afterglow

Chapter 611 The price of being unguarded; Haven’t you ever poked a hornet’s nest?

Its daybreak.

Fortunately, the western Australian desert was not very hot in March. More than 20 Ming army commandos lay quietly on the reverse slope of the hill and in the shallow pits in the gully, continuing to observe the enemy situation.

This time they chose desert fragment camouflage - with khaki as the base color, dotted with irregular fragments of tea brown and emerald green.

Their good camouflage allows them to fit in perfectly with the surrounding environment, blending in with the desert so well that it is difficult to distinguish them with the naked eye.

Hua Yao held up the binoculars and carefully identified the situation in the distance. The lenses were wrapped with fine mesh to prevent glare.

"It's very organized, but fortunately, the defenses are not very strict." He said lightly.

Cleveland Airport is just to the west and is laid out in the shape of a right triangle. The hypotenuse is the main runway with a total length of 2500 yards, two in parallel; the other two sides are narrower and shorter auxiliary runways, 1200 yards and 2000 yards respectively.

There are large open-air aprons around the runway, each dozens of meters apart, and olive green B-17 and B-24 heavy bombers are parked quietly.

Thick protective walls two people high were built on three sides of the apron with sand to minimize the damage caused by air strikes. Even if an aerial bomb accurately landed on the apron, it could only destroy one plane. The shock wave and fragments would be blocked by the sand protective wall to avoid affecting other aircraft.

There are dozens of anti-aircraft artillery positions near the airport, with one anti-aircraft gun after another pointing obliquely at the sky; further away, you can also see huge, grid-like radar antennas.

【Picture】

"This airport is really well-equipped. An airstrike can't paralyze it." Zhu Rensi pointed to the distance, "Look, there are a lot of bulldozers in those sheds in the northwest."

"So in the end it still depends on us." Hua Yao said nonchalantly: "Let's turn the world upside down."

The officers and soldiers of the Yiluansi were extremely patient, and everyone in the group was very calm - any rash action would be to play with their own lives.

After a long period of secret observation, they decided to use the trucks that were everywhere in the airport as evacuation vehicles and just grab a few in the chaos.

The time for the surprise attack was chosen to be after nightfall. In order to facilitate escape, Hua Yao also planned to have some team members support from the outside - to seize one or two armored vehicles, and then suddenly launch an attack with great fanfare.

The eleven officers and soldiers of the first squad were led by Zhu Rensi. They rode motorcycles along the road in a southwesterly direction and set up an ambush along the road two kilometers away from the airport.

Being so far away is for insurance purposes. Even if a mistake occurs and a shootout occurs, the US-Australian coalition forces in Port Hedland will not be able to hear the gunfire.

The railway and highway are built almost right next to the shore, and the vast blue sea is not far away.

After hiding their motorcycles, everyone quickly set up an ambush beside the roadbed, lying prone on the ground wearing camouflage cloth, and quietly waiting for the enemy to come.

Two motorized patrol teams passed by throughout the afternoon, but Zhu Rensi did not give the order to take action.

The surprise attack must be launched after the sun sets. If the patrol is ambushed too early, the long period of loss of contact may alert the enemy.

It was dark, and Hua Yao's complaints could be heard from the walkie-talkie.

"We should have fought the previous team, but you refused. What if we can't wait for the patrol team? We have to wait another day."

The US-Australian coalition forces were not very vigilant and had been safe for several months. At most, Ming army reconnaissance planes would occasionally come over to take a look.

They thought that the only potential risks were long-range air strikes by the Ming army and bombardment or landing by the fleet, and did not consider the possibility of surprise attacks by special forces at all.

The Australian Army deployed two infantry brigades (regiments), one militia brigade (regiment), and three coastal defense artillery regiments (battalions). The US Army deployed a military police company and an independent tank battalion, with a total strength of approximately 9,000 people.

Because they missed two patrols that passed by in the evening, the surprise attack had to be postponed for a day.

The officers and soldiers of the Yiluansi continued to lurk in the cold desert after nightfall, and there were also casualties - the scorpions and spiders in Australia were large, poisonous and disgusting.

The next day, three more patrols and a convoy passed by during the day.

In the evening, Zhu Rensi saw a four-wheel armored vehicle and an off-road vehicle driving from southwest to northeast, and he immediately decided to take action.

Corporal Taber let go of the M2 heavy machine gun and sat back in the co-pilot seat of the American-made M3A1 armored reconnaissance vehicle. The half-day patrol mission was about to end, and he now just wanted to return to the base and have a nice meal of hot dogs and ham.

"Is the damn chef going to make shit out of Spam and egg powder again?" Corporal Taber said casually.

The private driving the car shook his head and replied with a smile: "Then I'd rather pour it out than eat it."

At this time, he saw several large and small stones on the road ahead, so he stepped on the brakes to slow down and stop.

Why are there rocks blocking the road here?

A few people were puzzled and got out of the car and walked over to move it away.

The Willys Jeep following behind also stopped, and a private waved and asked: "Hey! Corporal! What happened?"

Corporal Taber looked back and said, "Just some rocks in the road..."

The unsuspecting American military police immediately paid the price for their laxity.

Corporal Taber felt as if someone had hit him twice in the chest. His body collapsed powerlessly and a series of dull popping sounds reached his ears.

Slacking off during war will only cost you your life!

The Ming army commandos used M7911 pistols equipped with silencers to fire suddenly at close range, accurately killing these simple and naive American military police.

Because the .7911ACP pistol bullet fired by the M45 is a subsonic bullet with a smaller sound, it is very suitable in this situation.

The bullet was manually cut off from the jacket, exposing the lead core inside. After entering the human body, the soft lead core immediately deformed and expanded, and the kinetic energy of the bullet was completely released and transferred into the human body.

Zhou Changfeng used to jokingly call this silenced pistol "Don't Bark, Dog", and later it became popular, and now everyone has become accustomed to this name.

Some fell to the ground with a thud, some fell down with a scream, and in just a few seconds, six American military police fell to the ground amid the dull sound of gunfire.

The painful howls and cries for help echoed throughout the wilderness, but no one came to rescue them even if they screamed at the top of their lungs.

Corporal Taber struggled to crawl towards the armored vehicle, trying to reach the radio microphone on it, leaving a trail of blood more than two meters long behind him, but he was immediately shot dead.

The Ming army commandos rushed forward, shooting the dying enemies in the neck one after another, sending them on the road to meet God.

Zhu Rensi replaced the magazine for his pistol and reported, "I'm done here. I'll hide the car first and start when the sun sets."

Hua Yao's voice came from the microphone, "Okay, check the clock. It's 5:31 now."

The armored vehicles and off-road vehicles quickly left the road and drove to a depression not far away.

The sky gradually darkened, and a deep black appeared in the east. In the night sky without light pollution, dense spots of stars could be seen.

At 18:00 in the evening, the surprise attack, which had been postponed for a day, was finally launched.

按计划来看，明天凌晨第77重型轰炸机联队又要执行对旧港油田的战略轰炸任务了，这次有31架B-17和22架B-24出击。

The ground crew planned to start refueling and loading bombs in the second half of the night, and now they were only doing inspections. As for the crew members? They were drinking and playing cards in the pilots' club, and they would not stop until midnight at the earliest.

The wooden house was not soundproof, and the laughter could be heard far away in the night. The mechanic who was checking the condition of the machine complained unhappily: "Those guys are so happy!"

No one realized the crisis was approaching.

Such an amazing and desirable special forces surprise attack would definitely be very cool if it were shown in a film or TV series, where they would successfully infiltrate the outer defense line after going through numerous obstacles and difficulties.

But the reality is often quite the opposite of what is shown on screen.

Now, the eleven Ming army commandos, led by Hua Yao, easily crossed the perimeter of the airport, as if they were taking a walk in their own backyard, without encountering any difficulties.

The US-Australian coalition forces simply dug a shallow trench around the Cleveland Airport and built a low wall with sand. There were no visible or hidden sentries, and the barbed wire and mines only existed at the airport gate.

The security patrol team consisted of two Willys jeeps, which made a circle every twenty minutes on average. There were three patrol teams simultaneously around the perimeter of the entire airport, with each patrol team approximately six minutes apart.

So the officers and soldiers of the Yiluansi strolled into the largest air force base in western Australia.

If future screenwriters and directors wanted to make a movie based on this, they would have to fabricate the story with extra embellishment.

"Thump, thump—thump—"

Suddenly, a burst of gunfire was heard from the west, followed by more sporadic gunfire.

The team that was trying to make a feint to the east and attack in the west took action on time and immediately attracted the enemy's attention.

“Swish—swish—boom! Boom!”

Mortar shells also fell, and a wooden house was torn into pieces in the explosion, with burning fragments flying in the air.

Although half of the support team had only six people, they carried a 64mm mortar and two MG40 general-purpose machine guns. The mortar had eight rounds of ammunition. They fired in sequence from a distance based on the parameters calculated over the past two days.

Hua Yao felt his heart filled with excitement. He raised his hand and waved it forward, ordering, "Get to work! Teach these stupid idiots a lesson!"

The second team quickly split into three groups and carried out improvisational surprise attack missions at the same time.

The American mechanic on the tarmac had no idea what was happening. He stood there looking around and was soon shot dead by a silenced pistol.

A sergeant climbed up the gangway into a B-17 bomber and collided head-on with an American mechanic inside. Both of them were startled.

But the Ming army commandos obviously reacted faster, and the unfortunate mechanic was shot down by three shots while he was still in a daze.

The sergeant reached toward the cockpit with a flashlight, threw a thermite incendiary grenade onto the instrument panel, took out a sticky blasting charge, placed it at his feet, and lit the fuse.

He quickly ran to the cabin door and jumped down. A loud bang was heard from the nearby apron. Obviously someone was faster than him.

After destroying one plane, everyone immediately ran to the next one. Although the U.S. military was now completely in the dark and had no idea what the situation was, the officers and soldiers of the Yiluansi believed that they had been exposed psychologically, so they inevitably sped up.

They no longer even entered the cabin to carry out damage, but instead used a dagger to cut open the thin aluminum alloy skin, made a hole to stuff thermite grenades in, or placed sticky blasting explosive packs at the root of the main wing.

The burning thermite emits a dazzling white light, and the high temperature of more than 2,000 degrees burns steel and aluminum alloys into molten liquid.

The main body of the sticky blasting explosive pack is a mixture of ammonium picrate and barium nitrate, but one side of the adsorption layer is coated with strong adhesive. After tearing off the cover, be careful not to get your hands stuck.

Amid the continuous explosions, one expensive heavy bomber after another suffered fatal damage...

On the north side of the apron, three commandos were searching for the oil depot but couldn't find it.

Just when they were getting angry, they inexplicably ran into dozens of panicked US-Australian coalition crew members.

They were having a great time in the club, but were startled by the sudden sound of gunfire and quickly fled.

Good boy! Come over to deliver food!
"My dear, what are you doing?"

Such a ridiculous one-sided killing took place at the Cleveland airport.

There were continuous short bursts of "da da" fire, and several people were knocked down in one encounter.

The 7.36×40㎜ intermediate-power bullet flies out of the muzzle at a speed of 740m/s, penetrating the skin, breaking bones, and tearing apart internal organs!
Only a few crew members carried pistols when they played, but their counterattacks were so weak that they were not worth mentioning and were only symbolic.

Dying bodies fell to the ground one after another, and the flowing blood silently told how tragic the consequences of losing vigilance were...

At 18:15, the support team one kilometer east of the airport was on high alert with MG40 general-purpose machine guns mounted on the ground, and sent a code word via radio to indicate that the surprise attack was a success.

A few minutes later, warm cheers and admiration broke out in the headquarters of the Surabaya Naval Base.

At 18:23, the garrison at Cleveland Airport finally realized that the enemy had infiltrated, so they sent out patrols to clear them out.

"Boom——"

The deafening roar instantly drowned out all the noise, and the blazing flames illuminated the faces of everyone in the airport.

The C2 oil depot in the southeast corner of the airport was blown up by Yiluansi soldiers, and more than 100 -gallon aviation gasoline barrels were burned.

Several Ming army commandos looked back at their masterpiece, the huge fireball reflected in their eyes.

The explosion at the oil depot added to the chaos at the Cleveland Airport.

Soon, several flares were launched into the air, and a panicked US military patrol arrived in a car.

Like frightened birds, the American soldiers fired indiscriminately at any suspicious figures. Many people were hit by mistake, and even some officers' cars were hit by friendly fire.

Hua Yao's left arm was scratched by a stray bullet, but seeing that there was not much bleeding, he did not rush to bandage it.

He calmly observed the situation around him and judged that now would be a good time to evacuate. If he delayed any further and waited for the US military to fully react, it would be difficult to escape.

"Stop! Retreat!"

Nine Yiluansi officers and soldiers climbed into two GMC CCKW heavy trucks, and the only two injured people were also carried on board.

"We retreat! Get out from the southeast corner!" Hua Yao shouted into the walkie-talkie.

Several U.S. patrols in M2 half-track vehicles and M3 reconnaissance vehicles tried to give chase, and 7.62mm and 12.7mm machine gun bullets were fired from all directions!
The powerful ten-wheeled truck rushed to the outskirts of the airport, and people in the carriages were constantly hit by flying bullets.

"Damn it! The bastards saw us and are still chasing us!"

"Didn't you poke a hornet's nest when you were a kid?" Hua Yao replaced the magazine for his rifle and said calmly, "It's normal."

"Report, I really didn't do it."

(End of this chapter)