At the time, it was just speculation.

By July 7, the situation had changed again.

In a battle that morning, Task Force 22 was attacked by the Nuland Naval Air Force, and enemy aircraft were coming from the east.

The point is, it was the F4F fighter that was encountered!

In the previous battles, the Nuland army had all been P-series fighters, with the largest number being the P-41 and the twin-engine P-38.

These fighters all belong to the Marine Corps Aviation.

It's not that army fighters are better, but the production capacity of carrier-based fighters in the Navy has not been mentioned.

In addition, Army Aviation fighters are more suitable for deployment on the ground.

In order to maintain sufficient combat effectiveness, the Nuland Marine Corps has been using combat aircraft from the Army Aviation, but has not purchased many combat aircraft from the Navy.

It was also the first time in several months that the Imperial Navy had encountered a carrier-based fighter of the Nuland Navy in the Guia Ocean, and there was reason to believe that it came from an aircraft carrier.

In addition to the F4F, the air defense fighters of the 22nd task force intercepted a batch of SBDs.

To say, just did not encounter torpedo attack aircraft.

It's just that the guards felt that this was not a problem, that is, the torpedo attack aircraft of the Nuland Navy had always been terrible, and in the battle to attack the aircraft carrier, the dive bombers were the main force.

All in all, in the afternoon of the same day, the Guards issued a report claiming that there were Nuland Navy aircraft carrier activities in the east.

Until nightfall, the Nuland aircraft carrier could not be found despite arranging three consecutive rounds of reconnaissance by carrier-based aircraft and seaplanes.

The problem was that the Guards did not report this to the White Stop.

Of course, given the situation at the time, there was no need to report it.

According to the unwritten rule, no report is the same as no discovery.

However, the effect of this is that Bai Zhizhan did not doubt the report of the guards, or did not feel that the report of the guards was problematic.

In the early hours of 8 July, Task Force 21 returned to the battlefield.

Because the fire support fleet had already arrived on 5 July and had become the main striking force, the 22nd Task Force only provided anti-aircraft cover and did not consume much ammunition, so the 22nd Task Force did not withdraw, but only went to the rear to replenish fuel that night.

In the morning of the same day, the landing combat operation began as planned.

After heavy shelling, which lasted up to an hour and a half, the landing operation set off at 8 o'clock and rushed to the beach of the transit island at about 9 o'clock.

It was at this time that the "firepower ships" specially designed for landing appeared.

It is said that it is a battleship, but in fact it is not worthy of the name.

The so-called "fireships" are actually small landing ships equipped with large-caliber guns, and they use large-caliber naval guns removed from battleships and heavy cruisers.

To put it more bluntly, it is waste utilization.

For example, the main guns of battleships had a maximum life of only 1,000 rounds when firing armor-piercing shells, and the long-diameter body barrels developed for firing heavy armor-piercing shells were even only 500 rounds. It's just that after reaching the service life, it is not equal to not being usable, but it is not easy to use, that is, when the armor-piercing projectile is fired with a full charge, the error exceeds the range specified by the Navy, and there are potential safety hazards, so it cannot continue to be used on battleships.

There is certainly no problem with reducing the charge to launch a high-explosive projectile.

Reinforcement of the body tube can effectively reduce the risk of exploding.

Even against solid targets, you can choose to shoot at close range, so as to bring out the power of armor-piercing bullets.

In fact, there are almost no targets on the battlefield that can carry 350 mm or 400 mm armor-piercing shells, so there is no need to launch a full charge.

In addition, the barrels of the 200-mm naval guns of heavy cruisers were the same.

It was for this reason that the Imperial Navy repurposed these "scrapped" gun barrels and equipped them with fireships.

As for small landing ships with naval guns, they are all ready-made, and they are not expensive to build.

A 2,000-ton dock landing ship is generally equipped with two single-mounted 350 mm or 400 mm naval guns, in addition to carrying hundreds of shells. In the case of 200 mm naval guns, it can be increased to 4 or 6 guns, and the ammunition load can be increased to about 1,000 rounds.

With these warships, when supporting the landing operation, there is no need to keep the escort warships at the landing site all the time.

Crucially, it can also avoid the frequent replenishment of ammunition by escort warships.

If I want to say, this is also specially made for the attack on the transit island, because when attacking the island, or when marching into the southwestern and eastern sea, the supply of ammunition is not much of a trouble, and only when attacking the transit island, especially before the establishment of the landing field, it is necessary to solve this problem.

It's just that the landing operation did not go very well.

Before the marines stormed the beach, the defenders of the transit island resisted with all their might, and had no intention of giving up.

As a result, more than a dozen landing craft were sunk before they could storm the beach, and hundreds of Marines were killed before they could set foot on the beaches of Transit Island.

This was only a landing operation launched by attacking an isolated island with an area of less than one square kilometer.

According to the arrangement, the first batch of beach-grabbing troops was only one regiment, with a total of less than 2,000 troops, and only more than 40 landing craft were dispatched.

The death rate of more than 30% can be said to be frighteningly high.

This situation was brought under control only when 2 firepower ships armed with 350-mm guns began to speak.

After the successful beaching, the battle was also very difficult.

During the whole day, the landing force was suppressed on the beach by enemy artillery fire, and only extended the beachhead and never left the beach.

As a result, the fleet responsible for cover had to return to the landing site after dark.

In addition, flares were used all night so that the marines on the beach and the lookouts on the battleships could see the enemy.

Night battles intensified.

The Nuland army built a lot of underground fortifications and stockpiled a lot of ammunition.

Crucially, the Nuland army learned the lessons of the offensive and defensive battles on the island, and did not concentrate on stockpiling ammunition, but scattered them throughout the island.

In addition to being inconvenient to manage, it is not only safer, but also convenient for combat troops to access.

In addition, it can set the firing point more flexibly.

During the daytime fighting, the Nuland army made full use of small-caliber mortars that could be quickly transferred, causing great problems for the landing Imperial Marines.

The machine gun forts set up on various ammunition reserve points also gave the marines an extreme headache.

In many cases, as soon as the shelling and bombardment had passed, the Nuland officers and soldiers returned to their bunkers and opened fire with machine guns on the onrushing Imperial Marines.

The fact that the landing force was never able to break out of the beach had a lot to do with the lack of heavy equipment, especially armored weapons.

Relying only on the infantry, it was simply impossible to break through the enemy's fire blockade on the bare beach, and as soon as you left the trenches, you would become a target for the enemy's machine guns.

Fortunately, the Imperial Marines were also prepared.

After a few months of fierce fighting on the island, the Imperial Marines also mastered the common tactics of the Nuland army and found a way to deal with it.

In the early morning of 9 July, just after dawn, a tank landing ship washed up on the beach of the transit island under the cover of artillery fire.

Subsequently, under the cover and support of aviation, more than a dozen tanks carried by tank landing ships rushed out.

With tanks, the situation immediately turned.