The Rise Of Australasia-Chapter 1173 - 880: Paratroopers Show Their Might

After several hours of flight, under the protection of the Australasian Air Force, over a hundred SOP-34 transport planes successfully reached the airspace above the Ryukyu Islands and, according to the plan, split into two formations, one heading towards Naha and the other towards the harbor.

To protect these transport planes, the Australasian Air Force mobilized several times the number of fighter aircraft and reconnaissance aircraft for escort, and likewise provided aerial firepower support for the paratroopers who made successful jumps.

Indeed, due to the night-time movement of hundreds of airplanes, the entire fleet's progress was quite slow.

As the planes gradually approached the drop zones, the paratroopers inside the transport planes were also making intense yet orderly battle preparations.

"Everyone, check your parachutes one last time, we're about to arrive at the destination, be ready to jump at any moment," said a voice inside one of the planes, clearly a commander, instructing the soldiers on the transport plane.

Hearing their commanders' instructions, the paratroopers checked their parachutes one last time and secured their firearms and other equipment.

After all, this was a high-altitude jump, and any problem could be fatal. And it wasn't just about making a successful jump; they also had to ensure that their equipment didn't fall during the descent.

After all, they weren't parachuting for tourism; they were going into battle against the enemy's army. Without their weapons and equipment, they wouldn't be much different from living targets.

As the leading navigation airplane conveyed the signal that they had reached the destination, the transport planes began to open their hatches, allowing the paratroopers to jump out one by one.

Before jumping, some soldiers took out bottles of grape wine they had prepared from their backpacks, poured a cup for everyone, raised their glasses in a gesture, and then drank it all in one go.

This cup of grape wine was meant to alleviate the soldiers' tension faced with parachuting and war, as well as a send-off for them.

"May God bless us, long live the Empire!"

Following the soldiers' prayers and cheers, a great number leaped down, holding the determination to win and staring resolutely at the land below.

This action appeared like a daring feat by a suicide squad, yet the atmosphere among the soldiers was very jovial. Many soldiers even smiled, chatting loudly with their comrades-in-arms in the sky.

Regrettably, the howling of the air being torn apart soon drowned out the voices of their comrades.

Watching the ground rapidly approach, the paratroopers knew that the real war was about to begin.

Obviously, the drop zone had been carefully chosen. It was a fairly flat area, mostly covered by grass, one of the best spots for paratroop landings.

After a period of free fall in the air, the paratroopers who had reached the appropriate altitude began to open their parachutes and head toward the predetermined landing zones.

Due to the nighttime operation, to facilitate the paratroopers' landing and location finding, the lead planes had already deployed several smoke grenades and flares, which were quite conspicuous.

Soon, one by one, the paratroopers landed successfully. After safely landing, their first action was to quickly retrieve their parachutes.

There's no choice, as these specially made, high-quality parachutes for the military were extremely expensive. If successfully recovered, they could be reused with very little cost.

In less than half an hour, over 2000 paratroopers had landed successfully in the designated area and formed up properly.

The task of these more than 2000 paratroopers was to carry out a surprise attack on the Ryukyu Islands' harbor and rapidly take control of the harbor's order.

Without the harbor, the nearly 100,000-strong Island Nation Army on the Ryukyu Islands would have no way out, only waiting to be cornered by Australasia.

More critically, as an archipelago outside the Native Land of the Island Nation, the inability to receive material supplies in the event of an occupied harbor meant no way to sustain logistics.

Even with 100,000 troops stationed there, their supplies in reserve were destined to be meager.

This means that even without deploying their main force, by simply engaging in a war of attrition against the Islanders by the soldiers from the Philippines and Kalimantan, the 100,000 troops on the Ryukyu Islands were doomed to fail.

More cruelly, there were many people on the Ryukyu Islands, and the daily consumption of food was a huge figure.

If relying solely on the Ryukyu Islands, it was definitely impossible to satisfy the consumption of these people plus a hundred thousand troops.

So long as Australasia could blockade the Ryukyu Islands' harbors, these Islanders would either have to surrender or starve to death on the Ryukyu Islands.

Although the overall mission of these more than 2000 people was to raid the harbor, when it came down to the specific military organization, their individual tasks were varied.

As a company commander, Tommy and his soldiers had the task of establishing a simple defensive position about one kilometer outside the harbor, ensuring that the Australasia Army could prevent the Island Nation Army from reinforcing the harbor.

To prepare for a possible attack by the Islanders, in addition to the more than 6000 soldiers, dozens of machine guns and several small caliber firearms were airdropped.

With the addition of aerial firepower support, holding off an attack by a division of the Island Nation wasn't much of an issue.

After all, the Island Nation Army stationed around the harbor was only a Type C Division, equivalent to new recruits who hadn't undergone much training.

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Of course, the tasks of digging trenches and constructing defensive positions naturally couldn't be accomplished by just one company of the military.

A single company has only a little over 100 people, so it's fundamentally impossible to dig a trench capable of withstanding an assault from over ten thousand soldiers in a short time.

This time, just for digging trenches and deploying defensive positions, the number of soldiers required amounted to about one third of those attacking the harbor, that is, more than 700 people, approximately the strength of five companies.

Though a third of the force was allocated elsewhere, the remaining troops were still more than capable of carrying out a surprise attack on the harbor.

According to intelligence, an Island Nation Type C Division was stationed two kilometers away from the harbor, where less than a thousand soldiers were garrisoned for defense.

After all, the harbors on the Ryukyu Islands were not very large. Moreover, since this Type C Division lacked sufficient training, they naturally needed a more open location for exercises.

However, a distance of two kilometers meant that reinforcements could arrive in less than half an hour.

Moreover, paratroopers were still a relatively new concept for many countries. For a country like the Island Nation, with underdeveloped transport airplane technology and each transport plane carrying only a dozen or so soldiers, it was natural that corresponding airborne tactics had not been developed.

Without airborne tactics, Islanders couldn't possibly anticipate that Australasia would employ a parachute assault to surprise the harbor.

Elsewhere, the remaining 1000 plus Australasia soldiers, after assembling, began to march grandly towards the harbor.

Under the cover of night, the military's advance was very smooth; they were almost at the harbor without being discovered by any Island Nation Army.

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But this peaceful scene didn't last, for as they drew closer to the harbor, the Islanders' vigilance tightened.

After all, in times of war, the Island Nation greatly valued its harbor. If the harbor were lost, the nearly one hundred thousand soldiers on the island would be completely homeless.

"Damn, looks like we have to launch a frontal assault," the Australasia commander sighed helplessly as he observed the opponent's increasingly stringent security measures, and said.

"Contact the Air Force, have them conduct a round of bombing. We'll move right after the bombings end."

Even though they had decided to launch a frontal assault, Australasia wasn't about to needlessly expend its soldiers.

Having the Air Force commence a large-scale bombing of the harbor, followed by the paratroopers taking advantage of the chaos within the harbor to launch a surprise attack, was the most likely way to minimize casualties and achieve military success.

After all, how could these Island Nation soldiers, roused from their sweet slumbers and dodging the bombers overhead in a rush, possibly imagine that, just a few hundred meters away, an army was preparing to stealthily strike them?

This is the advantage of having air superiority, not only the ability to ambush the enemy from the skies, but also to grasp intelligence unattainable to the opponent.

The Air Force wasn't far from the paratrooper unit. Upon receiving the signal from the paratroopers, several bomber squads quickly approached the harbor and initiated a large-scale bombing.

Using this opportunity, on the Australasia commander's order, over a thousand paratroopers began to move silently towards the interior of the harbor.

Because the attack was completely unexpected, and with the bombers' cover from above, the surprise attack was very successful.

By the time the Island Nation Army noticed the paratroopers' stealth attack, the ambush was nearly complete.

"Who's there?" a patrol unit of Island Nation soldiers detected something amiss ahead and someone called out.

"Take them out!" There was no hesitation from the Australasia side, and immediately upon the commander's order, they began to open fire.

This was the moment when the difference in weaponry became evident.

For the convenience of this airborne operation, the paratroopers were generally equipped with two types of primary weapons. One was the standard-issue weapon of the Australasia Army, the Lee-Enfield Rifle.

Although it was the same model equipped during World War I, the latest Lee-Enfield Rifle, modified by the Huang family Military Factory, fired faster and was more stable. Fitted with a scope, it became an adequate sniper rifle.

The other weapon was the latest model submachine gun developed by Browning, the JMB-36 SubmachineGun.

The advantage of this submachine gun was its extremely fast rate of fire. Provided adequate ammo reserves, it could compensate for firepower deficiencies in special force units.

At the commander's signal, the paratroopers instantly squeezed the triggers of their submachine guns.

Ratatat!

The high rate of fire of submachine guns provided a great advantage in encounter battles. Of course, the submachine gun's power wasn't as strong as the rifle's, which meant that the submachine gun's effective range was limited.

But in an encounter battle, with both parties only a little over 100 meters apart, this was still within the submachine gun's effective range. Like with rifles, any gunshot could be lethal.

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