Forcing Australia on her knees
It took the whole December to gather the needed forces for the invasion of Australia. In the end, the Japanese High Command had managed to free up twenty-six divisions for the operation. This included the forces used in the New Zealand operation plus twelve infantry divisions that had seen action for the last time in 1942. The plan was simple. They would make a fake assault to somewhere far away from their real objectives and then after the Australian army would draw reinforcements from elsewhere the forces would load back into their boats and conclude the main assault.
On 10th of January the fake assault took place, immediately five Australian divisions were ordered on the move, the Japanese didn’t even bother to land and headed towards their objectives. A day later the Australians found out that the landing was a trick and that was too late. The Japanese navy sailed to the coast of Adelaide with radio silence. After noticing that the city was devoid of any military units the eleven divisions including the 19th Motorised Rifle Corps landed and dug in. The navy returned to Wellington to pick up the forces for the operation’s second phase.
On 21st of January the 19th Motorised Rifle Corps was ordered to double time it to Melbourne. They left and arrived there on the 26th, meeting no resistance. The puny counter-attack from Canberra was pushed back with heavy casualties for the Australians. It was the first battle fought on the Australian soil. On the 29th of January the Japanese fleet transported nine divisions to Bribane. The troops that had been positioned to Brisbane had been drawn to the forces trying to recapture Adelaide with a bad success. There was no resistance against them there and two Rifle Corps’ attacked Coff’s Harbour, defeating the two divisions stationed there. The three divisions that hadn’t been ordered to do that started their march towards the North to their objective.
Coff’s Harbour was captured on the 7th of February and the troops there continued immediately towards the city of Newcastle. The lone Australian garrison there held for a day, but was forced to retreat in the end, most of the soldiers surrendered after their attempt to hold Newcastle itself was thwarted by the quickly advancing Japanese infantry. This happened on the 18th of February.
On the 8th of February the Japanese fleet unloaded the 24th Rifle Corps to Nhulunbuy, from there they continued towards Darwin, meeting minimal resistance. Darwin was captured on the 21st of February.
On the 18th of February the 19th Motorised Rifle Corps attacked Canberra and breached the Australian lines using the new Type 4 Chi-Re tanks. The city and its surrounding were secured on the 20th of February. Then they proceeded northwards and secured Hay on the 21st of February. On the 22nd of February the troops in Newcastle attacked Sydney with 19th Motorised Rifle Corps attacking Sydney’s rear from Hay. The Australian defences were broken immediately and Sydney was occupied on the 29th.
To seal off Australia’s defeat, the 1st Genkotsu Aka Corps took the unoccupied Perth on the 8th of March. Now all of Japan’s objectives had been accomplished in two months. The Japanese casualties were minimal and the Australians lost 20 000 men.
No plan survives combat intact…
On 11th of March Japan formally annexed to country, but on the same day a temporary government was “elected” and real elections were ordered to take place in April. Again, all the candidates for the parliament were nominated by the Japanese government. So, Leninism took over another country in the Pacific.
In March, happy news for USA and Soviet Union: After struggling against the Soviet Union for three and a half years and against the American landing for a year, the Germans surrendered. Hitler committed suicide in Poland and the government after him surrendered to Soviet Union unconditionally. Because USA already controlled the whole Germany the Russians couldn’t affect to Germany’s fate in any way so they decided only to liberate Poland. USA liberated Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Czechoslovakia (Slovakia is an independent country!!! WTF?). The portions of Turkey taken over by Germany declared independence but because of their lack of an army the Japanese occupied them and annexed Turkey.
Peace reigns in Europe at last, but the Balkans are still waging a lost war for a lost cause.
