With the support of dive bombers, the 4th Marine Division was able to move on. High-speed update // At this time, the next batch of landing troops also approached the beachhead, and this batch of landing troops included a group of authentic tanks, although they were still M3 light tanks, but in the Pacific, these tanks were enough to deal with most targets. With the support of these tanks, the American forces approached their first important target in the afternoon: Airfield No. 1. However, it was already close to two o'clock in the afternoon, and it was difficult to seize the airfield before dark. Moreover, considering that Rì himself has a habit of large-scale night raids, the US military will stop its offensive operations by three o'clock in the afternoon at the latest, and even shrink its position a little to arrange a night defense.

It was the first night after going ashore, and it was a crucial night, and according to the past, Rì himself would have launched a massive night attack on this night in order to drive the American troops out of the sea. So from half past two in the afternoon, the Americans stopped the offensive and began to build various fortifications. Trenches, sandbags, machine guns and mortars, tanks deployed to the most critical positions, barbed wire, and mines. Preparing until dark. During this period, Rì's own artillery still came out from time to time to make a rapid shè, and then automatically stopped firing and disappeared into the tunnel before the American artillery could react.

Busy until dusk, everything was ready, and the soldiers of the Marine Corps were confident that if Rì himself came to attack at night, they would not have good fruit to eat. After nightfall, the soldiers took turns to sleep. The soldiers on duty opened their eyes wide and watched for any bit of wind and grass at the front of the position. The warships of the Navy constantly fired shè flares at the front of the position, and the entire position was as bright as day. But throughout the night, the expected "Banzai Charge" never appeared.

Early the next morning, the U.S. forces resumed their offensive and successfully captured the airfield that morning. However, it will be some time before the airport is operational. However, both the Marine Corps and the Navy are aware of the importance of the airport, so all the construction machinery is also tilted towards the airport. But even then, it wasn't until a full day later that Airfield 1 was restored to its ability to take off and land aircraft.

As soon as the airfield was restored, Ron's attack aircraft unit was immediately thrown in. Unlike the Navy's bombers, which have a limited bomb load and are unable to carry high-powered fuel air bombs, the Army's attack aircraft are different, with the P-38 fighter having a limit bomb load almost equal to that of the B-17 bomber, and the modified P/A-38 attack aircraft also maintaining this bomb load.

With the landing of the P/A-38 attack aircraft at Airfield No. 1, Rì himself began to enjoy the baptism of fuel air bombs. Now, the mode of combat has changed again, and the first reaction of the soldiers, after discovering the enemy's fortifications, is to summon attack aircraft to drop fuel air bombs.

It was not unprepared for the Americans' fuel-air bomb offensive, but what they did not expect was that the US military would use this weapon in this way.

"The enemy is still resisting? Okay, let's do another round of bombing right away! ”

"What? Still need? Okay, one more round! ”

……

"General, we don't have enough supplies." Early in the morning of the fourth day, in a deep and dark tunnel, an officer of the Rì Army was reporting to Kuribayashi Tadamichi.

After learning the news, Kuribayashi Tadamichi didn't say anything. After learning that the U.S. military had such a weapon of mass destruction, Kuribayashi Tadamichi was not unprepared, he did a lot of things, he sealed the tunnel, he prepared oxygen cylinders and oxidizers for the soldiers to provide oxygen, but the U.S. military's approach was too scoundrel. They just kept throwing fuel-air bombs at the fortifications, while also making the soldiers with oxygen masks make a feint. Yes, these timid Yankees are feinting! As soon as the Imperial Army brought those precious oxygen and began to resist, they immediately prostrate and lay there to fire their guns indiscriminately, consuming the precious oxygen of the Imperial Army. After ten minutes, the oxygen content in the air began to recover, and the Americans, without saying a word, dropped another bomb! Where did they get so many bombs? Could it be that the apple trees in the United States do not bear apples, but bombs?

Due to the late arrival of the news, and due to the blockade of the transportation of rìmoto, the island's oxygen reserves are insufficient, and they simply cannot withstand such consumption, and the oxygen reserves have already run out of emergency at the end of the day. Now the Rì army can only give priority to the most experienced soldiers to use the oxygen equipment, and the rest of the soldiers can only hide back in the tightly sealed tunnel, wait until the explosion has passed, and then hold their breath and rush to the shè mouth to fire a few shots, and then run back to the closed tunnel with plenty of oxygen before suffocating. As a result, the density of the Rì's firepower was greatly reduced, which gave the U.S. forces more opportunities to approach the bunker and blow up the bunker with something like a bazooka or blaster.

Sometimes, the cunning Yankees will play the trick of fake retreat, and sometimes, just in the middle of the fight, suddenly see the Americans begin to retreat, and at the same time, there is also the roar of the American aircraft engine, at this time, all the rì themselves will run towards the closed and tight tunnel, and then go into it, and then close the gate tightly. As a result, the Americans did not really retreat at this time, on the contrary, they rushed up while Rì himself was dodging the air raid, and put the flamethrower on the shè strike of the bunker.

As a result, on this day alone, the Rì Army was defeated in such a confrontation of material attrition, and the American troops captured the No. 2 airfield in this day, and successfully captured the ground position at Oriba Mountain. Historically, thousands of U.S. troops have been killed in order to achieve these goals, and the U.S. military has considered using chemical weapons against the Rì forces on Iwo Jima because of the high casualties, a plan that was ultimately vetoed by President Roosevelt and General Nimitz for political reasons. However, after the war, Nimitz was asked about this issue, and Nimitz replied: If I were to make another decision now, I think I would probably support the use of chemical weapons on Iwo Jima.

But in this space, no Americans will discuss this issue anymore, because fuel air bombs play a role comparable to chemical weapons. Since the planes of the Army Airlines began to take off and land on the island, the progress of the Marines went smoothly all at once, and Rì himself was in a difficult situation.

"General, if we just rush out and fight with the Americans, they won't be able to drop that damn bomb." A staff officer said to Tadamichi Kuribayashi.

"Do you all think so?" Kuribayashi Tadamichi looked around and saw several combat staff officers standing beside him, so he asked.

"Yes, General, the current state and conception are completely different." One of the staff officers replied, "Squatting in a pit and holding on to the pit doesn't give us a better exchange ratio." ”

It is true that the battle became a war of attrition, but unlike what Kuribayashi Tadamichi thought, it was not a war of attrition of life, but a war of attrition of materials on both sides. And such a war of attrition is obviously extremely unfavorable to rìben.

"So, can you get a better exchange ratio by going out and charging on board?" Kuribayashi asked.

"How do you know if you don't try?" A young staff officer came up with such a sentence without thinking.

"Haven't you tried it before?" Kuribayashi Tadamichi's voice began to become cold, and he stared, "Yamada-kun, now our exchange ratio with the US military is not satisfactory, but you really don't know how to make a higher exchange ratio?" ”

Yamada was a little flustered under the gaze of Kuribayashi Tadamichi, he avoided Kuribayashi Tadamichi's gaze, and whispered, "General, it is really too ...... to be beaten passively like this, and to watch the enemy hit but have no way to do it The enemy has all raised their banners on Oriba Mountain...... Anyway, we have to have some other way? ”

Yes, anyway, there is something to be done. The Americans have brought armored bulldozers and large quantities of concrete to the islands, and now, with the U.S. military basically in control of the ground, the U.S. military will use the bulldozers to carry the ash and concrete, sealing up everything they see that looks like a hole. Even if it was a rat hole, the U.S. military would wonder if it was the vent of Rì's own tunnel, and then simply plugged it with concrete. If this continues, sooner or later the island's rì himself will be buried alive in the tunnels they have dug themselves.

"We should go out in small detachments to conduct guerrilla warfare." A staff officer said.

"It's really delusional, Iwo Jima is a little bigger, where is there room for guerrillas, do you think it's in Luzon?" Another staff officer retorted.

"At night, long-range shots with rifles and mortars, coupled with small squad infiltration, may have some effect. I'm willing to take a troop with me to try. The staff officer named Yamada spoke again.

"Yamada-kun, your thoughts this time are still interesting. Let's just give it a try. ”

……

That night, Rì himself reverted to the habit of night raids in the past, but most of these night raids were only long-range shelling and artillery bombardment, and the US army's defense at night was well arranged, and these more almost sāo disturbance-like actions did not actually cause much trouble to the US army. When the disparity in material strength between the two sides is too great, any kind of military strategy will actually have no great effect. The Rì army on Iwo Jima is still resisting, but their resistance is getting weaker. This can be seen from the number of shells falling from the airfield. Two days ago, the attack aircraft unit was still very dangerous when taking off and landing on Iwo Jima 1 airfield, and Rì himself would use their cannons to fire at the airfield, although the density of fire was not very high (because most of the artillery had been destroyed by battleships or dive bombers), but the not falling shells still made people feel fearful, and one P/A-38 was hit by Rì's own artillery fire when it landed, and even the plane and the pilot were lost. But after two days, there were basically no shells that could land on the airfield. Ron reckoned that in another week, perhaps Iwo Jima Airport would be on escort duty.