Chapter 74, The Fall of Melbourne (Part 1)
On the last day of August 1946, in a desperate situation surrounded by enemies, the Australian federal government finally issued an order to evacuate Melbourne.
However, the battle situation at this time had become extremely dangerous. More than 200,000 Japanese troops were gradually approaching from three directions, and the Allied defense lines were cut into pieces. The Australians have completely lost air and sea control on the battlefield, and there is not much time left to transfer personnel and materials.
The remaining tens of thousands of Allied troops had to retreat while dealing with Japanese siege on three sides, and at the same time collect food and ammunition scattered everywhere - in order to continue to hold Shank Point after being forced to abandon Melbourne, the Allied forces We need to seize the last moment to transport supplies and ammunition there, otherwise if we really escape empty-handed, even if the Japanese army does not attack further, the tens of thousands of Allied troops retreating to Shank Point will soon starve to death.
In an extremely tense and hasty atmosphere, Australian Prime Minister John Cutting and Australian Army Commander General Thomas Bremy spent only thirty minutes to hastily draw up an extremely rough retreat plan, preparing to do so within a week. One hundred thousand tons of flour, sugar and canned goods, 20,000 people's medicines and medical equipment were transported inward to Shank Point, as well as about 30,000 tons of ammunition and all weapons in stock, especially anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft radars.
However, the entire evacuation operation was not smooth from the beginning. The heavy rain and bad weather made all the roads in Melbourne always muddy. Although this delayed the Japanese troops from advancing into the city to a certain extent, it also had a negative impact on the allies. Serious obstacles were caused to the army's transfer and retreat.
The only road leading from central Melbourne to Shank Point was soon crowded with trucks carrying food and ammunition, tractors hauling radars, howitzers and anti-aircraft guns, ambulances carrying sick and injured patients, and There were all kinds of cars, carriages, etc., large and small, and the traffic was unspeakably congested. , and on the Yarra River, which divides the urban area into east and west parts, all the bridges across the river have been blown up by Japanese aircraft, even the temporary pontoon bridges were no exception. The transport vehicles originally located in the western part of the urban area were not allowed to Not relying on flat-bottomed barges to transport people across the river would be shockingly inefficient.
At the same time, the Australian engineering troops had to brave the rain to repair a large area of barracks and warehouses at Shank Point. Otherwise, even if the supplies were transported there, there would be no place to store them. In addition, trenches and bunkers had to be dug and bunkers built in the section of the peninsula that connects to the land. To cope with the fierce war that will inevitably break out next.
What's even worse is that as the news of the federal government's abandonment of Melbourne gradually spread, the civilians in Melbourne were also in chaos.
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——In recent days, as the Allied forces suffered repeated defeats on various fronts and suffered heavy casualties, hundreds of wounded soldiers and refugees from the suburbs were sent into the city of Melbourne by trucks like a tide, making every road The streets are filled with troops, packed with wounded soldiers, packed with refugees, and brought with them all kinds of conflicting bad news. An ominous war has begun to brew in Melbourne, the last refuge of white Australians. storm.
When the Australian federal government's order to abandon the city came out, the remaining hundreds of thousands of Melbourne citizens were immediately shocked and panicked. Then they fled in panic ahead of the Allied forces. Thousands of people flocked to Shank Point, some on foot, some on foot. Riding bicycles, blocking the road - in the past The Australian government's propaganda to demonize the Japanese army in the past few years has made them generally believe that once the Japanese army takes over Melbourne, they will definitely be beheaded or buried alive by these brutal yellow-skinned dwarves, or stuffed into a mine and worked to death... Well, actually that’s pretty much the truth.
——For the Japanese who long for a rich continent, the occupation policy they pursue in Australia is generally "leave no land but no people". There are hundreds of mass graves scattered all over Australia, and the corpses of those "American and British white animals" inside have not yet decomposed completely!
Of course, the exception was beautiful young white women, who were assigned to various comfort stations to use their bodies to comfort the warriors from the Japanese archipelago.
Fortunately, although land traffic is jammed and chaotic, water traffic is still smooth for the time being. Although the powerful Japanese naval combined fleet is eyeing the sea south of Shank Point. But Port Phillip Bay, which lies between Melbourne and Shank Point, is still dominated by white people for the time being.
Taking advantage of the last safety moment, the Australian federal government mobilized all ships that had not been sunk by the bombing, whether they were fishing boats, cargo ships, yachts or torpedo boats, and plied the 50 kilometers of sea between Melbourne and Shank Point over and over again (one way is equivalent to Having crossed the Yangtze River at least ten times), he transported all kinds of supplies stored in the city, as well as the troops and civilians who were preparing to retreat to Shank Point for final resistance, little by little.
However, such a busy but orderly transportation work only lasted for one day before it encountered a more severe test.
——At noon on the second day after the evacuation work began, the sky over Melbourne cleared up. Although the muddy road began to be dried by the sun, annoying Japanese planes also followed. The Japanese pilots soon discovered the Allied retreat. action, and dropped a string of bombs...
For a time, the originally calm sea surface of Philip Bay was covered with huge water columns, and ships loaded with cargo and people had to struggle between the peaks and troughs of the waves. From time to time, a ship was hit by a bomb, turned into a ball of fire, or was The huge waves caused by the explosion overturned, and a group of people floated on the sea, shouting frantically for help... These small boats of a few tons or more than ten tons, which can only travel offshore, have no resistance to even the smallest aerial bombs. ability.
Facing the incoming Japanese aircraft, the stubborn Australians also spent their last resources and dragged out the last batch of intact F4F "Wildcat" and P-38 "Lightning" fighter jets from the cleverly disguised bunker. They risked their lives and braved the roar of bombs and machine gun fire to fill in the dense holes on the runway as much as possible, allowing the pilots to fly these last fighter planes to the sky to meet them tragically. The two sides fought for three days over Melbourne, and then on the fourth day, the last Australian air force was lost, and Japanese aircraft once again completely dominated the Australian sky.
Late at night on the third day of the evacuation, Australian Prime Minister John Cutting and Australian Army Commander General Thomas Bremy boarded a yacht riddled with bullet holes and evacuated the devastated urban area of Melbourne. The bottom hold of the yacht was stacked with Australian government gold and silver bars. The despair of the passengers was in sharp contrast to the beautiful view of the silvery moonlight of Philip Bay; someone sang "Quiet Night" alone, but no one sang along.
Just as the Australians at the rear were moving like ants, they were carrying supplies from Melbourne to Shank Point. The Allied forces on various front lines were still relying on trench fortifications and risking their lives to resist the Japanese invasion. In order to buy time for the transfer, the Australian federal government issued the last conscription order, and all men over the age of fourteen and under the age of seventy were organized into volunteers to fill the gaps in the trenches and use their He sacrificed his life to delay the collapse of the front, and at the same time replaced those elite veterans and retreated to Shank Point for the final resistance.
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Mixed in the chaotic and noisy flow of people, Corporal Downey of the 17th Division of the US Army walked into downtown Melbourne in a daze.
After withdrawing from the outpost position in Broadford Town, he participated in several blocking battles with the troops, like an iron wall that firmly pinned the Japanese 152nd Division on the opposite side more than 30 years away from Melbourne. kilometers away. The division commander, Lieutenant General Masanobu Tsuji, found that he could not break through the seemingly weak Allied defenses from the front, so he tried to make a detour under the cover of darkness. But his enemies had already been on guard against this move, constantly taking advantage of the inside line to move troops, repeatedly entering the battlefield to block the enemy, and beating the shit out of the Japanese 152nd Division on the northern front again and again.
However, although Corporal Downey and his troops withstood the invading enemies from the north time and time again, they could not withstand the fire in the backyard. The main force of more than 100,000 Japanese troops on the eastern front successfully broke through the pass guarded by the Australians. , and entered the narrow plain east of Melbourne. Not only did it cut the Allied forces deployed there into pieces, its leading troops even penetrated behind the 17th Division of the U.S. Army, and it was about to form a pincer attack. Next, the defense line in the west of Melbourne also collapsed, and the US military's persistence in the northern suburbs of Melbourne had completely lost its meaning.
Although they were not defeated, they no longer had enough troops to hold on to their positions and smash the flank attack of General Yamashita Fengwen... Corporal Downey and his companions had to be ordered to abandon the positions and fortresses they had held for many days. While laying landmines and destroying roads, they retreated towards the city of Melbourne. In the continuous melee and maneuvers, Corporal Downey's 17th Division has been shattered, and no one knows which general is commanding him at the moment. They just obey orders mechanically and fight or march numbly based on instinct.
At this moment, he and his companions were exhausted from the fighting and marching that lasted for more than half a month. Corporal Downey's face was darkened by the smoke and mud, and the hard work and fatigue made his expression even more... I was nervous and miserable. My shoes had fallen off and there were two pieces of cotton on my bare feet. His companions were all covered in mud, with beards, ragged clothes, slovenly, hungry and tired, and so tired that they dozed off while marching. Whether they were Australians, New Zealanders, Americans or British, most of them were The soldier couldn't think of anything anymore and walked like a scarecrow...
When these American soldiers who suffered heavy casualties gave up their positions and retreated, there was a large group of refugees fleeing behind and to their left and right, mostly local farmers. The injured were on crutches, and the dying were lying on stretchers with big bellies. pregnant woman with white hair Old people and unsteady children worked together to drag the carts filled with boxes and household items - because the cars and livestock had been confiscated by the army, the refugees could only rely on manpower to drag the carts filled with household items. The roads around Melbourne are congested. Along the way, we passed deserted villages, abandoned farms overgrown with weeds, and lonely huts with open doors. Occasionally, a few lonely old men and women can be seen sitting on the roadside, like zombies.
Although the atmosphere of the retreat was very depressing, in any case, they had temporarily bid farewell to the battlefield, away from death and blood.
And just as Corporal Downey withdrew from the battlefield, another group of people entered the battlefield in a more tragic way - when they entered urban Melbourne, old men and children who had been recruited into the Volunteer Army were walking on the same road as these American soldiers. They passed each other in opposite directions. The old men with gray beards were so trembling that they could hardly move their legs, while the children had faces full of fear and despair because they were forced to shoulder adult tasks prematurely.
When the regular army gradually withdrew from all fronts, they, the old, weak, sick and disabled who were scheduled to be abandoned, these volunteers were all dying old men and half-grown children, but they were ordered to march to the front line, dig trenches, form formations, and hold on to the death. Buy time for the government and military to relocate and evacuate.
Enemy planes roared above their heads, artillery shells roared in their ears, and many people were killed in the bombing before they even reached the front line. However, the remaining volunteers who had just picked up their guns still persisted in trying to complete their mission, and worked hard to survive in the most dangerous situation. Foxholes were dug in the hills for defense, field artillery was set up on the high ground, and the Japanese invasion was really repelled for a time - after driving so far, the Japanese army began to feel a little tired.
However, the Japanese invested too many troops this time, and the firepower was too fierce. The artillery shells they fired every day were more than they destroyed in the previous battle. They were not as stingy with the artillery shells as in the past. It's like a machine gun that takes artillery doctrine to its extreme.
Therefore, although the Japanese troops attacking from all directions suffered repeated setbacks and suffered heavy losses in the face of the solid defense line, they had sufficient troops and an endless supply of ammunition, so they could fully withstand the losses. Even if it is temporarily impossible to break through the Allied bunkers and trenches, at least hundreds of planes are still dropping aerial bombs and bombing the city of Melbourne every day, killing a large number of troops and citizens in the city, and destroying many bridges and The buildings have added many huge craters to the streets, and have also plunged Melbourne, a lonely city at the end of the world, into an increasingly precarious and catastrophic predicament.
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After entering the city, Corporal Downey first left the team and went to the wounded soldiers hospital located in a high school auditorium, hoping to get some iodine or sulfonamide powder to treat his arm that was scratched by a stray bullet. Then, he saw an extremely terrifying scene: hundreds of wounded and sick Allied soldiers, side by side, head to toe, lying in rows on the dirty ground, walking from the inside of the dilapidated auditorium. It stretches continuously along the corridor and playground. The crowd was so dense that it was almost impossible to get in. The better ones were lying on stretchers, and most of them were lying directly on the concrete floor or grass, in various postures. Some were lying stiff and still, while many were crouching in the sun and groaning. There were swarms of flies flying above their heads, crawling on their faces, and buzzing. The stench of blood, sweat stains, dirty bandages and feces makes people gag, and the moans one after another are extremely harsh. A weak-minded person will go crazy if he lies here for a few hours. In fact, many of the wounded were already insane.
Corporal Downey held his nose and walked around in this squirming human blanket, but he didn't find any doctors or nurses. During this period, he often stepped on the wounded who were arranged too closely. Those who were stepped on could only roll their eyes and look around... Next, Corporal Downey spent a lot of effort to find someone who was still awake. The one-legged second lieutenant of the Australian Army found out what happened in this place from his mouth.
——It turns out that as early as two nights ago, Melbourne hospitals began to organize evacuations. Doctors and nurses withdrew medicines and equipment from the city and moved by boat to the "final defense base" at Shank Point. As for the wounded and sick soldiers in the hospital, everyone who could move also left with them. However, those whose injuries were so serious that they could not move were basically abandoned because there were not enough ambulances and stretcher-carrying personnel. Except for a few seriously injured officers who were able to catch a ride on a car or ship and be transferred to Shank Point, the rest were left to fend for themselves in this abandoned empty city.
What's even more terrible is that after all the doctors and nurses here have left, it seems that due to a lack of information, the wounded from various frontline positions around Melbourne continue to be transported in batches, and then they are ignored. The responsible transport team was left here. These poor wounded soldiers don't get any treatment or rescue here. They don't even have food or water to drink, and they have nowhere to escape. They are dying and can only wait for death...
"...So, please do me a favor and give me some water! It's best to have some food." The Australian Army second lieutenant, whose right leg was blown off, licked his chapped lips and coughed to Corporal Downey. Prayed, "...Ahem! I haven't eaten or drank all day..."
"...Sorry, there is still a little water, and I don't even have anything to eat." Corporal Downey sighed, opened the lid of the portable water bottle, poured the last bit of water in the bottle into the other person's throat, and then poured another He gave the other party a few cigarettes, then turned around and left.
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※PS: Recently, Taiwan announced the death of a mainland tourist group bus after driving away the mainland family members The incident was a malicious crime committed by a Taiwanese driver who drove drunk, poured oil and set himself on fire. This driver was just sentenced to five years in prison in June, but for some reason he was not arrested and sent to jail ( It is suspected that he was deceived by extremist forces into a suicide bomber) and President Tsai wrote an elegiac couplet to this guy - the treasure island in the textbooks of the past has become a gathering place for lunatics, liars, fools and terrorists. It’s no surprise that any weird things happen. We really need to have the spirit to bravely venture into the deadly island before we dare to go to Taiwan.