, a total of more than 1,000 people will be about the same. Zhou Changfeng elaborated.

"That is, a battalion each? Hmm......" Cheng Han pondered for a few seconds, "Yes, the General Staff Office will negotiate with Zhou to prepare a draft strategy, and then inform Annan's side." ”

The generals of the army, navy, and air force present did not care, and this kind of small change that did not affect the overall deployment was casual.

"This reflects the benefits of a large amount of land and a large number of people, and you can find similar ones in any terrain and climate." Zhou Changfeng smiled at August.

The latter always looked like he had a straight face, and when he heard this, he replied: "I am skeptical about the combat effectiveness of the army of the Annan royal family. ”

[Picture: Similar examples of wars in history]

While the Ming war machine was making the final preparations for the upcoming campaign, the Federal Government of the United States had failed in its plans.

Near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the Franz managed to escape under the skilful command of Rear Admiral Hubert, while the U.S. destroyers were running out of supplies and preparing for a rotation with another patrol fleet that was about to arrive.

She plunged headlong into the hurricane sea with howling winds and rough waves, and the US light cruiser Cincinnati and several destroyers that followed her were forced to stop the pursuit, and could only look at the "wind" and sigh.

And in Reykjavík, Iceland, the battlecruiser Teodor was at its last moment.

Upon learning that the damaged Theodore had escaped to Reykjavík, the Royal Navy moved and a fleet led by the USS Nelson and the USS Rodney blockaded the harbor city's open seas.

For Icelanders, this is undoubtedly a day of fear for them, and the war in Europe has burned to such a remote place?

At first, Colonel Heinrich also hoped to hurry up and repair the battleship, and then leave the port before the British could react.

However, the Icelanders did not dare to break their neutrality and refused the Germans' request for shipyard help to repair the repairs, and the Teodor's own damage management personnel were unable to repair the huge hole that the Firefly had hit.

A few hours earlier, the British fleet had given an ultimatum that if it did not surrender, it would attack in twelve hours.

Colonel Heinrich knew that it was impossible to break out of the tight British blockade, and that the result of a forced breakthrough would be the shipwreckage and the death of the people.

Therefore, the only option left is to sink the warship, and in any case cannot let the warship of the great motherland fall into the hands of the enemy, that is the shame that can never be washed away.

Berlin's directive was similarly self-sinking, and the same medals were awarded to all officers and men of the ship, on the grounds that the glory of the Franz's single-ship heavy damage to the HX fleet was also part of the Theodor.

At 13:17 p.m. on September 14, the Teodor re-raised a workers' naval flag. The sailors placed explosives in key areas such as the engine room, the bolts of the main guns, and the ammunition depot, and then all of them left the ship.

Half an hour later, the leisurely British officers were enjoying afternoon tea......

Suddenly! A loud "boom" sound came from a distance, bursting with dazzling flashes.

Many people were startled, and the warm black tea spilled all over them, and then they saw the mushroom cloud mixed with flames soaring into the sky.

(End of chapter)