Expedition to Europe

Churchill once said a famous saying: This is not the end, not even the beginning of the end, but may be the end of the beginning.

This is what Churchill said after the Battle of El Alamein, the turning point of the North African campaign during World War II. It seems a bit awkward and a bit of a trick of playing word games, but it truly reflects the situation at the time.

This sentence is also applicable to this battle.

After abandoning the outer harbor artillery, for the defenders, the battle entered the second stage, which was a new beginning.

But for the Perth Expeditionary Force, which did not understand the situation, capturing the outer harbor artillery was equivalent to finally smashing the hard shell of Port Hedland, and then they could enjoy the delicious fruits.

When the coastal defense artillery completely stopped firing, there was a dead silence in the bridge of the "Perth", and then there was a thunderous cheer. Everyone couldn't believe that the defenders gave up the artillery so easily. Originally, according to the strength of the artillery's counterattack just now, the expeditionary force still had a fierce battle to fight. James Jerome was even ready to cover the landing of the commandos. In this case, the defenders actually gave up the artillery, which was really unbelievable.

Of course, there is another possibility. It may be that the defenders still have a trump card that has not been used, so they easily gave up those seemingly solid artillery facilities.

Since there are doubts, James Jerome must express them clearly.

With the victory just now, James Jerome has accumulated a lot of reputation. At least the expeditionary commander Derek Chaplin did not directly reject James Jerome's proposal this time. So a transport ship approached the outer harbor breakwater tremblingly, put down two lifeboats full of soldiers, and then fled in a hurry.

There is really no need to be so cautious. The artillerymen have withdrawn through the underground passage. There is no one on the artillery, and those soldiers have not received any resistance.

When he saw the Australian flag waving on the breakwater, Derek Chaplin could no longer hold back and ordered the fleet to enter Port Hedland to prepare for landing operations.

James Jerome did not know the details of the fort. If James Jerome knew that the artillery on the fort was not damaged, and even the shells and fuses were intact, then James Jerome would never agree to land.

This is obviously a trap, and only a guy like Derek Chaplin who has been blinded by material desires would foolishly rush into it.

James Jerome is not a fool, but with a boss like Derek Chaplin, even if James Jerome has a talent for the world, he can't show it.

During the entire landing process, the Pers Expeditionary Force did not suffer any attack.

This is another very abnormal situation.

Generally speaking, attacking halfway across the river is the best way for the defenders to fight. Even if the attacking troops have landed, the defenders can rely on the familiar terrain and pre-built fortifications to drive the attacking party back.

Moreover, according to James Jerome's standards, the Perth Expeditionary Force was a little unfamiliar with landing operations. Whether it was the opening of the landing site or the order of the troops landing, there was a bit of confusion. There were even extreme cases where the soldiers had already landed, but the officers were still on the warship.

The purpose of the Perth Expeditionary Force was not pure. These expeditionary soldiers joined the expeditionary force because of the instigation of the Perth City Council and wanted to make a fortune in Port Hedland.

Such troops basically had little military discipline. Among those troops whose officers had not yet landed, many soldiers who had not received the next order had even begun to smash and destroy everywhere, hoping to find something good to reward themselves.

So now the dock is particularly chaotic, with groups of soldiers everywhere. They are like rioters without any organization, wantonly destroying any house they can see, scrambling for everything they can take away, and even starting to fight for it.

James Jerome naturally saw the chaos on the dock. Out of professional ethics, James Jerome still made his own suggestions to Derek Chaplin, asking Derek Chaplin to restrain his troops and guard against possible counterattacks in Port Hedland.

At sea, Derek Chaplin would question James Jerome's authority. Now on land, Derek Chaplin was even more dismissive of James Jerome's suggestions: "Don't worry, they just need to vent now, we have to consider the problem from the perspective of the soldiers."

To be honest, whether in the East or the West, the army and the bandits are one family. The only army in the world that does not take a single thread from the masses is the PLA, no semicolon.

Even if Westerners have claimed to be "civilized people", Westerners' restraint on the army is still extensive. In order to stimulate the combat effectiveness of soldiers, Westerners even encourage this kind of plunder in war. Of course, they will turn a blind eye to other crimes such as "insulting women".

It is difficult to say how strong the combat effectiveness of such an army is. Perhaps in terms of military skills, they are indeed excellent, but in terms of fighting will, such an army is not worth mentioning.

Whether it is robbery or something else, it is ultimately the violence of the strong against the weak. If an army is used to this way of venting, when facing an army weaker than them, this army can indeed burst out with strong combat effectiveness, but when facing a force with similar or even stronger combat effectiveness, this army will quickly collapse.

Think about the Korean War and the Afghan War, which is a very sharp contrast.

Of course, the behavior of "bullying the weak" is an absolute hooligan behavior in the Eastern moral view, but in the eyes of many Westerners, the weak are born to be bullied by the strong and have no qualifications to be respected by the strong, so those Westerners had better pray every day, praying that their national will will be prosperous and strong, otherwise, hehe——

The behavior of the Pers Expeditionary Force on the dock of Port Hedland is a concentrated manifestation of the bad nature of these Westerners. Of course, because Jack and Chen Zhaoqiang did their job well, there were no women, children or civilians in the dock area, which avoided many indescribable things from happening, which was a blessing in disguise.

If robbery is carried out by a group, it will become an uncontrollable atrocity. Unlike what Derek Chaplin imagined, when the officers landed, they did not gather the soldiers together to emphasize order, but joined the robbery team, making the order even more chaotic. This made Derek Chaplin and Chen Zhaoqiang and others who were secretly observing very angry.

"Are these people from Perth or India? Why do they look like they have never seen anything? Can they be so poor that they don't even have curtains at home?" Chen Zhaoqiang's chief of staff Tian Yongfu shook his head repeatedly as he watched a soldier of the Perth Expeditionary Force walking out of a house with a pair of curtains in his arms.

The original text is available at Liu # 9 @Shu/Bar!

When Jack just arrived in Port Hedland, in order to eliminate the vigilance of the Persians, Jack hired a group of Indians. As a result, the performance of this group of Indians made Jack speechless. Not only were they lazy and greedy, but they also didn't care about hygiene. They were proud of being loyal lackeys of the British Empire and pointed fingers at the Chinese and the Annan people. It was okay to offend the Annan people, but offending the Chinese was equivalent to offending the "financial master" behind Jack. So this group of Indians was quickly sent back to their hometown. Now in Port Hedland, there are few Indian men except Indian women.

Yeah, Indian men are not good, but women are still good.

Although India is also one of the four ancient civilizations, it is a world apart from the Chinese in terms of resistance spirit. For thousands of years, Westerners, Arabs, Mongols, etc. have taken turns to rule India, so the race in India is quite complicated.

There is a situation that many people know, that is, mixed-race people are often quite beautiful, and India is a country with serious mixed-race people, so Indian women are still very good, whether by Western standards or Eastern standards, Indian women are acceptable.

So in this way, most of the Indians introduced to Port Hedland are women, such as Chen Zhaoqiang, who just took in an Indian concubine at the beginning of the year.

"How good do you think the living conditions of the Persians are? They are not much better than us, and even many people are far worse than us. Take these soldiers for example. They were either vagrants or proletarians before. People with a little status would not join such an army. They don't even have curtains at home. It's hard to say whether they have a home." Chen Zhaoqiang looked down on these people.

Originally, Chen Zhaoqiang was going to get some prisoners through this war to supplement the labor force, but now Chen Zhaoqiang is not sure. If these people are put into the prisoner-of-war camp, these soldiers may become laborers, but they are more likely to become troublemakers.

"What should we do? Should we fight or not? We can't just watch them destroy our things." Tian Yongfu's words sounded like a question, but in fact they were psychological hints.

"Fight, fight, fight, send a signal to the submarine forces on standby at sea to prepare to clear the Perth Expeditionary Fleet patrolling in the outer harbor, and at the same time order Wu Chengzhi and Ruan Xingfei to attack immediately, capture if they can, and kill if they can't!" Chen Zhaoqiang was murderous.

The Perth Expeditionary Fleet had indeed entered Port Hedland, but at the same time James Jerome was still cautious. James Jerome ordered the "King George V" and "Black Swan" to patrol in the outer sea to guard against possible accidents, and only sent the "Perth" and "John Monash" into Port Hedland to provide firepower support for the landing operation.

Such an arrangement seemed impeccable, but under the targeting of the Port Hedland submarine force, it could only be defeated one by one.