Volume 1: Founding of Australia Chapter 50 The British Fleet Arrives
Although his own intelligence indirectly led to the commander's decision to bomb Adelaide, resulting in the deaths of thousands of white compatriots, Hans felt considerable guilt. However, after careful consideration, he still believed that the Red Alert forces' strength was no longer something the federal government could withstand, and that forcing a quick surrender from the federation might be the best way to minimize casualties among his compatriots and get them out of the war as soon as possible.
So, after Hans had been silent for half a day upon learning of the casualties in Adelaide, he still resolutely pointed out at the military meeting that the mining revenue of Broken Hill was quite important to New South Wales, and occupying Silver City could increase the pressure on Canberra from Sydney's members of parliament.
When I heard the two words "Silver Capital", Zhong Yi's reaction was even more intense than Jiang Yunzhi's. Although the construction range of the base has not yet reached the East Coast, controlling Silver Capital and striking at the Federation's economy is a great suggestion. Moreover, there is a direct railway line that can transport ore back to Wudi by train, which is another source of income! The naval shipyard will be activated soon, and we will never have too much money.
The plan has changed, and the third battalion and the Guards' first brigade are about to take over. Xiao Guoxing had long coveted Jiang Yunzhi's second battalion's rapid advance, but the third battalion was not a purely armored force, and there was still a gap with the second battalion in terms of mobility. However, this time the second battalion went to Brocken Hill, and the attack on Adelaide should have been our third battalion's turn. But unexpectedly, the final task assignment came down, and the third battalion remained stationary, staying in Urdi as the general reserve team, and the good thing actually fell to Hans' first brigade. This made Captain Xiao very unhappy, when did our Red Alert troops become inferior to the Guards? But he didn't have the guts to go question the commander.
With a gloomy look, he watched the soldiers of the first battalion in dark green uniforms boarding the train to depart. Suddenly, someone ran over from behind and said, "Report to the commander, the commanding officer wants you to go to the air force command center for a meeting now."
He hastily grabbed a jeep on the platform and rushed to the command post of the air force airport, where the ground crew were busy loading bombs onto one plane after another. Xiao Guoxing was startled in his heart, thinking that there must be an emergency combat mission! Sure enough, as soon as he entered the command room, Deputy Commander Yun Jiuzhong handed him a telegram, which Xiao Guoxing took with some surprise. The telegram had only one line: "The British Expeditionary Fleet has arrived in Sydney."
It's no wonder the commander was in such a hurry to call him over. Looking at the commander standing with his back against the wall, staring at the map of Australia with a gloomy face, Xiao Guoxing wanted to say something but didn't know what to say. The command room fell into silence, and all three people understood that the crucial moment that would decide the fate of the Red Alert troops had arrived!
In Zhong Yi's heart, he was not as calm as he appeared on the surface. In his plan, the British army should not have arrived so quickly, and as long as they could execute the southern Australian strategy quickly, at most they would advance to Melbourne, and the number of people in the occupied area required for this promotion task would be about right. With the navy, plus the shore-based J-5 and H-5, they would have a good chance of winning against the British fleet's old battleships from World War I. But now, the British fleet, which was originally supposed to take three months to reach the east coast of Australia, had arrived in less than a month, greatly disrupting Zhong Yi's plan. Without a navy, it also meant that there was no way to stop the British landing, and the British fleet could freely cover the transport ships of the army at any point along the coast, even... Perth.
Even if the federal government had asked for help from their British mothers during the Battle of Kalgoorlie, even if the British military had reacted immediately, it would not have been possible to send a fleet from Australia so quickly! Where did this British fleet come from? Zhong Yi stared at the map, thinking about this question.
What's the place closest to Australia? Zhong Yi's eyes turned towards the South China Sea, where in Southeast Asia, those islands, Malaya and Singapore were colonies of the British Empire. It seemed that on the day the Pacific War broke out, when the Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, they also annihilated a British Far East Fleet in that region, and the base of that fleet was - Singapore. Zhong Yi fiercely poked his finger at that tiny island barely visible on the map.
The fact is roughly the same as Zhong Yigui's guess, and this fleet that came to Sydney was indeed from the Changi Naval Base in Singapore. However, there is one point that Zhong Yigui is not clear about: the naval base in Singapore has the largest dock in the world and stores oil depots that can support the entire British Empire Navy for six months. But this naval base did not have any warships, and the Z fleet led by HMS Prince of Wales also arrived in the Far East in December 1941, only to be sunk by the Japanese 22nd Air Corps in the Malayan waters a few days later.
This fleet that came to Australia was not a Far Eastern Fleet but the Mediterranean Fleet sent out to the Far East for a "holiday".
The British government, facing an increasingly tense situation in Europe, adopted a policy of appeasement and signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement with Nazi Germany this June, legally lifting the restrictions on German naval armaments imposed by the Treaty of Versailles and legalizing Germany's rearmament.
To avoid over-stimulating Germany, Britain had sent a portion of the main force of the Mediterranean Fleet to the Far East at the beginning of this year. Coincidentally, shortly after the fleet arrived in Singapore, Baldwin, who had just taken office as Prime Minister again, received a request for help from Canberra. As one of the two most important overseas dominions of Britain, rescuing Australia was an unshirkable responsibility of the British Empire, and even Edward VIII, who was infatuated with American widow Simpson, took time to pay attention to Australia. With the support of the King and Prime Minister, the First Lord of the Admiralty immediately ordered the Mediterranean Squadron, which was "vacationing" in Singapore, to escort the 11th and 9th Divisions of the British Third Army from Malaya to Australia, to assist the Canberra Federal Government in eliminating the suddenly emerging evil forces.
This Mediterranean Fleet had two battleships, the Malaya and Royal Oak of the Queen Elizabeth class and Revenge class respectively, both veterans of World War I but still the backbone of the Royal Navy after modernization. There was also an aircraft carrier, two heavy cruisers, a light cruiser, with the aircraft carrier being the Eagle carrying Osprey seaplanes. In addition, there were more than a dozen destroyers of slightly smaller tonnage, escorting over thirty troopships carrying two divisions of British troops through New Guinea and the Coral Sea to Sydney.
This news, sent by the Smorgon family's commercial spy on the East Coast, was transmitted back to Perth, and Heberle immediately wired the commander, which was the telegram that Xiao Guoxing saw. In addition, Heberle had already gone to Sydney in person, and detailed intelligence would be transmitted later.
At last, Zhong Yi turned his head around, Xiao Guo Xing and Yun Jiu had already been stifled by the silent atmosphere in the conference room to the point of being out of breath. Zhong Yi smiled slightly, "Guo Xing, Yun Jiu, don't be anxious. Isn't a decisive battle with the British army what we've been longing for?"
