The capture of Armidale and the siege of Skun by the Marines were important symbols of the success of the first phase of the landing operation, the most important task of which was to hold and expand the landing ground and keep American reinforcements out of the landing field. During the four-day battle, the main task of the Marines was to expand the landing ground, and the task of the Army units commanded by Gu Xunlei was to hold off the American reinforcements at Armidale.

Bradley received MacArthur's order on the morning of the 24th, and immediately left his mobile unit before it was completely surrounded, and reached Bandara, north of Armidale, in the afternoon of the same day, and took command of the main force. Before leaving, Bradley gave command of the mobile unit to the commander of an infantry division, and authorized him to surrender to the Tang Empire's forces if necessary. As a result, the besieged American troops surrendered their weapons to the two infantry divisions besieging them on the evening of the 24th, ending the resistance.

After arriving in Bandara, Bradley had a new mission, which was to command the main forces to attack Armidale, breaking through the enemy blockade line anyway, and the ultimate goal was not to go to the landing ground of the Tang Imperial Marines, but to Sydney. By this point, MacArthur already knew that the purpose of the landing force of the Tang Empire was not to attack Brisbane, but to capture Sydney. And as long as Sydney falls into the hands of the enemy, then the entire Australian continent is finished. Sydney Harbour has a well-developed infrastructure that can accommodate dozens of large transport vessels. Of course, MacArthur did not forget to give an important order to the commander stationed in Sydney, that is, if Sydney could not be held when the ground forces of the Tang Empire arrived. Then you have to blow up all the infrastructure in the port before retreating!

When the U.S. military was adjusting its deployment, Gu Xunlei and Yuan Ye were also adjusting their deployment.

Shortly after returning to Port Macquarie, Gu Xunlei received the news that the besieged American troops had surrendered. He immediately conceded that the 3rd Division was responsible for escorting the American prisoners of war, and the 2nd Division immediately rushed to Armidale. Assist the 1st Infantry Division in holding the defensive line. In addition, he also asked Weng Yu to leave two cavalry battalions in Armidale to fight with the infantry. Several artillery units were also moving towards Armidale and deployed to the rear of the infantry line.

On the night of the 24th, Yuan Ye ordered the marines besieging Skun to stop the attack, leaving one Marine division to continue besieging Skun, and another Marine division to build a defensive line north of Skun to prevent the American forces at Tamworth from moving south. The 3rd Marine Division was deployed near Denman to prevent the American forces from moving north. The other two Marine Divisions were all left behind in Tari and Port Macquarie, guarding the landing site and serving as reserves.

At this point, the offensive of the Marine Corps and the Army basically stopped. At this time, the area of the landing site had reached 4,000 square kilometers, which was enough to accommodate more landing troops. In four days of fighting. The 10 Marine Corps and Army Divisions lost about 30 percent of their strength in total, and the 1st Cavalry Division suffered the worst losses, with a attrition rate of more than 70 percent. The U.S. military was annihilated by more than 80,000 men, of which the largest force of the annihilated troops was the U.S. mobile unit besieged south of Armidale. Except for a few U.S. officers and soldiers who followed Bradley to break through, three U.S. divisions were completely annihilated, and 40,000 U.S. troops were either killed or taken prisoner.

The first phase of the combat operation, which was originally planned to be completed in seven days. In fact, it took only five days to basically achieve the purpose of the campaign. It can be said that both the Marine Corps and the Army have performed very well on the battlefield. However, the cost of being able to complete the task ahead of schedule is very high, and both the Marine Corps and the Army have exposed a large number of problems in the battle, and they are all problems that directly affect the combat effectiveness of the troops.

Relatively speaking, the main problem of the Marine Corps is tactical, not the quality of the troops. The first batch of marines to go ashore were all elite units, and the quality of the officers and men was excellent. It can be said that it is half a cut higher than the best units of the army. But the biggest problem is. The tactics of the Marine Corps are all formulated for island landing operations, and most of the tactical training is also carried out on island landing operations. The Australian battlefield is a continental battlefield, so the tactics of ground combat are completely different from those on the island battlefield. Nowhere was this more evident than in the first two days of the landing operation.

The most serious problem is that the Marine Corps has no experience in the large-scale use of armored forces, and in addition, most of the Marines are equipped with light armored vehicles suitable for landing operations, and the number of medium and heavy tanks is not very large. For example, during the attack on Tari, the Marines suffered a lot of losses, and in the face of the well-guarded American positions, the offensive tactics of the Marines were severely attacked. As a result, it was Gu Xunlei's armored troops who went to the rescue. In addition, the marines also encountered a lot of trouble when they advanced towards Sikun, and the marines, which were mainly infantry, were far less powerful than the army units in the battles in the inland areas, and even the "reserve" troops under Gu Xunlei could not compare.

These problems had already been mentioned before the war, and this was the main reason why the Navy went all out to "invite" the Army to participate in the fighting on the Australian continent. And the facts just prove this, the combat operations of the Marine Corps in the coastal areas have been strongly supported by the fleet, and the problem of insufficient armor is not serious, but in the inland areas, the Marine Corps can only rely on its own firepower, as well as limited aviation support operations, in the absence of strong armored forces, it is almost impossible to achieve a rapid assault!

Relatively speaking, the problems of the Marine Corps were not serious, especially during the offensive of Skun, and the front-line commanders of the Marine Corps had already begun to concentrate the use of armored forces, and some simple problems were solved. The real trouble is still the army participating unit in Gu Xunlei's hands, and the problem of this unit is not tactical, but the quality of the soldiers. The commanders of the troops were well aware of the offensive power of the armored group, and the coordination of infantry and armored units was also in place, but the quality of the soldiers was far from the level of the Marine Corps.

What kind of soldiers are in his hands, Gu Xunlei knows it. As early as a few months ago, Gu Xunlei knew that the quality of his soldiers was his worst enemy. And the U.S. military is secondary. It was also at this time that Gu Xunlei was working hard to solve this problem, and the most important of his efforts was to expand the cavalry division. The establishment of infantry divisions, and even artillery divisions.

At that time, both cavalry divisions had three separate tank regiments, plus a reinforced separate motorized infantry regiment. In addition to the fact that there was no separate artillery unit, according to this formation, one of his cavalry divisions was equipped with more tanks than the regular formation. According to the regular establishment of the Imperial Army, there was a separate tank regiment in one cavalry division. There are three separate tank battalions, each with 32 to 34 tanks. In addition, there is a mixed tank regiment with two tank battalions and one motorized infantry battalion. There is also a motorized infantry regiment, which consists of a tank battalion and two motorized infantry battalions. Other than that. The division had a heavy artillery battalion, a heavy mortar battalion, a baggage battalion, a reconnaissance company, a guard company, and a communications platoon. That is, there are six tank battalions in a regular cavalry division. Three motorized infantry battalions, as well as supporting divisional direct units. The number of tanks equipped is between 200 and 220 units. Gu Xunlei's cavalry division has nine tank battalions, three motorized infantry battalions, and is equipped with more than 300 tanks! That's almost the number of tanks in a half-cavalry division.

The only reason Gu Xunlei used the excess quota was that the quality of his troops was very poor, and the combat attrition rate was definitely quite high. Before the landing, he estimated that in the first stage of combat operations, the attrition rate would be more than thirty percent, and in fact, his two cavalry divisions were in the five days of fighting. The attrition rate has reached more than 40 percent. That is, after the end of the five-day battle. Only 370 tanks remained in the two cavalry divisions. At this time, the benefits of Gu Xunlei's excess establishment were revealed, and these 370 tanks could actually form two regular cavalry divisions without worrying about tanks.

On the evening of the 24th, Gu Xunlei got a detailed loss intelligence report. Including all the tanks that can be repaired on the front line, the 1st Cavalry Division has 87 tanks to use, and the 2nd Cavalry Division has 24 tanks to drive. In addition, about 20 U.S. tanks were captured on the battlefield, and Gu Xunlei's guard battalion also had 31 tanks to continue fighting. That is, adding up these tanks, he also has a total of 402 Type 25 tanks, as well as 18 M4, and 5 M26 tanks can continue to fight.

Gu Xunlei didn't have the idea of fighting those American tanks, he only left one M26 and two M4s for the troops to train in turns. Then, he went to Yuan Ye and got more than 20 Type 25 tanks of the Marine Corps model from the Marine Corps. In this way, he has 430 tanks at his disposal. And he organized these tanks into 13 tank battalions, and in addition to his guard battalion, each cavalry division had 6 tank battalions. Then, he brought in a batch of armored vehicles and transport vehicles from the Marine Corps to replenish the motorized infantry battalions of each cavalry division. The front-line artillery was also transferred back with four battalions and reinforced to the cavalry division. In this way, the two cavalry divisions in his hands reached the level of regular establishment.

In other words, Gu Xunlei supplemented the cavalry units with infantry units (mainly to strengthen the motorized infantry battalion), and readjusted the establishment of two cavalry divisions. In addition to the fact that the number of tanks was somewhat reduced, in fact, the combat effectiveness of the two cavalry divisions was not reduced much. On top of that, each cavalry division received two separate artillery battalions, one heavy artillery battalion, one heavy mortar battalion. And as long as these two artillery battalions are played properly, their combat effectiveness is enough to withstand three tank battalions. That is, both cavalry divisions were downsized, but they maintained strong combat effectiveness. Of course, the infantry units must have been compressed, this is a matter of no choice, at least until the second batch of troops arrives, Gu Xunlei can only compress the establishment of the infantry division to strengthen the cavalry division of the main assault force.

The help provided by the Marine Corps was also quite important, and what Gu Xunlei lacked at that time was not a tank, but a mechanized personnel carrier for the motorized infantry battalion. According to the standard equipment of the Imperial Army, the motorized infantry battalion had three separate infantry companies, each infantry company had three infantry platoons, each infantry platoon required three armored vehicles, in addition, each company had an independent light mortar squad, which required three armored vehicles. The company headquarters also needed three armored vehicles. And each motorized infantry battalion also has a heavy mortar platoon, which requires ten armored vehicles, and the battalion headquarters needs three armored vehicles. That is, a motorized infantry battalion needs to be equipped with at least 58 armored vehicles of various types. At that time, Gu Xunlei needed to organize at least six motorized infantry battalions, and he needed strong armored vehicles. And this is without taking into account the vehicles needed by infantry divisions. And he couldn't find so many armored vehicles at all, as a result, he could only ask the marines for help, if it weren't for the 120 armored vehicles of various models provided by Yuan Ye, Gu Xunlei would not have been able to let the two cavalry divisions complete all the motorized infantry battalions. This also led to the strange phenomenon of the appearance of amphibious armored fighting vehicles in cavalry divisions, which were the standard armored vehicles of the Marine Corps and had never been provided to the army before!

When Gu Xunlei reorganized his troops, most of the ground forces were transferred to a state of defense and rest, and only the fleet continued to fight. At least on the 27th, before the second batch of landing troops entered the battle, Gu Xunlei and Yuan Ye did not have the strength to continue the large-scale attack. The ground forces, which had been fighting for five days, also needed time to recuperate.

On the sea, the fleet still continues to operate. The Third Task Force blockaded Sydney Harbour on the 22nd, and shelled Sydney Harbour every day from time to time, so that the US troops did not dare to transfer garrisons in Sydney Harbour to support the fighting in other directions. In addition to providing air defense cover for the Third Task Force, the bombers of the Fifth Task Force were bombing US airfields around Sydney one by one, and from 25 July, they focused on bombing US defensive positions near Sydney. Task Force 2 has been operating on the outskirts of Tari, and its primary mission is to support the Marines in their advance towards Skun and to expand the range of the landing grounds. Task Force 1 operates on the north side of the battlefield and its main mission is to support the combat operations of Gu Xunlei's Army units. The Theater Fleet operated in the vicinity of Task Force 1, and the Theater Fleet had been bombarding the southbound US reinforcements since before the landing operations began.

After five days of fighting, neither of the warring sides was able to continue the offensive. At this point, both sides are waiting for the next battle. The landing fleet and convoy returned to Noumea on the night of the 22nd, loaded with the second batch of landing troops and war materiel for nearly two days, and left Noumea on the afternoon of the 24th, and are now heading in the direction of the battlefield.

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