Rise of Australia

Chapter 933: Naval Decisive Battle Plan

As time progressed to August 1937, the atmosphere within the island government and military became increasingly tense.

The plan to support Kyushu Island failed. Only one-third of the originally planned support forces crossed the strait. The remaining troops were either blocked on Honshu Island or had already been killed in the strait.

Of course, such a small problem is no longer a big deal for the island government. If the continuous bombing of Tokyo Bay by the Australasian Navy and Air Force cannot be avoided, the island country will suffer countless casualties and property losses every day.

Even if the island country has a population of tens of millions, even if the island country has an economic scale at the level of a great power, they still cannot guarantee how long they can last in such a massive bombing.

Therefore, the island government and military must fight back and, as much as possible, resolve the bombing threat currently facing the island nation.

Compared with the army and the unformed air force, the only thing the island government can rely on at present is perhaps the island navy, which has suffered losses but still retains overall strength.

The island nation's navy currently still has 7 battleships, 7 aircraft carriers, 3 battlecruisers, 12 heavy cruisers, 11 light cruisers, 53 destroyers and 68 submarines. Looking at the world, it is definitely a naval power.

The good news is that since the failed attack on Hawaii, the island nation's navy has been hiding in the ports of Hiroshima and Tokyo. Although this has allowed the Australasian Navy to successfully blockade the island nation's waters, most of its naval strength has been preserved.

Even though three battleships and two aircraft carriers were lost in the bombing of Hiroshima, the losses were not serious for the island nation's navy as a whole.

However, the overall size of the island nation's navy is certainly much larger than that of the Australasian Pacific Fleet. However, naval combat is not determined by the number of warships, but by the combat level of each warship and a certain amount of luck.

Under tremendous pressure from within the island government, the island navy quickly formulated a plan for a naval decisive battle, and Isoroku Yamamoto, then Vice Minister of the Navy and Minister of Naval Aviation, served as the overall person in charge and commander of the plan.

The island nation's navy had already seen the threat of the air force to the navy during the previous surprise attack on the Hawaiian port. Coupled with the last bombing of Hiroshima by Australasia, the island nation's navy was even more aware that aircraft carriers sometimes have a restraining relationship with battleships.

In order to better cope with the naval battle with the Australasian Pacific Fleet, Isoroku Yamamoto mobilized a large number of elite troops of the island nation's navy and formed them into a newly formed island nation combined fleet.

In order to increase the chances of victory in all naval battles, Isoroku Yamamoto not only drew on the coastal defense fleets of the island nation's colonies, but also mobilized a large number of small and medium-sized warships, restoring the total tonnage of the island nation's navy to about 107 million tons.

In the commander configuration of the Combined Fleet, Commander-in-Chief Yamamoto Isoroku served as the Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet with the rank of Lieutenant General.

The commander of the original island nation fleet was transferred to serve as Chief of the General Staff, and he and Isoroku Yamamoto jointly managed this large fleet.

However, the biggest problem at present is that it is difficult for the navy of Hiroshima to gather in Tokyo. There are always a large number of Australasian planes hovering over Hiroshima. If these planes cannot be diverted, the mobilization of the Hiroshima navy will easily attract the attention of the Australasian Air Force, and the movements of the entire combined fleet will fall into the eyes of Australasia.

In order to attract attention, Yamamoto Isoroku decided to sacrifice Kyushu Island, western Honshu Island, and part of the Army Air Force on Shikoku Island.

Only airplanes can attract the attention of other airplanes. In order to complete the combat mission of the Combined Fleet, the Army Air Force must of course be sacrificed.

Perhaps only Yamamoto Isoroku himself knew whether he was motivated by personal revenge, but in the face of such a major issue, no matter how unwilling the Army Air Force was, they could only grit their teeth and endure everything silently.

However, this also intensified the conflict between the Army and the Navy. If they were just tripping each other up before, the relationship between the two sides became more intriguing after Yamamoto Isoroku proposed the plan of sacrificing the Army Air Force.

But Yamamoto Isoroku couldn't care less now. If this naval decisive battle failed, not to mention the contradictions between the army and navy of the island nation, even the island nation's government might not exist.

And Yamamoto Isoroku, the proposer of the plan for a decisive naval battle, will inevitably become a sinner before the war fails and take the blame for some high-ranking government officials.

This naval decisive battle can not only determine the fate of the island nation's navy, but also the fate of the island nation's naval high-ranking officials, including Isoroku Yamamoto himself.

Starting from August 1937, 8, under the organization of Isoroku Yamamoto, the island nation's Combined Fleet launched several large-scale exercises to simulate the deployment of various fleets in the entire naval decisive battle, so as to discover and solve problems as early as possible.

On August 1937, 8, approximately 6 aircraft belonging to the island nation's Army Air Force launched a large-scale attack on the occupied areas of Australasia on Kyushu Island.

This anomaly was quickly reported to the Australasian Air Force and eventually to the Department of Defense and the General Staff.

At this time, Australasian Chief of Staff Malone and Defense Minister Thomas were sitting together, discussing how to prevent the island nation's navy from launching a dying counterattack.

Hearing the island nation's air force's unusual behavior, the two smiled at each other and quickly thought of the first step of the island nation's navy's dying counterattack plan mentioned earlier, which was to gather all naval forces.

Since it is a dying counterattack, it is necessary to gather most of the main forces of the island nation’s navy in order to pose a sufficient threat to the Australasian fleet.

At present, a considerable part of the island nation’s fleet is trapped in the waters of Hiroshima, and these fleets must be rescued in order to achieve the ultimate goal of the island nation’s navy.

If you think about it this way, the unusual behavior of the island nation's air force can be explained. A large number of air forces made sacrifices for the navy, which is indeed something that those crazy islanders can do.

Of course, the two of them didn't know that all the victims were from the island nation's army aviation team. If they knew this information, they might have smiled even more.

The navy and the army are the two most important military forces of a country. Once a very fierce conflict breaks out between the two, it means that the country has considerable problems from the root.

It would be better to hope that Mount Fuji will erupt immediately and force the outcome of the war into a draw than to expect that two seemingly united but actually disunited and even mutually hostile military forces can cooperate to win the war.

After all, Japan would no longer exist after the outbreak, so it would be impossible for it to be defeated by Australasia.

"Minister Thomas, what do you think?" Chief of Staff Malone looked at Defense Minister Thomas with a smile on his face and asked in a very relaxed manner.

"Let's follow the planned plan and let the islanders successfully gather these warships." Thomas also had a smile on his face, and didn't even care about the actions of the island nation's navy behind him: "After all, only by gathering together can we eliminate the island nation's naval power faster. As long as the island nation's navy no longer exists, this country will no longer be able to pose a threat to us." Malone nodded, and he agreed with Thomas' words.

Although the current air force of Australasia can completely prevent the naval forces of the island countries from joining together, the problem is that as long as the naval forces of the island countries stay in the port, Australasia will not be able to quickly destroy the naval forces of the island countries in a short period of time.

It has to be admitted that with the island countries vigorously developing their navies, their navies still have a certain scale and can pose a threat to the Pacific Fleet of Australasia.

The island nation's navy, which is still combat-capable, is like a sword of Damocles, and any carelessness will pose a huge security risk to the scattered fleet of Australasia.

In this case, it would be better to eliminate all the naval forces of the island nation at once, turning the island nation into a docile little lamb, quietly waiting for the arrival of the butcher knife of Australasia.

"Although the island nation's navy is unlikely to pose a threat to us, it is still necessary to pay attention to the enemy." Malone said, "How about this, we withdraw two aircraft carriers, one battleship and one battlecruiser from the Indian Ocean Fleet to ensure that our Pacific Fleet has sufficient strength.

No matter what the islanders want to do, we have enough confidence to fight to the end. I believe our submarines will not let us down, and it is time to let those damn islanders understand what a truly powerful navy is. "

Thomas was stunned for a moment, then nodded with a smile, and said with a bit of a smile: "Why are you so cautious now?
I remember that during the so-called First World War, you led the 19th Native Division and were the fastest among us."

Ma Long smiled and explained, "Isn't this the implementation of the concept proposed by His Majesty to minimize losses? If we lose many main warships in the naval battle with the islanders, I'm afraid His Majesty will definitely scold us.

Besides, we were leading an indigenous division at that time, so there was nothing to worry about. It’s different now. All I have under my command are elite Australasian troops. Every life of them is extremely precious, so I have to treat them with more caution.”

Hearing what Malone said, Thomas' smile faded, and his face became serious and earnest: "Yes, we do need to be more cautious when dealing with the lives of the soldiers."

Speaking of which, both Thomas and Malone were from the Guards and successfully became division commanders during World War I.

Although he was only the commander of an indigenous division, the commander of a division during World War I was at least a senior military officer. After accumulating experience for more than 20 years after World War I, both of them climbed to the highest level of the Australasian military.

With the accumulation of experience and having experienced large-scale wars such as the two world wars, the two men naturally understood the fragility of life in war.

It is precisely because of this that the two men admire Arthur's attitude of attaching great importance to the lives of soldiers.

"Speaking of which, it's time to end the war on the island country." After a moment of silence, Ma Long spoke first.

"What's going on? Is there anything happening in Europe?" Thomas asked.

As the Minister of Defense, Thomas has a very difficult task every day. Currently, most of the wars in Europe are handled by the General Staff, while the Ministry of Defense is responsible for the training of new soldiers and the supply of weapons and equipment in the country.

"We underestimated the combat effectiveness of the German army, and also overestimated the combat effectiveness of the French and Russian armies." Malone shook his head with a wry smile and explained to Thomas: "Can you believe it? The Germans only used less than 100 million troops to hold back the 300 million French troops. This is simply crazy.

Now I understand why Paris was captured. The French had completely lost their fighting spirit after World War I. Their army was not even as good as the colonial army. "

After hearing what Malone said, Minister Thomas immediately understood what was happening in Europe.

Currently, the two main battlefields in Europe are the French battlefield and the Russian battlefield.

Current intelligence has confirmed that Germany has deployed at least 200 million troops in the Eastern European battlefield, which also means that the German army in the Western European battlefield is likely to be less than one million.

The size of the Allied forces in the Western European battlefield was that France alone had more than 300 million troops. Adding a large number of British troops, the size of the British and French armies was close to 400 million.

But these 400 million British and French troops were simply unable to break through the German army's defense line.

Not to mention counterattacking the German mainland, even returning to the French capital of Paris seems very difficult at the moment.

In addition, since Spain had already entered the war, France had to send a considerable number of troops south to protect the French-Spanish border.

In this way, the German army can almost easily hold the current front line and create more time for the Eastern European battlefield.

"Damn it." Thomas touched his beard and felt a headache.

This situation was not anticipated by Australasia. After all, no one would have thought that an army three or four times its size would not be able to break through the German army's defense line.

"It seems that we have to deal with the islanders as soon as possible. After this naval battle, the island army should be more focused to protect their capital, Tokyo.

If it is confirmed that a large number of troops are gathered in Tokyo, then it is time to start our final plan. "After thinking for a moment, Thomas looked at his old partner, Chief of Staff Malone, and said:

We have been preparing for too long, and it is time for the world to understand that Australasia is the protagonist in this war.”

Malone also nodded, not hiding his radicalism at all, and said with a smile: "I am also tired of the current war. Compared with the European battlefield, the war in the Pacific is just like a game of house.

Let’s quickly deal with the Japanese. I’m more eager to fight the Germans. It would be best if I could personally see the strength of the country that was once the world’s number one land power.”

(End of this chapter)