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Chapter 219 Fire Line

The US-Australia coalition forces broke through, which actually helped the Chinese Marine Corps a lot.

Judging from the situation at that time, the 400,000 US-Australia coalition forces were worth more than breaking through even if they were on standby, because this would force the Chinese Marines to keep an eye on the enemy in the north.

Since the US-Australia coalition forces chose to break through, the Chinese Marine Corps can turn their attention to the south.

At that time, only five land divisions near Cronkri were staring at the US-Australia coalition forces that broke through, and the other fifteen land divisions began to prepare for the southward journey.

In fact, it was not until the end of March that the Chinese Marines sent troops to occupy Keynes and Normanton.

The occupation of these two locations was mainly for the construction of front-line airports so that the Air Force could send tactical fighters to come and strengthen air cover and air support. Don’t forget that Keynes and Normanton are both port cities. Although the port is not large in size, they can always play some role. Not to mention, the supplies transported by a large freighter are enough to fly hundreds of large electric transport aircraft.

At that time, given that the US-Australia coalition in the north had chosen to break through, Pang Yuelong launched the third phase of the attack in advance.

According to the original plan, the second phase of the combat operation was to encircle and annihilate the US-Australia coalition in the north to avoid the Marines being attacked from both sides. Therefore, the planned combat time is twenty days, which will last until the end of February. It will not be until early March that the Marines will advance southward to the goal of capturing Brisbane.

The result was that on February 20, Pang Yuelong asked the Marines to start advancing south.

This kind of early attack action must have disadvantages, such as insufficient material preparation.

Fortunately, Mu Haoyang arranged the pre-war preparations very sufficient. The Air Force concentrated more than 10,000 large electric transport aircraft and nearly 10,000 tactical transport aircraft. The Navy can also provide a large number of tactical transport aircraft. The air transport capability is prepared according to the support of fifty land combat divisions at the same time, while only twenty land combat divisions actually invested in combat. In this way, logistics support is not a problem at all, and all land combat divisions have obtained sufficient combat supplies.

To attack Brisbane, you must first capture Rockhampton.

In fact, traffic conditions in northeastern Australia are very unsuitable for ground troops to launch attacks in traditional ways.

Take the railway for example. The main railway trunk lines in northeastern Australia are all east-west, and several railway trunk lines are not connected. Only the coastal railway lines are north-south, connecting several east-west railways. In this way, if the ground troops launch an attack in the traditional way, they can only concentrate in the coastal areas. After entering the inland, it will be difficult to keep up with the supply and will not be able to continue to advance.

It can be said that this is also the fundamental reason why Mu Haoyang and Pang Yuelong resolutely adopt new offensive tactics.

This time, the Marine Corps did not advance along the railway and highway, but instead directly captured the strategic location behind the US-Australia coalition defense line, especially the center of the transportation hub, cut off the supply line and retreat route of the US-Australia coalition, and then encircled and annihilated the US-Australia coalition.

At that time, Herris had deployed a strategic line of defense from Longridge to Rockhampton.

On this line of defense, Hris invested up to 1.2 million troops, and the defense depth reached 200 kilometers, which was almost the defense limit of the US and Australian coalition. You should know that what determines the depth of the defense zone is the range of the front-line supporting firepower, that is, how far can the long-range artillery deployed behind the front line hit the shells. At that time, the maximum range of long-range artillery with the largest number of equipment in the US and Australian coalition was 200 kilometers. Although some long-range artillery with a range of 400 kilometers, the number was not large and was not enough to support the entire line of defense.

Unfortunately, even so, the US and Australian coalition still cannot defend this line of defense.

You should know that the assault distance of the Chinese Marine Corps is determined by the range of the transport aircraft. Even tactical transport aircraft can send troops to 1,500 kilometers away and then return to the departure airport.

Before launching the attack, the Marines had built fifty-five field airports on the Australian continent and tried to restore operations of fifteen US military airports. That is to say, there were a total of seventy airports available at that time. In addition to supporting more than 4,000 tactical transport aircraft, these airports could also deploy about 2,000 fighter jets. However, the actual deployment volume was not so much, only about 1,200, mainly because a certain amount of operational capabilities was needed to allow large electric transport aircraft to take off and land, otherwise the materials would not be delivered to the front line.

Of course, there are also a lot of 1,200 fighter jets.

Don’t forget that there are fifteen aircraft carrier battle groups on the sea not far away, and fifteen carrier-based aviation gangs can be put into battle when necessary. In addition, even Longridge is less than 1,000 kilometers away from the deep sea area of ​​the Coral Sea, completely within the strike range of the Navy’s large-caliber electromagnetic guns. At that time, there were a total of 120 large-caliber electromagnetic guns on the Navy’s thirty large-caliber integrated warships and 60 anti-submarine warships, of which 60 were 30 mm electromagnetic guns, and the artillery fire strike was equivalent to the sixty long-range artillery battalions of the Marine Corps.

Based on these factors, Pang Yuelong set the next "line" between Charleville and Brisbane.

In other words, the Marines will jump over Rockhampton and attack Brisbane directly. To be precise, they will jump directly behind the strategic defense line of the US-Australia coalition, and surround the 1.2 million enemies in the north in one breath. While attacking Brisbane, they will encircle and annihilate the main force of the US-Australia coalition.

You should know that at that time, the total strength of the US-Australia coalition was only 4 million, of which the ground troops were about 3 million.

In other words, if the 1.2 million troops from Longridge to Rockhampton could be wiped out, half of the ground forces of the US-Australia coalition would have been wiped out.

It is undeniable that in theory, Australia's war mobilization capabilities are no less than those of Russia.

The reason is very simple. Australia's total population is equivalent to Russia, and its population structure is more reasonable. There are about 10 million more citizens suitable for military service than Russia.

The problem is that in such a short time, it is impossible for Australia to scale up its mobilization.

You should know that Russia fought for a year before it completed the mobilization of the national war. Before the Chinese Marine Corps landed on the Australian continent, around November 2054, the Australian Parliament passed the proposal to mobilize the third phase of the war, and it was officially implemented in December.

In other words, Australia's full mobilization only began for more than two months.

There is another factor that cannot be ignored, that is, Australian citizens' enthusiasm for war is far less than Russia's, and their attitudes towards military service are completely different.

The main reason is that Australia is also an immigrant country.

Like the United States, Australia's indigenous people were almost wiped out by colonists, and the remaining small part was strictly restricted to the reserve. Before the outbreak of the war, Australia's total population exceeded 100 million, but only whites accounted for 38% of them. This proportion is lower than that of the United States. In addition to whites, Australia's second largest population is East Asians, accounting for about 31%, followed by 17% of blacks, 9% of South Asians and 5% of Islamists.

From the demographic structure, it can be seen that not all Australian citizens support the government's actions of war.

In fact, the pre-war Australian political landscape can illustrate the problem, that is, in the past twenty years, no Australian government has had a public opinion support rate of more than 50%, and most of the time it is below 40%. Australia's domestic differences are very obvious.

It can be seen from this that Australia's actual war mobilization ability is far inferior to that of Russia.

After more than two months of full mobilization, the total strength of the Royal Australian Army increased by only two million, while Russia mobilized three million soldiers in the two months after participating in the war.

There is no way to expand the scale of mobilization, and Australia is not far from defeat.

Of course, even if the mobilization scale is expanded and the speed of the Chinese Marine Corps advancement, Australia will only last for a few more months at most.

On February 21, the second round of offense began after eight Marine divisions acting as reserves arrived.

Interestingly, the eight Marine Divisions who acted as reserves were the real ace troops, because all of these troops participated in the combat operations against the Solomon Islands, and two of them also participated in the entire process. The combat quality and practical experience of the officers and soldiers were far superior to the later Marine Divisions.

Pang Yuelong did not let these eight land divisions take the lead, and there was also his reason: these troops were too familiar with traditional tactics and did not have enough understanding of new tactics. Moreover, in the past few months, they have not received training in new tactics, and their actual combat power is not necessarily much stronger than the newly formed land division.

You should know that the training cycle of the recruits of the Chinese Marine Corps is more than one year.

In fact, the recruitment period is only half a year, and it only takes half a year to allow the recruited officers and soldiers to master basic tactical skills. The next six months are all coordinated combat training, that is, after being incorporated into the combat force, they will conduct corresponding tactical training. The twenty marine divisions formed in 2054 all conducted three to six months of air offensive tactical training, and their coordinated combat capabilities exceeded those of the previous marine divisions.

For Pang Yuelong, the biggest difference in this attack is that he has a reserve team in his hand.

His main purpose was not to capture Brisbane, but to encircle and annihilate 1.2 million US-Australia coalition forces, so whether there is a reserve force will play a decisive role.

Of course, there is another difference, that is, the tactical aviation deployed by the frontline can support the Marines throughout the journey and will not be able to participate in the war again in the early stages of the battle.

However, the difficulty of this attack has also increased a lot.

At least, the US-Australia coalition has been prepared for a long time and will not be caught off guard again.

Soon, this became a reality.

At that time, the Marines first attacked Brisbane. On the 21st, five Marine Divisions arrived near Brisbane, and then began to build frontier positions according to the established tactics. While surrounding Brisbane, they built field airports to prepare for subsequent attacks.

Unfortunately, the Marines failed to attack Brisbane as they wished.

Until the 25th, the Marines were still spinning outside Brisbane, bombarding the defenders with artillery fire and calling on the aviation to bombard the defenders' defensive positions. As for the ground attack, it had been repelled by the US and Australian coalition more than ten times, causing a large number of casualties, and the five land combat divisions were a little overwhelmed.

It was not until this time that the US and Australian coalition forces carried out their first effective resistance.

Chapter 219 Fire Line
Chapter completed!