The Japanese army in Australia was still viewed from the old perspective of the Malayan Peninsula war, and there was a considerable error in judging the combat capability of the enemy army. As everyone knows, the Australian army that participated in the battle during the Battle of Singapore was just a patchwork of third-rate miscellaneous troops. At that time, the real elite of the Australian army were fighting in the North African battlefield.

The consequence of judging the enemy's combat capability was that the Japanese army itself made considerable mistakes in the deployment of troops. Not only did they invest only two divisions, but the two divisions and regiments that participated in the war were all divisions that were not properly organized. Of the two divisions, none of them arrived in Australia in full formation.

According to the Japanese army's new-style three-unit establishment and the habit of fighting against the Anti-Japanese Alliance, when the two divisions are dispatched, there should be a total of six infantry wings and 16 to 18 infantry brigades. The main forces of the two artillery wings, as well as the search, baggage, and engineer wings, should also be double.

At the same time, to a certain extent, it is necessary to increase the composition of reinforced artillery, engineer and other units depending on the battle situation. However, in the Battle of Australia, the total number of infantry brigades of the two infantry divisions transferred by the Japanese army was only fourteen, which was equivalent to the lack of more than one and a half wings.

And each infantry brigade had four infantry squadrons, and generally only three squadrons came. There were even two infantry brigades, and only two squadrons came. Although each infantry battalion is equipped with a machine gun squadron or a reinforced force such as a separate mortar squadron. However, the total strength of each division plummeted to 12,000 men.

Even with the addition of two independent mixed wings, the attack power has also decreased greatly to a certain extent. These two independent mixed wings are just two infantry squadrons of the other brigades reinforced with a full infantry brigade as the backbone, and a machine gun squadron, which are only attached to a condensed wing composed of artillery and engineers.

And the reinforced artillery was no more than two or four mountain guns. Although its actual combat strength has increased its artillery firepower, the number of combat infantry is generally only about half of that of the Japanese army on the battlefield in China's Kannai, and it cannot be compared with the general overstaffing of the Kwantung Army.

Not only did the number of infantry not arrive, but only more than half. Even the artillery wings of two divisions and regiments came with only one artillery brigade plus four independent artillery squadrons. The overall artillery support firepower of the division and regiment has dropped by almost two-thirds compared with the original Chinese battlefield.

Neither of the two engineer wings came, only three separate engineer squadrons, and at most a separate field engineer brigade consisting of Koreans. Two baggage squadrons, together only four baggage squadrons came. According to the standards of the early stage of the Anti-Japanese War and the current standards of the Kwantung Army, each of these two divisions is only equivalent to a strengthened version of an independent mixed brigade, that is to say, the actual strength of these two condensed infantry divisions and regiments is only more than 20,000 people. Compared with the opponents of the Anti-Japanese Union in the Northeast Battlefield, the two divisions were only equivalent to one division of the Kwantung Army. In addition to the first-level firepower of the wing, which is stronger than the Chinese Guannai battlefield, and slightly worse than the northeast battlefield. In fact, the allocation of troops was even inferior to that of the Japanese army's security divisions on the Chinese battlefield.

Even with the addition of two independent mixed wings, plus the attached independent engineers, heavy artillery, armored troops, and ground air defense forces, the Japanese army invested more than 40,000 troops on the Australian battlefield. The one-time investment in military strength can be described as quite insufficient.

In terms of firepower, in addition to the four American-made 240-mm shore guns dismantled from the Philippines, the guns with the largest caliber are four 150-mm cannons and five four-year 150-mm howitzers. Even if the independent artillery attached to it is counted, the mountain artillery together is only more than seventy.

The Japanese army invested insufficient troops in the Australian battlefield, except for the Japanese Army, which was inferior in the overall number of Southeast Asian theaters, and faced Britain, the United States and Australia were actually third-rate defenders. The results of the battle were like a storm, and the Japanese Army was quite contemptuous of the Australian Army, which had a considerable number of troops to participate in the Southeast Asian operation.

Another important reason was also the helpless choice of the Japanese army. The Japanese front was stretched too long, and the transportation capacity was limited. The pace of the expansion of troops cannot keep pace with the expansion of the occupied territories. The occupied territories need to be protected by troops, to clear the scattered Allied forces, and to control and consolidate the newly occupied territories. The strategic key parts of the rear, just like Taiwan, also need to be heavily defended.

It is also necessary to ensure the total number of troops that can no longer be diluted on the Chinese battlefield, plus to maintain the strength of the Kwantung Army in the South Manchurian industrial area to protect South Manchuria, which requires a large number of troops and equipment. Under the circumstance that it could not affect the normal industrial and agricultural production of the country, the Japanese army was somewhat overstretched in the Pacific theater at present.

Moreover, in the South Pacific theater, the main battle for islands was the main battle. The scenery of these tropical islands is very good, but there is a characteristic that most of the islands are not self-sustaining. There are even some small islands that do not even have agricultural production, and 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, the elite soldiers still have to eat, and they also have to use weapons and ammunition to fight. Fighting on these islands, all the supplies had to be transported from the rear thousands of miles. Even if some of these islands are inhabited by indigenous people, there is no food for the Japanese to use.

Even if the Japanese have the patience, they are accustomed to requisitioning on the battlefield. However, when there is no place to requisition and no people to farm, they can only replenish the combat area with food, ammunition, engineering personnel, machinery and equipment, and sometimes even fresh water by sea.

The Japanese, whose hands were stretched too long, could only deploy as many downsized divisions as possible on the Pacific islands except Southeast Asia. In this way, we can reduce the logistical pressure as much as possible and ensure the stable supply of troops under the condition that the basic combat effectiveness of all divisions and regiments is basically guaranteed. And free up tonnage to bring as many supplies ashore at the same time as possible at one time.

Because supplies are needed everywhere, and everywhere they are fighting against the American, British, and Australian armies, and they are thousands of kilometers away from home. No one knows that the next wave of supplies will arrive in the Year of the Monkey. If you don't bring as much as you can in one wave, what if the convoy is sunk? Do you want the soldiers to gnaw on the weeds and fight the bayonets with those hateful Mi Ying ghost animals?

There is no way, an integrated division is indeed strong in combat. However, the materials required for this logistical supply are far more than those of the downsized divisions. In the South Pacific theater, which covers a vast area and is dominated by island battles, all war materials can only be transported by sea.

Coupled with the continuous huge losses on the battlefield in China, the speed of the expansion of the Japanese army could not meet the needs for the time being, and it was necessary to constantly form new divisions and regiments. When the Japanese army was expanding, it always adopted the method of bringing the old with the new. During the battle, each division was directly detained by a wing and transferred back to China to form a new division.

The wings of the two new divisions are still being formed on the mainland and in Chinese mainland. The Japanese army sent these two downsized divisions, which was also a helpless move. However, although it is a downsizing division, both divisions are still mainly elite. Compared with those patchwork divisions and regiments deployed in the Pacific theater a year later, the combat capability is much better.

As for these two dissatisfied divisions, the reason why they appeared on such an important battlefield. Except partly because the Japanese base camp was carried away by the brilliant victory on the Pacific Front, and was anxious to take advantage of the fact that the Americans had not yet completed the general mobilization. The Australian army still has a significant number of troops, and it is still fighting the Germans in the North African theater.

The local forces are not large, and the overall defense system is very empty. They want to take the opportunity to take Australia and completely solve the Japanese base camp of the Allied counter-attack base in the South Pacific. Regardless of the current situation that the entire Southern Army has been scattered to the extreme.

The only two mobile divisions were not satisfied with the actual situation of their formation, so they strengthened the two independent mixed wings drawn from other divisions of the Southern Army to form a single corps and sent them to attack and operate in Australia. The reason for this was not only because the base camp had no choice, but only these two divisions were available in a short period of time.

Another reason was that after careful calculation, they believed that these two under-manned divisions would not be able to complete the entire Australian offensive operation. However, there is no problem in crushing the enemy defenders, seizing and expanding the landing positions, and creating conditions for the arrival of follow-up troops.

According to the estimate of the Japanese base camp through the battle on the Malay Peninsula and the battle of Singapore. An elite combat squadron of the Japanese army can defeat a regiment of the Australian army with a British formation in battle. An infantry brigade that can crush a brigade of the Australian army. A downsized division that is not yet in its form can defeat the two divisions of the Australian army left on the mainland.

Two downsized divisions and two separate mixed wings were sent as the first attack force. It is already very face-saving for the Australian army, and it is also enough for landing operations. Therefore, after repeatedly assessing the number of troops that the Australian army might invest and the combat effectiveness of both sides, the Japanese army sent two divisions that were still being reorganized and replenished.

However, although it is a little arrogant, after all, the Japanese army base camp has not been mad to the point of madness. Australia is a big country, not one of those big islands. Two divisions that are not fully formed, plus two independent mixed wings, such a small number of troops, spread to the whole of Australia, and not even a shadow can be seen.

Considering that the two such divisions were understaffed, they were really unable to capture all of Australia and deal with the subsequent American counterattack. The Japanese base camp has already transferred two fully formed divisions from the mainland to be used as the second echelon of the successful landing battle, so as to expand the results of the battle and completely and completely occupy this vast British Dominion.

However, the number of transport vessels that could be mobilized was limited, and it was not possible to transport the two divisions from the mainland at the first opportunity. The base camp, which was afraid of missing the fighters, was unwilling to wait for the two divisions to arrive before launching an attack. At the same time, the Navy was reluctant to come up with more destroyers to transport the two divisions. Therefore, the first wave of Japanese landing forces was created, and there were only two downsized divisions.

The lack of troops in the first wave affected the development of the war situation, and the Japanese army was unable to completely defeat the remaining Australian troops in the first place, as well as the main reason for the reinforcements of the American army, and failed to expand the results in time.

When the two follow-up divisions arrived, two infantry divisions, a National Guard division, and a large number of tank and heavy artillery units reinforced by the US army also rushed to the Australian battlefield together with two New Zealand brigades and a Canadian infantry division. The fighters that captured Australia were eventually lost.

Of course, it failed to expand the results of the battle in time and completely encircled and annihilated the US-Australian coalition forces on the battlefield in one fell swoop. Among them, there are also reasons why the Japanese Southern Army made mistakes in choosing commanders. If you replace the Yamashita Bongfumi, who swept through Southeast Asia, has a strong desire to attack, and is quite cunning in the use of tactics.

Even if there are only two divisions that are not fully formed, the opponent's defense force is not large. Even if we can't complete the occupation of the whole of Australia, I am afraid that the entire eastern half of Australia will not be able to be saved. At least the remnants of the U.S. military have no chance of escaping.