afterglow

Chapter 443 This is a kind of self-confidence; sending out unexpected troops

December 12, 5:11, Torres Strait.

A PBY Catalina seaplane belonging to the Royal Australian Navy is on patrol.

The crew members were shocked to see a scene that they thought was dazzling - two Ming army warships and an aircraft carrier were crossing the strait westward.

That aircraft carrier is being towed forward by a Ming army warship. Its appearance... is exactly the same as the Lexington? !

"Oh my God, what the hell happened?"

"You must have read it wrong, Victor, bring me the identification manual."

Several crew members snatched the ship type identification manual back and forth.

After comparisons and comparisons, it was finally unanimously determined that this was indeed the Lexington, which was confirmed to have sunk on its own a day ago.

Three minutes later a telegram was sent to Townsville, then to Melbourne and finally to Hawaii.

"That's completely impossible!"

"Mr. Commander, the location and circumstances found are all facts. This is the only possibility."

At the Pacific Fleet headquarters in Pearl Harbor, Admiral Hasband-Kimmel looked incredulous.

Seeing the affirmative tone of his adjutant, Colonel Dean, the admiral's eyes finally dimmed.

With a bad temper, he hammered the table hard, his eyes became stern, and he asked angrily: "Has the report of the Mastin been confirmed?"

"Yes Commander, the rescued officers and pilots all saw multiple torpedo explosions."

"Damn it! Report the situation to the Southwest Pacific Theater Command immediately and ask them to use all their strength to carry out air strikes!"

"Yes! Sir!" Colonel Dean stood at attention and saluted, then turned around and prepared to leave the office.

But before he stepped out, he heard Haspen's voice coming from behind again, "Not just aircraft, we should also take action immediately when deploying submarines there. Then... Damn it, who can tell me, Why didn’t (half the) torpedoes explode!”

Little did they know that half of the torpedoes detonating were extremely lucky.

Historically, in the early and middle stages of the Pacific War, the Mk14 torpedoes used by US submarines and the Mk15 torpedoes used by surface ships had serious dumb bomb problems, and the probability of firing failure was as high as %.

In July 1943, the Black Trevally submarine commanded by Captain Das-Pitt ambushed the Nanto Maru, Japan's largest oil tanker at the time. All four torpedoes in the first round hit, and none exploded.

After the Nandu Maru escaped, the unwilling people chose to surface and speed up the pursuit. After a whole night, the Black Trevally occupied the firing position again, fired two mines and successfully exploded, but did not sink.

So the Black Trevally fired nine more torpedoes one after another, but none detonated. An angry Das-Pitt recorded in his logbook: "I can hardly believe what I witnessed."

Later, the Black Trevally took back the only remaining torpedo in the boat, and after inspection it was found to be in normal working condition.

The Naval Ordnance Bureau flatly denied that there was a problem with the torpedo itself. Instead, it blamed the submarine force for not following the correct steps to set the torpedo parameters.

【Picture】

Americans often show a strange arrogance, that is, they continue to insist on their own ideas despite having lessons learned and reference experience.

Usually, this kind of mysterious self-confidence is often ridiculed by future generations, for example:

The mobile iron coffin of the Seven Brothers - M3 Grant medium tank.

Magical kinetic iron rod torpedo - Mk14/Mk15 torpedo.

Forcibly implement full-power ammunition - 7.62×51mm NATO rifle ammunition.

Maybe...this is a kind of confidence?

"...The Townsville Air Force is already planning an air attack on the Lexington. They now have 15 B-17s available. Sir...sir?"

On the bridge of the West Virginia, the adjutant was reporting the latest situation, but found that the commander was distracted.

The immediate superior was so outraged that the person directly responsible for the capture of the Lexington, Major General Frank Fletcher, became even more frustrated.

It is basically certain that he will take the blame.

"The capture of the Lexington means the eternal shame of the U.S. Navy in the future." He sighed.

The defeated remnants of the TF-12 fleet initially retreated to Moresby. At that time, the Ming Air Force had not yet carried out large-scale air strikes on the local airport, so the remnants of the fleet were still under the protection of the US-Australia coalition aviation.

However, as air supremacy fell into the hands of the Ming army, the D-12 Squadron also approached Moresby. Therefore, the TF- fleet, which had only been hastily repaired in the port for a day, was forced to set sail again and head to Australia under the cover of night.

The Ming air force units stationed in Rabaul and Tulagi were trying their best to suppress Moresby, so they ignored this defeated army.

Another reason is that for more than a week before, the fleets of the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Netherlands Navy have been operating in the Solomon Sea - preventing the Ming army from landing in the northern part of the Papua Peninsula from Rabaul.

Therefore, the Ming Air Force has been working hard to deal with them during this period, and the aviation torpedoes stored at Rabaul and Tulagi airports have been exhausted.

Now, with the defeat of the TF-12 fleet, the Dutch and Australian forces can only withdraw in anger and retreat to the Australian mainland.

The sea off Moresby has been occupied by dozens of Ming Dynasty navy ships, and countless soldiers climbed down from the rope net and boarded the landing craft that was launched not long ago.

Then, hundreds of small boats swept across the sea like a long, fine comb, leaving behind conspicuous white tracks.

Smoke and dust were still rising in the depth of the landing point. It was the Ming fleet that extended its artillery fire and was carrying out blocking and hindering shooting at the enemy's depth.

Explosions occurred from time to time on the sea near the beach, with water columns rising into the sky and large waves like blooming ice cream. It was the beach front selection battalion of the 1st Marine Brigade blasting away obstacles placed by the enemy.

More than twenty Type 35 amphibious tanks sailed into the sea from a dedicated landing ship. The engines roared, the tracks paddled through the water, and the propellers at the tail rotated at high speed, driving the small tanks forward.

As the first echelon of landing troops was about to land, artillery fire from deep on the land finally came. More and more water columns suddenly appeared on the sea, and sand, dust and gunpowder smoke raised by the explosion also appeared on the beach.

"After all, this is a strategic location that has been in operation for a long time, and the artillery fire here is even fiercer than that in Darwin." Yao Liangchuan said.

Zhu Lizhuo, who was holding a high-power telescope, observed carefully and hesitated: "There should be four to five artillery battalions in total, but only half of them are firing now. Look at the force of these falling bullets... Some of them are two-inch Half a light cannon."

His judgment was very accurate. The more powerful bullets came from the QF 4.5-inch howitzer, while the less powerful bullets came from the M7897 75mm field gun.

You don't need to guess that the latter is the work of the Americans. More and more military assistance weapons and equipment appear on the battlefield. Zhou Changfeng thought silently in his mind for a few seconds and then ordered: "It's almost done. Except for Section B, all other landing points will start smoke screen one minute in advance."

"As ordered!"

It is inappropriate to conduct a large-scale smoke screen from the beginning. This can easily cause the landing troops to lose their reference points and lead to deviation.

At the same time, the smoke screen will also hinder our own direct fire support.

In the final analysis, the landing operations these days are three-dimensional, unlike in later generations where there were such fancy things as airborne raids to the rear and hovercraft-assisted flank landings.

However, even if it is just a three-step ax that seems easy, it is extremely difficult to ensure that every detail is foolproof.

During several operations in the Nanyang Campaign more than half a year ago, the fire support ship that Zhou Changfeng had high hopes for performed poorly. The main drawback was that the stability of the sea platform was not as stable as that on land, and the ship was shaking all the time.

The accuracy of rocket launchers is inherently poor, so the spread is so large that it is meaningless - it looks fierce, but in fact it is equivalent to watching a fireworks show.

Therefore, some people complained privately that even the ideas of current rookies are not 100% reliable.

Despite this, Zhou Changfeng still insisted on continuing to improve the fire support ship. After all, if this thing is improved properly, it will definitely play a big role.

Unstable? Then find a way to make it stable!

Shipborne anti-aircraft guns generally use a three-axis stabilized gun mount - such as the 37mm hand-operated machine used by the Germans in history. Therefore, it is enough to copy the existing design and install a three-axis stabilized gun mount for the multiple rocket launcher.

In order to speed up the progress and reduce unnecessary trouble, the Naval Weapons Gezhi Research Institute directly copied the gun mount of the twin 38.4mm anti-aircraft gun, slightly enlarged it in the same proportion, and adapted it to the fifteen-unit rocket launcher.

After testing, the stabilization effect was obvious and the firing spread was significantly reduced. Therefore, three fire support ships modified with stabilized gun mounts were hurriedly mobilized to participate in the battle.

The Ming Navy has so far converted eight of the twelve old Taiping-class destroyers into fire support ships. If the three of them perform well this time, then all the remaining Taiping-class destroyers will also undergo modifications.

At 12:6 on December 8, several flares were launched from the beach.

The Marine officers and soldiers of about six infantry units of the first echelon successfully landed ashore, and none of the four landing points A, B, C and D encountered beachhead resistance.

The floating tank battalion also landed successfully, but one platoon was supposed to land in Section B, but ended up in Section C. Fortunately, the entire front was particularly calm.

Except for the constant falling shells and sporadic cold shots, there was not even a shadow of the enemy.

"Oh, I probably know what these people are planning."

Combining the current situation with the previous aerial reconnaissance photos, Zhou Changfeng had almost made a guess at this time.

He turned around and walked to Zhao Hanfeng. He first looked at the detailed map, then pointed at the sand table with his index finger and shook it.

"They estimate that they have deployed their main force in the fields and hills to the north of the city. There are only a few security forces here, and they plan to engage in deep resistance with us."

"It's useless, this is a stupid strategy." Zhao Hanfeng commented succinctly.

Zhou Changfeng smiled and said, "Prolonging the deep defense is stupid, but it is also a good way to extend the resistance time."

After a moment, he suddenly asked: "When can the troops from the North Road land?"

Generally consistent with Zhou Changfeng's guess, the Australian army's defense strategy in Moresby was to stick to the outer suburbs and resist in depth.

Major General Vernon Sturdy, who served as the commander of the Australian 8th Infantry Division, carefully studied past Ming army landing battles, and also specifically considered Zhou's command habits.

He believes that when one's own side fights under isolated conditions with the loss of sea and air control, it must avoid any meaningless loss of troops as much as possible, so that it can resist for a long time to buy time.

To sum up, only relying on pre-built solid fortifications can minimize the huge damage caused by the enemy's superior land, sea and air firepower and avoid unprotected field battles.

Based on this theory, the 8th Infantry Division moved the large amounts of military supplies accumulated by Moresby from urban warehouses to the hills, where they set up dozens of supply depots, field hospitals, and barracks, and carried out good camouflage.

At the same time, they built a large number of field fortifications based on the undulating and complex terrain. Because there was a lot of cement in the inventory, they also included a considerable number of concrete shelters and bunkers.

This makes it clear that we need to stay tight and defend. Although it reduces the possibility of losing troops due to unexpected circumstances, it will also make ourselves passive.

It can be said that Vernon's strategy was very negative, almost giving the initiative in the war to the Ming army.

In other words, he was mentally prepared to lose this battle from the beginning, and simply wanted to do his best to delay the Ming Dynasty's attack on Australia.

In this way, more than 8 Australian officers and soldiers of the 12th Infantry Division, 3th Independent Field Artillery Regiment (Batalion), and rd Independent Light Tank Company defending Moresby quietly waited for the strong wind in the solid defense line. A torrential attack came.

Zhou Changfeng was in no hurry to launch an attack hastily. Since the Australians showed no signs of taking the initiative to counterattack, he would slowly land and unload heavy weapons, and then organize an attack.

During this period, a partial division also quietly landed in a bay in the northeastern part of the Papua Peninsula.

This force includes a battalion of the 36th Infantry Division of the Ming Dynasty Army and a scout team of the 19th Infantry Division, as well as a battalion of the 2nd Infantry Division of the Annan Royal Army.

The first two were organized in Dali Prefecture and Guilin Prefecture, and were serious Yunnan and Guangxi troops.

This partial division of more than 1,300 people was commanded by Youzi Tao, the commander of the 107th Regiment. It was ordered to cross the Owen Stanley Mountains via the Kokoda Trail and surprise the Moresby defenders from the north.

The highest peak of the Owen Stanley Mountains reaches 4,000 meters. The environment is extremely dangerous and not suitable for human activities at all.

This ghost place is full of rapids, valleys, vines, rotten leaves, swamps, and jungles, and is infested with mosquitoes, locusts, parasites, and venomous snakes that carry malaria parasites and various germs.

Historically, the Battle of Kokoda Trail ended in victory for the Australian army. The main reason was that the Japanese army only had this main direction of attack at the battle level. The Kokoda Trail was too narrow and could not display its troops. In the end, it was defeated because of exhaustion of supplies.

This is not the case for the Ming army. Twenty thousand Ming troops have landed in Moresby and are launching an offensive from the front. The one taking the dangerous route of the Kokoda Trail is only a flanking division, and there are only more than a thousand people. The supply requirements are huge. rare.

After Zhou Changfeng learned about the complexity and difficulties here, he specially proposed to form such a carefully selected force, hoping to deal a severe blow to the Australian army's flank.

"Has the snakebite medicine gone? Apply ointment and other ointments. If you feel uncomfortable, just scream. If you feel stiff, you are asking for death!"

"Bring enough dry food and water purification tablets, one can for each group. Those who are in emergency situations are strictly prohibited from stealing food. If caught, they will be severely punished!"

"When the fire rises, we'll set out as soon as the meal is over. Move quickly. Soldiers need to be quick, so gather them together."

(End of this chapter)