Age of Conquest Reborn

The inventory of battle losses made Lieutenant General Wagner, the chief of staff of the British and Australian forces, feel very relieved. Hundreds of Japanese Navy carrier-based aircraft hovered over the troop transport formation for two or three hours. Not far away, there was another

The navy fleet was watching eagerly, and its own losses were actually so low...

Statistics show that three troop carriers were sunk and 16 were damaged. More than 1,600 soldiers were injured and killed, and less than 900 people died. Most of them were soldiers who did not obey orders in panic.

, caused by unauthorized jumping into the sea, that is to say, more soldiers drowned than were killed by Japanese aircraft.

All of this relies on the air escort of the Reading Division aviation force. Without Chinese pilots to repel the Japanese carrier-based aircraft, I am afraid that the current Coral Sea will be filled with hundreds of sunken ships and the corpses of 100,000 soldiers.

Although he still has some kind of resistance or wariness towards the Chinese in his heart, Chief of Staff Wagner still sincerely thanks those Chinese pilots who fought bravely.

At the same time, while admiring the combat effectiveness, superb air combat capabilities, and the number of aircraft displayed by the Division's aviation force, I can't help but be secretly surprised and jealous. Once upon a time, China was still a poor and weak sick man of East Asia.

The object of slaughter by the Western powers, but today, the strength displayed by the troops of Tang Qiuli, the great warlord with a rising heart for China, is unmatched by the British Empire, which is being frantically attacked by the Germans.

To say the least, the strength of the British Empire in the Southwest Pacific region is unmatched. Perhaps, in the future Pacific battlefield, the Chinese and the Japanese will compete for supremacy. With the weakening of national power, the British Empire cannot avoid the inevitable

His influence in Asia has been reduced. As a professional soldier who has been fighting unswervingly for the British Empire to expand its overseas territories, Lieutenant General Wagner at this moment is full of melancholy and loss.

The subsequent report by the staff on the situation of the task force stabbed Lieutenant General Wagner's melancholy and lost heart, "Your Majesty, Chief of Staff, we have just restored contact with the task force, and the situation is very bad.

, special mix

On its way to escort us, the fleet was intercepted by the Japanese Navy's Fourth Fleet. The fleet commander, Rear Admiral Forshid, was shot and killed. The fleet lost 27 warships of each type and 3,500 sailors were injured or killed.

The rest."

Lieutenant General Wagnerzer and Rear Admiral Forchid are not close friends, but they are also old acquaintances. There is no dispute between the army and navy within the British Empire. Lieutenant General Wagnerzer, right

This one is a bit arrogant

I have a good impression of the rear admirals. They all worked together in the troops stationed in Australia and never looked up. There was no conflict of interest or filth between them. Unexpectedly, he was killed in action. This was a loss for the British Empire Navy.

Lieutenant General Wagner's face was gloomy, and his heart was shrouded in an indescribable sadness. However, he found it strange that the troop carrier formation without any force suffered such slight losses. Although it did not have an aircraft carrier, it was still armed to the teeth.

How could the task force's losses be so huge?

It shouldn't be. Could it be that there is some secret in it? Chief of Staff Wagner asked: "So, the Chinese fighter group did not provide air escort for the direction of the task force?"

The staff officer hesitated for a moment and replied: "According to the content of the call from the fleet, the Chinese fighter jets are engaged in fierce battles with the Japanese Navy carrier-based aircraft in their airspace. Moreover, the number of Chinese fighter jets is not the same as ours."

This direction is roughly the same, and the losses of the task force were mainly caused by attacks by Japanese Navy warships!"

Lieutenant General Wagner shook his head in confusion, puzzled. A bright light flashed in his mind, and he seemed to catch a trace of doubt, and then it suddenly drifted away and he was not sure. At least, the performance of the Chinese was impeccable. His tone was heavy

Said: "The horse

Send a telegram to Commander-in-Chief Fernandez that in two hours the troop carrier formation is about to dock, please Commander-in-Chief to arrange for troops to respond. In addition, report the truth about the death of Major General Forhid and the losses of the task force.

!”

After receiving the telegram from Wagner's Chief of Staff, General Fernandez, the commander-in-chief of the British-Australian Army, was ecstatic and a little sad at the same time. His mentality was similar to Lieutenant General Wagner's.

One hundred thousand troops returned intact to support Australia. This is undoubtedly a great blessing to Commander-in-Chief Fernandez, who is short of major generals. With these troops in hand, he can fight in some dangerous areas in the interior of the Australian continent.

Building several lines of defense can temporarily block the Japanese offensive momentum, give yourself time to take a breath, readjust your deployment, and use the vast land space of the Australian continent to deal with the 300,000 Japanese troops.

Therefore, for General Fernandez, the most important thing is time. He cannot be quickly defeated by the Japanese in a short period of time. This is the second time that he has reported the dangerous situation currently facing the Australian continent to the British War Cabinet.

, the most core one is to ensure that Australia cannot fall into the hands of the Japanese, and the only way to do this is to increase the military power of the British Empire in Australia. At the very least, it must be able to compete with the Japanese army.

As for how to increase the number of troops in Australia, General Fernandez is still confused. It is wishful thinking to expect to mobilize troops from the homeland that has been beaten out of breath by the Germans. Even the Commander-in-Chief will not do anything that the Communist Party is powerless to do.

This is a useless effort.

He put forward a very thoughtful suggestion: to recruit soldiers extensively in the West Indian area controlled by the British Empire, at least ten regiments of more than 500,000 troops should be formed. After short-term training, they would go to the Australian battlefield. Only

Only in this way can we persist in Australia for a long time.

Now, what General Fernandez needs to do is not to be killed by the Japanese before the reinforcements from West India arrive. Therefore, one hundred thousand well-trained soldiers are tantamount to a life-saving elixir for him.

He was confident that he would be able to fight with the Japanese troops on the Australian mainland until reinforcements arrived. However, the task force's loss of almost annihilation cast a shadow on his confidence.

Admiral Fernandez, who had not personally experienced the thrilling air and naval battles in the Coral Sea and in the skies above, had no doubts in the mind of Chief of Staff Wagner. Although the losses to the task force were far greater than the unarmed

The formation of troop carriers was difficult to understand, but I didn’t think too much about it.

Admiral Fernandez took it upon himself to send a warm telegram of thanks to Tang Qiuli. The words of praise in it were so good that he almost burst into tears of gratitude. Of course, he also casually informed the troop transport ship.

Losses of formations and task forces.

At the same time, in the waters near the Solomon Islands, Lieutenant General Shirakawa Yoshitetsu, commander of the Japanese Navy's Second Fleet, and Lieutenant General Masao Okamura, commander of the Fourth Fleet, who had retreated here, were both looking gloomy and worried.

This afternoon, the third echelon fighter group of the Southern Flying Group of the Duli Division and the fourth echelon mixed aircraft group attacked the two Japanese fleets and did not cause them too much damage. On the one hand, the attack aircraft group strictly abided by the command.

Guan Le Yiqin's order was not to conduct a deeper pursuit, but to repel the Japanese naval fleet as the main purpose. On the other hand, the anti-aircraft firepower of the two Japanese fleets was very fierce, and the carrier-based aircraft were not so damaged that they could no longer fight.

degree.

Therefore, after sinking several Japanese destroyers and damaging several cruisers, the commanders of the two echelons combined their forces and gave up as soon as they were ready. It would not be a good idea to continue to entangle them. After all, their fleets were traveling for long distances.

, with almost no losses, the Japanese fleet was repulsed and the safety of the British-Australian troop transport fleet was ensured. The mission was completed successfully.

Lieutenant General Shirakawa Yoshitetsu and Lieutenant General Masao Okamura were not worried about the losses of their fleets, but the results of the battle. Judging from the results of the battle, the British task force was severely damaged, while the British and Australian troop transport fleets were almost

He was unscathed. Such a result could not be considered a victory.

What's more, the main mission of the fleet is to annihilate the 100,000 British and Australian soldiers retreating from Luzon Island in the Coral Sea. From this aspect, it is indisputable that the mission failed. Of course, there are reasons for all this.

, if the damn China fighter group had not suddenly appeared, such an embarrassing result would not have occurred.

Lieutenant General Shirakawa Yoshitetsu and Lieutenant General Okamura Masao were worried about how to report the matter to the Navy Ministry and the Commander-in-Chief of the Empire's Southwest Pacific Expedition Force, General Ito Genzaburo. Both of them knew that this mission was from the Navy.

The big boss sacrificed his face and took it out of the Army's mouth. The Navy was also full of confidence in annihilating 100,000 British and Australian soldiers. It dispatched two main fleets, six aircraft carriers, and more than 150 ships.

warship.

It can be said that they went all out, but the result was a huge disappointment. One hundred thousand British and Australian soldiers fled, and they lost several warships and more than a hundred carrier-based aircraft. They reported China truthfully to the Admiralty. Those who were extremely disappointed

Big bosses, even if you haven’t eaten two people, this is no longer a question of whether to complete the mission, but a question involving the combat effectiveness and dignity of the navy. Even if you don’t take a shot, you will probably have to spend the rest of your life in a military correctional facility.

Going to jail!

The report was reported to Genzaburo Ito, and the result of the Battle of the Coral Sea would immediately become a powerful weapon for the Army to attack and ridicule the Navy. The navy had lost face and became angry.

The big bosses still can't spare themselves. The ending is the same. They are all dismissed from the military and thrown into the cold palace. They will never get ahead. Maybe their families will be implicated.

"Sorrow" is such a bad word. Shirakawa Yoshitetsu and Okamura Masao, the two dignified commanders of the Japanese Imperial Navy, were so worried that they almost jumped into the sea.

(To be continued)