The Japanese troops in Australia were still looking at the Japanese army from the same perspective as during the Malayan Peninsula War, and they made considerable mistakes in judging the enemy's combat capabilities. Little did they know that the Australian army that participated in the Singapore War was just a third-rate motley crew.
The real elite of the Australian army at that time were all fighting on the battlefield in North Africa.
The consequence of judging the enemy's combat capabilities was that the Japanese army itself made considerable mistakes in the deployment of its troops. Not only did they invest only two divisions, but the two divisions that participated in the war were both dissatisfied.
of the two divisions, neither of them arrived in Australia in full form.
According to the Japanese army's new three-unit organization and the habit of fighting against the Anti-Japanese Alliance, when these two divisions are dispatched, there should be a total of six infantry regiments and sixteen to eighteen infantry brigades. The main force of the two artillery regiments,
As well as search, baggage and engineering units should also be doubled.
At the same time, to a certain extent, additional strengthened artillery, engineering and other units must be added depending on the battle situation. However, in the Battle of Australia, the two infantry divisions deployed by the Japanese army had only ten infantry brigades combined.
Four, which is equivalent to missing more than one and a half regiments.
Of the four infantry squadrons in each infantry brigade, generally only three squadrons came. There were even two infantry brigade, but only two squadrons came. Although each infantry brigade is assigned a machine gun squadron or an independent mortar squadron
A type of strengthening of troops. However, the overall strength of each division plummeted to 12,000.
Even if two independent mixed regiments are added, the attack power will be greatly reduced to a certain extent. These two independent mixed regiments are just based on a fully-equipped infantry brigade, which strengthens the two infantry brigade of other brigade.
An infantry squadron and a machine gun squadron are attached to a simplified regiment composed of artillery and engineers.
The strengthened artillery is only two to four mountain cannons. Its actual combat strength, although the artillery firepower has been increased, but the number of combat infantry is generally only about half compared with the Japanese regiment in the Chinese Guan Civil War, and compared with the Kanto
The general overstaffing situation of the military is even more incomparable.
Not only was the number of infantry not present, but only more than half. Even the artillery regiments of the two divisions only came with one artillery brigade and four independent artillery squadrons. Compared with the original artillery support firepower of the divisions on the Chinese battlefield,
It dropped by almost two-thirds.
Neither of the two engineering regiments came, only three independent engineering squadrons came, plus at most one field independent engineering brigade composed of Koreans. The two baggage regiments, together only four baggage squadrons came. This
According to the standards of the early days of the Anti-Japanese War and the current Kwantung Army, each of the two divisions is only equivalent to an enhanced version of an independent mixed brigade.
In other words, the combined actual strength of these two simplified infantry divisions is only more than 20,000 people. Compared with the opponents of the Anti-Japanese Alliance in the Northeast battlefield, the two divisions are only equivalent to one division of the Kwantung Army.
Regiment. In addition to the fact that the first-level firepower of the regiment is stronger than that of the Guannei battlefield in China and slightly worse than that of the Northeast battlefield, the actual troop configuration is even inferior to the Japanese security division on the Chinese battlefield.
Even with the two independent mixed regiments, plus the attached independent engineers, heavy artillery, armored troops, and ground air defense troops, the Japanese army invested more than 40,000 troops on the Australian battlefield. A one-time investment in military strength.
, which can be described as quite insufficient.
In terms of firepower, in addition to the four US-made 240mm shore guns dismantled from the Philippines, the largest-caliber artillery is four 150mm cannons and five four-year-old 150mm howitzers. Even though
Including the attached independent artillery, the total number of mountain and field artillery is only more than seventy.
The Japanese army did not invest enough troops in the Australian battlefield. In addition to the Japanese Army, which was at a disadvantage in terms of overall numbers in the Southeast Asian battlefield, it was actually a third-rate defender facing the three countries of Britain, the United States, and Australia. The wind-swept results made the Japanese Army have a lot of troops to participate in Southeast Asia.
The Australian Army in combat was quite contemptuous.
Another important reason is also the helpless choice of the Japanese army. The Japanese army's front line is too long, and its transportation capacity is limited. The rate of expansion of its troops cannot keep up with the expansion of the occupied area. The occupied area needs to be protected by troops to clear out the dispersed allies.
The army controls and consolidates the newly occupied areas. Key strategic positions in the rear, like Taiwan, also need heavy defense.
It is also necessary to ensure that the total number of troops can no longer be diluted on the Chinese battlefield, and to maintain Southern Manchuria and protect the strength of the Kwantung Army in the Southern Manchuria Industrial Zone. This requires a large amount of troops and equipment. At the same time, it cannot affect the normal domestic industry and agriculture.
Given the production situation, the Japanese army is currently somewhat stretched in the Pacific battlefield.
Moreover, the battlefield in the South Pacific is mainly dominated by the battle for islands. The scenery of these tropical islands is very beautiful, but one characteristic is that most of the islands are not self-sustaining. There are even some smaller islands that cannot even produce agricultural products.
No, the local indigenous people still live a life of fishing and hunting.
Even if the Japanese train their troops according to the standards of elite soldiers, elite soldiers still need to eat, and they also need weapons and ammunition to fight. When fighting on these islands, all materials must be transported thousands of miles from the rear. Even if some indigenous people live in these islands,
There was no food available for the Japanese on the islands.
Even if the Japanese have the patience, they are used to recruiting troops on the battlefield. But when there is no place to recruit troops and no one to cultivate the land, they can only replenish food, ammunition, engineering personnel and additional personnel to the combat area through sea transportation.
Mechanical equipment and sometimes even fresh water.
The Japanese, who have stretched their hands too far, can only deploy downsized divisions as much as possible on the Pacific islands except Southeast Asia. This can reduce logistics as much as possible while basically ensuring the basic combat effectiveness of each division.
pressure to ensure stable supply to the troops and free up tonnage to transport as much material ashore as possible at one time.
Because supplies are needed everywhere, fighting with the American, British and Australian troops everywhere, and thousands of kilometers away from the mainland. No one knows that the next wave of supplies will arrive in the Year of the Monkey and the Horse. If not, we can bring as much as possible in one wave.
, what if the transport fleet is sunk? Should the soldiers be allowed to chew weeds and fight with those hateful Mi-Ying beasts with bayonets?
There is no way, a reorganized division does have strong combat effectiveness. However, the materials required for logistical supplies are far more than those of downsized divisions. In the South Pacific theater, which is vast in area and is dominated by the battle for islands, all combat materials are needed.
Can only rely on sea transportation.
Coupled with the continuous huge losses on the Chinese battlefield, the rate of expansion of the Japanese army cannot meet the needs for the time being, and new divisions need to be continuously formed. When the Japanese army expands, it has always adopted the method of bringing in the old with the new.
During this battle between these two divisions, each division was directly deprived of a regiment and transferred back to the country to form a new division.
The newly added two divisions are still being formed locally and in mainland China. The Japanese army sent these two downsizing divisions, which was also a helpless move. However, although they were downsizing divisions, these two divisions were
It is still mainly elite. Its combat capabilities are much better than those patchwork divisions deployed on the Pacific battlefield a year later.
As for the reason why these two dissatisfied divisions appeared on such an important battlefield, it was partly because the Japanese base camp was dazzled by the glorious victory on the Pacific Front and was eager to take advantage of the Americans before they completed their general mobilization. The Australian army also
A considerable part of the troops were still fighting hard against the Germans in the North African battlefield.
There are not many troops in the country, and the overall defense system is very empty. I want to take the opportunity to capture Australia and completely solve the Japanese base camp of the Allied counterattack base in the South Pacific. Regardless of the current strength of the entire Southern Army, which has been dispersed to the extreme.
status quo.
The only two mobile divisions were not satisfied with the actual situation of the formation. After strengthening the two independent mixed formations drawn from other divisions of the Southern Army to form an army organization, they were sent to Australia for attack operations.
So this was done not only because the base camp had no choice, but also because only these two divisions were available in a short period of time.
Another reason is that after careful calculation, they believed that although these two divisions with insufficient strength were unable to complete the entire Australian offensive operation, they could defeat part of the enemy's garrison, seize and expand the landing position, and prepare for the arrival of subsequent troops.
There is no problem if conditions are created.
According to the Japanese base camp's estimates of the Malay Peninsula and the Singapore campaign, an elite Japanese combat squadron can defeat a British-style Australian regiment in a battle. An infantry brigade can defeat an Australian brigade.
The reduced divisions that are not satisfied with the establishment can defeat the two divisions of the Australian army that remain on the mainland.
Sending two downsized divisions and two independent mixed regiments as the first wave of attack troops has given the Australian army a lot of face, and it is also enough for landing operations. Therefore, we have repeatedly evaluated the number of troops that the Australian army may invest, and
After the fighting strength of both sides increased, the Japanese army dispatched two divisions that were still being reorganized and replenished.
However, although it is a bit arrogant, the Japanese base camp is not so crazy that it is crazy. Australia is not a big island. It has two divisions that are not enough to be organized, plus two independent mixed regiments.
, spread all over Australia, not even a shadow can be seen.
Considering that two such divisions are insufficient in strength, they are really unable to capture the entire Australia and deal with the subsequent U.S. counterattack. The Japanese base camp has transferred two fully organized divisions from the mainland to be used as the second echelon for a successful landing battle.
In order to expand the results of the war and completely occupy this vast British Dominion.
However, the transport ships that can be deployed are limited and cannot transport the two divisions from the mainland at the first time. The base camp is afraid of missing the fighter plane and is unwilling to wait for the two divisions to arrive before launching an attack. At the same time, the navy does not want to
They were willing to use more destroyers to transport these two divisions. Therefore, the first wave of Japanese landing forces only had these two downsized divisions.
The lack of troops invested in the first wave affected the development of the war situation. Although the Japanese army had already taken advantage of the land battle, it failed to completely defeat the remaining Australian troops in the first time. The main reason for the failure of U.S. reinforcements in time was
expanded results.
When the two follow-up divisions arrived, two infantry divisions, one National Guard division, and a large number of tanks and heavy artillery units reinforced by the US military, together with two New Zealand brigades and a Canadian infantry division, also arrived on the Australian battlefield.
.The fighter planes that captured Australia were all lost in the end.
Of course, it was not possible to expand the results in time and completely encircle and annihilate the US-Australia coalition forces on the battlefield in one fell swoop. Among them, the Japanese Southern Army also made mistakes in choosing its commander. If it were replaced by the one who swept across Southeast Asia, he would have a strong desire to attack, and in
Yamashita Fongfumi is quite cunning in his tactics.
Even if there are only two unsatisfied divisions, and the opponent's defense force is not large, even if the occupation of the entire Australia cannot be completed, I am afraid that the entire eastern half of Australia cannot be saved. At least the remaining US military forces are basically