The Rise Of Australasia-Chapter 1264 - 930 Bombing Hiroshima_2

Chapter 1264: Chapter 930: Bombing Hiroshima_2

Chapter 1264 -930: Bombing Hiroshima_2

To ensure the absolute success of Australasia’s amphibious landing operation, before launching the attack, the General Staff had decided to conduct another massive bombing on the Island Nation’s native military bases and navy harbors.

The purpose of this bombing was to completely eliminate the aerial and naval threats from the Island Nation on their homeland, turning the landing operation into a war between the armies of the two countries.

Thus, annihilating the Island Royal Navy became a necessary task. Earlier bombings on the native land of the Island Nation had already caused tremendous casualties to the Island Nation Army’s air force, reducing it to a mere tenth of its former size, no longer posing any threat to the Australasian Air Force.

However, the Island Royal Navy, by holing up in Hiroshima’s harbor, had so far not suffered overly heavy blows.

The Island Nation established their second Navy Base in Hiroshima, and since the end of the last century, they had built a substantial number of maintenance and shipbuilding facilities.

Currently, not only does Hiroshima possess the Island Nation’s largest shipyard, but it also boasts the largest ship repair facilities and more, serving as the primary source of the Island Royal Navy’s strength.

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Owing to the critical importance of Hiroshima to the development of the Island Royal Navy, the coastline isn’t just equipped with a huge number of shore defense turrets, but also numerous anti-aircraft guns and machine guns, specifically for air defense.

To permanently resolve the threat posed by the Island Royal Navy, the Australasian Air Force deployed thousands of airplanes for an air raid on Hiroshima, with more than 300 bombers participating.

To counter the possible presence of the Island Royal Navy stationed at Hiroshima’s harbor, this fleet of airplanes was not only heavily equipped with the latest missiles from Australasia but also consisted solely of new models with the latest jet engines.

Since the war had already erupted, Arthur was not afraid to reveal his hand. Moreover, jet engines were a trend of the times and it was even possible that other countries were already researching them.

Therefore, even if Australasia did not reveal its hand with jet technology, it was still likely that in the coming few years, other countries might develop jet engines and employ them in military research.

The sight of thousands of airplanes bombing Hiroshima was truly spectacular, with the scale of the air raid on the Island Nation even comparable to Germany’s aerial combat over Britain.

Australasia also had a numerical advantage over the Island Nation’s Air Force, and even a significant advantage in quality.

But Arthur was not the German Chancellor, nor would he interfere with the strategic execution of the Air Force. Arthur was only concerned about the results of the bombardment.

The entire air raid lasted for over 12 hours, with many airplanes making two to three or more sorties for continuous bombing.

The results were clear: during this large-scale bombardment, at least five military airfields of the Island Nation were effectively destroyed, with over 500 airplanes decimated and at least tens of thousands of casualties inflicted.

The best news came from the attack on Hiroshima.

Although Hiroshima’s air defense capabilities were an essential part of the Island Nation’s air defense arrangements, they were not as significant of a threat to the all-jet Australasian Air Force.

Facing the air defense pressure of Hiroshima, Australasia sank three Island battleships, two aircraft carriers—a total of five main battleships—and severely damaged at least dozens of medium and small Island warships.

While it wasn’t enough to gravely harm the vitality of the Island Royal Navy, the loss of five main battleships was enough pain for the Island Royal Navy to endure for a long time.

More importantly, with the loss of these five main battleships, the gap in naval power between the Island Royal Navy and the Australasian Navy would grow even wider.

However, the Island Nation was not exactly an easy target; in this massive bombing, over 400 Australasian airplanes were shot down, with almost half of them being downed in Hiroshima.

This was to be expected, considering Hiroshima hosted not only a great number of air defense installations but also numerous airplanes from the navy’s aircraft carriers.

Nonetheless, compared to the losses the Island Nation suffered in this air raid, the Australasian losses appeared somewhat trivial.

After the 12-hour bombardment, the Islanders thought they could finally catch their breath.

But just a few hours later, the next round of Australasian bombing followed closely.

Different from the previous massive bombardment, this time around, only about 800 airplanes were deployed.

The targets of these 800 airplanes were not the entire territory of the Island Nation, but the most critical areas of the first day’s attack: Nagasaki and Kagoshima.

The primary objective of this bombing was to destroy the Island Nation’s coastal defenses, creating enough opportunity for a large number of transport ships and landing crafts to approach the Island Nation’s coastline.

Previously, when landing on the Ryukyu Islands, Australasia had already accumulated enough experience, especially since a Type A Division, the strongest combat force in the Island Nation’s military, had been defending the Ryukyus at that time.

Now facing the Island Nation Army once again, mainly composed of Type B and Type C Divisions stationed on Kyushu Island, the pressure on the Australasia Army was far less than imagined.

The task of attacking Nagasaki fell to 250,000 Philippine troops and 100,000 Kalimantan troops. The combat power of the Philippine troops was slightly better than that of the Kalimantan forces and was just barely sufficient to serve as the main force in this beach landing battle.

After all, they were supported by the Australasian Navy and Air Force, and in terms of firepower, they were in no way inferior to the Island Nation and even had a slight advantage.

This also highlighted a disadvantage the long and narrow Island Nation faced when it came to defense: The Australasian Navy could threaten every coastal urban city, and the ship guns carried on their warships were the bane of the Island Nation’s shore defenses.

Just how powerful are ship guns?

Frankly, many people have no basic concept of it.

One must know that ship guns of 406 millimeters or larger can cause damage beyond ordinary people’s imagination.

Even when attacking land-based facilities, they can typically penetrate nine meters of concrete.

That’s nine meters!

If it were to hit the ground, it could create a crater approximately 15 meters in diameter and six meters deep, which is the result calculated by the Australasian Navy.

Used to bomb fortresses and shore artillery turrets on the enemy’s coast, it’s a completely devastating blow.

In the attack on Kyushu Island, Australasia deployed three battleships, two battlecruisers, and one aircraft carrier—maxing out the power and number of ship guns.

The effect was very significant. Initially, the Island Nation Army’s coastal fortresses caused great casualties to the landing Australasia Army.

Many Philippine soldiers had just set foot on the shore when they were pierced by the fire from the fortresses, totally unprepared.

But once the Australasian Navy opened fire, the situation completely turned around.

Australasia was not concerned about the consumption of shells and funds. For Arthur, as long as he could occupy the Island Nation, the benefits would completely outweigh the cost of conquest.

After all, this was a country with a population over 60 million that had a certain scale of industry and economy, capable of generating much more revenue annually than the Philippines and Kalimantan combined.

Though the Island Nation couldn’t become a colony of Australasia, economic and military control was still achievable.

Even if it were only militarily occupied for a year, the benefits would be unimaginably huge. If long-term economic control could be established, then the 60 million population of the Island Nation would become a dumping ground for Australasian industrial products.

While this might not be good news for the people of the Island Nation, for Australasia, which is relatively lacking in colonies, it would be a tremendous wealth.

Under the relentless bombing by the navy and air force, Nagasaki’s 200,000-strong garrison faced immense casualties within just a few days.

The first day of bombing and assault alone resulted in more than 20,000 casualties for the Island Nation in Nagasaki, with at least another 10,000 wounded.

In the following three days, the number of casualties each day for the Nagasaki garrison never fell below 20,000, with the third day’s numbers even exceeding 40,000.

In just four days of assault, the Islanders lost nearly 100,000 troops.

Although the casualties on the Australasian side were also substantial, even exceeding those of the Island Nation, because the casualties incurred were mostly Philippine and Kalimantan soldiers, for Australasia itself, it actually amounted to just the consumption of shells and economic loss.