Rise of Australia

Chapter 932 Three-way Attack
Late July 1937 was a period of repeated tests of confidence for the island nation.

Before Australasia launched a large-scale attack, the island nation's army still firmly believed that it could defend its homeland and wait for the opportunity to launch a final battle with Australasia.

But after the full-scale offensive of Australasia was officially launched, the island government suddenly discovered that its seemingly powerful army and navy had various problems and were defeated under the attack of the Australasia army.

In fact, this cannot be blamed on the army. At least the performance of the island nation's army in this war is still remarkable, and the combat effectiveness of the Type A and Type B divisions can be called an elite army.

As for the Type C Division, which was mostly composed of new recruits, it was an army that was hastily mobilized upon the outbreak of the war, so it is forgivable that its combat effectiveness was appalling.

On the other hand, the navy consumes a large amount of the island government's financial budget every year, but has almost no credit in the war.

The navy took the initiative to attack the Hawaiian ports, but was quickly defeated with the cooperation of the Australasian Navy and Air Force. The naval aviation team lost hundreds of aircraft, and the island nation's navy also lost many main warships.

Then, Australasia took the initiative to attack Hiroshima's naval base. It was also a surprise attack, and Australasia achieved considerable success, sinking many of the island country's main warships and destroying the island country's naval aviation fleet.

The huge gap in the results between the two sides has proved that the island nation is lagging behind in the navy. More importantly, the island nation, which is lagging behind in all aspects of the navy and air force, has no great hope in this war.

As for whether the army can resist the attack from Australasia, we can get a rough idea from the current situation of hundreds of thousands of troops stationed on Kyushu Island.

Faced with the situation where almost all the three armed forces of Australasia were deployed, let alone the Kyushu Island garrison which was mostly composed of Type C divisions, even the several Type A divisions stationed in Tokyo would probably be powerless.

No matter how the island government's mentality changes, Kyushu Island cannot be ignored for now.

There is no way. Kyushu Island is not only the gateway to the southern part of the island country, but also very important for the island country’s occupied areas in the Far East.

If Kyushu Island is lost, it means that the Korean region that the island nation has worked so hard to manage will also face a major crisis.

By then, the island country would truly become an isolated island, facing the blockade of the Australasia Navy without any support or supplies.

The question arises again. Since we want to support Kyushu Island, we must send a sufficient number of troops to provide support.

The problem is that the island nation's mainland is almost entirely exposed to the Australasian Air Force, and large-scale military movements are bound to be hidden from the Australasians.

This is also the biggest problem faced by a small territory. When the air force does not have an advantage, the domestic military mobilization situation is almost exposed to the enemy.

This means that the troops supporting Kyushu Island are likely to face attacks from the Australasian Air Force, or even directly use the navy to block them between the island nations of Honshu and Kyushu.

Here we have to mention the situation of the island country. The island country is not a complete island, but an island country composed of four large islands as the main body, plus many small and medium-sized islands and archipelagos.

The four islands are Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku and Hokkaido. Honshu has the largest area among the mainland islands, even exceeding the total of the other three islands.

It is also because of this that most of the island nation’s troops are deployed on Honshu Island. After all, Honshu Island has important cities such as Osaka, Hiroshima, Nagoya and Tokyo.

Tokyo alone is worth the island government's deployment of a large number of troops for garrison.

If the army from Honshu Island wanted to go to Kyushu Island, they had to cross the Kanmon Strait (also known as the Shimonoseki Strait or the Shimonoseki Strait) between the two islands.

Before the war broke out, there was a bridge across the Kanmon Strait, which was an important channel for communication between the two places.

But after Australasia deployed an air force base in the Ryukyu Islands, the first mission it carried out was to comprehensively bomb various bridges in the island country.

The Kanmon Strait Bridge was the first target of bombing by the Australasian Air Force because it connected the islands of Honshu and Kyushu, linking the two distant islands together.

It is very difficult to repair such a cross-strait bridge, and it is even more impossible for the island country to mobilize a large amount of manpower and material resources to repair the bridge when Australasia aircraft often circle around.

After all, doing so would only provide the enemy with a live target. Australasia only needs to carry out one more bombing to destroy all the efforts made by the island nation to repair the bridge.

Without the Strait Bridge, communication between the two places has indeed become much more difficult. There are only two ways for the army of Honshu Island to go to Kyushu Island. One is to use special small ships to build a floating bridge, and the other is to use small assault ships to quickly transport a large number of soldiers back and forth.

But the problem is that both methods are risky for the current island nation. Australasia cannot be unaware that the island nation will definitely provide support, and the air force will certainly be on high alert for the strait connecting the two islands.

Under such circumstances, it is easy to imagine how difficult it would be to transport hundreds of thousands of troops to Kyushu Island.

Once discovered by the Australasian Air Force while crossing the strait, the only outcome for the island nation's troops crossing the sea might be death.

But there is no way. After the cross-sea bridge was destroyed, the island country only has these two ways to mobilize the army.

In order to mobilize troops to Kyushu Island as quickly as possible, the island government decided to adopt two methods at the same time, striving to transport at least 30 troops to Kyushu Island across the strait within a week.

Why is it a week?
Because according to the forecast given by the island country’s Army Department, if the Kyushu garrison cannot be supported within a week, the Kyushu garrison with insufficient reinforcements will most likely be eliminated by Australasia.

While the island government was hurriedly formulating a support plan, Australasia was also formulating a plan to attack Tokyo.

As mentioned before, the purpose of this operational plan is to concentrate the island nation’s troops in as many areas as possible so that they can be destroyed in one go with an atomic bomb.

These areas were also carefully selected, namely Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo.

According to these five cities, the location and number of atomic bombs dropped in Australasia are basically determined. Smaller cities, such as Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Osaka and Nagoya, will basically only drop one atomic bomb, the purpose of which is also to kill large numbers of island countries' troops.

As for Tokyo, it is the capital of the island nation and the area where the island nation's army is stationed with the largest scale. In order to effectively destroy the island nation's army, Australasia is very likely not to drop only one atomic bomb.

According to the current temporary plan of the combat operation, the number of atomic bombs dropped on Tokyo is about five, which can basically cover the areas around Tokyo where military fortresses may be deployed.

Although doing so would also cover most of the Tokyo metropolitan area, Australasia, which was forced to fight, would not consider that too much.

After the victory of this war, Arthur did not intend to retain the so-called emperor of the island nation. If the island nation could be controlled, then Australasia would fully control the economy of the island nation and train the island nation into a loyal and obedient dog. But if the people of the island nation were not so obedient, then the island nation would be split into two countries and go to civil war with each other, just like Korea in later history.

However, the difference is that the two island nations after the split are all under the control of Australasia. A war between the two countries will also ensure that Australasia's military weapons will not have to worry about the supply lines, and even the weapons experiments will not have to worry about it at all.

More importantly, given the island nation's current large population, even if it is split into two countries, each country will still have a population of more than 3000 million.

By this calculation, the country after the split still has certain economic value and is qualified as a dumping ground for industrial products.

Considering that the population of the island nation in the future has reached hundreds of millions and the economy is relatively good, it seems that no matter which method is used to control the island nation, it will not be a loss for Australasia.

On July 1937, 7, the same day that the island nation's Army Department officially issued an order to support Kyushu Island, the remaining troops in Australasia also officially fired the first shot to land in Tokyo.

Although Tokyo was the top priority of the attack, Arthur did not plan to waste 120 million Australasian troops in an attack on Tokyo.

To be honest, the island nation’s garrison in Tokyo is likely to exceed one million, a considerable number of which are Type A and Type B divisions.

Even if the Australasian army were to go out in person, facing the defense of millions of island troops, it would inevitably suffer heavy casualties.

It would be better to let the Philippine and Kalimantan troops fill the gap. Arthur didn't expect them to capture Tokyo anyway. For Arthur, as long as these Philippine and Kalimantan troops could attract the attention of the island army and attract as many island troops as possible to support Tokyo, it meant that they had completed their mission.

The question is, where is the target of the attack by millions of Australasian troops?

Turning the map to the northernmost part, the Australasian army's destination is Hokkaido, one of the four islands and the northernmost part of the island nation.

Why attack Hokkaido?

From a geographical point of view, Hokkaido is located in the northernmost part of the island country. It has a vast area and a sparse population, and its economy is completely inferior to that of the major cities in Honshu.

But it is precisely because of its geographical location that it is very close to Russia's Far East.

Although Russia has not yet intervened in this war, it is essential to be on guard against Russia. If Arthur worked hard to win the island nation but the Russians stole the peach, it would be unacceptable in any case.

Therefore, when launching the attack, Arthur specifically requested that the Australasian army mainly attack Hokkaido, the Chiba Islands and South Sakhalin Island.

These areas were not included in the Australasian atomic bomb bombing plan because of their vast area and sparse population.

Whether or not the army could capture these areas had no impact on the plan to drop the atomic bomb.

Moreover, judging from the deployment of the island nation’s military on Honshu Island, they do not have many troops to defend other areas.

Perhaps there will be more troops stationed in Hokkaido, but it will definitely not exceed one million. As for the territories outside the mainland, such as South Sakhalin Island and the Chiba Islands in the north, the number of island troops will naturally be smaller.

From the overall attack plan on the island nation, it can be seen that the Australasian army was roughly divided into three directions. 80 troops were sent to the west, and the main plan was to attack the island nation of Kyushu.

One million troops were dispatched to the central direction. The main plan was to attract the main forces of the island country to several key cities to facilitate the subsequent bombing mission.

120 million troops were sent to the northeast, with the main plan being to occupy these areas.

The combat mission in the central region was the most difficult, but the number of troops was not large. Because of this, Arthur had no intention of occupying Tokyo at all.

Although it is impossible to capture this huge city, the best way is to destroy it directly.

However, the specific bombing time will have to wait until the island government has involuntarily gathered all its troops. Since the atomic bomb is to be dropped, the problem of the island government’s army must be solved once and for all.

As to whether dropping the atomic bomb would bring lasting grief to the people of the island nation, the responsibility can also be shifted to the current island nation’s government.

After all, the main reason why Australasia declared war on the island country was that the island country took the initiative to attack Australasia's ports.

It's no problem to take the blame in the war for this kind of self-destructive behavior.

Although the full-scale attack on the island country has been launched, Arthur still feels very relaxed.

Two of the three services, the navy, the army and the air force, have advantages, and this advantage will also make the offensive pressure of the Australasian army much easier.

Moreover, with the atomic bomb as the ultimate trump card, this war cannot be lost no matter how you think about it. Unless the islanders can develop the atomic bomb in a short period of time and quickly build a strong navy and air force.

But is this realistic?
Not to mention the island countries that are now under a complete blockade, even the island countries that were not blockaded before the war could not do so much.

Australasia recruited a large number of top physicists and spent more than ten years to develop the atomic bomb.

With the relevant theory strictly blocked, Arthur did not think that any country could develop an atomic bomb in war faster than in history.

After all, the outbreak of war occurred many years earlier than in history. Not to mention weapons as deadly as the atomic bomb, even the most primitive missiles are still under long-term research by various countries.

As long as Australasia does not provide technology, it is possible that after this war, no country will have control over missile and atomic bomb technology.

After the war, Australasia would be able to become the most militarily powerful country in the world with the most advanced missiles and atomic bombs.

Coupled with the fact that the industry and economy were not destroyed by the war, it became natural for them to compete for the position of world hegemony.

(End of this chapter)