The Rise Of Australasia-Chapter 1175 - 882: The Last Straw That Breaks the Camel’s Back

The crisis was not only happening at the Harbor, but also at Naha, the largest city of the Ryukyu Islands, which was just as unsafe at the moment.

In recognition of the city's importance, Australasia had committed most of their paratroopers, a force of over 4,000 Soldiers, to attack the city.

The surprise attack achieved very effective results due to its unexpected nature.

In just over one hour, more than 4,000 paratroopers had successfully seized the City Council, the broadcast station, and important Squares, and had established defensive positions on all the roads leading out of Naha.

With nearly double the number of the troops at the Harbor, the attacking paratroopers had more heavy weapons at their disposal, including a greater number of machine guns and firearms.

The heavy weapons didn't play a significant role during the attack, but once they switched to defense, machine guns and firearms showed their might.

Given Naha's importance, another Type C Division decided to deploy its full force to protect this largest and only city on the Ryukyu Islands.

But the entire Type C Division just had slightly over 20,000 troops, and it was difficult to take the whole city by assault, especially since most Soldiers were new recruits without extensive training.

The challenge was further compounded by the support of Australasian airplanes in the sky, making victory through assault even more difficult.

It was not just about breaking through Australasia's defenses—this Type C Division found it challenging even to approach Naha.

Since the Meiji Restoration, the Islanders had faced enemies, including Russia Nation, where they always enjoyed absolute military superiority.

But this time, facing Australasia, they understood what true great power-level strength was.

Australasia had always upheld the principle that human life was paramount, preferring to waste more bullet shells rather than make needless Sacrifices.

As a result, the various heavy weapons of Australasia almost never ceased firing in both offense and defense. A deluge of machine gun bullets and shells poured down on the Island Nation Army as if money were no object.

Even though this approach indeed consumed a lot of Money and supplies, it was visibly effective—the Island Nation Army simply could not break through Australasia's web of Firepower.

If the Island Nation Army wanted to overrun Australasia's defensive positions, they needed the heavy hitters of the battlefield—enough tanks and Armored troops.

But the issue was that the terrain of the Ryukyu Islands meant it was impossible to deploy many Armored troops there.

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Remember that these were an Archipelago composed of several Islands, and even the largest Island wasn't very big, which would greatly diminish the role of Armored troops.

Although the Islanders had deployed 100,000 troops across the Ryukyu Islands, the deployment of Armored troops could be said to be practically nonexistent.

Without the well-defended Armored troops, the infantry of the Island Nation could not possibly break through Australasia's defensive positions.

Even though the Island Nation Army had an advantage in Artillery, the Australasian Army enjoyed airpower support, giving them the overall advantage in Firepower.

One Telegram after another seeking reinforcements kept coming from the front lines, eventually reaching the two most powerful forces on the Ryukyu Islands, responsible for defending against the Australasian landing—the two Type A and Type B Divisions.

"Damn! These fools, with the forces of two Divisions, they can't even hold the Harbor and Naha," General Murai Noo, the highest-ranking Officer in the Ryukyu Islands, shouted angrily from another battlefield.

The tasks originally assigned to the two Type C Divisions were the simplest—they only needed to station themselves near the Harbor and urban City to maintain order and conduct patrols.

Unexpectedly, before even the Coastline under the most pressure was breached, the internal cities and Harbor of the Ryukyu Islands had already been captured by the Enemy.

What was more fatal was that the Australasians' operation was entirely unexpected by the Island Nation Army. In other words, including Brigadier General Murai Noo, none of the senior officers of the Island Nation had anticipated Australasia's sudden assault.

"Your Excellency, the Australasians must have air-dropped a large number of troops to carry out the surprise attack on our Harbor and City," guessed an Infantry Company commander at the division's Conference table.

"Ultimately, it comes down to our complete loss of air control," said Brigadier General Tanaka Taro, commander of the first Infantry brigade, "General, Naha and the Harbor are vitally important to us. We can't just stand by and let Australasia occupy Naha and the Harbor."

"Gentlemen, who among you is willing to support Naha and the Harbor?" Murai Noo fell silent for a moment and then turned his gaze to his subordinates.

Supporting Naha and the Harbor was essential, but it was absolutely impossible to engage the entire Type A Division for this task.

After all, the primary mission of the Type A Division was to defend the main Island's Coastline of the Ryukyu Islands, to prevent the Australasian Army from breaking through and conquering the whole Archipelago.

However, even if only a portion of the troops were dispatched, they would still be splitting off from the elite Type A Division.

Although the organizational structure of the military units was similar, a single Infantry brigade from the Type A Division had a fighting power that was nearly comparable to an entire Type C Division.

The Island Nation's greatest pride was actually its elite troops from the few Type A Divisions.

Upon hearing Murai Noo's words, many Infantry Company commanders under his command started to have thoughts.

A division has two infantry brigades, each infantry brigade has two infantry regiments, each infantry regiment has three infantry battalions, and each infantry battalion has four infantry companies.

In addition to this, a division is usually also equipped with cavalry regiments, artillery regiments, engineer regiments, and heavy equipment regiments, as well as medical units, field hospitals, communication units, logistics units, and other division-level direct subordinate units.

For the more elite Type A Divisions, the directly subordinate units such as infantry regiments, artillery regiments, and engineer regiments would be larger, and the variety and number of weapons they possess would be greater, leading to a stronger overall combat capability.

However, for any Island Nation division, an infantry company is at least one-fifth the strength of the entire division, with approximately 4000-5000 soldiers.

Based on Murai Noo's psychological expectations, the scale of the troops supporting the Urban City and the Harbor would probably be limited to about an infantry regiment, or roughly 5000 soldiers.

If there were any more, it would definitely impact the defense of the Coastline. After all, no one could guarantee the Australasian attack would be limited to one location, and the protection of the Coastline was also extremely important.

Once the Coastline was breached, Naha and the Harbor would need no defense at all. Because the endless waves of Australasian troops would overwhelm them, ultimately dragging them to exhaustion in the Ryukyu Islands.

Moreover, the current biggest problem wasn't how many troops supported Naha and the Harbor, but rather whether those two Type C Divisions could hold back the enemy before the support troops arrived.

Two mixed troops divisions were stationed near the Harbor and Naha and could reach the battlefield in just over ten minutes.

But the Type A Divisions couldn't do that. Because their main mission was to defend the Coastline, the entire Type A Division was deployed on the outermost part of the main island, a certain distance away from Naha and the Harbor.

Furthermore, moving the military took some time, and conservatively estimating, the supporting troops would need at least about one hour to arrive.

This one hour was crucial. If those two Type C Divisions could fully hold back the Australasian troops, and the support from the Type A Division arrived, they could naturally launch an attack and retake the Harbor and Urban City.

But if the two Type C Divisions couldn't hold back the Australasian troops, allowing the enemy to continue to strengthen their defensive positions,

even when the support arrived, they would face even more fortified defense positions, making any attack much more difficult.

So the question arises, can these two Type C Divisions successfully hold back the Australasias Army?

The answer is, of course, negative.

It can't be denied that the Island Nation Army has an absolute numerical advantage over the Australasian Army.

On the Harbor side, the Island Nation Army numbers were around 19,000, while the Australasian Army totaled just over 2,000, nearly a 1 to 10 ratio of the two sides' forces.

The situation in the Urban City wasn't much better. The number of Australasian troops was still only slightly over 4,000, while the Island Nation side was an entire division totaling 20,000 soldiers, still maintaining a force ratio of 1 to 5.

If this was 50 years ago, with such a large gap in troop numbers between the two armies, the outcome of who would lose or win would indeed be unpredictable.

But now after all, it is 1936, and heavy weaponry such as machine guns and artillery has developed quite impressively, and with Australasia holding complete air superiority, the gap in numbers was already compensated for.

With a large number of airplanes circling overhead, the Island Nation Army simply couldn't launch a large-scale charge against the Australasian troops.

If the soldiers stood too densely, they would become live targets for Australasian machine guns and airplanes. But if they spread out too much, the attack threat would diminish, and the gap in soldiers' combat abilities would widen.

Furthermore, the troops from the mixed-arms divisions had not undergone long-term military training. They were unfamiliar with the battlefield and had not experienced a real life-and-death struggle, which would greatly impact their fighting ability.

Seeing their comrades-in-arms fall one by one, even if these Island Nation soldiers were indoctrinated, fear would unavoidably arise.

After all, fear of death is innate in humans, and unless there is a stronger belief to sustain them, fear would override everything else.

For such Type C Divisions, what could shatter the belief that supported them?

It was the harsh reality, of course.

Accompanying the overall assault on the Urban City and Harbor by these two Type C Divisions, their division headquarters also gradually became exposed.

With air superiority on their side, the headquarters of these two Type C Divisions became prime targets, and a focus of the Australasian Air Force's attacks.