Great time travel

Chapter 73、Winter in Melbourne

Although located on the other side of the earth, Melbourne's climate is surprisingly similar to that of southern England, which belongs to the rainy temperate marine climate.Every autumn and winter, it will continue to rain for several days from time to time.Under the dim sky, the damp cold and fog permeated the dusty city all day long, seeping into every wall and every ceiling.Raindrops the size of bullets crackled on the windows, often lasting for days without stopping.The water of the river and the lake surged in the continuous rain, causing the garden and the mountains to be filled with mudslides soon...

However, the British who migrated thousands of miles to Melbourne are very comfortable with this, because they are used to the weather in their hometown.

——Melbourne, located in southeastern Australia, on the north shore of Port Phillip Bay.This is a city with a short history. Before 1835, Melbourne was still a wilderness.It took another 15 years before Melbourne became a small town.But in 1851, an unprecedented super-giant gold mine was suddenly discovered in Melbourne, and it was extremely easy to mine. Thousands of gold prospectors flocked from all over the world, including a large number of Chinese workers.In the midst of a frantic gold rush, Melbourne's population exploded, quadrupling the number of citizens in three years.Its rich reserves of gold mines have eclipsed San Francisco (San Francisco) in the United States, which is extremely rich in gold reserves. Therefore, Melbourne is also called the new gold mountain by the Chinese gold rush coolies. Until modern times, there are still many Chinese-run schools, In the names of stores and companies, the name "Xinjinshan" is included.

Because of the amazing magic power of gold, in the 1880s, in just 30 years, Melbourne developed from a remote town into a highly developed big city. One of the largest and most populous cities in the Empire.

With strong financial resources, the Melburnians who suddenly became wealthy began to spend money and build large-scale construction projects, making their city full of various luxurious buildings, especially various Victorian-style cathedrals, including the famous Wesley Church, St. Paul's Cathedral, Scottish Church, St. Bartley's Cathedral and St. Michael's United Church are second only to London in number in the world, so they are known as the "City of Churches" in the southern hemisphere.

——However, all the prosperity, splendor and affluence of Melbourne are now about to be destroyed...

The leader of the Australian Labor Party, the No.14 prime minister of Australia, His Excellency John Katyn, is standing by the window of his prime minister's office, looking melancholy at the streets of Melbourne shrouded in gloomy rain and fog.In recent days, it has been raining every day before dawn, and when it is bright enough to see things clearly, it will probably turn into a torrential rain.The water level of the Yarra River, which flows into the city of Melbourne, has risen by five feet, and every day, swollen and rotting corpses are washed down from upstream.Because the sewer system has long been silted up, the streets are full of water, and even the jeep will stall.

Just across from the window of Prime Minister Katyn's office, a blue flag of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Southern Cross star, soaked up the rain, looked wet and dirty, tangled on the flagpole outside the window like a rag, but no one seemed to be there. Didn't even think about bringing it down.

——In the early days of the Commonwealth of Australia, Melbourne served as the capital for 27 years.It was not until 1927 that the Commonwealth Government of Australia moved to Canberra... However, during the tenure of Prime Minister John Katyn, Australia's capital and central government were moved back to Melbourne.

But for Melbourne, this does not mean any glory and decency, but only because Canberra, the legal capital, was captured by the Japanese army.

When John Katyn first took office as Prime Minister of Australia, he had a piece of land almost as big as the United States under his jurisdiction.But just one year after the Japanese army landed, Australia, which belonged to the white people, was at the end of its rope, leaving only a corner of the land around Melbourne.

By this time, even Melbourne, the last refuge, has been crumbling amidst gunfire and gunpowder smoke...

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Although the sky was as dark as night in the rain, there were hardly any lights in the city because Melbourne's power and running water had long been cut off.Every surviving house in the field of vision was riddled with shells and bombs, and the walls were full of bullet holes with big mouths open. Even the roof of John Katyn's prime minister's office could be clearly seen A machine gun bullet hole.It was from a 12.7mm machine gun round a week earlier that had pierced the ceiling two feet from the head of His Excellency the Prime Minister, decapitating a guard and splashing blood and brains on Prime Minister Katyn's face.

At the moment, the bullet hole is dripping rainwater into a ceramic spittoon that has been placed there in advance.From time to time, some water splashed out and wet the expensive carpet underneath... Even so, Prime Minister Katyn still has to thank the rain-because of the continuous rain in the past few days, it obscured the field of vision and made the field airport in the front line Turned into a quagmire and unusable, Melbourne was temporarily spared from the indiscriminate bombing of Japanese planes.

Before the rainstorm began, Melbourne had to withstand at least five or six bombings a day on average, and those Japanese bombers flew so far that they could almost rub the ends of people's hair.The Australian soldiers and civilians in Melbourne had to persist in their work and life amidst such deafening and terrifying howls, and at the same time, they had to be on guard against the poison gas bombs thrown by the Japanese army at any time. dead.

Therefore, this continuous winter rain that made the city wet and muddy gave the exhausted Allied troops a rare respite, and also allowed Prime Minister John Katyn to briefly walk out of the dark and suffocating underground shelter. So, come out to the ground for a little air
However, although the continuous winter rain can hinder the bombing of Japanese planes and the release of poisonous gas, it cannot prevent the attack of another advanced weapon... Hearing the ominous scream mixed with the sound of rain, Prime Minister John Katyn withdrew his thoughts temporarily , turned around and sat back behind the desk, waiting quietly.

Not long after, the shock caused by the violent explosion came immediately, heavy and violent, shaking the coffee cup on the table, and a wisp of dust fell from the roof, dirtying the documents on the table... and then When it was down, the sound of an explosion like thunder reached the ears, making people's hearts tremble.

This is the Japanese using V1 cruise missiles imitated by Nazi Germany to bombard the urban area of ​​Melbourne from the nearest forward position to Melbourne, the town of Broadford, 1 kilometers to the north.Although the Japanese army does not have any giant artillery that can shoot such a long range, for the V1 cruise missile with two small wings, the distance of 370 kilometers is just a piece of cake-according to Nazi Germany Originally designed, the V1 cruise missile had a maximum range of [-] kilometers and could carry seven hundred kilograms of explosives.Since there is no need for such a long range on the Australian battlefield, the ammunition load of the modified V[-] missile used by the Japanese has been increased to as much as one ton!
Because it uses a jet engine with amazing speed, it is difficult to intercept it midway, whether it is an anti-aircraft gun or a propeller fighter.

Therefore, although the accuracy of the V1 cruise missile is poor, once any ground target is hit, it is almost invincible... Since the first V1 cruise missile fell into the campus of the University of Melbourne five days ago, it blew up a From the beginning of the ammunition depot, the Japanese launched a V1 cruise missile to Melbourne every hour, 24 a day, rain or shine, day and night, and the time interval was as precise as a clock, which made the remaining soldiers and civilians in Melbourne always full of fear, Sleepless nights are also like an invisible clock telling the time, announcing the change of age in this land of Australia - the old Australia belonging to the white race is about to disappear, while the new Australia belonging to the yellow race is rising in the dawn... …

Prime Minister John Katyn certainly did not want to see such a thing happen, and tried his best to fight, but it was of no avail.In this unprecedented and cruel war, the white people in Australia have almost shed their blood, but they can only watch everything they are familiar with gradually being destroyed.

Perhaps, in Mexico 400 years ago, the last emperor of the Aztec Empire and his subjects also had such a desperate and sad mood, seeing their own country, city and civilization being destroyed by strangers from across the ocean. Alien invaders, crush and destroy bit by bit?
It took a while for the shock caused by the explosion to subside, and then Prime Minister John Katyn struggled to bring his thoughts back to reality, and signaled his personal servant to open the door.Then, General Thomas Bremi, the commander of the Australian Army, walked in and gave a hasty salute to the prime minister.

"... Prime Minister Katyn! Everyone who can come has arrived, please go to the underground hideout to attend the meeting as soon as possible!"

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During the long and brutal war, in order to avoid the never-ending air raids, the Australian federal government, which moved to Melbourne, had already turned to work underground.At a depth of 15 meters below the ground of Melbourne Town Hall, the federal government has carefully excavated and built a strong underground shelter.It is all reinforced with reinforced concrete, equipped with its own power generation equipment, self-contained, independent of the outside world, and designed to withstand a direct hit from a one-ton bomb.

However, even though the defense ability has reached the standard far superior to that of ancient castles, the living conditions of this kind of bunker still cannot have too high expectations. After all, this place is used for refuge rather than vacation—in a word, underground shelter The place was very narrow and airtight at all, and the humidity brought by the rain made the air turbid. It looked like the worst private prison, or an ocean-going submarine that had sailed for many days.

Everyone will feel bored and unbearable after staying in the bunker for a long time, and they are looking forward to going out for a breath of fresh air all day long, even if it means risking their lives.

Having said that, in the bombing of the Japanese Air Force like a firestorm, only such a place can give people a sense of security.

So, now this narrow bunker is full of soldiers and staff, and many secondary departments can't even find a place to plug in, and have to work in the office of the ground building without any protection... When Prime Minister Katyn went to the underground shelter When I entered the conference room, it was already full of people-the cabinet team of the Commonwealth of Australia, the liaison officer of the US military aid to Australia, the staff officer of the British Royal Navy Liaison Office and the special envoy of the New Zealand government.On the map in the center of the conference table, a few thick arrows and a bunch of models are used to vividly show the desperate situation of the Australian Allied Forces at this time:

Defeated, disintegrated, and demoralized across the board.And... there is no escape!
——In the past two weeks, the Allied forces and the Japanese army fought a "Battle of Moi-Morwell" at the foot of the Australian mountains east of Melbourne. Next, the [-] allied troops that General Thomas Bremi, the commander of the Australian army, managed to put together, were defeated by the [-] Japanese troops after only one day.

However, a total of [-] of the [-] Allied troops who went out to meet the enemy on the Eastern Front were also destroyed, and the entire defense line was cut to pieces by the Japanese troops driving straight in.In addition, because the Japanese army attacked too quickly, a considerable part of the Allied combat troops were now divided and surrounded by the Wilsons Point Peninsula and the eastern foot of the Australian Mountains, and they could not withdraw at all.As a result, Melbourne's defense forces were seriously insufficient.However, the Japanese army approached the outskirts of Melbourne from three directions: east, west, and north. No matter which direction the Japanese army was in, it was only about [-] kilometers away from the city center.

Although in the previous long tug-of-war, the Allied forces successively built solid fortifications in the suburbs around Melbourne, the problem is that the Allied forces simply cannot produce enough troops to enrich those forts and fortresses, and the original fixed Many of the artillery on the defense line were dismantled to launch a counterattack to regain lost ground, and then with the final failure of the counterattack, they were all discarded hundreds of kilometers away...

Fortunately, a continuous heavy rain fell at this time, causing the stream to soar, the mountain torrents to overflow, and the mud everywhere, which temporarily blocked the advance of the Japanese troops from all walks of life, so that these yellow-skinned dwarves did not rush into Melbourne after chasing the rout of the Allied forces. Come downtown.

When the land was vigorously fought, Port Phillip Bay in the south of Melbourne was as calm as ever, but the problem is that a powerful Japanese fleet is now waiting outside the harbor. , can't get out at all.

To put it more vividly, Port Phillip Bay is a big cloth bag with a length of 50 kilometers from north to south and a width of 40 kilometers from east to west, but with a small opening. The opening to the south leads to the open sea, and Melbourne is located at the bottom of the cloth bag.Today, the entire coastal area around Port Phillip Bay is still under the control of the Allied forces for the time being, but the exit of the bags is firmly blocked by the Japanese navy fleet, and the sea traffic in Melbourne is basically abolished—— Just like the Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet blocked in Lushun Port by the Japanese Navy's combined fleet during the Russo-Japanese War.

To make matters worse, with the current strength of the Allied Forces in Melbourne, it is impossible to defend such an exaggerated big pocket.

"...with the control of the sea already changing hands, if we want to defend Melbourne, we must defend the entire Port Phillip Bay. In this case, the entire defense line must be at least 250 kilometers long, equivalent to the French Maginot Line of Defense Two-thirds of..."

The commander of the Australian army, Admiral Thomas Bremi, pointed at the map with a long stick, and said with a gloomy face, "...Although we have many ready-made fortifications and fortresses that can be used on this new front, the French in Malawi There are 300 million people deployed on the Chino line of defense, but now Melbourne can only gather [-] troops, and the rest are isolated behind enemy lines, and the ammunition and artillery in stock are seriously insufficient..."

"...In other words, we are doomed to lose Melbourne now, right? General?"

Prime Minister John Katyn rubbed his forehead in pain and said.And the other people in the venue couldn't help but let out sad laments.

"...Yes, I suggest that you abandon Melbourne as soon as possible, shorten the front line, and move to a terrain that is easier to defend, just like General MacArthur abandoned Manila on the Philippine battlefield, Your Excellency Prime Minister." Australian Army Commander General Thomas Bremi replied.

"...Abandon Melbourne? But this is the last big city in the hands of the Australian federal government!"

Prime Minister John Katyn sighed, "...if you can't even defend Melbourne, only Tasmania is left in the Federation! Moreover, the Japanese fleet has blocked the sea route, and the entire continent is occupied by the Japanese. Even if we abandon Melbourne, where can we retreat next?"

"...you can retreat to Cape Shank on the south coast of Port Phillip Bay, shorten the front line to about ten kilometers, and then rely on fortifications to stand firm and wait for reinforcements."

The commander of the Australian Army, Admiral Thomas Bremi, pointed to a headland on the map facing the open sea and guarding the exit of Port Phillip Bay with his long stick, "...just like when General MacArthur withdrew from Manila and retreated to the Bataan Peninsula... I Although the current [-] troops of the army cannot defend Melbourne, it is still enough to defend Cape Shank. Moreover, there are strong coastal defense batteries that can be used, which are enough to smash the enemy to death!"

"...This..." Prime Minister John Katyn still seemed to be hesitant, but Admiral Thomas Bremi was already impatient.

"...Your Excellency, Prime Minister, please make a decision as soon as possible! We are running out of time! Once the weather improves and the Japanese army starts operations again. Or they braved the heavy rain to force their attack, then as long as three days at most, we can be killed. Everyone is besieged in the city!"

Admiral Bremi brandished his stick and poked at the map, growling, "...at that time, even if you want to transfer, it will be impossible!"

"...well, I see, General! Now is the worst time. We have to make up our minds."

Prime Minister John Katyn took off his glasses and wiped them, "...Now, everyone, please vote. Those who agree to transfer to Cape Shank please raise your hands!"

After a brief silence, everyone in the conference room of the underground hideout exchanged glances with each other, and then began to raise their hands one after another...