In the afternoon, the defenders launched a counterattack, and it was the Nuland army.

After several hours of fierce fighting, the landing force, supported by the fire support fleet, stabilized the beachhead and began to advance inland.

To be precise, a line of defense was created on the periphery of the landing site.

In fact, at that time there were indications that there were definitely more than 100 Nuland soldiers on the island, because in the afternoon, hundreds of enemies appeared.

Unfortunately, no one was alarmed.

In the evening, the commander-in-chief of the landing, Rear Admiral Tu Zhangang of the Marine Corps, asked the front-line commander, Lieutenant Colonel Tong Mingbo of the Marine Corps, if he needed to send more troops ashore at night, and let the fire support fleet stay, postponing the replenishment of ammunition until the next morning.

This meant that Task Force 41 would need to stay for an additional day, that is, on the morning of the 28th, to provide support to the landing force while the fire support fleet was withdrawn to replenish ammunition, so as to ensure that the landing force could advance into the hinterland of the island for more than 10 hours during the day.

In fact, these are written in the battle plan, and they are not temporary adjustments.

Lieutenant Colonel Tong Mingbo thought that there was no need for this, and he just acted according to the original plan.

Shortly after nightfall, Task Force 41 turned north.

Instead of retreating, it was to join up with the fleet tankers to the north and replenish some ammunition against ground targets.

Because both carriers had to be refueled, and all the warships had to be refueled, Task Force 41 could return as soon as the night of the 28th. If carrier-based aviation is still sent to carry out support missions, it will not be able to return to combat until the morning of the 29th.

In the plan, the support tasks for the 28th were carried out by the fire support fleet.

As such, the fire support fleet also withdrew from the landing site that night and went to join up with the supply fleet in an effort to complete the replenishment of ammunition during the night.

The main thing is that the main guns and ammunition of several cruisers are almost used.

Although there were still quite a few anti-aircraft artillery shells, previous battles had shown that 130-mm shells were simply not enough against strong permanent fortifications. At some point, even the 150-mm guns of light cruisers, and even the 200-mm guns of heavy cruisers were not enough.

If there is enough power, only the main guns of the battleship.

This was also the main reason why by the end of the war, the Imperial Navy converted all the old battleships into fire support ships.

The fire support fleet left the landing site at 9:30 p.m.

That is, from this time until dawn on the 28th, the marines who landed on the island did not expect to be able to receive support from the fleet.

That's almost 10 hours.

It was during these 10 hours that the landing force suffered the most severe challenges.

It seemed to know that the fire support fleet had retreated, and the enemy's counterattack began after 10 o'clock, and the main force was still the Nuland army.

At that time, Tong Mingbo still had the opportunity to correct the mistakes he had made.

Just call Task Force 41 before 10 p.m. and send back heavy cruisers and even the fast battleship "Yuejiang".

Even if only one heavy cruiser is killed, it will be able to repel the enemy's counterattack with ferocious artillery fire.

It's a pity that Tong Mingbo didn't call the 41st Task Force.

According to the battle report of the Marine Corps, because it was more than 100 narrow-minded soldiers who first launched a counterattack, Tong Mingbo made a wrong judgment.

In other words, Tong Mingbo felt that it was a decisive counterattack by the narrow defenders.

Before the early hours of the morning, the outer defense line of the landing site was broken through by the enemy.

At this time, Tong Mingbo had already realized the seriousness of the problem, but the 41st Task Force had been sailing north for several hours, and it was more than 200 kilometers away from the island before, so even if the heavy cruisers and fast battleships were immediately sent south, they would not be able to arrive before dawn.

As for the fire support fleet, the cruisers had already converged with the supply ships.

Because the ammunition replenishment operation had already begun, and it would last several hours, the cruisers all reduced the pressure in their boilers to save fuel.

Even if the replenishment operation was stopped immediately, there was no way to return to the landing site immediately.

After fierce fighting until 3 a.m., the perimeter of the landing site almost completely collapsed, and more than a thousand Marines retreated to the beachhead.

The enemy is not just a few hundred, but thousands!

Crucially, there are also heavy weapons such as mortars, and they are plentiful with ammunition, and they bombard the beachhead guarded by the Marines almost all night.

Obviously, this is definitely not a narrow-minded army.

At a critical juncture, Major General Tu Zhangang sent more than a dozen landing craft to the beach with the Marine Corps, which served as the second echelon, as well as dozens of machine guns.

In addition, a landing ship equipped with artillery was sent to the beach to provide artillery support for the landing force.

The key is still the dozens of heavy machine guns sent by the landing craft.

Without these machine guns, the landing marines would not have been able to hold out until dawn.

If the enemy had attacked the beach before dawn, the more than 1,000 Marines trapped on the beachhead would have been killed or wounded and captured.

Crucially, after the enemy stormed the beach, there was no way to provide fire support.

By the time the fierce fighting reached dawn, the Marines on the beach were either killed or wounded, and they were compressed to the shore, relying on a defensive line composed of more than a dozen machine guns to support themselves.

Fortunately, carrier-based aircraft from Task Force 41 arrived in time.

However, not bombers, but a dozen fighters with small bombs hung.

Only the "Roaring Sky" was able to fly from more than 600 kilometers away and return to the fleet after dropping bombs.

Although these fighters did not stay long in the airspace over the island, and basically dropped their bombs and then returned home, at most they strafed after dropping the bombs, their appearance greatly encouraged the officers and men of the Marine Corps and had an extremely obvious deterrent effect on the enemy.

The enemy's counterattack came to an abrupt end.

At this time, Tong Mingbo already knew that the enemy was the Nuland army.

There is nothing to doubt about it, on the perimeter of the Marine Corps line, there are all the corpses of Nuland soldiers, and it is the elite 1st Marine Division.

Crucially, more than 1,000 enemies were killed that night, almost double the previous estimate.

There must have been more than a thousand Nuland officers and soldiers on the island.

In addition, judging by the intensity of the enemy's counterattack, especially the heavy firepower invested in the counterattack, the 1st Marine Division of Nuland must have been fully prepared.

There is enough reason to believe that the enemy has not been routed and still has a strong fighting force.

It was precisely because of this that Tu Zhangang made an urgent adjustment to the landing operation.

First of all, the 41st Task Force postponed its withdrawal, leaving behind the "Yuejiang" and several heavy cruisers to form a second fire support fleet.

In order to complete the supply, Bai Zhizhan also sent two supply ships to follow the Second Firefleet south.

In this way, after the return of the 1st Fire Support Fleet, the 5 ships of the 2nd Fire Support Fleet will be able to refuel.

If you want to fight a fierce battle on the island, you must first ensure that the battleship has enough fuel.

As a result, this landing operation, which was originally considered easy, turned into a bitter battle, which added a lot of trouble.

Fortunately, with the second fire support fleet, especially after the "Yuejiang" declared its presence with 350-mm bombs, the enemy was honest.

However, this is only the beginning of the fierce war on the island.