Payment chapter (12 o'clock)

On January 17, 2055, on the day when ten armies sent by Wei Chenglong arrived in Guangzhou, Mu Haoyang issued a combat order to attack Australia.

The first one to be dispatched was the Chinese Air Force.

On that day, the Chinese Air Force's 3,000 bombers and 5,000 fighters dispatched a total of more than 14,000 orders and violently bombed the northeastern region of Australia, especially the air bases and field airports near Cairns, Normanton, Maliba, Almaden, Ironsley, Blackbull and Croydon, and attacked thousands of military targets including airports, air defense positions, communications command centers, and material storage and transportation centers.

In order to support such a huge air strike operation, the Air Force used 60 strategic early warning aircraft, 180 strategic electronic reconnaissance aircraft, 240 large electronic warfare aircraft, and more than 300 large tankers to support long-distance raid combat aircraft.

On this day alone, the Chinese Air Force used up 60,000 tons of ammunition.

If the burned aviation fuel is included, the total consumption of materials is more than 150,000 tons.

Although the air strikes on the first day were definitely the most violent, in the following months, the Chinese Air Force consumed more than 100,000 tons of materials every day. In several large-scale battles, the daily consumption exceeded 200,000 tons. As a result, the Chinese Air Force alone used more than 30 million tons of combat materials in Australia, and in order to transport these materials to the front-line air base, tens of millions of tons of materials were used.

Of course, the blow this day also achieved immediate results.

According to the US military's war report, on that day alone, the US Air Force lost more than 400 fighter jets in the battle, and almost the same number of fighter jets were blown up on the ground, and about 200 bombers were blown up, and the rest all fled to southern Australia.

As a result, in just one day, the US air force in Northeast Australia was wiped out.

Of course, this does not mean that the US military has lost its ability to resist.

When the battle started, the US military deployed 1,400 bombers and more than 3,000 fighters in Australia. In addition, the Royal Australian Air Force also had about 400 bombers and 2,000 fighters, and the New Zealand Air Force, which assisted Australia's operations, had more than 600 fighters.

However, these combat aircraft are mainly deployed in southeastern Australia.

In the next few days, the Chinese Air Force gradually expanded its bombing range, but it was still focusing on ground military facilities north of Keynes and Normanton.

It is obvious that the Chinese army will land in the northeast corner of Australia.

To be precise, it was landing in the northeast corner of Australia.

What the US-Australia coalition forces have to do is to quickly build a strategic line of defense in Northeast Australia.

During this period, the US-Australia coalition forces also launched counterattacks, such as raiding field airports on the island of New Guinea.

Unfortunately, the counterattack of the US-Australia coalition forces did not have much effect, but instead lost a large number of combat aircraft and pilots in the counterattack.

You should know that when fighting over Australia, especially in defensive battles, most of the parachuting American and Australian pilots can be rescued and can return to the combat troops soon. If you fight on the ocean, the shot down American and Australian pilots can only pray that they will be captured by the Chinese army as soon as possible, otherwise they will have to feed sharks.

On January 20, the Chinese Navy entered the battle.

According to Tong Shaoyun's deployment, the Pacific Fleet was divided into three fleets. He directly commanded the First Fleet and the Third Fleet, and Jing Wenhui commanded the Second Fleet. The three fleets arrived at the western waters of the Coral Sea on the night of the 19th, and then took turns to dispatch carrier-based fighters to bomb Northeast Australia. Large comprehensive warships also participated in the battle and shelled port cities such as Cairns and Townsville.

The fleet joined the war three days late, mainly to allow the Air Force to eliminate the tactical aviation forces in Northeast Australia.

In fact, when the fleet participated in the war, the Chinese Air Force had already advanced the air front to northern New South Wales and expanded the strike range to Brisbane.

In other words, the US-Australia coalition air base closest to the Coral Sea is 1,600 kilometers away.

Obviously, it is almost impossible for the US and Australian coalition forces to raid the Chinese fleet, because the combat aircraft of the US and Australian coalition forces cannot cross a 1,600-kilometer area controlled by the Chinese Air Force, and it is even more impossible to arrive quietly and launch an attack without alertness.

By January 26, the US-Australia coalition had lost nearly 2,000 fighter jets.

Although the Chinese Air Force suffered a lot of losses, there were 1,400 combat losses with records, of which more than 1,200 were fighter jets, the Chinese Air Force was quickly supplemented, while the US-Australia coalition was difficult to obtain supplementary force, and its combat effectiveness began to plummetly.

At that time, the US military had already sent 400 fighter jets to Australia by redirecting flights.

Unfortunately, compared to the huge losses, this is a drop in the bucket.

If this continues, by the first day of February, the US-Australia coalition will have no fighter jets available.

On the same day, French received a very special task: using a fleet to transport combat aircraft to Australia, or to be precise, to send carrier-based fighter jets to Australia.

For the fleet, this is a risk-free mission.

According to the order issued by the Pentagon, the US fleet only needs to go to the South Pacific and set off about 3,000 kilometers northeast of New Zealand, and then return. The carrier-based fighter jets will first fly to New Zealand, replenish fuel, and then fly to Australia after being equipped with air combat weapons. Because the fleet is active in waters far away from the battlefield, and the Chinese fleet is still fighting in the Coral Sea, it will not encounter the Chinese fleet.

The problem is that this is definitely a big loss for the carrier-based aviation force.

In French's opinion, this is a very ridiculous order. You should know that it is much more difficult to train a carrier-based fighter pilot than a Air Force fighter pilot, and it takes much more time. The carrier-based fighter is the core strike force of the fleet.

Can the fleet still fight if it consumes carrier-based fighters?

Unfortunately, French had to execute this command.

At that time, Marshall had assured him that he would add 1,500 fighter jets to the Navy in February, allowing the Pacific Fleet to postpone the operation to sea until the end of May, so that there would be enough time to train pilots and promised not to issue similar orders again.

Marshall did not forget to tell French that if he was unwilling to execute the order, someone would execute it for him.

In other words, if French does not execute the order, he will have to be dismissed.

French had no choice but to lead a fleet from Pearl Harbor on January 28th.

At that time, the US military's move immediately attracted high attention from the Chinese Navy. Mu Haoyang ordered Tong Shaoyun to lead the fleet to retreat to the north of the Solomon Islands on the same day. If the US fleet heads to the southwest Pacific, Tong Shaoyun would have to follow Plan B, that is, the sea-making operation plan.

For the next three days, Tong Shaoyun has been preparing for a decisive battle with the US fleet.

It was not until February 1 that the Military Intelligence Bureau sent a message that a large number of US carrier-based fighters arrived in New Zealand and immediately transferred to Australia. Mu Haoyang and Tong Shaoyun suddenly realized that the US fleet headed south from Pearl Harbor, not to find the Chinese fleet to fight to the decisive battle, but to supplement fighter jets for Australia.

Of course, Mu Haoyang and Tong Shaoyun did not relax their vigilance.

All 900 fighter jets were deployed in southeastern Australia and could return to the fleet at any time, and could attack the Chinese fleet returning to the Coral Sea at any time.

It was not until February 3 that the alarm was lifted. A Chinese submarine operating near the Ryan Islands discovered the US fleet sailing north at full speed and fired six heavy torpedoes, but the attack was not successful. The main reason was that the US fleet was too fast and the torpedoes could not catch up.

Since then, the US fleet has dispatched many times to transport fighter jets to Australia.

However, after this, the shipments were transported with simply modified Air Force fighters, that is, these fighters could take off from the aircraft carrier.

It is probably something no one expected that the US super aircraft carrier will become a fighter carrier.

Of course, this is a good thing for the Chinese Navy.

Since the US fleet does not intend to come for a decisive battle, there is no need to worry about anything.

On February 5, when the air strike had lasted for twenty days, the second phase of the combat operation officially began and the Marines took the stage.

The attack site was not north of Cairns and Normanton, but to the south.

On February 6, after the fleet returned to the battlefield and took on tactical air support missions, the Air Force's transport fleet took off from the frontier field airport and launched a combat operation code-named "Lightning".

On that day, as many as ten divisions of the Marine Corps transported to Australia by air

To this end, the Air Force used 6,000 large electric transport aircraft and 4,000 electric tactical transport aircraft, and flew 30,000 total times, completing the transport of 200,000 combat troops, 3,000 anti-armor platforms, 4,800 multi-purpose platforms, 3,600 profit-making support platforms, 1,200 air defense platforms, 100 ground defense systems and 5,000 off-road heavy-duty trucks, and all combat troops carried a base ammunition.

The air freight did not stop and lasted for five days.

In the next four days, in addition to transporting ten Marine Divisions again, they mainly transported combat supplies, especially ammunition and fuel. At that time, the Marine Corps had some tactical transport aircraft for burning oil and some equipment for burning oil, so they needed to transport fuel to the front line.

In fact, this is the second phase of combat operation, that is, the most critical five days in the capture of the forward base.

During these five days, twenty land divisions have not been fully deployed, and there is not enough supplies, and there is no time to build defensive positions and field airports. They are very susceptible to attacks and are easily defeated by the enemy. As long as you spend these five days safely, the next battle will be easy to fight.

You should know that during these five days, the main task of the twenty land combat divisions is to control the landing grounds and build twenty field airports.
Chapter completed!