The use of battleships, well, was a very, very painful thing for the Japanese Navy. The reasons for this are nothing more than the following.

First, battleships are too expensive to build. Unlike the United States, Japan's battleships were not tightened by the people of the whole country, and they were saved little by little by relying on the domestic tobacco industry, coupled with the efforts of a large number of smoke-free industries (color industry) exported abroad for decades. Take the Yamato, the most powerful battleship in the empire, for example, and the cost is $125 million. Buddies who are used to the current numbers will probably pout their lips with disdain and say: "What is 125 million, we buy more than this number of US Treasury bonds on average every day, sample, I haven't seen the money, right......?"

To say that the bottle is poor, I have never seen much money. However, the bottle still has to say that it was the price of the 30-40s of the last century. In terms of purchasing power, it is completely different from the present. In fact, in retrospect, it didn't take too long, in the 90s of the last century, it was only more than a dollar to buy a pound of meat from a bottle. Let's take a look at the price of the most expensive aircraft carriers in the modern navy, and we can have a certain understanding of the extent to which battleships burn money. Taking the U.S. Navy as an example, at that time, an Essex-class fleet aircraft carrier (a large aircraft carrier, which is now a Nimitz-class) was more than 20 million US dollars, and a Yamato, the cost of six large aircraft carriers. The other battleships were certainly not as expensive as the Yamato, but none of them were bargains. So although during World War II, the Japanese also understood that the battleship should not be @一@本@read-novel xstxt is expensive, it just can't beat those flat-topped fly ships, but it can't hold the price of that thing, and the combined fleet still regards this thing as more expensive than aircraft carriers.

Second, battleships are also super expensive to use, first of all, to burn oil. If the battleships of the Combined Fleet, which were lightest and more than 30,000 tons and 70,000 tons, went out together, the 600,000 tons of fuel reserves of the Japanese Navy would really not be enough. However, fuel is still the thing that the Japanese lack the most. If it had not been forced by the oil shortage, Japan would not have fought with the United States. It is said that after Daqing was discovered, some old militarists in Japan burst into tears one by one: I knew that Manchuria had this, so how could we go to the tiger's head to shoot lice? Excluding scientific factors and other factors, according to superstition, this is called luck! As for the giant cannon that countless BB parties (battleships abbreviated as BB) are most obsessed with, it is even more tragic, not only expensive, but also extremely short life. Generally speaking, after seven or eight hundred rounds, the barrel will be scrapped. And with a gun barrel, the price is close to that of a low-grade destroyer! This thing immediately reminded the bottle of its own HP printer. The machine is cheap, the quality is good, well, it's the original cartridge, it's really not just a little more expensive.

So, as soon as he heard that he was going to use battleships for a small island, the Minister of the Navy, Nagano (that), did not do it, and of course, they said it very tactfully: "Don't break the warship." ”

Therefore, after careful consideration, Yamamoto decided that the battleship still had to go. But can't go to the latest and the best. Rather, let the cheapest, the fastest go. So the task fell to the four King Kong brothers.

Kongo-class battleships were ordered by Japan in Britain before World War I. It was also the last Japanese battleship to be built in a foreign country. She was originally a battlecruiser, but after being modernized, it was renamed a battleship. It was the oldest and cheapest battleship in Japan. And for Kuah Island, she also has one of the best advantages, running fast! The maximum speed can reach 30 knots, which is enough to take advantage of the darkness of the night to enter Kuah Island, and then escape the striking distance of the island's aircraft before dawn.

However, the price of sending out four Kongo-class battleships at once was still too expensive. So Yamamoto plans to send two ships first. On 11 October the bombardment fleet was dispatched from Truk, consisting of two battleships, one cruiser and nine destroyers, led by the battleships "Kongo" and "Haruna".

The Americans were not unaware of the actions of the Japanese. In recent times, there have been more and more Japanese troops on the island. Although a large number of personnel and supplies were sent to the sea by the Cactus Air Fleet. As a result, the number of fish in the waters of Kuah Island, especially the number of large predatory fish, has increased significantly, but the Japanese are still stubbornly filling people into this big hole.

Ron doesn't remember the history of Kuah Island very well, but he still remembers a little bit about the history of the Japanese sending battleships to shell the airfield. Although I don't remember exactly when, seeing that the current situation is so unfavorable to Japan, the Japanese still have the courage to push these few people into this big pit, and it is estimated that the artillery bombardment is not far away.

But fortunately, he was not unprepared. After the last monster siege. Ron had been worried about it, and after he and Vander-Gravet mentioned it, Vander-Gravet was equally worried. As the commander of the 1st Marine Division, he knew better than anyone the importance of the airfield to Kuah Island. What would it be like without an airport, the Japanese over there are role models. The Japanese would come and harass them every day, and then they would be killed in front of the American positions. The average weight of these Japanese soldiers who died in battle was declining, and there were obvious problems such as slow reaction and lack of strength in battle. So much so that Vandergravet is now wondering if the purpose of sending these people to death is to save supplies.

In the event of a loss at the airport, the situation on both sides will immediately be reversed. Van der Gravet shared Ron's concerns, and unlike Ron, Vandergravet had a clearer understanding of the power of battleships' guns. He had witnessed the shelling of battleships against the shore during one of the pre-war exercises. A one-ton shell can easily leave a crater on the ground with a radius of 75 meters and a depth of more than 10 meters, and people can feel the obvious vibration when standing 5 kilometers away, if you stand within 500 meters, congratulations, you have just received a call from God. This is not comparable to the little thing on a destroyer. And Vandergraft was more worried about one thing than Ron: if one night, the Japanese made a feint on his position, and when all his men were on the ground, the battleship's shells would fall all over the place...... If this is the case, Vandergravet is almost certain that his position will be over in no time.

So Vandergraft asked Ron, "What's your trick?" ”

"I hope to open up another bomber runway as soon as possible, and in addition, to build more, more dispersed aircraft shelters. This will require the cooperation of your Marines to push the defensive positions forward a little further. Besides, we'd better have a bunch of fake planes or something, and put them somewhere else for the Japanese to bomb. ”

Moving forward is also in line with Vandergraft's idea: the farther away from the coast now, the safer. However, the continued movement of positions will also bring about the problem of dispersion of troops. However, after testing the Vulcan cannon flat fire a few days ago, Vandergravet felt that as long as there were more Vulcan cannons and Vulcan machine guns (.50 caliber), the problem of dispersion of troops was not impossible to solve.

"However, it takes a lot of time to make fake planes, is it still too late?" Vandergravet said as he thought, "It's better to make a fake cannon, just cut a few trees." ”

"Oh, I made a request to the country, urgently ordered a batch of inflatable fake planes. I think it can still be deceiving from a distance. ”

This kind of inflatable false target is the most conventional thing in modern times, and it is not difficult to build a large balloon that does not need to consider electromagnetic and infrared, but only needs to deceive people's eyes. A few days ago, the engineers of the Anaconda replaced all the P-38s with Vulcan and went back with this design and two other designs. At the same time, Ron also submitted a report to his superiors asking for a fake plane.

"Now there is such a thing? I'm also going to make a report and ask him for a batch of fake tanks. Vandergravet thought.

However, none of this is the solution to the root cause. The best way, the most fundamental solution to the problem, is to have the US Navy send a few battleships over as well. As long as enough losses can be inflicted on the Japanese in the night battle, the problem can be solved fundamentally. But the navy, which has experienced a series of defeats in night battles, dares to use battleships at night?

"If Halsey had dared to do this, but Gormley wouldn't have agreed." Vandergravet thought.

Thus began an unprecedented and unbridled destruction of forest vegetation in the history of Kuah Island. Countless trees have been cut down or pushed directly by bulldozers. Construction of a new runway is being intensified. At the same time, more dispersed aircraft shelters are being built.

On 13 October, another group of transport ships arrived on Kuah Island. The ship brought 3,000 men from the 164th Regiment of the U.S. Army, 16 light tanks, and 12 37mm anti-tank guns to Kuah Island. As well as a whole bunch of special balloons. In addition, a number of experimental new weapons - a completely new rifle - were also transported to the island.

This rifle is a new generation of the Anaconda. The AKM of the later generation is modeled. The python named it "Jungle Python", meaning that it was specifically designed for jungle warfare. The art department doesn't like this weapon, first, the bullet is not powerful enough (they are used to full-power rifle cartridges), and second, the accuracy is not good enough (not as good as the fully manual Springfield, and not as good as the semi-automatic M1), in the words of these guys: on the power of the accuracy is to insult the name of the rifle, even if it is a submachine gun, it is almost the same, but it is a little heavier.

Along with these things came an old acquaintance, Hailan.

"Why are you here?" Ron furrowed his brow at the sight of her.

"Why can't I come?" Seeing Ron's expression, Hailan's eyes widened, looking like you made me angry, I am very unhappy now, and I need you to apologize.

"Kuah Island has been very dangerous recently, don't run around here if you have nothing to do!" Ron still said angrily.

As soon as he heard this, the frost on Hailan's face immediately melted at a rate a thousand times faster than global warming and glacier melting, and the corners of his slightly hooked mouth showed a smile that could not be concealed.

"What's at stake? Tell me about it? ”

Although Ron believed that Hailan would never be a spy for the Japanese, according to discipline, there were still many things that could not be told to her. However, with Hailan's years of experience as a war correspondent, she immediately realized that something big was about to happen.

"If you don't tell me, I won't leave!" Hailan began to play tricks.

"Hey, be professional. As a journalist, you should understand discipline. ”

In the end, Hailan couldn't come up with anything. When the fleet was about to sail back, Ron personally dropped her off the ship and watched as the ship slowly left.

Later, Hailan regretted not finding a chance to sneak back, because she missed one of the most shocking nights on Kuah Island.