Payment chapter (12 o'clock)

At that time, the main attack site was Townsville, with five land divisions here. By February 10, all five field airports would be put into use.

With field airport support, air transport efficiency has been greatly improved.

Not to mention, the dy-1 and dy-2 can take off directly from airports in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, transport heavy equipment and combat supplies, and take off and return to the airport after fifteen minutes of charging, so there is no need to occupy the frontier field airports from New Guinea to the upper level. In this way, the Air Force can send tactical fighters to frontier field airports to provide air support to the Marine Corps. Before that, because there is no way to charge at the destination, large electric transport aircraft can only set off from frontier field airports and can only return to frontier field airports. As a result, the Air Force had to let the tactical aviation troops retreat and give the frontier field airports to the transport aircraft.

In fact, it is precisely because of the lack of air cover and air support that the Marines are in danger from February 5 to 9.

Fortunately, the US-Australia coalition made a wrong judgment and believed that the Chinese Marines would attack the northeast corner of Australia, and as a result, they set the defense line north of the actual attack area.

In other words, the Chinese Marine Corps launched an attack behind the front line of the US-Australia coalition.

This scene is almost exactly the same as in the Battle of Moscow, that is, the defensive forces have to face the offensive forces that suddenly emerge from behind.

At that time, there were at least 400,000 US-Australia coalition forces on the defense line from Cairns to Normanton.

When the Chinese Marines gained a foothold, the 400,000 US-Australia coalition forces were basically surrounded. As a result, the first thing the US-Australia coalition forces had to consider was not how to drive the Chinese Marines to the sea, but how to break through and break through the blockade line set by the Chinese Marines in the south.

The problem is that the US-Australia coalition has no combat plan related to breaking out.

No one expected that the Chinese Marines would adopt such crazy offensive tactics, and no one expected that the 400,000 US-Australia coalition forces would be surrounded by the Chinese Marines falling from the sky at the moment of the battle. Even on February 6, General Donald, the commander of the US-Australia coalition forces, was unwilling to believe it.

For a moment, the US-Australia coalition command was in chaos.

At that time, some people thought that the troops of Keynes and Normanton should be kept, some people thought that the troops should be attacked south, and some people thought that the troops should be allowed to break through.

It can be said that almost everyone has their own ideas.

As a result, after a few days, the US-Australia coalition forces did not issue a meaningful order to the front line troops, leaving the 400,000 troops to stand on their own.

The subsequent dismissal of Donald was related to his failure to play any role in the past five days.

In fact, Donald was a little unfair because he was just the commander and was only responsible for issuing orders, but he had no orders in his hands.

Keep it up, the 400,000 army will definitely be doomed, and after the logistics supply line is cut off, it will soon collapse.

Attacking south? It is simply a dream. The 400,000 US-Australia coalition forces are deployed in the north, so the combat troops supporting the attack are all in the south. If they turn to attack south, they have to turn the troops by 180 degrees, which is absolutely impossible to do within a few days.

As for breaking through, the problem is even more serious because no one knows where to break through.

On February 6, the Chinese Marines invaded Townsville and occupied the small town with less than 20,000 residents the next day. Although the troops stationed there destroyed the port infrastructure when they retreated and buried thousands of mines on the suburbs' airports, leaving only a ruin for the Chinese Marines, Townsville is one of the railway transportation hubs in Northeast Australia. The railway from Brisbane to Cairns must pass through Townsville, and it is also the starting point of the railway that spans the Australian continent and leads to the Darwin Harbor. In addition, there are three roads intersect here, all of which are high-grade highways.

With Townsville falling, it would be impossible for Keynes's US-Australian coalition to break south.

On February 8, three divisions of the Chinese Marine Corps attacked Hugh Enden.

This small town with a permanent population of less than 10,000 is the northeastern region of Australia. It is second only to Townsville's transportation hub center. It guards the railway from Townsville to Darwin Harbor, and there is also a railway from South to Longridge and then east to Rockhampton. Rockhampton is the most populous city to the north of Brisbane, between Townsville and Brisbane.

With Hugh Endon falling, it was even more impossible for the US-Australia coalition to break out directly to the south.

By February 10, twenty Marine Divisions had already spread out between Townsville and Croncree, forming a front with a width of 600 kilometers.

Now, if the US-Australia coalition forces in the north want to break through, they can only advance westward, cross the Barkley Terrace, or go along the coastal plains south of the Bay of Cabertalia to the Port of Darwin.

There is no doubt that this is a path to death.

You should know that there are only two east-west highways between Normanton and Darwin Harbor, one on the coastal plain and the other on the Barkley Terrace. These two highways are ordinary highways with very limited traffic capacity. What's more, between Normanton and Darwin Harbor is the most desolate area in Australia. Not only are there few people, but the distance between most towns is more than 100 kilometers, and there are only a few seasonal rivers, lacking fresh water. You should know that 400,000 people need at least 800,000 liters of fresh water a day. If you include water-consuming vehicles and other large water users, it is impossible to guarantee that all 400,000 people will arrive at Darwin Harbor in this desert area.

It can be said that only madmen will enter the desert regardless of their own efforts.

Don't forget that it is February, summer in the southern hemisphere, and the hottest month in Australia. The highest temperature in the northern desert at noon was above 45 degrees Celsius, but suddenly dropped below ten degrees at night. Even professional explorers with professional training will not rashly enter this desert.

In fact, the US-Australia coalition forces did not come back to their senses until February 10th.

On February 11, General Donald was dismissed, and the five-star Army General Herries appointed by Marshall as commander-in-chief of the US-Australia coalition, and also as commander of the Southwest Pacific Theater.

That day, Hris came to Brisbane.

The first order he issued was to allow the trapped US-Australia coalition forces to break through the west, and then began to organize rescue operations to ensure that the 400,000 troops arrived in Darwin smoothly.

Hris is very courageous, he is the kind of person who just does it, but he lacks consideration for doing things.

The harsh natural environment is a big problem, and the Chinese Marines guarding nearby are a greater threat. There is no doubt that the Chinese Marines will never watch the 400,000 US-Australia coalition forces break through.

The result was that starting from that night, preventing the US-Australia coalition from breaking through became the top priority of the Chinese Marine Corps.

The first blocking line is west of Normanton, namely the Flinders River.

Because there was no time to send ground troops, Pang Yuelong sent out all twenty Marine Divisions in one breath, and the eight Marine Divisions acting as the battle reserve were still on the Solomon Islands. It is expected that they will not arrive in Australia until February 20, and the Marine Corps has no troops to send for the time being. Therefore, this blocking battle was mainly based on firepower strikes, that is, using all the long-range artillery of the five Marine Divisions near Croncree, plus thousands of fighter jets to attack the US-Australia coalition forces that cross the river in turn, making it impossible for the US-Australia coalition forces to successfully overcome this natural obstacle.

At that time, the Marine Corps also dispatched some ground troops, but they were basically scouts responsible for front-line observation.

It took 400,000 US-Australia coalition forces three days to cross the Flinders River, and the firepower strike lasted for three days, but less than 300,000 people successfully arrived on the other side.

According to the combat records of the US-Australia coalition forces, many officers and soldiers died of artillery fire when crossing the river.

A few days later, the bodies of US and Australian coalition officers arrived at the mouth of the Flinders River, and the smell of blood emanated attracted thousands of sharks. Later, the mouth of the Flinders River was called "Blood Bay" and also "Shark Bay", which was related to this battle that killed more than 100,000 US and Australian coalition officers and soldiers.

Crossing the Flinders River is just the first step to break through.

Next, the US-Australia coalition forces will have to cross the 200 kilometers of desert, cross the Augusta and Gregory Rivers close to each other, and then choose to enter the Barkley Terrace, or continue to marching on the coastal plains. The former needs to travel about 2,000 kilometers to reach Darwin Port, while the latter needs to travel 1,800 kilometers. After entering the desert in northern Australia, the nearest supply stands 1,000 kilometers away.

In fact, there is no need for the Chinese Marine Corps to send ground troops to block the US-Australia coalition forces.

After the Augusta River and the Gregory River once again blocked the US-Australian coalition with firepower, the Chinese Marine Corps only needed to maintain high-intensity air strikes, forcing the US-Australian coalition to continue to penetrate the desert and focus on attacking the US-Australian coalition's baggage forces, so that the US-Australian coalition can stay in the desert forever.

In the end, less than 10,000 American and Australian soldiers arrived in Darwin alive.

In other words, only one person survived for every forty breakout officers and soldiers.

When traveling through the desert in northern Australia, due to shortage of supplies, some disbanded small troops also experienced tragedy of cannibalism.

Even those soldiers who arrived in Darwin alive became useless people and could no longer take up weapons to fight.

Later, in order to settle and deal with these soldiers, the US-Australia coalition also wasted a lot of manpower and material resources. There were more than a thousand military doctors and nurses who were used to take care of these people alone.

Judging from the situation at that time, if the US-Australia coalition forces broke south, more officers and soldiers would definitely break through the encirclement.

The reason is very simple. In mid-February, the defense lines of the Chinese Marine Corps were separated and not connected together, and there was a large gap between adjacent troops. As long as the US-Australia coalition forces broke through in a scattered manner and made full use of the powerful conditions of familiar terrain, more soldiers would definitely arrive at the rear. You should know that among these 400,000 soldiers, there were 100,000 Australian troops, of which at least 20,000 were locals in northeastern Australia. There was no doubt that these 20,000 Australian soldiers would definitely be more familiar with the northeastern Australia than the Chinese Marine Corps officers and soldiers.

Unfortunately, Hris wanted to make achievements too much, and he mistakenly believed that man conquered nature.
Chapter completed!