"Are the Americans still holding out?" Meng Xiang frowned lightly and commented on a large number of documents that needed to be approved by him, and asked the rat without raising his head.

"The Americans have already begun to retreat!" Rat Er's answer was still so straightforward.

"Oh?" Meng Xiang stopped his pen and looked up and asked, "The battle situation on the other side of the Bass Strait has come out?" ”

These days, he has been arranging his big moves, and it is impossible to follow the entire process of the US-Japan campaign in the Bass Strait. There are the General Staff and the Navy who are staring, and he only needs one result.

Regardless of the outcome, strategically it will already be difficult for the Americans to turn the tables.

"The battle over there is nearing the end and is basically over, so it can be said that both sides are defeated." After so many years of training, some vague words began to appear in Rat Er's mouth, and he also knew that Meng Xiang was not only asking about the result, but about the general process, and then spoke again, "The U.S. Navy almost dispatched all its forces at the beginning to fight a surprise attack on the Japanese fleet.

The U.S. Navy's three Essex-class aircraft carriers flew about 278 warplanes, and the Marine Corps dispatched about 145 warplanes to counter about 366 warplanes from five Japanese carriers. There is a slight advantage in terms of quantity and performance. ”

The battle at Bass had been going on for three days, and according to the methods of cloning spies, some detailed information on the operation was almost available. These detailed data can be said casually for the rat warriors with excellent memory, especially for the rat who has stepped into the ranks of heroes.

Earlier, the Japanese had also launched a full-scale attack on Melbourne. Japanese Army Air Force bombers dropped bombs in front of Melbourne's city hall building.

However, the fighters of the Army Aviation have their own fighters of the US Air Force to contain them, and the Japanese Navy facing the battle in the Bass Strait cannot get their support, so it can only rely on those five aircraft carriers, although the Daho-class aircraft carrier is large, but there are not many aircraft, even if it exceeds the general standard of 60 planes, reaching 72 planes, it is not as many as the Shohe-class aircraft carrier with 84 planes fully loaded. The Akagi carried 91 aircraft, and the Ruifeng carried 30 aircraft, and mainly took on the task of the aircraft carrier fleet that fell behind.

The remaining four aircraft carriers, except for eight fighters each left to protect the aircraft carrier fleet, were all engaged in air battles ahead.

The air offensive of the Americans at the beginning was too fierce.

At first, the Japanese only dispatched more than 60 super-zero fighters to intercept them. But unexpectedly, the US military on the opposite side directly dispatched more than 150 Hellcats, which caught the Japanese by surprise, and more than 20 were taken down in just ten minutes. By the time the fighters in the rear arrived to support, the entire air superiority had already been taken by the Americans.

This made the attacks of the Americans' torpedo planes and bombers much more relaxed, and even with the fleet's air defense network, they could not stop the attacks of the Americans who did not skimp on ammunition.

What Nimitz needed was a result, even a victory. In the face of the crisis, the ammunition stored in it did not have much effect, and instead of transporting it back, it was better to dump it all on the heads of the Japanese.

At this time, the Japanese army's attack was also met with unprecedented heavy artillery fire, and the ammunition of the Allied forces defending on the opposite side seemed to be inexhaustible. Although the Australians are still nostalgic, the US military has already made up its mind to retreat. The Japanese army, who bravely charged and intended to win the last victory, had the bad luck to encounter the Americans and relieve the burden of retreat.

The pouring of ammunition at any cost soon paid off.

The Tanba of the Nagato-class battleship only fired a round of guns at the Hawaii in the distance, and before it could achieve any results, the destroyer Shiyu beside it glowed with auspicious light. Three torpedoes from the Avenger torpedo machine hit the vital point in succession, causing a martyrdom and sinking to the bottom of the sea.

As the flagship of Jizaburo Ozawa, commander of Japan's South Pacific Fleet, the Hyuga attracted more torpedo firepower. But fortunately, the firepower of the two Akizuki-class air defense destroyers prevented the American torpedo planes from getting too close, so that most of the long-range torpedo attacks were dodged, destroyed, or blocked by the destroyer brother next to them. Although he was hit by 2 torpedoes, he did not hurt his muscles and bones.

is also a huge body of the Yamato-class, and the Awa, where Kusaka is located, was also taken care of, and finally hit 3 bombs and 4 torpedoes, and had to leave the field early with a half-crippled body and retreat to Sydney.

After attracting Japanese fighters to the front, the Japanese aircraft carrier was also under heavy attack by Marine fighters from the nearby islands of Flinders Island and from mainland Australia.

This is not the Americans striking the east, but the full force of the Americans. The numerical inferiority of the fighters made the Japanese somewhat careless.

Under two rounds of heavy bombardment, the particularly conspicuous Akagi suffered heavy damage after suffering three bombs and one torpedo. And the Ruifeng, a submarine carrier converted from a submarine carrier, was not professionally designed after all, and it was destroyed and sunk after 3 bombs.

While dodging a torpedo, the aircraft carrier Zuihe was unlucky enough to run into a mine. Immediately paralyzed, and after receiving 2 more bombs and a torpedo, the second was sent to the bottom of the sea.

With the protection of the 75 mm armored deck and the 20 mm special steel plate below, it carried two 500-kilogram bombshells, and was only wounded by a 726-kilogram bomb, and it was still able to replenish ammunition and fuel for the returning fighters.

Under the high-priced intelligence of the Skynet Company, the Japanese reconnaissance planes also found the three aircraft carriers of the Americans roaming the port of Melbourne early on.

It was precisely by relying on the protection of the port that the Americans dared to attack in the air with all their might.

However, the Japanese 99 ship explosion and 97 ship attack still braved the anti-aircraft fire of the port to rush up, and the loss of 14 bombers and 5 torpedo planes in exchange for the sinking of the Enterprise in the port.

Although the American aircraft carrier did not suffer too many injuries, the battleships blocking the strait could not hold on.

The Montana class once again showed its solidity, and although the Hawaii was badly injured by the attack, it was still able to hold on, and the other Iowa was unlucky.

The Japanese already knew that the Iowa was the flagship of the Nimitz, and the previous Iowa had a verbal fight after the previous sinking of the previous one, and in this attack, the Iowa became the focus of the Japanese attack.

It was scarred by five torpedoes and finally could not hold on, and sank more than 60 meters below the water near Kings Island with regret.

After Nimitz and Spruance fell overboard, they were quickly rescued by their men and towed to a Northampton-class heavy patrol Augusta, where they continued to command the battle.

The Japanese suffered no minor damage, but they persisted until dusk, trying to take advantage of the darkness to weaken the air superiority of the Americans. After that, taking advantage of the large number of battleships, he hit Melbourne in one go.

However, the American flares hit the battlefield as much as during the day, and although the attacks of the American fighters were weakened, it was much better to rely on radar than the Japanese to break through in the dark.

Instead, the merit of adding 2 destroyers and 1 cruiser.

Until about 10 o'clock that night, Jizaburo Ozawa, who had always been sensible, saw that the battleship was also frequently injured, so he had to give the order to go out of the battlefield first.

The unwilling Japanese continued to attack the next day, but they did not achieve much success, except that another Northampton-class heavy cruiser, the Chicago, was sunk by the Hyuga. On the contrary, a highest-ranking heavy patrol encountered the mines that the Americans kept laying and was seriously injured and dragged back.

Although the Iowa was lost, now the U.S. Navy has also sunk a Nagato-class, sunk the Zuizuru and Zuiho, severely damaged the Awa and Akagi, and allowed Nimitz to account for the past.

As for the aircraft carrier Enterprise, after sitting at the bottom of the port, it was salvaged and towed to the repair plant. Even if it loses the value of repair, it is difficult to repair, and it is a big deal to explode and sink to the bottom in the end, which is better than being sunk by the enemy.

The battle had already been reported back to the United States as a victory in the Resistance, and the victory in the sinking of the Iowa and Enterprise was celebrated in Japan.

In any case, the people on both sides heard the news of victory.

But secretly, the Japanese weakened their attacks from the sea, and the Americans began to withdraw one after another.

No matter how reluctant the Australians were, a few days of blocking consumed nearly half of their ammunition, and although it brought huge casualties to the Japanese, it was probably difficult to hold out without outside support. When the Americans were determined to evacuate, they cried and tried to board the Americans' evacuation ships. The end of the stay is very tragic, whether it is the Japanese or the Aboriginals, the name of the murderer has long spread throughout Australia.

Many people saw that things were not going well and had already run away early on. Especially after the fall of Sydney, the flight of white Australians reached **. In just over a week, 500,000 people fled to New Zealand by boat.

Even if the Americans held off the first attack by the Japanese Navy in the Bass Strait, the exodus continued unabated. The news that the Americans were going to evacuate had already spread all over the world, and even if some people came out to defend themselves, the traces of the evacuation of American institutions and personnel could not be concealed from everyone, and the rumors spread by Meng Xiang faction made the trend even more intense.

Meng Xiang, who had prepared in advance, also organized a lot of ships and made a lot of money with high-priced tickets, and even in the wave of escape, the land, mines, factories and other real estate handled by the Australians were bought by Meng Xiang through various means at unimaginable cheapness, and he made a lot of money.

In the past few days of attacks, the Japanese have exceeded 100,000 casualties on all sides, so they have also slowed down. When they sensed that the Americans and Australians were going to evacuate, they also gave up the interception, preparing to sit back and wait for the final fruits.