ps: This chapter has strong over-restrictive content, it is recommended that readers with poor psychological tolerance and underage readers do not read it, thank you for your cooperation. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Fear and sadness were followed by strong dissatisfaction, and the people of Australia and New Zealand were fully aware of the weakness of their own national defense and the unreliability of the US military, and although the government tried its best to control the mood of the people, they expressed extreme anger at the inability of the Allies to protect themselves.

In this wave, the person who is most hated by people is naturally Horikichi, there is no doubt about it; In second place was Nimitz, who by many was even more hated than Horikichi, who was an enemy and killed for good reason, and when the Allies gained the upper hand, they could also go to the Japanese archipelago and do the same. But Nimitz, as the commander of the Pacific Fleet of the U.S. Navy, actually hid at Pearl Harbor with the main force of the fleet during the Japanese fleet's ravaging of Australia and New Zealand, and became a turtle with a shrunken head. This is also the reason why Nimitz decided to fight a war, otherwise he would be driven out with tomatoes and rotten eggs when the Pacific Fleet went to Australia and New Zealand in the future.

The third person on the list of popular hatred is Churchill, in any case, Australia and New Zealand are the Dominions of the British Empire, and the two countries have participated in this war for the benefit of the mother country, but now Britain itself is actually ignoring this, and the people do not care whether the British Empire is now difficult to protect itself, and only blindly accuse London of being irresponsible, which has further aggravated the centrifugal tendency.

Convinced that after the departure of the joint fleet, the two countries are desperately trying to consolidate their defense system while repairing the wounds of the war, and in addition to asking the United States to provide more combat aircraft and more shore fire prevention capabilities, they have also issued orders for warships, and Australia and New Zealand are determined to form their own joint fleet and build an aircraft carrier combat formation in the region. In order to appease the sentiment of Australia and New Zealand, President Roosevelt, on behalf of the US Government, stated that he would give one to each of the two countries after the Essex-class aircraft carriers were put into service at the end of next year, and at the same time to give some escort aircraft carriers and destroyers, which made the mood of the two countries improve a lot.

Nimitz's waiting at Pearl Harbor was also very busy, the fleet was fully replenished, and the wounded were sent to the hospital, after emergency repairs by the shipyard, the wounds of warships, including the Indiana, were urgently repaired, but the damage to the hull was easy to repair, and the rest of the damaged anti-aircraft guns and auxiliary facilities were also easy to replace, but the damage to the main gun turret could not be repaired in a short time. The slightly lighter turret 2 has been fixed, but its firing range has been limited to 60 degrees to the left and right.

The person in charge of the shipyard told Nimitz that if he wants to repair it all, he must wait for the new turret to be shipped from abroad, plus the time for dismantling and replacement, "don't think about it for three months", but Nimitz is about to lead the team on the expedition, where can he wait for another three months? Moreover, after the North Carolina ran aground, the number of battleships he could use had dropped to three, and only two without the Indiana, and the Japanese battleships had at least six, so he had to take them out.

"What is happening at the front at the moment?"

"There was nothing to be found in Tarawa, the planes deployed on it were conducting a large-scale search of the surrounding waters every day, but the submarine reported that a group of merchant ships had been spotted two days ago, but because of the presence of Japanese escort warships, he was unable to do so - the location was in the South China Sea at the time." Halsey looked at the map, "We suspect that this is a Japanese convoy that began to disperse after passing through the Strait of Malacca, but the overall target should still be the Japanese mainland." ”

"Having submarines sink them as much as possible, whether they are equipment or industrial equipment, will significantly enhance Japan's defeat in the war." Nimitz sighed, "Horikichi is much more ferocious than we thought, he used the method of storming Australia and New Zealand to cover the safety of the transport fleet, what a terrible enemy." ”

"The point is, the ability of the army aviation to attack the fleet is really poor." Halsey complained, "At such a cost, only 1-2 aircraft carriers were severely damaged, and even one was sunk, which is not as good as the results of the army aviation in the Panama campaign." ”

"This is the aftermath of the Panama campaign...... General Arnold was frightened by the high losses of the Army Aviation, and now the average experience of pilots is declining rapidly. Nimitz frowned and said, "Didn't you notice that the carrier-based pilots on the escort aircraft carrier are all rookies?" ”

"Hey, I just hope they can grow up as soon as possible." Halsey asked to himself, "Now that the Australian and New Zealand side has not reported the Japanese fleet, where did they go?" You won't go back to India the same way, will you? ”

"No, the Japanese fleet is also very damaged, these injuries cannot be repaired in India or Singapore, and they can only return to the mainland." "I had a strong premonition that Horikichi would go to Tarawa. ”

"Tarawa? He was going to go a long time ago, why did it take so long? Halsey was puzzled, "Is he still going to take it back?" ”

"It's possible!" Nimitz said uncertainly, "The Marine Corps reports that Tarawa has been largely cleared, and is currently repairing facilities and consolidating defensive positions, and I suspect that the Japanese are dead." ”

"That's great, we can catch him there—if he does, or ......," Halsey suggested uncertainly, looking at the charts, "and we're going to intercept halfway?" ”

Nimitz shook his head: "It's too late to estimate the time, the Australian and New Zealand side has reported that he has disengaged, and it is not known which waterway he went from, the interception is too difficult, it is better to go to the direction of Tarawa and wait for the rabbit." ”

"But now the strength of the Combined Fleet is still stronger than ours, does it really matter?"

"The USS Iowa and the USS West Virginia will come to support soon, and the Pacific Fleet will not be weakened too much." He said to Halsey, "Let's go, let's fight for a battle and then retreat, if the Japanese are convinced that they won't come, we'll go and fight the Marshall Islands, not necessarily occupy, it's okay to destroy the defenses above." ”

Halsey nodded silently: this expedition was finally supported by the USS Langley (Independence-class), and now the core of the fleet is 3 battleships and 3 fleet carriers (USS Essex, USS Saratoga and USS Langley), with an overall usable carrier-based aircraft of more than 213, and 6 escort carriers have been called in to protect the transport and supply formations - which can also be used in front-line operations in case of emergency. Halsey felt that he was slightly outstretched, but that the disparity in strength was acceptable relative to the situation at Midway.

He nodded: "I hope we can fight another Battle of Midway near Gilbert, so that we can get at least half a year of purity, time is too precious for us." ”

On 20 August, the resting U.S. fleet pulled anchor and set sail for the Gilbert Islands to fight a battle with the Combined Fleet.

No one expected that at this time, there were still nearly 40 remnants of the Japanese army under the ground of Tarawa, who had exhausted all their supplies and supplies, and could only live a life of one meal a day since the previous few days, and even this kind of life seemed to have a few better days.

"Sir, more than 40 days have passed, the fleet has not yet come, the radio is broken, and the food is almost ......exhausted," Yamada Shosa reported to Rear Admiral Shibasaki with great difficulty, and now everyone has reached the point of exhaustion, except for Yamada, who was wounded in his right hand, and Shibasaki, who has been ill, the rest of the officers above the rank of rank have either died in battle or died of various complications after being wounded.

"How many more days will the food last?"

"If you eat once a day, there will be about 3-4 days." Yamada explained in a faint voice, it would take him a lot of strength to say a word, "We can't get supplies from the American army anymore, and we're just going to die in vain......"

"Sir, let's fight with them......"

"Sir, the Combined Fleet won't come, let's collectively shatter the jade, it's better than living like this, I also hid 2 grenades."

"Nonsense!" Shibasaki, who was lying on the ground and dying, struggled to reprimand, "The chief has been telegraphing us to insist, and we have to persevere." The battlefield is changing rapidly, and the Combined Fleet has just returned home from Europe, maybe something happened along the way? It's normal to be a few days late! Besides, our radio station is also broken, who knows what's going on outside? ”

"But without food, everyone can only starve to death!"

"Then eat this ......"

Everyone was silent when they heard this, what Shibasaki said was not food at all, he pointed to two corpses of American soldiers, this is still a few days ago to look at the opportunity to touch the lone American soldiers, originally wanted to get a little supply from them, but I didn't expect that the American army was used to the Japanese army differently, these two soldiers except for cigarettes and a little candy, there is nothing to use to eat.

And now Shibasaki seems to have hit the idea on human flesh, and although the Japanese soldiers around him are so hungry that their eyes are green, they can't help but lower their heads when they hear about eating human flesh.

"Scared? Not afraid of death, afraid of cannibalism? If we want to live, we must do everything we can! Shibasaki's gaze now is not like a sick person, but terrifying like a beast in despair, "Since it's the enemy's meat, we can eat it......"

With that, he took the lead, his body so weak that he could not walk at all, so he could only crawl over with his hands and feet, and he cut a piece of meat from the thigh of a poor American soldier with a bayonet, and then carried it to the fire with the tip of his knife, and watched the crackling of the bayonet, and no one dared to look at him. A few minutes later, a pungent and disgusting smell filled the cavern, and several soldiers who were really hungry and dizzy followed suit, and finally all of them ate human flesh to a greater or lesser extent, and there were only dead eyes and bones of American soldiers on the ground...... (To be continued.) )