The command of a high-ranking combat unit is behind and has a small number of guard detachments directly under it, which in general makes it impossible to successfully "decapitate".

It is already good that a small detachment of the enemy can penetrate the front line, and continuing to infiltrate the rear is not only very easy to expose, but also impossible to determine where the target is.

Only when the situation is chaotic and you happen to be lucky, it is possible to successfully catch a big fish by combining these two factors.

For example, in the historical failure of Operation Market Garden, on the first day of the battle, a group of British paratroopers accidentally killed a German major general by mistake.

At that time, after the British 1st Airborne Division was airborne west of the Arnhem area, the German army had a communication outage, and the situation was urgent, and the commander of the city defense, Major General Friedrich Kusin, wanted to find out what the situation was, so he foolishly went to the front line to inspect the situation.

Moreover, he only took the driver and two guards, and when he went, he went all the way, but when he returned, he was confronted by a group of British paratroopers, and he was shot and killed on the spot without any suspense.

The detachment led by the wandering son Tao was blocked in the town of Runa, the last stronghold of the Kokoda Trail.

The 53rd Australian Militia Battalion and the Papuan Militia Battalion stationed there were under constant onslaught, vacillating and cowardly, but they succeeded in delaying the pace of the Ming army, preventing it from breaking through and threatening the rear of the large Australian army.

The shrewd wanderer Tao guessed this situation at the beginning, so he made preparations in time and recruited some death squads from more than a thousand officers and soldiers.

The fifty men included two officers, six non-commissioned officers, and forty-two soldiers from the Ming and Southern armies, half of whom were armed with submachine guns and automatic guns, and also carried two 64mm mortars; In addition to carrying their own ammunition and dry rations, each person had to help carry an extra mortar shell.

When the main force of the partial division was storming the enemy's position in the town of Runa, these fifty men quickly broke away from the group and crossed the mountains and went straight behind the enemy.

Most of these officers and soldiers who were born in the southwestern frontier have been playing, hunting, and collecting medicine among the mountains since childhood, and they are quite familiar with such an environment. Along the way, they took ladders, picked vines, and streams, and in one day and one night they traversed a complex terrain with a straight-line distance of 20 kilometers and an actual distance of nearly 40 kilometers, and successfully reached the rear of the Australian troops.

Some people stumbled and fell off a cliff while moving, and some people accidentally injured their feet; Someone suddenly passed the incubation period of malaria and had a seizure halfway through......

The base and bipod of one of the mortars were lost, and only half of the barrel remained.

They scurried around the rear of the Australian army like headless flies, not knowing where to make a surprise attack, and finally climbed a high ground to take a look around.

About a kilometre away, a scene came into view—with slender whip antennas, SUVs and sedans, and officers walking back and forth.

Obviously, nine out of ten of these are a command center, and as for the basic command center, the reserve command center, and the artillery command center, it is impossible to clearly determine whether it is a command center.

There doesn't seem to be a better option at the moment, and this command is just ...... Let's guarantee it.

"Wait! Wait a minute, it looks like these guys are going to transfer. ”

"I guess I'm going to be defeated and run away."

Everyone decided to be patient and wait and see for a while.

They know very well how heavy the burden is on their shoulders, and that more than 1,000 officers and men of the division have endured all the hardships, and if they cannot play their role, then everyone's sacrifice and efforts will be in vain.

The exhausted more than 40 daredevils lay on their stomachs or lie down, nibbling on a few sips of chocolate and drinking a few sips of sweet black tea, seizing every opportunity to recover their strength.

After more than half an hour, seeing that the number of enemies leaving the headquarters had increased, and they were getting into the car one after another, the lieutenant who led the death squad decided to make a move.

The few people in charge of operating the guns struggled to support them, fine-tuning the mortars to aim at the targets.

The mortar, which had lost its base and bipod, was also not absent, and it could be fired with a rough aim by holding the barrel.

The soldiers, who saw that the big fish would not let go, fired a total of more than 20 rounds with two cannons, which lasted 50 seconds before and after, and the target was blown up in disarray.

The basic headquarters of the 8th Division of the Australian Army was unlucky enough to be shelled in this way, and the Australian officers and men with poor morale thought that the rear of the front was safe, but in the end they were still attacked, which made everyone panic all at once.

"Can't believe it, how did they get here?!"

"Medic, come here! Where is Lieutenant Armstrong? ”

A small 64mm mortar shell certainly won't be able to destroy the fortifications of the fortifications of the headquarters - it was built to withstand direct hits from 4-inch grenades.

However, the division headquarters of the 8th Division was being evacuated, and many people, including the division commander, Major General Vernon, were preparing to ride, which was very deadly.

More than 30 casualties were taken, eight of whom were killed instantly, and Major General Vernon-Stedi was seriously wounded, suffering six or seven pieces of shell fragments and broken glass shards all over his body......

The attack on the division headquarters was undoubtedly very serious, and the original plan for an orderly retreat almost collapsed.

Thanks to the fact that the Australians were still clever and did not stand by in place, the chief of staff took over the command about an hour and a half later, after determining that the basic command had suffered heavy casualties.

But on the battlefield where every second counts, it was deadly enough, and the Ming army of the general attack on the whole front did not leave the slightest room for respite for the Australian army.

At 6:12 a.m. the next day, the sun was about to rise.

The effect of the combination of quinine and Guizhi Poria pills is quite good, and Zhou Changfeng rested well this night, and he woke up with the illusion of healing.

The noise of the battlefield has ceased, the sound of gunfire has ceased to exist, and calm has once again returned to the war-torn Papua Peninsula.

He tried to move his hands and feet, but he still felt a little weak, "How is the pursuing force?" Didn't you get ambushed, did you? ”

Zhao Hanfeng, who looked relaxed, walked from the side with a stack of newspapers in his hand, "The three-way pursuit troops have stopped, and nothing has gone wrong." ”

"Almost, the remaining remnants of the defeated army will not pose a threat."

"Yes, it's time to collect the troops and go back to camp."

A small number of remnants of the enemy, who were only lightly armed, would not have had any way in retreating into the jungle, but it would have been nerve-wracking if it were in Eurasia, because these stragglers could come out at any moment to attack the lines of communication.

However, this is Papua New Guinea, there is no railway line of communication to attack, and everything is only necessary to control the port city of Moresby, and the remnants of the army are defeated and there is no way to threaten the sea line of communication.

Therefore, they can be left to fend for themselves, and if they are really not at ease, they can also send a few gunboats to patrol in turn.

In this battle, the defenders of Moresby - the 8th Infantry Division, the 12th Separate Field Artillery Regiment (Battalion), and the 3rd Separate Light Tank Company of the Australian Army were dealt annihilating blows.

The 8th Division was heavily damaged by the Ming Army in the Battle of Java in the middle of this year, and was later withdrawn to the Australian mainland to recuperate, and is now basically annihilated.

The division commander, Major General Vernon, was seriously wounded and died during the retreat, which lacked medical care.

The second phase of Operation Vertigo came to a successful conclusion.

In this operation, if the Battle of the Torres Strait is not considered, the participating troops of the Ming army annihilated more than 12,000 Australian troops, of which the number of casualties accounted for the majority, and only more than 5,000 prisoners were captured, and they were basically non-combatants.

As an isolated defender, the Australian army suffered a high casualty ratio of almost 1 to 1, and half of the more than 6,000 casualties were killed.

In addition, more than 2,000 remnants of the enemy scattered to the northwest and fled into the rugged mountains of the Papua Peninsula covered with jungles.

The casualties of the Ming army were not small, with 4,565 combat casualties, including 1,183 killed, incurable, and sick deaths, and a large number of non-combat attrition caused by malaria and dengue fever, amounting to 5,105.

Fortunately, the preparations were well prepared before the battle, and it was expected that this would be a bitter battle for the most part, and the 37th Division prepared the 109th Regiment in advance to come to reinforce it, so it did not rely on the 13th Division and the 1st Marine Brigade.

Relatively speaking, the total casualties this time were greater than in the Battle of Darwin, but because of the rotation of reinforcements, the troops were not broken.

The intensity of the fighting made loot scarce, and the Ming army captured very little, with only 9 repairable barreled guns, 16 armored vehicles, 35 trucks, and off-road vehicles.

But on the more optimistic side, the biggest trophy is that the city of Moresby has not suffered much damage, and the docks are largely intact, not largely in ruins, as Darwin did.

The performance of the amphibious command ship Lu Xun was not satisfactory, and the repeated chaos and mistakes made Zhou Changfeng very dissatisfied, and simply moved the headquarters to the shore, which made the whole ship very ashamed.

Therefore, after the battle, Zhou also issued a unique punishment instruction -

In the next half month, the food index of the Lu Xun was on par with that of the army, and the officers who dared to open a small stove were severely punished, and the rich ingredients saved were provided to the wounded and sick.

Such a punishment is really unheard of, and it directly caused the officers and men of the whole ship who were accustomed to the navy's food to cry for their fathers and mothers.

The Army's second-class garrison food standard (occupation of the state of security) is one pound of rice or flour, five taels of potatoes or sweet potatoes, two taels of meat, one pound of vegetables, fifteen grams of salt, ten grams of sugar, three grams of tea, ten cigarettes or the equivalent amount of tobacco, two hundred and fifty milliliters of beer or one hundred milliliters of wine, fifty grams of eggs or egg powder, five grams of condensed milk, and one hundred milliliters of soy milk.

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This seems to be very rich, but it is still dwarfed by the standard of the navy's food, and it is difficult to live frugally from luxury, and such a punishment is really painful for the officers and men of the Lu Xun.

"There are still many people who are in a state of laxity in their mentality, and do not pay attention to their responsibilities. This is the first time to go into battle, there are extenuating circumstances, and if you don't punish it severely, next time you ...... Beware of killing the sacrificial flag. ”

Zhou's reputation has always been good, no one dares to take his words as a joke, if he really eats peanuts, there is no place to reason.

The successful capture of Moresby was a milestone step in the southern expedition of the Ming Dynasty, and as a result, the Australian Corps finally had an advance base to attack the Australian mainland.

Pang Lingqi, who was in Surabaya, sent a congratulatory telegram and said that the 37th Division would board the ship and set off from now on, and come to Moresby to replace the 13th Division, which had suffered heavy casualties.

While the two armies were fighting in Moresby, the Lexington was attacked by four B-17 fleets.

However, the accuracy of horizontal bombing is not high, and the B-17 fleet will be intercepted and interfered with by Ming fighters.

Although the Lexington was hit by three 500-pound bombs again, none of them were able to penetrate the 50mm thick deck armor, so there was still no risk of sinking.

Eventually, when the defenders of Moresby were defeated, the Lexington finally arrived at Chiraza, and the two barges in the harbor hurriedly took over the Beipanjiang and slowly towed the captured aircraft carrier into the harbor.

It's a pity that the maintenance capacity of Chiraza is very low, and it can only support warships under 10,000 tons, so the Lexington can only do some simple repair work here, try to restore its own power, and then go to Sin Chew or Guangzhou.

"It's not easy, every time I almost cripple a division, if I really go to Australia in the future, I don't know how difficult it will be."

In the headquarters of the 1st Marine Brigade, Yao Liangchuan sighed at the difficulty of the battle.

In the past, it was easy to deal with colonial armies like the Anglo-Indian army and the Dutch-Indian army, but when it came to dealing with the regular army, it was more difficult.

Xie Wancheng said disapprerovingly: "Prison army, it's not uncommon for this kind of war to suffer millions of casualties at every turn, but how many are there now?" Besides, I am a lot of people, and this price is just a drop in the penny. ”

Because of the actual example of the European war, there is also a vague concept between the government and the opposition.

In Europe, 995,000 were killed in Britain, 1,240,000 in Italy, 1,698,000 in France, and 2,470,000 in Germany...... But Erl.

The Ming Dynasty now has about 690 million people, and although the low degree of industrialization makes the mobilization rate not reach the level of the industrial countries of Europe, the huge base is placed here, and the number of soldiers and casualties is still exaggerated.

Even at a low mobilization rate of 5 percent, which barely affects industrial and agricultural production, the available military resources are as high as 34.5 million men.

Moreover, a series of battles today have proved that the exchange ratio between the Ming army and the armies of other powers is close, even if the pessimistic plan is bad, the exchange ratio of one to two is equally terrible.

Besides, there is no great power in the world that is willing to mobilize tens of millions of troops to fight to the death, right?

The advantage of a large population in times of total war is undoubtedly enormous.

The characteristics of the Pacific War as a naval and air war made it difficult to demonstrate the superiority of the population, and what was needed was a strong naval and aviation force, as well as a good general responsible for landing operations.

But shipbuilding is a labor-intensive and technology-intensive manufacturing industry, which is good news for the Ming Dynasty, and the imperial court can mobilize a large number of laborers to dig a large number of new dry docks for dumplings.

While the dry dock was being excavated, the laborers could receive simplified and accelerated training during this time, both of which were available.

Capital ships will be limited by the production of equipment, equipment, and weapons, so the number of simultaneous operations is limited, but the auxiliary ships are not, and the humble freighters and escort ships use coal-burning three-expansion steam engines, and almost as many as they want.

At that time, the United States will have the Freedom Wheel and the Victory Wheel, and the Ming Dynasty will also have the Small Pateren Wheel and the Great Paeing Wheel.

It's great that more than a dozen of your shipyards are working on freewheels at the same time, but when I dig hundreds of small dry docks to build paddle wheels, how do you deal with it?

Zhou Changfeng looked at the vast sea for a long time, and finally made up his mind: "No, this time we must raise the level of mobilization, I can't wait for the people in the Advisory Yuan to grind and chirp!" ”

(End of chapter)