1944 was a year of hope, a year of great success for the Allies. Free eBook Download// In the European theater, Italy has surrendered, although the United States and Britain Allied forces suffered a big loss in the "Market Garden Operation", many Americans' hope to end the war before the New Year has become doomed to be unrealizable, and even by the end of 1944, it has become an unattainable goal to invade the German mainland. However, at the end of the year, the Germans jumped out and took the initiative to launch a campaign to attack Xìng - the Battle of the Ardennes. As a result, by the end of the year, the American army managed to repel the Germans and approached the German mainland in pursuit of them.

On the Eastern Front in Europe, although the Germans continued to win as always, they won and won unknowingly. Moreover, the German ** team also won less and less and won weaker, but the Soviet army lost more and more, and the more they lost, the stronger they became. It can be said that although the Germans have survived 44 years, in any case, even the Germans themselves understand that they will not survive the next year.

In the Pacific, the U.S. military was also victorious, although it was attacked head-on by the Tokyo radio station, and almost the entire army was "blown away." But the U.S. military still tore apart the absolute defense circle of Rì himself, and in fact destroyed the last remaining strength of the Rì Hon's navy. When this year passed, the once glorious navy, as a strategic force, had little influence on the future situation of the war.

It was only on the Chinese battlefield that the allies did not show signs of imminent victory. While Ron's second brother depicts the successes of his guerrilla zone, on the frontal battlefield, the Chinese battlefield is on the verge of collapse. The RÌ army launched the "Operation No. 1" to open up the mainland communication line, and as a result, a large number of KMT troops had been replaced with American-style equipment, which had been obviously weakened, and a large number of supplementary troops, especially the RÌ army that used underage supplementary troops, were beaten to the ground, lost thousands of miles, and lost millions of soldiers, and almost once again staged the scene of 1937 to 1938, especially the great druid commander Tang Enbo stationed in Henan (this person is in Henan, and the floods, droughts, and locust plagues in the natural system are called the fourth plague - Tang Disaster's troops, barely putting up any decent resistance, collapsed, leaving one full warehouse after another intact to the little rìben, filled with all-American equipment that the Americans had just sent to them and the grain they themselves had looted from the fellow villagers in Henan. In order to fill these warehouses with grain, they let countless Henan villagers be starved to death, and they also told the foreign reporters who interviewed the matter that if the army starved to death, then the land and the peasants would become their own, and if the peasants starved to death, as long as the army was still there, the land would still be Chinese. However, after they starved to death a large number of peasants, as soon as Rì himself came, not only the land, but also the weapons sent by the allies, and the food saved by the starving peasants, all became Rì's own.

But now, the situation on the battlefield in China is no longer the most important concern of the Americans. Because this battlefield no longer has the meaning of deciding xìng. It was already the end of 1944, and by this time, even if Chang Kai surrendered, would Rì himself still be able to relocate his roots from the Rì Islands to Chinese mainland?

The battle for the Philippines is still ongoing, but victory or defeat has long been a foregone conclusion. It is very difficult for an island to hold on to after losing the support of the navy. In order to deal with the US military's fuel air bombs, the Rì Army now rarely relies on fortifications to resist stubbornly, and they use small detachments to entangle with the US Army, dealing with such small targets, and it is too inconvenient to use fuel air bombs, or the Rì himself will rely on towns where local residents still live against the US Army -- it is difficult for the US Army, which claims to be the "liberator of the Philippines," to drop fuel air bombs on towns and cities that are still inhabited by Filipinos, because this will bring about catastrophic political consequences. Therefore, Rì himself can still resist a certain amount in the Philippines. However, under the shadow of fuel-air bombs, the Rì Army was almost unable to organize large-scale field operations. This means that the U.S. military has more opportunities to fight more and fight less. In the Philippines, the Rì Army is powerless.

Now the US military has focused on the next target, Iwo Jima.

As early as October 1944, when Ron left the European theater and returned to the United States, and the Philippine campaign had just begun, the U.S. Navy had a plan to capture Iwo Jima. The U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet has a very interesting setup. That is, the mobile fleet of the Pacific Fleet has two alternating commanders and fleet numbers.

The main mobile forces of the Pacific Fleet were commanded by Admiral Halsey and Spruance in turn: when Admiral Halsey was the commander of the fleet, this fleet was called the Third Fleet; And when Admiral Spruance commanded the fleet, the number of the fleet became the Fifth Fleet. On the one hand, this is used to confuse Rì himself, but more importantly, after preparing two sets of command systems, when one command group takes the fleet to carry out combat missions, the other set of command groups can study the next plan of action in the rear. Just like in October 1944, Halsey took the Third Fleet to fight the Philippine Naval Battle, and Admiral Spruance led the command team of the Fifth Fleet to Pearl Harbor to study the next target for attack. After combining the needs of various parties, especially the Army Air Corps' need for a fighter airfield close to Rìben and an alternate airfield for B-29 bombers, the U.S. Navy determined that Iwo Jima would be the next target.

Rì himself built two airfields on Iwo Jima, and according to reconnaissance, they are building a third airfield. Relying on these airfields, Rì himself was even able to launch a sneak attack on the US military airfield on Saipan, and in other words, Rì himself really launched several air strikes that seemed to be almost fatal, but the Americans did not expect Rì himself to dare to do so. As a result, several B-29 bombers were damaged by Rì himself.

Of course, such an act would be retaliated against by the U.S. military, so the U.S. 21st Bomber Wing organized a group to Iwo Jima to watch it several times, and then, there were no planes on Iwo Jima.

Because the war in the Philippines was going well, Halsey was able to return to the Ulisi base with the fleet more than a month ahead of schedule for rest. This is because on the ground, the gray wolf captured three more airfields, which made the number of land aviation planes in the Philippines rise to nearly a thousand, so the task of ground fire support is getting smaller and smaller, and Halsey feels that since there are no more sea targets to fight, it is not worth staying in the Philippines at the risk of being kamikaze.

Halsey's early return to Ulisi also gave the opportunity for the operation on Iwo Jima to be carried out earlier. At this time, General Spruance also got new information, and the photos taken by the reconnaissance plane showed that Rì himself was engaged in the construction of fortifications on Iwo Jima, judging by the number of personnel on the island and the number of construction machinery, General Spruance and the 5th Amphibious Army, who was responsible for commanding the landing, were in charge of the landing. General Smith decided that the island was the most heavily defended to date. General Smith estimated that the U.S. military would have to pay at least 20,000 casualties to take the island. This estimate is quite accurate, and in the original history, the U.S. military suffered more than 28,000 casualties on Iwo Jima. This casualty is even more than Rì himself. Of course, the casualties of the U.S. military are mostly wounded, and the casualties of Rì himself can basically be equated with death. If you compare the death ratio, well, or Rì himself dies much.

Ron's experience in Normandy, and the fact that, according to the plan, his troops would be transferred to Iwo Jima as soon as the airport was taken, he was also brought in to participate in the discussion. He was joined by General Li Mei, who had just been transferred to the command of the 21st Bomber Wing.

"As far as we know, the Rì Army on Iwo Jima has a very systematic defense system." General Spruance began by saying, "General Smith of the Marine Corps told me that it would take 20,000 casualties to take this island. So, I first need to understand whether this island is really so necessary and irreplaceable. As you know, our navy has an island-crossing tactic, which is to cross the enemy's heavily fortified islands, capture the islands that are behind them and are underdefended by the enemy, and then render the enemy-controlled islands useless by blocking the sea routes. ”

"Very important. Without this island, we would not have been able to carry out strategic bombing of Rìben. "Curtis?? General Li Mei immediately replied categorically.

"Rì himself is crazy," Ron said, knowing that Li May was not very good at explaining, "just as they would use suicide planes to attack our warships by ramming, Rì would use ramming to intercept our bombers." Without Iwo Jima, our bombers would not be protected by fighters, just as it is dangerous for a fleet to be protected by carrier-based fighters in the face of enemy suicide aircraft. Fighting under such conditions, we may have to pay tens of thousands, or even nearly 100,000 casualties, for air crew. ”

"Ah, landing, 20,000 casualties, not landing will cause more casualties among aircrew. And to kill so many less rì himself. General Spruance turned to General Smith and said, "Smith, I think it's absolutely necessary for us to start this campaign." ”

"General Lemay," Marine Corps Commander Lieutenant General Smith began, "I know that in the fighting in the Philippines, fuel-air bombs played a critical role in the course of the battle. But, as far as I know, both in Europe and in the Philippines, such bombs are carried by tactical aircraft. In the vicinity of Iwo Jima, we do not have an airfield for the tactical aircraft of the Army Aviation to take off and land, so can the heavy bombers of the Army Aviation carry such bombs and guarantee enough jīng degrees? ”

"The B-29 can carry any bomb. As for the jīng degree, if there are no personnel of our army nearby, we can rely on carpet bombing to guarantee strikes on important targets. If there are our personnel nearby, our 21st Bomber Wing can also drop bombs at an altitude of several hundred meters. Li Mei immediately responded.

"Very good, thank you!" Of course, General Smith knew what kind of risk the B-29 would take if Li Mei promised to let the B-29 drop bombs at an altitude of several hundred meters, and from this answer, he also clearly felt how much the Army Airlines valued this airfield.

"Very well, then, we still have some tactical issues like this that need to be discussed...... General Spruance said.