Chapter 79: The final battle to conquer Australia Fifteen kilometers west of the fallen Shank Point, the Mornington Peninsula and the town of Sorrento are the last Allied positions on the Australian continent.
The winter rain that lasted for many days finally stopped temporarily, allowing this small piece of land surrounded by sea water on three sides to once again display the breathtaking and moving beauty.
The vast sea surface, which continuously changes from turquoise to light blue, shines under the bright sunshine.
From a distance, it looks as bright and soft as the finest silk.
It ripples slightly in the refreshing morning breeze, and then turns into Wave after wave of waves came one after another towards the shore, hitting the rocks on the seaside, making crisp waves and splashing with snow-white foam.
Everything is so refreshing that people can't help but indulge in it.
However, behind this magnificent scenery, there is a lot of murderous intent and haze.
Among the intoxicating waves, the wreckage of destroyed planes and ships was sinking and floating, leaking large black oil stains on the sea surface.
The originally quiet and elegant small fishing port and dense woods on the shore had been burned horribly by the flames of war, leaving only a series of black and ugly craters with embers still not cold, and smoke curling up in the sun.
Accompanied by the whistling sound that cut through the air, another group of Japanese dive bombers with round sun logos symmetrically painted on the wings on both sides spread their wings from the northern sky and began to intensively drop bombs on the Allied positions, attacking the already devastated areas.
Mornington Peninsula, dropping more incendiary bombs.
The next moment, the wooden houses and woods on the ground quickly burned, first piece by piece, then piece by piece, and finally fell into a sea of flames.
All kinds of howls, screams, and explosions came together, making people's scalp numb.
From time to time, a few unlucky ones who were on fire would stumble out of the woods and fall on the beach, turning into a pile of coke or barbecue.
Or by luck, they threw themselves into the sea water and wailed for a long time, half dead.
In the underground wine cellar of a beach hotel temporarily requisitioned by the Allies in the fishing port town of Sorrento, under the dim flickering kerosene lamp, the Australian Prime Minister John Cutting anxiously paced back and forth in this small area.
Like a lion in a cage.
At this time, on the frontline battlefield, gunshots were silent once again.
But this is just some kind of temporary truce between the two armies.
On one side are the three Japanese divisions that are well-prepared, with sufficient troops and supplies; on the other side are the Anglo-Saxon Allied Forces of the United States, Australia and New Zealand, which have no way to retreat, starve and die everywhere, and are disintegrating, fleeing, committing suicide and sporadic surrenders every day.
At this time, the total strength of the troops was less than 10,000, their vitality was severely damaged, and all their technical weapons were lost.
Those who survived were exhausted from the taste of war.
What will happen next is really chilling.
In the face of the overwhelming Japanese army, Australia's Allied forces no longer had any power to fight back.
The ocean no longer belongs to them.
All the sailable motor ships of the Allies have been destroyed, and there are not even many sampans left.
The sky has also been controlled by the enemy.
Except for the occasional few American planes that took advantage of the thick clouds to break through the blockade, hurriedly dropped some symbolic supplies, and then turned around and ran away, the enemy had forest-like ships and dark cloud-like aircraft.
There was a steady stream of them. soldiers, but the Allies had nothing, and they couldn't even kill their opponents.
Although the intensity of the Japanese attack at this time was not large, and the recent ground attacks were only superficial, they seemed to be continuing to use bombing, shelling, poison gas and starvation to "soften" the Allied forces in order to reduce the number of casualties on their own side. .
But the Allied troops on the Mornington Peninsula position could no longer hold on.
Everyone was deafened by the bombing, their hands and feet were so weak from hunger, their whole bodies were blackened by gunpowder smoke, covered with dirt, and most of their faces were still stained.
Bloody scabs.
The soldiers were haggard and the officers were sleepwalking.
They had little to eat, no water to drink, no sleep, and little ammunition left.
If asked about their wishes at this moment, I'm afraid they would just eat a good meal, drink a bottle of good wine, sleep with their legs stretched out, and move directly to God.
In fact, if the enemy on the other side was not the Japanese army, but troops from "civilized countries" in Europe and the United States, they would have surrendered long ago.
Such a gloomy current situation has made Prime Minister John Cutting become more and more depressed, and he no longer has the heart to deliver any passionate speeches or hysterical roars.
After moving to the town of Sorrento, he hid in the airtight wine cellar all day long, avoiding people.
He no longer wanted to pay much attention to the wailing of the frontline soldiers and the bad news of successive defeats.
The dull and numb eyes of soldiers and civilians when they occasionally saw him made Prime Minister Katyn even more sad.
If, when Prime Minister John Cutting had just withdrawn from Melbourne and retreated to Shank Point, he was somewhat lucky and hoped that his powerful American allies could save him, then now that he is trapped in Sorrento Town, , he was completely desperate.
However, even so, Prime Minister John Cutting continued to send telegrams to President Truman in the White House in Washington, begging them to give the Australians a hand anyway for the sake of the special relationship between English-speaking countries.
The meaning of desperate pleading was vividly written on the paper.
Above: “Has Washington decided that the Australian battlefield is irrelevant to the final outcome of the war?
Free novels bring you joy and joy ---> storyskyline.net
, so there is no need to expect assistance here at the moment, or at least there is no need to expect assistance until the resistance is exhausted.
If this is the case, I hope you can give me an accurate answer, because I have a responsibility to my own compatriots if I cannot lead them to rescue.
Homeland, win, then at least you can die for this country with them.”
Therefore, even though Australia was regarded as an abandoned son, President Truman still sent the submarine "White Pomfret" and sent Colonel Evans Carlson This is simply another Bataan Peninsula, or a hell on earth shrouded in death and hunger.
After setting foot on the last Allied positions on the Australian continent, Colonel Evans Carson, who temporarily served as the President's special envoy, had the above impression.
In this war-torn land, there is an atmosphere of despair and depression everywhere, which is almost overwhelming.
Almost all the soldiers we saw along the way, whether they were Americans, New Zealanders or Australians, were slovenly, sallow and even skinny.
The civilians were as thin as skeletons.
According to the introduction of the Australian major who accompanied the reception, the food reserves in the Mornington Peninsula are almost exhausted.
The civilians have no rations to distribute, and the soldiers only have one meal a day.
Therefore, these civilians were all so hungry that their eyes turned green.
In order to get something to eat, they had no regard for dignity and even risked their lives.
Colonel Carlson saw with his own eyes several women fighting over a fish that had been bombed ashore, and a group of skinny children squatting on the garbage heap, carefully holding the discarded empty cans with their fingers. of food residue.
Then carefully and carefully lick the food off your fingers Next, Colonel Carlson encountered several American soldiers with numb eyes, dragging a cart full of corpses staggering towards the seaside.
I saw them unloading the body onto the cliff by the sea, then taking off the clothes and shoes of the deceased, leaving it for the living to keep warm, and finally throwing the body directly into the sea.
Under the torture of long-term hunger, these living people were also weak.
It was so shaky that it no longer had the energy to dig a hole and bury the body.
In fact, these people who handled the corpses looked like walking zombies, lifeless.
However, when they noticed Colonel Carlson and the sailors following the colonel, hope immediately shone in their eyes.
He was so excited that he even cheered I'm sorry, children, the number of vacancies on the submarine is limited.
I'm afraid I can't save you.
Colonel Carlson lowered his head sadly and left quickly.
Next, in the town of Sorrento, Colonel Carlson visited the town's church that had been requisitioned as a hospital for wounded soldiers.
What he observed was even more disturbing.
The roof of the church had already been bombed by enemy planes.
Flying, pattering rain poured down, and hundreds of ragged wounded soldiers could only lie in the dirty mud.
They are so dirty, haggard, thin, and have dull eyes.
The nurses and doctors who are now half-starved to death have neither the medicine nor the strength to deal with them, so these guys can only lie here and wait to die, using The lunch box collects some dirty rainwater from the eaves and corners of the walls, and does not receive even the most basic care.
Many patients suffering from dysentery and typhoid fever were so hungry and sick that they were too weak to walk and could not go out to the toilet, so they had to deal with it on the spot, leaving their whole bodies covered in their own feces.
This will undoubtedly further accelerate the spread of the disease
However, these guys in ragged clothes, hungry, sick, lacking food and clothing, managed to withstand the brutal Japanese attacks on the isolated Australian continent.
The giant ship has a steady stream of supplies, but the Australian allies have nothing, but they still stick here with their love for their homeland.
Although he suffered repeated defeats, he still refused to retreat.
Unfortunately, human spiritual power has its limits after all.
When the prospect of war is completely hopeless and the doom of destruction is right in front of us, no matter how indomitable the warriors are, they will feel disheartened, and despair and fear will once again occupy the hearts of each of them.
The Australian Federation, which belongs to Western white people, is now destined to end in the long history of history.
When Colonel Carlson met Australian Federal Prime Minister John Cutting in an underground wine cellar in the town of Sorrento, he expected to see a tired, depressed, haggard and skinny old man with a decadent expression.
The hard fighting for days had obviously tortured him to the point of collapse.
However, after learning that Colonel Carlson's submarine successfully broke through the Japanese naval blockade and delivered about thirty tons of food, ammunition and medicine to himself, Prime Minister John Cutting suddenly became energetic and nervously He was holding Colonel Carlson's right hand tightly and shaking it violently, as if he saw the angel who saved him coming in front of him.
However, again, Next, when Colonel Carlson took out President Truman's autograph letter and invited Prime Minister John Cutting to go to the United States to form a government-in-exile, he was in a state of ups and downs.
He was stunned for a moment, and then became angry: "This is impossible.
I will never be corrupt.
We are cowards who are afraid of death.
We can continue to fight.
As long as we are alive, the yellow-skinned dwarfs will not be able to take away this land."
Free novels bring you joy and joy ---> storyskyline.net
"If your soldiers always have bullets in their guns, shoes on their feet, full stomachs, and aircraft cover above their heads, then the peninsula may be able to defend it for a while.
It's a pity that none of the above-mentioned prerequisites are included.
None of them exist.
I admit that your troops did fight bravely, but if we continue like now and let the boys fight with bare feet and hungry bellies, we will definitely not be able to win."
Colonel Carlson retorted unceremoniously, "Underwater smuggling using submarines like the current one can't bring you much at all every time.
It can only be said to be better than nothing, and it doesn't succeed every time.
So you are destined to lose the Japanese.
Please face the reality, Prime Minister, if you stick here you will die in vain.
You should go to Washington and London to do more meaningful things for your people."
"No, I will never leave.
Even if the future of this country is completely desperate, I will live and die with the people who trust me.
I am ready to die for the country with my men.
Including the grenade that exploded with the enemy."
John Prime Minister Katyn pointed to the drawer beside him.
"But what's the point?
For a person of your status, committing suicide does not represent courage.
It can only prove your cowardice, indicating that you do not have the courage to face past failures, let alone the confidence and perseverance to overcome difficulties.
Turn defeat into victory" Listening to Colonel Carlson's rebuke, Prime Minister John Cutting gradually calmed down and no longer insisted on staying here, but he did not immediately agree to go into exile in the United States.
After all, he still wanted to save face and express himself.
Having the courage to die for his country.
"Okay, I admit, there is not much point in staying here anymore.
But even so, the territory of the Australian Federation has not yet fallen.
Why not retreat to Tasmania and organize an anti-Japanese national salvation government nearby?
" What's the point of retreating to Tasmania?
Don't you feel too good about yourself?
After hearing this proposal from Prime Minister John Cutting's mouth, Colonel Carlson immediately wrinkled his face.
Tasmania is located in the southeast of the Australian mainland, facing Melbourne across the 240-kilometer-wide Bass Strait.
The island covers an area of about 90,000 square kilometers, which is more than twice the size of Taiwan Island.
It is famous for its platypus and giant lobster.
At first glance, this island is quite large and has good property conditions.
It seems that it can be used as a counterattack base.
But the problem is that these days, even the continent of Australia itself is full of wilderness, vast and sparsely populated.
Only 7 million people lived in a land of 8 million square kilometers.
The population density was almost the same as that of Tibet in later generations.
In Tasmania, which has a more remote geographical location and harsher climate and environmental conditions, the population at that time was even more pitiful.
The permanent residents had just exceeded 200,000.
There were virgin forests everywhere.
This place was actually just like the United States.
Just like Alaska, it only looks very big on the map.
In fact, it needs industry but not industry, and it needs agriculture but not agriculture.
Before it is truly developed, it will not be of any use at all.
To make matters worse, in the wars of the past few years, in order to maintain the consumption of the front line, the Australian government has conscripted a large number of strong men from Tasmania, the only relatively safe rear area, and transferred almost enough men to squeeze them out.
All strategic materials.
There is almost nothing left on the island except orphans and widows.
Even the cultivated land is deserted, and everyone is as hungry as the citizens of Melbourne.
Free novels bring you joy and joy ---> storyskyline.net
On the Australian mainland, the Allies can at least collect a group of people aged fourteen to forty.
The soldiers, armed with weapons provided by the United States, fought with their lives against the invading Japanese.
If we continue to retreat to Tasmania, then Prime Minister John Cutting may have to let a group of unarmed Boy Scouts and Women's Soldiers resist the Japanese landing.
What's more, according to several recent war games conducted by the U.S.
Pacific Fleet Command, until the strength of the Pacific Fleet is restored, the Japanese navy and army can almost do whatever they want in the Southwest Pacific Theater and are invincible.
Even New Zealand, which is two thousand kilometers away, is likely to fall and change hands during this wave of Japanese attacks, not to mention the island of Tasmania, which is located across Bass Strait and is just around the corner. .
Simply put, retreating from Melbourne to Tasmania is equivalent to jumping from one dead place to another, which is meaningless.
However, before the presidential envoy Colonel Carlson could figure out what words to use to dispel Prime Minister John Cutting's whimsical idea, Australian Army Commander Thomas Bremy, with his head wrapped in a bandage and his face sallow, looked like a skeleton.
The admiral burst in with a telegram in his hand, "Your Excellency has urgently received new bad news.
A Japanese army has just crossed the sea and landed on the island of Tasmania and invaded the island's capital, Hobart."
Colonel Carson and Prime Minister John Cutting: """" Just when the situation in the Melbourne war was decided, Admiral Yamashita Fengfumi, who was keen on taking risks, sent another division of troops to continue the southward expedition to Tasmania, regardless of the remaining enemy resistance.
Covered, successfully landed and captured the capital Hobart.
Faced with attacks from land and sea and the menacing Japanese invaders, the Australian federal local authorities on the island of Tasmania were extremely powerless because the last remaining effective force of the Australian army was trapped in Melbourne, and there were no troops on the island at this time. , also lacks weapons, and coastal defenses are better than nothing.
In the end, we can only let young and middle-aged women hold obsolete old-style rifles and go to the beaches and countryside to block the enemy's negligible resistance.
To describe it as "a mantis's arm is used as a chariot" is polite.
It can only be said to be a pretense.
Empowering one's own people to be emboldened only has symbolic significance in tactics.
Therefore, amidst the thundering cannon fire of dozens of Japanese battleships, cruisers and destroyers, Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, only resisted for less than a day and declared its fall.
Most of the women who temporarily picked up rifles Either flee hastily, or surrender numbly.
Although because of The island is too large for the newly arrived Japanese army to effectively occupy such a large area of land immediately.
Therefore, some of the most tenacious guys took the opportunity to escape from the city, dispersed into small groups, and sneaked into the countryside and mountains to continue fighting guerrillas.
However, this It is no longer possible to reverse the entire strategic defeat.
In fact, it was precisely because of the need to divide the troops to cover the army's crossing and landing in Tasmania that a considerable number of Japanese ships were removed from the Japanese fleet in the waters outside the exit of Phillip Bay, and the blockade was temporarily greatly weakened.
Colonel Carlson's "White Pomfret" Only then can the submarine sneak in In short, after the bad news of the fall of Tasmania came, the last bit of confidence among the Australian military and political leaders was shattered.
Colonel Carlson finally succeeded in carrying out his mission.
Leading Australian Federal Prime Minister John Cutting, Australian Army Commander General Thomas Bremy and other senior Australian government officials, as well as their family members and close confidants, they boarded the "White Pomfret" submarine at night and left Australia forever. mainland.
Behind them, as the leadership of the Australian Allied Forces fled, the Australian Federation, which had been struggling for several years, also came to an end oshow7: