Chapter 71, Melbourne Winter (Part 1)
The deep night sky is dazzlingly decorated with the bright crescent moon and countless stars, occasionally mixed with fleeting shooting stars, outlining a magnificent and vast night scene. There is a thick layer of white frost on the ground, and the cold night wind carrying ice shavings roars and rages under the stars...
——While the Eurasian continent in the northern hemisphere is experiencing a scorching summer, Australia in the southern hemisphere is experiencing a cold and windy winter.
Late at night, in southeastern Australia, on the outskirts of Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, the Allied forward position, the town of Broadford
Melbourne, which has been rated as "the most livable city in the world" by the United Nations Human Settlements Agency for many years in a row, has very good climate conditions. The summer is not too hot, the winter is not too cold, and even in July and August, when the temperature is the lowest, it rarely snows.
Even so, it’s chilly in Melbourne’s wilderness late at night in August. Except for the sentries who had to stand guard to blow the cold wind, the rest of the Australian and American soldiers who were not on duty had no intention of hanging out. Instead, they huddled in their wooden barracks, wrapped in military coats, and surrounded the American production He warmed himself by a kerosene stove and listened to the news on a rustling American radio.
"...Today, the new Pacific Fleet Commander, Lieutenant General Aubrey Fitch, arrived at Pearl Harbor. Because the Pacific Fleet headquarters building collapsed in the typhoon and has not been repaired so far, Lieutenant General Fitch chose to build the new flagship battleship USS Missouri. An inauguration ceremony was held on the aircraft carrier - Former Commander Admiral Halsey's flagship USS Enterprise was seriously damaged in the storm and is currently undergoing repairs at the San Diego Naval Port...
At the inauguration ceremony, Lieutenant General Fitch stated that the withdrawal of the fleet from the Fiji, New Zealand and Australian theaters was a temporary measure of last resort. Facing the current difficult war situation, he will do his best and hopes that every officer and soldier in the army will fulfill their duties..."
"...Tsk! Listen to it, George, it's just a bunch of old empty talk! Do your duty to the best of your ability? Will this allow us to win the war and go home?"
A US soldier complained dissatisfiedly, "...the fleet that just reached New Caledonia has withdrawn again, the Fiji Islands are expected to be abandoned, and the reinforcements scheduled to be transferred to Melbourne are nowhere to be seen... again If this continues, there will be no hope of recovering Australia!”
"...What can we do? Danny, it is God's arrangement that the fleet encounters a typhoon. No one can do anything about it! Anyway, the Navy has opened up the transportation line for several months recently. The port over there There are more freewheels, and our supplies are finally a little more abundant... Eat more while you still have some to eat! Otherwise, you will have to eat stinky kangaroo meat in the future. It makes you cry!”
Another American soldier named George said this, successfully making other people show disgust when they heard the word "kangaroo meat"...while George himself held a long-handled spoon and carefully The ground stirred a small iron pot on the kerosene stove. Under the scorching flames, the soup in the iron pot had boiled slightly, and pasta was cooking in it. I saw him quickly adding dehydrated carrots, dehydrated potato slices, and canned tomato sauce to it, then opened a can of Spam luncheon meat, used a bayonet to cut the meat into thin slices and sprinkled it into the pot.
Looking at these pink "meat slices" being added to the soup pot, the American soldiers in the wooden house showed salivating expressions...
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For American soldiers on other battlefields, in the fifth year of this world war, the unlucky can of Spam luncheon meat that seemed to never be eaten had become as troublesome to the soldiers as enemy bullets and gonorrhea. They were frightened by the news and became their common enemy.
Although the U.S. Army logistics department and contractors developed more than 60 kinds of canned meat for military use during World War II, including beef, mutton, pork, ham, chicken, duck, turkey, tuna, sardines, etc., and even There are canned rabbit meats, and the cooking flavors are also various, including smoked, spicy red stew, cream carrot stew, tomato stew, honey roast, black pepper roast and so on. But what was delivered to the frontline soldiers was almost exclusively Spam lunch meat. Because in the view of the U.S. War Department, although lunch meat contains almost no vitamins and minerals and is not very helpful to health, the calories it provides are crucial to maintaining the strength of soldiers, and its price is cheaper than other cans.
Well, while this conclusion is not wrong, it does not fully take into account the delicate taste buds of American soldiers. Therefore, in the eyes of those American soldiers who were tired of eating canned Spam luncheon meat, Spam luncheon meat was just like the enemy's bullets and raging diseases. It was purely an "object that should be eliminated", and it was even given various names. Sensational nickname. For example, "suspected meat", "offline meat" and "spiritual meat"...
But in the Melbourne battlefield, where the enemy is alone, surrounded on three sides, and with intermittent logistics supplies, it would be a very happy thing for the Allied soldiers on the front line to get a few cans of Spam luncheon meat as a toothpaste: No matter what, it can provide enough fat and heat.
——Because the U.S. Pacific Fleet has been defeated again and again in previous naval battles, and has even been completely wiped out twice... Well, if you include the recent typhoon incident called "Destroyer", then it is already It's been wiped out three times in a row. Therefore, the Japanese Navy Combined Fleet controls the sea in the Southwest Pacific most of the time, and the supply line from the United States to the Australian battlefield has always been full of risks.
Whether the American Liberty Ship transport fleet takes the South Pacific route, departing from Chile to Melbourne, or taking the southern Indian Ocean route, departing from South Africa to Melbourne, it is equivalent to a thrilling adventure in enemy territory. The transport fleet was attacked The probability of being sunk or captured is as high as 30%! After the Japanese army completely occupied Western Australia and deployed a patrol fleet in Perth Port, the supply line in the south Indian Ocean was completely cut off. The millions of Australian soldiers and civilians trapped in Melbourne and Tasmania all relied on The transport fleet on the New Zealand side barely held on.
However, even the supply lines to New Zealand were extremely unreliable. Because New Zealand itself was repeatedly attacked by Japanese troops, and even burned and massacred the city. It was difficult to transport supplies from the United States to Australia, and sometimes the goods that arrived at the destination were not as much as those robbed by the Japanese army on the way.
Therefore, it is common for Melbourne, which is unfortunately located at the end of the entire supply line, not to see a transport ship for several months in a row.
Under such circumstances, it was naturally impossible for the Allied troops in Melbourne to have a good life. Lack of food, clothing, and medical treatment was a common daily occurrence.
As for the Australian civilians trapped in the tiny land of Melbourne, their lives are even more miserable. Since the nearby agricultural areas were destroyed by the war, the limited fleet needed to give priority to transporting ammunition to sustain the war, which caused Melbourne's private food supply to be extremely scarce for a long time.
Almost all of the remaining white citizens had to try to cultivate small areas of barren wilderness and make a living by growing taro and potatoes, or they were evacuated to the slightly safer island of Tasmania. In recent years, the number of civilians who have died of malnutrition alone has reached as many as 200,000.
Coupled with the indiscriminate bombing and release of poison gas by Japanese aircraft, countless people were killed by bombs every month, burned to charcoal by fire, overturned by poison gas, and lay in hospital beds without treatment... civilians If you want to survive well in this place, your vitality must be stronger than that of a cockroach.
Fortunately, in the past half year, due to the huge impact of the Tokyo nuclear explosion on the Japanese army in Australia and the Japanese Navy's combined fleet heading north, the military pressure on Melbourne's front line was greatly reduced, and the maritime blockade against the Allied forces also collapsed on its own. . The Pentagon quickly seized this short period of safety and organized an ocean-going fleet to rush to Melbourne to transport a large amount of food, clothing, blankets, ordnance and ammunition. On the way back, they successively transported nearly a million wounded and refugees... Of course, the Pentagon also A considerable portion of the troops were withdrawn from Melbourne and allowed General MacArthur to take them to the Japanese battlefield...
In short, all this trouble, coupled with the previous failed Canberra counterattack, which cost 130,000 Allied officers and soldiers in one go, eventually led to the loss of more than one million mouths to eat in Melbourne. Logistics supplies have become much more abundant. At the very least, the Allied combat troops deployed on the front line can have enough food and clothing for the time being, and they can even make luncheon meat pasta at night as a late-night snack...
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After a while, after sprinkling pepper into the soup, a small pot of fragrant luncheon meat spaghetti with black pepper tomato sauce was cooked on the kerosene stove. The mouth-watering smell of tomatoes and pepper, combined with the fat aroma of Spam luncheon meat, hit your nose at the same time. George, who was in charge of serving the dishes, asked everyone to take out their lunch boxes or teacups, and gave everyone a spoonful of noodles as fairly as possible, and then poured a spoonful of thick soup over them.
As soon as Donnie got his portion of spaghetti, he eagerly poked a piece of lunch meat with his fork, dipped it into the open can of Mexican hot sauce next to him, then swallowed it in one gulp, and then tightened his mouth. My eyes narrowed in pleasure, enjoying the greasy and spicy taste in my mouth.
"...It tastes great...This is the life we Americans should live." After a while, he slowly chewed a few times and swallowed the lunch meat in his mouth, "...It's a pity that there is no turkey. , corn pie and chocolate, and no brandy or whiskey..."
"...Don't be crazy, man! Think about the miserable days last spring when you pinched your nose and ate kangaroo meat, and the bread ration was only two hundred grams a day! Now you should thank God for spaghetti! Well, you should eat it in winter It would be better if it was a little spicy..."
After sharing the noodles with everyone, George, who was in charge of the spoon, first put a lot of pepper and hot sauce into his own portion of noodles, then directly picked up the lunch box and drank it in big gulps. While drinking the soup, I used my fork to push the noodles and luncheon meat into my mouth.
After others saw this, they also followed suit, carrying lunch boxes and pouring hot noodle soup with a lot of chili, pepper and other spices into their stomachs. A trace of sweat soon appeared on everyone's head. , my stomach, hands and feet, which were a little uncomfortable from the cold, also started to feel warm.
As the body felt a little warmer, the chat boxes of the American soldiers also opened up one after another, and they started chatting with each other.
"...Speaking of which, the climate in Australia is really good. It's not too hot in the summer and not too cold in the winter. It doesn't even snow. It's much milder than my hometown in Maine, where every year There will be heavy snowfall in winter, and every house will be buried under a heavy snowfall! ”
"...It's a pity that supplies are so scarce. Bread, cans, butter, coffee, cigarettes, whiskey, Coca-Cola, everything is lacking!"
"...The girls are quite enthusiastic. A piece of chocolate can soak them up...but we don't have much stock ourselves."
"...and even tooth powder and toothpaste are often out of stock. Sometimes I feel like my mouth smells so bad that I am embarrassed to go out and pick up girls..."
"...There was a time when I didn't even have soap to take a shower, and my clothes couldn't be washed clean. I only got a few pieces recently..."
"...and the mails from the rear are also intermittent. They either disappear in the middle or are terribly delayed! Last month I actually received a letter written three years ago! It was written by my wife. I want to ask What to name the newborn son at that time... Heck, given my German wife's stubbornness, because she never received a reply, she might have actually called my son 'Noname' for three years. )!”
"...I couldn't get aspirin when I had a cold. The military doctor got some weeds and bark from somewhere and boiled it into a pot of dark medicinal soup for me to drink. He said it was some kind of earthy recipe, just like the witch's potion... As a result, not only did I not get better from the cold after drinking it, I also had diarrhea for several days..."
"... Damn it, why do we come to this hellish place to fight? We are the poor poor people who are fighting to death with the Japanese devils, but those high-ranking congressmen and generals are giving orders in a safe place! Why should we use our weapons? Die to gain merit and benefits for them?”
"...Yes, since the war started, the government has said it wants us to defend our country, but the battlefields are almost always on the territory of other countries. Even the Philippines had already established an independent country before the war... The blood of the American boy We will all be exhausted by these unsatisfactory allies!”
"...What can we do? The White House and Capitol Hill are ambitious to be the savior, but they are not the ones who need to sacrifice their lives anyway..."
——On the Australian battlefield where conditions are difficult and supplies are scarce, those native-born Australian soldiers may still have the natural emotion to defend their homeland and the ambition to avenge their shame. No matter how bad the war situation is, they can grit their teeth and endure.
However, after these American soldiers who came from far away to help in the war, after experiencing so many years of cruel and arduous war torture, their initial morale and fighting spirit have been exhausted, and they are left with endless fatigue and weariness in their hearts. There are also endless longing for my hometown and relatives.
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In fact, when the Australian battlefield was just opened, the spirit and fighting spirit of these American soldiers were still very good. They were all filled with the inherent contempt that white people had for people of color in the hundreds of years since the Age of Discovery. and arrogance, as well as the shame and anger of being slapped by an "inferior race". However, in the battles that followed in the next few years, the cruel reality gave them a slap in the face - from the time the Japanese troops landed in Australia, the Allies had almost been defeated repeatedly. If they could defeat them in the defensive battle, Defeating the Japanese attack was already a great success. As for the field counterattacks launched by the Allies, almost all ended in disastrous defeats. Even if there is some initial breakthrough, it is sure to be followed by an even more disastrous collapse.
In this way, repeated failures and various tragedies in the war caused grassroots American officers and soldiers who could not see the dawn of victory to quickly lose enthusiasm for this war to "defend the white civilized world". Their combat attitude became gradually negative, and their overall morale became worse. It is getting lower and lower day by day, and enthusiasm and efficiency are getting worse day by day. After the nuclear explosion in Tokyo, the Australian allies, who had been given a shot in the arm, once again dragged their exhausted bodies and launched the largest and last counterattack since the war began. Unfortunately, it still ended in a disastrous defeat... although they were equally exhausted. It's unbearable, but the Australians are already on the verge of being unable to get off. In the face of the greedy eastern invaders, they have no choice or room to retreat. The result of failure is to lose their homeland forever like the American Indians. Regardless of national justice and national honor, even if it is for their own lives, they can only persevere like gamblers who lose their money.
However, the US soldiers, who have been completely infiltrated by the bleak future and war-weariness, do not feel such pain. In their view, they are fighting a war belonging to others in a distant foreign country. If they can win and triumph, that is great, but if they cannot win, there seems to be no need to spend all their money just for the illusory honor. My last drop of blood... It's a pity that it didn't work what they said.
As a result, the more everyone talked, the more depressed they became, and the more they talked, the more depressed they became. Finally, the chatter gradually stopped, and everyone lowered their heads and remained silent. They just washed their lunch boxes, and then drank hot coffee or smoked cigarettes in silence. , while listening to the popular song "Lily Marlene" played on the radio:
"...In front of the military camp, in front of the gate, there is a lamp, which is still lit today. We will meet again there, standing under that lamp. Just like before, Lily Marlene. Just like before, Lily Marlene;
The two of us seemed to be one, we were like a couple, and it didn't matter if someone saw us. It’s the same thing for everyone to see, as long as we meet under that light. Just like the old days, Lily Marlene. Just like before, Lily Marlene;
The sentries have already started shouting, and the call for delay has been blown. If you are late, you will be locked up for three days. I must return immediately, so I have to say goodbye here, but I still hope to be with you. With you, Lily Marlene, with you, Lily Marlene..."
The soft and sweet singing was very effective in soothing the depressed mood of these tired soldiers and cheering them up a little. Some people took out small notebooks and pens and started writing diaries, while others scratched their hair and wrote letters to their families that they didn't know when they would receive. Others just lazily slumped in a corner of the wooden house, closing their eyes and concentrating, while humming softly in response to the tunes coming from the radio, and whistling playfully from time to time.
However, a soldier who was humming suddenly shut his mouth, and at the same time, he stretched out his hand to cover the mouths of others.
"...Boom - boom! Boom - boom!"
A dazzling orange-red light suddenly cut through the darkness, and the ground of the barracks shook violently. The radio placed on the wooden box covered with dust from the roof fell with a "clack" and was immediately smashed into pieces. But at this time, no one cared about feeling distressed, or even had no intention to care at all.
"...What's going on?! What happened outside?!"
"...It's a shelling! The Japanese are coming!"
"...Damn it! What are you yelling about! Get down quickly——"
Boom! ! !
A terrifying explosion sounded not far away, almost shattering everyone's eardrums. The orange-red light tore through the sky, and the simple wooden house collapsed in the flames and air waves, splashing up a large piece of choking dust... When the fire went away and the smoke gradually dispersed, Private George climbed up from the ground tremblingly, feeling that he His throat was filled with the smell of rust, and the roar just now seemed to still be buzzing in his ears.
In the process of getting up, he seemed to have hit something hard and sharp. The thing made a bulge on his forehead, which made him see stars in pain. However, this pain was different from the pain that filled him at this time. Compared with the injuries all over his body, they were really insignificant - at the beginning, for a few seconds, George felt that his eyes were completely dark, and he was so scared that he almost thought he was blind.
After finally waiting until the darkness in his vision began to fade, he breathed a sigh of relief. Then he hurriedly looked at his surroundings and found that the wooden house where he originally lived had collapsed. All the military colleagues were buried under wooden beams and rubble, groaning slightly. In a charred crater next to the wreckage of the wooden house, there was still lingering smoke. On the edge of the crater where soil and vegetation had been rolled over, pieces of paper, cloth, debris and human limbs were scattered.
What frightened him even more were the small figures silhouetted in the firelight - at least hundreds of Japanese soldiers in camouflage uniforms who had arrived in the town at some point and were attacking every tent and vehicle. Shooting at cars and every house!
In the light of the fire, George clearly saw a fierce Japanese officer wielding a sword and frantically slashing at the fleeing Allied soldiers. Behind him, a Japanese soldier held the military flag high and shouted ferociously, forming a strange and shocking picture - no one knew how they managed to break open the surrounding barbed wire and kill the vigilantes. The sentry rushed into the town. In short, the suddenly attacked Allied forces were in chaos. Many vehicles exploded and caught fire. Many people were knocked down before they could pick up their weapons, and they were screaming dying...
Seeing this scene, George quickly put on his steel helmet, crawled around to find a machine gun, and wildly poured bullets at the Japanese at the end of the street. He used steel and flames to mow down a large number of people like a wind, killing one of them. There were almost as many enemies as there were friendly forces accidentally injured... There was no way, no one could see who was in the dark, but at least it was able to temporarily curb the attack momentum of the Japanese surprise attack team. Then, an Australian major personally led the reserve team to fight forward and started a fierce battle with the Japanese. Tracer bullets shuttled in and out of the dark night, and the sound of gunshots and grenades rang out.
After an extremely brutal hand-to-hand battle, the Allied forces in the town finally eliminated the enemy with bayonets and grenades due to their absolute numerical superiority. But the price was heavy, and everyone who survived was splattered with blood - the enemy's and one's own. Some had their arms broken, and some were blind. George was also shot in the stomach and his intestines came out. He could only cover his stomach with a triangle towel and lean against the wall to catch his breath.
There was no other way. It was too dark and the battlefield was too chaotic for military doctors to save him. They could only endure it until dawn - if he hadn't died of pain by then.
Gradually, George felt that his entire abdomen was numb, and the numbness rose to his chest and head... However, before he could pass out, the Japanese field artillery fired again, and the fire became fiercer and fiercer. The town turned into a sea of fire, and scorching fragments flew everywhere, causing a groan in English around George. He could see nothing but the flash of exploding shells.
Faced with the collapse of all forward positions, some Allied soldiers began to retreat in a mess. Some even found transportation. A truck full of soldiers sped through the town. When it passed George, there were still people in the car. He greeted him as if he wanted him to come up and leave together.
However, George, who had lost too much blood and was groggy, no longer had any strength to move. He just continued to lean against the wall, feebly holding the handle of the heavy machine gun, hoping to fight the enemy one more time before he died.
Next, the messy battlefield seemed to be silent for a while, until a harsh noise of metal grinding against the ground gradually sounded nearby. Amid the vibrations on the ground, George, who had difficulty concentrating, opened his heavy eyelids with great difficulty, and immediately saw a dark behemoth appearing in front of him, and heard a desperate cry from an unknown guy nearby: "...Tanks! Japanese tanks rushed in!" Then, George only had time to subconsciously pull the trigger, shooting out a chain of bullets and fire in vain, and then was blasted into the sky by a high-explosive bomb.