The Rise Of Australasia

Although the troops from the two Island Nation divisions were only a few hundred meters away from their objective, that distance was an insurmountable chasm for them.

Since the engagement began, a mere four hours had passed, but the casualties of these two Type C Divisions were already quite high.

The Type C Division, especially the one at the Harbor, where the division commander had been killed, had started with fewer than 20,000 soldiers and now had only about half that number remaining. The surviving soldiers were either sacrificed on the charge or fell victim to the bombing by the Australasia Air Force.

It was at this time that the Island Nation's soldiers realized, no matter how eloquently their commanders and government spoke, when facing the enemy's guns and artillery, they were still just fragile flesh and blood.

If it had been the elite Type A Division, even if over half of their force was depleted, they would still valiantly press forward, fearlessly launching their attack.

But the problem was that the troops defending Urban City and Harbor were just ordinary Type C from the Island Nation Army. These troops might be able to play a certain role in defense, but their effectiveness was greatly diminished in a direct assault.

When faced with nearly half their number in casualties, the two Type C Divisions finally began to descend into chaos, with some soldiers unable to withstand the war and choosing to flee in full view of everyone.

Although the Military Police quickly shot and killed several of the fleeing soldiers, there were fewer than one hundred of them in the entire division, and it was difficult to control the situation in the face of tens of thousands of soldiers with clearly broken spirits.

Especially that Type C Division at the Harbor which, after losing its division commander, had no one else who could take control of the entire division.

The army had slowly shifted from an all-out attack to fear and disintegration, affecting the entire division from just a small part of the forces.

About half an hour later, reinforcements for the Island Nation finally arrived at the battlefield.

But it was too late. The Australasia paratroopers not only had full control over Naha but had also established several defensive positions around the outskirts using the terrain to their advantage.

What's worse was that airplanes continued to circle in the sky. It would be very difficult to overcome the defense positions with just an infantry brigade's strength.

But still, being the most elite of the Island Nation's Type A Division, even with little hope of victory, this infantry brigade bravely launched their attack.

However, the outcome was just as they had expected—they were simply no threat to Australasia's positions.

Although they, too, brought along some machine guns and artillery capable of threatening the defense positions built by Australasia,

the major reason Australasia could hold their ground was not because of the artillery and machine guns within the defense positions but because of the numerous airplanes, sweeping and circling in the sky.

Once the Island Nation Army posed any threat to Australasia's artillery and machine gun positions, the fighter aircraft and bombers in the sky would relentlessly harass the Island Nation forces and even take the opportunity to eliminate their artillery positions.

As a result, the Island Nation Army, although initially having the advantage in terms of firepower, had their superiority wiped out after a few harassments by the Australasia Air Force.

The Island Nation Army's urgent request for support was quickly transmitted to that Type A Division.

But at this time, the Type A Division was also facing a very severe situation.

Although there was one Type A Division and one Type B Division in charge of defending the coastline, combining for a total of over 40,000 troops,

the issue was that the main Island of the Ryukyu Archipelago was elongated, and the coastline was very long. Furthermore, the North had many larger islands, which meant that these two divisions could not concentrate their forces in one location.

Under a full-scale attack from Australasia, the nearly one-fifth of forces split from the Type A Division had to face the onslaught of tens of thousands of Australasia troops.

Even more fatal was the continuous stream of Australasia soldiers. After eliminating one wave of landing troops, another wave would continually follow, seemingly endless.

While they had already killed thousands of the landing soldiers in a short time, there was still a large number of transport ships in the rear awaiting their turn to land, each carrying at least a thousand soldiers.

"Damn it! Those damn good-for-nothings can't even handle a few thousand Australasia soldiers!" Division Commander Murai Noo was seething with anger, extremely disappointed in the performance of the two Type C Divisions: "Those incompetents, Mikuni and Yamamoto Akio, should commit seppuku, they have let down the Empire's expectations, they are the criminals of the Empire!"

Clearly, the two divisions had not gained any advantage against the onslaught of Australasia troops, not even managing to hold them back, which was why Murai Noo was so enraged.

According to various intelligence reports, the paratroopers dropped by Australasia could not have exceeded 10,000 men. Spread across the Harbor and Urban City, each side had about 5,000 paratroopers.

Yet, any division with a force of over 20,000 men couldn't even overcome 5,000 Australasia paratroopers, which infuriated Murai Noo, who took pride in the Island Nation Army's combat strength.

"Your Excellency, we can hold those two failures accountable after the war ends. What we need to do now is figure out how to repel the Australasia Army's assault," said Tanaka Taro, commander of the first infantry brigade of the Type A Division.