Chapter 1265: Chapter 931: Three-Way Assault Chapter 1265: Chapter 931: Three-Way Assault The late July of 1937 for the Island Nation could definitely be considered as a repeated torment in terms of confidence.

Before Australasia launched a large-scale offensive, the Island Nation’s Army still believed that they could defend their Native Land and waited for the opportunity to engage in a final battle with Australasia.

However, once Australasia’s comprehensive attack had started, the Island Nation’s government suddenly discovered that their seemingly strong army and navy had various types of problems and retreated step by step under the Australasian Army’s offensive.

Actually, the army could not be blamed entirely. At least the performance of the Island Nation Army in this war was still commendable, and the combat capabilities demonstrated by the Type A Division and Type B Division could be considered elite.

As for the Type C Division, which was mostly comprised of new recruits hastily mobilized after the outbreak of war, it was forgivable that their combat capability was terrible to witness.

On the other hand, the navy, which consumed a large portion of the Island Nation’s Fiscal Budget every year, had almost no merit in the war.

The navy took the initiative to sneak attack Pearl Harbor, but was quickly crushed under the cooperation of the Australasian Navy and Air Force, with the naval aviation losing hundreds of airplanes and the Island Nation’s Royal Navy losing many main warships.

Then there was the proactive sneak attack by Australasia on the Naval Base in Hiroshima. Just like the sneak attack, Australasia achieved considerable success, sinking many main warships of the Island Nation and destroying the Island Nation’s naval aviation.

The significant disparity in achievements between both parties had already proven that the Island Nation was in a backward position in naval capabilities. More importantly, with both the navy and air force significantly lagging behind, the Island Nation had little hope left in this war.

The ability of the army to resist the Australasian offensive could also be gleaned from the current situation of the hundreds of thousands of troops stationed on Kyushu Island.

Faced with the situation where Australasia had deployed almost all branches of its military, let alone the troops on Kyushu Island that were mostly made up of Type C Divisions, even the several Type A Divisions stationed in Tokyo would likely be powerless.

No matter how the Island Nation’s government’s mindset changed, the situation on Kyushu Island could not be ignored at present.

There was no choice, as Kyushu Island was not only the gateway to the Southern Region of the Island Nation but also very important for the Island Nation’s occupation zones in the Far East.

If Kyushu Island were lost, it would also mean that the Island Nation’s carefully managed region in Korea would face a significant crisis.

At that time, the Island Nation would truly become an isolated island, facing the blockade of the Australasian Navy without any support or supply of supplies.

Then the problem arose again, since supporting Kyushu Island definitely required the deployment of a sufficient number of troops.

However, with the Native Land entirely exposed to the Australasian Air Force, any large-scale troop movement would undoubtedly be noticed by the Australasians.

This was the biggest problem faced by a territory with limited land area: under the circumstances where air superiority was not held, the movements of Domestic troops were almost as exposed as if laid bare to the enemy.

This meant that the troops supporting Kyushu Island could likely face attacks from the Australasian Air Force, or even the direct obstruction of the navy stationed between Honshu Island and Kyushu Island.

It is necessary to mention the situation of the Native Land here. The Native Land of the Island Nation is not a single continuous island, but is composed of a country in the form of an archipelago with four major islands serving as the main body, along with many small to medium islands.

The four islands respectively are Honshu Island, Kyushu Island, Shikoku Island, and Hokkaido, with Honshu Island being the largest in area among the four islands of the Native Land, even exceeding the total of the other three islands.

Therefore, most of the Island Nation Army is deployed on Honshu Island, which hosts important Urban Cities like Osaka, Hiroshima, Nagoya, and Tokyo.

Just Tokyo alone is worth the deployment of a large number of troops by the Island Nation’s Government.

For the troops on Honshu Island to reach Kyushu Island, they must cross the Maguan Strait (also known as the Kanmon Strait).

Before the war broke out, there was a bridge over the Maguan Strait, serving as an important channel for mutual visits between the two places.

However, after Australasia had stationed an Air Force Base in the Ryukyu Islands, their first mission was to bomb all major bridges inside the Island Nation.

The Maguan Strait bridge was the first target bombed by the Australasian Air Force because it connected the Island Nation’s Honshu and Kyushu Islands, linking the two near but separate islands together.

It is very difficult to repair such a cross-strait bridge, and it is nearly impossible for the Island Nation to mobilize a large amount of manpower and resources to repair the bridge while Australasian airplanes frequently circled overhead.

After all, doing so would simply provide the enemy with a live target; Australasia only needed to carry out one more bombing to destroy all the efforts made by the Island Nation to repair the bridge.

Without the strait bridge, communication between the two places indeed became much more difficult. The troops on Honshu Island could reach Kyushu Island through only two methods: one was to use special small vessels to build pontoon bridges, and the other was to use small assault ships to rapidly transport a large number of soldiers back and forth.

However, both methods were considered risky for the current situation of the Island Nation. Australasia would certainly be aware that the Island Nation must support its efforts; their air force would definitely guard the strait connecting the two islands closely.

In such circumstances, transporting hundreds of thousands of troops to Kyushu Island was understandably difficult.

Once discovered by the Australasian Air Force during the crossing of the strait, the fate facing the Island Nation’s troops crossing the sea might only be death.