Chapter 603: The Battle for Australia

For days, the battle in Australia had not been going smoothly. Although the Japanese forces had deliberately chosen a relatively remote landing zone to avoid counterattacks, their continuously increasing numbers allowed them to begin gradually capturing several important areas in Australia after a few days.

The Japanese army advancing south achieved little and was essentially useless. They attacked a few unimportant towns along the way, pushing through a boundless desert. The areas they targeted were not vital to Australia and had almost no defensive forces.

The northbound Japanese forces had already occupied Kalumburu and Wyndham half a month earlier. They then engaged in a fierce battle with a nearby Australian infantry regiment. A few hours later, the ferocious Japanese soldiers, disregarding their own losses, forced their way into Timber Creek. Their vanguard then captured their long-coveted prize, the western Australian port of Kuri Bay, on July 27th.

This operation left an entire Australian division half-encircled in the port of Darwin. Once the Japanese captured Darwin, the logistical supply for their landing forces in Australia would become much more convenient, and they would have established a firm foothold on the continent.

Looking back at the history of Japan’s invasion of China, one can see the characteristics of the Japanese nation: they are exceptionally fierce, yet possess a streak of sinister cunning. They study and learn about their powerful opponents, striving to master every detail to judge and assess them, ultimately achieving a surprise victory in a decisive battle to defeat and surpass their rival.

This was their method against Tsarist Russia. They understood the Russian forces deployed in the Far East and, with British and French support, they even knew that Russia lacked the ability to transport its more numerous and elite European armies to the Far East. Thus, they won in a single campaign, defeating Tsarist Russia.

This was even more true against the Manchu Qing government of China. Their spies were everywhere, even understanding China’s natural resources and the level of its military-industrial enterprises. They frantically gathered all sorts of intelligence on China, eventually knowing China better than the Chinese themselves. As a result, they won a decisive victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, laying the foundation for Japan’s rise.

This time, however, things were a little different. The continuous string of victories had made the Japanese somewhat arrogant—an inevitable consequence of a rapid rise without a deep foundation. Due to the tight schedule, they no longer had three or even five years to observe their opponents. This time, Japan was like a blind man feeling an elephant.

They did not understand the Soviet forces behind the Nomonhan Incident, still using intelligence from the Tsarist era to evaluate this powerful adversary. They did not understand the United States, at least not completely, and were utterly incapable of comprehending America’s terrifying production capacity. The Japanese high command themselves had not expected the war to proceed so smoothly. Their plans had not accounted for this scenario; they had assumed that after capturing the Philippines and Malaysia, the United States would choose to submit once Wake Island was taken. But it now seemed this estimate was overly optimistic, forcing the Japanese military to scramble to prepare a second phase of operations.

The detail of a country’s invasion plan, the depth of its strategic vision, and the accuracy of its strategic forecasts determine the smoothness of its aggression. It determines whether control can be stabilized after objectives are taken, and whether the country can successfully absorb its target to strengthen itself.

Japan’s relatively comprehensive operational plan was for the war of aggression in China. That was why even though the Chinese army was repeatedly reinforced by Germany and the United States, it still could not stop the Japanese army from expanding its occupied territories along China’s coast. But the war Japan was now fighting was completely unplanned, so it was no surprise that various problems arose.

For instance, the Japanese Army and Navy had a serious disagreement over the occupation of Australia. The Navy wanted the Army to attack eastward along the coast to quickly control the prosperous port cities of eastern Australia, preparing for an advance on South America and the United States. As for the western regions, they were considered disposable.

The Army, however, believed that a full occupation of Australia was necessary to conserve its forces to the greatest extent possible. Japan had already mobilized 40 divisions for the Australian campaign, with over 20 already sent to Australia and its surrounding areas. If the war in Australia could not be concluded in the short term, the Japanese Army would need to send another 40 divisions, which would be like adding frost to snow for a Japan already suffering from a clear shortage of manpower.

This serious disagreement, in accordance with Japan’s usual method of resolution, resulted in a bizarre joke: since neither side could stand the other, they decided to ignore each other and fight their own separate wars! This childish approach to operations ran through the entire Japanese Pacific War, from weapons development to tactical arrangements, with the Navy and Army acting as completely separate entities.

Thus, all sorts of incidents of mutual sabotage, almost comical, appeared in the Japanese military’s combat performance. When the Navy was defeated, it wouldn’t inform the Army, so the Army would only discover it had no naval support when it went into battle, resulting in an even more disastrous loss. The Navy would go off on its own to dig caves in preparation for a protracted battle, while the Army was still foolishly digging trenches on the beach to resist an American landing. This was the reality of the Japanese military’s performance, without any exaggeration.

So, the Japanese Navy began to organize some of its marines and other forces to attack north along the coastline, aiming to complete their plan of capturing Australia’s east coast industrial areas as soon as possible. It had to be said that the Navy’s plan seemed more intelligent than the Army’s this time. But the Japanese Army high command, adhering to the principle of “whatever the Navy supports, the Army must oppose,” ordered its elite army units to attack south, attempting to conquer the entire island of Australia.

However, compared to the Army’s elite divisions, the combat effectiveness of the Japanese Navy marines had its shortcomings, at least in terms of heavy weapons configuration, which was no match for the Japanese Army. Therefore, the northbound Japanese forces, entangled with Australian troops, failed to gain any significant advantage and could only advance inch by inch with limited naval cover. As for the main fleet of the Japanese Navy, it was already steaming towards America’s Oahu, filled with confidence.

Meanwhile, the Japanese Army, to draw a clear line from the Navy, took its artillery and a small number of tanks to go “fight” the Australian desert, with no intention of supporting the marines. But the Army commanders soon discovered a fatal problem: without port support, they could not get very far. Seeing more and more Army troops landing but unable to leverage their numerical advantage, the Army high command had to sheepishly go to the Navy, hoping to share the port to transport the Army’s supplies.

The matter eventually reached the Emperor of Japan before it was resolved. For the future of Japan, the Army finally got its hands on the coveted Kuri Bay. But after a round of bargaining, the Army was forced to promise the Navy it would help capture the more important port of Darwin.

After a month of such foolishness, on August 15th, the Japanese army finally resumed its offensive towards Darwin. This time, the Australian defenders truly learned the combat power of Japan’s elite army units. The fanatical Japanese soldiers attacked wave after wave like a tsunami. In the end, the Australian defenders surrendered to the Japanese 19th Division, and Darwin fell.

In reality, some insightful individuals in the Japanese high command already saw that Australia was a giant trap. Sending Japanese troops into such a vast area would only disperse their forces further and deplete their manpower. But due to the lack of a systematic analysis and plan, they did not know how to deal with the current situation.

Abandon Australia? What a joke. Nearly 300,000 Japanese soldiers had already landed there. Did they think it would be fun to expend great effort to bring those troops back home? For the Japanese high command, such a thing was unthinkable. No one would agree to spit out something they had already put in their mouths.

Continue the offensive in Australia? That would require sending another 300,000 soldiers. The land area of Australia was larger than the Japanese-occupied territory in China. If calculated based on the Japanese garrison in China, Japan would need at least one million men to completely control such a vast territory. This was simply asking for Japan’s life. With nearly two million men stuck in the quagmire of China, if they threw another million in here, what ability would they have left to attack the United States?

Japan was now confused by the script. It had predicted the United States would surrender to Japan days ago, but America had no intention of surrendering or compromising. Its response to Japan’s invasion of Australia was to mobilize one million army soldiers to defend their Pacific and the American homeland. And in that month, Admiral Nimitz had gained an additional 7 destroyers and 3 cruisers.

At the same time, three aircraft carriers originally being converted for Great Britain were in their final fitting-out stages. These Independence-class light carriers could only carry 40 aircraft each, far from being a match for the carriers of the Japanese fleet. These three carriers were originally converted aid for Britain. In the original history, they were not launched until 1943, but due to the British Navy’s defeat in this timeline, they joined the U.S. Navy’s order of battle a full four and a half years early.

With these three light carriers, plus the USS Yorktown and USS Ranger, and the nearly completed USS Hornet in the dockyards, the U.S. Navy now had the strength to challenge the Japanese Navy. Nimitz was considering whether he should play it safe and abandon the defense of Oahu for the time being.

While Japan was flexing its muscles in Australia, the Americans were not idle. They used all their resources to begin building strong fortifications on Oahu. Three of America’s more effective divisions were deployed on the island, fully prepared to meet the invading Japanese army.

Published: 2025-09-10T05:07:21.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2026-01-17T14:14:58.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c603-battle-138561015

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