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At dawn, the hazy moonlight appears and disappears in the clouds. On the sea, the main ship group of the Combined Fleet formed a 60-nautical-mile long column and headed southeast, majestic and majestic, with the bearing of the lord of the Pacific Ocean in every gesture of raising his hands and feet.

"Sir, the defenders of Tarawa have sent a battle report, today they used a special attack team to severely damage the North Carolina, but the enemy forced the beach successfully, and the entire warship became a fixed fire point."

"Scrapped a battleship on the first day? The cherry blossoms are amazing. Nobutake Kondo said happily, "It's still the North Carolina class, and there are only 2 battleships of this class in the U.S. Navy, right?" ”

"There are two of them, and one of the USS Washington has also been knocked out by us."

"Rushing to land on the beach, the Americans learned from us quite quickly......

Only Horiyoshi's face was calm, and he said in a slightly regretful tone: "In this way, the enemy's firepower has increased again, and I am afraid that the defenders will be able to hold out for a shorter time." ”

"This ......" Everyone was silent, they also remembered the time when Mutsu forcibly rammed and ran aground with the help of naval artillery fire to kill the Panamanian defenders, although the loss was heart-wrenching, but the effect was really refreshing, and now it was the turn of the Americans to practice this.

"The defenders fought well, Rear Admiral Shibasaki deliberately put the enemy on the beachhead, forming a scene of melee between the enemy and us, and seesawing each other, to avoid being continuously attacked by large-caliber naval guns, and today caused at least more than 1,500 casualties of the enemy in one day, and our casualties were close to 500."

"How many people are there on the island?"

"Counting North Korean laborers, less than 5,000."

"That's still going to last 9 days?" A staff officer subconsciously answered, and then felt that it was wrong, according to this casualty ratio, the defenders would probably not be able to withstand it for nine days -- and the speed of collapse would only get faster and faster.

"Call them back, keep them alive as much as possible, and stick to the long-term fight." Horikichi sighed, "It will take a month for reinforcements to arrive......"

Grass Deer carried out the order with a little head.

No one felt that the commander was deceiving the defenders, and in terms of the overall battle situation, it was a very clever strategy to let the marines drag the enemy and the main fleet to cut off the supply lines, and it was much better than rushing over to meet them in a hurry, and no one felt that the sacrifice of the marines was not worth it -- when the combined fleet was fighting in Europe, the officers and men of the army defending the island were broken one after another, and this was all for the sake of the overall situation.

If there is no such overall view, then the navy will not need to ask small warships to cover the capital ships and soldiers to cover the officers, anyway, everyone is a life, and no one owes anyone.

What they didn't know was that Nimitz was stunned when he received the report of his own casualties, and on the first day, strictly speaking, the first half day, the US army not only lost a 40,000-ton battleship, but also took 2,000 casualties.

The day dawned earlier in Tarawa than in the Indian Ocean, and in the twilight, the stranded North Carolina guns were the first to start firing, and after a night of fighting, the damage management team finally blocked the huge hole in the battleship's hull and discharged nearly 4,000 tons of seawater with water pumps, but because of the low tide, the warship not only could not withdraw, but the grounding situation became more and more serious, and the outer bottom of the ship seemed to have a big problem. All in all, the ship was destined to stay here.

The only good news was that the rest of the ship's facilities were functioning normally, and most of the high-level dual-purpose guns and the remaining main guns were still in use, and Nimitz asked for more reliable and accurate fire suppression to cover more infantry landings and advances.

In accordance with this order and Holland's request, the battleship formation continued to shell the Japanese fire points that the infantry had determined and indicated the directions, only to see the hulls of the ships shake under the recoil, spewing out orange and scarlet smoke, pouring 406mm and 127mm caliber shells onto Betio Island, and once again blowing up puffs of smoke and dust.

At first, the shelling seemed to be scattered and sporadical, and in an instant the roar was one after another, and when you look down at the vast sky, you will find a series of red-glowing avenues paving from the guns to the island. Smoke clouds hung over Betio, flashes of cannonball explosions rose one after another, and pillars of sand erupted one after another, like columns of water.

Suddenly, a shell hit the Japanese ammunition depot buried in the ground, and the huge kinetic energy penetrated the coconut wood, steel plates and concrete covering it, causing an earth-shattering explosion, and a mushroom cloud at least 300 meters high was formed - a quarter of the ammunition of the defenders was set off in an instant.

At 9 a.m., Colonel Connelly arrived at the jetty. At present, most of the officers of the landing force are either killed or wounded, and the situation is extremely chaotic. The regiment commander himself could only command the whole regiment from the front, and the two battalions of the 7th regiment that were reinforced later were also assigned to him to coordinate the operation, and he stood waist-deep in the water, using a radio station on the back of a sergeant, and did his best to communicate and liaise.

Connery was not an unknown person, he was a veteran Marine Corps officer, highly trained and experienced, originally a colonel and staff officer of the 5th Amphibious Corps Command, personally involved in the development of all plans for the Battle of Tarawa, and was relatively familiar with the terrain and enemy situation on the island. Because he knew the whole situation, Holland gave him the command of the 3rd Marine Regiment, which was tasked with the first attack.

Unfortunately, according to the plan, he came forward to command after the troops took control of the beachhead, so the landing batch was ranked in the fourth and fifth batches, but he did not expect that there would be chaos after the first three batches went up, and the heavy damage and beach grabbing of the North Carolina aggravated this confusion, so he commanded in advance, but the battle situation was too fierce at the beginning of the landing, and the TBX short-range walkie-talkies and TBY medium-range radios equipped by the US army generally failed after being flooded, and almost all the signal troops were killed or wounded. His communication with the beachhead was intermittent, and his communication with the battleship groups in the rear was not at all. In the end, the battalion commanders were in direct contact with the fleet, and because of the confusion and contradiction of the signals of mutual notification, the battleship group did not dare to fire with the main guns at all during the melee, and could only rely on the 127mm fire of the destroyers to suppress it - and this could not help the Japanese army.

When he landed on the island the next day, Connery not only had a four-man communications group, but also made direct contact with the battleship gun group, and under the on-site coordination of front-line artillery observers, the American artillery fire became more and more accurate, and the Japanese fire points and fortifications were constantly destroyed.

After a morning of fierce fighting, more than 1,400 American troops went ashore, and there were more than 30 tanks. The trestle bridge is also controlled by the US military, which can facilitate the landing craft to transport supplies and supplies, and then send the wounded officers and soldiers down. The situation seems to be getting better little by little.

The Marines, who had regained their confidence, plucked up their courage and began to attack the Japanese fire points one by one in companies and platoons. With the cooperation of tanks, they successively captured a number of bunkers and bomb shelters. But the Japanese had dense bunkers along the coast. Supporting each other, the US military has to pay a high price for every place it takes. In just one morning, 4 battleships fired more than 2,000 rounds of 406mm naval guns, and countless 127mm shells.

Colonel Connelly set up his headquarters in a large bomb shelter. The cave is divided into many labyrinthine chambers, and there are still Japanese soldiers in the cave, and the shouting can be heard from time to time. He was so bold that he didn't have time to send people to wipe out all the enemy troops, so he had to set up half a platoon of guards at his door. Since the battalion commander who had seized the Red Second Beachhead had been killed, and the few soldiers were at a loss, Connery thought that the B Company of the loud voice Curt had fought best on the first day, so he made him act as the battalion commander in the line of fire, and under his command, B Company formed a reinforced company and advanced more than 200 meters deep into the island over the second seawall - the fastest advancing company. Even so, the casualties of B Company reached more than 40 people, and with the damage of the first day, it was quickly reverted from a reinforced company to a standard company.

The U.S. troops advanced slightly faster on the second day than on the first day, and the casualties were smaller, and the landing ground had been expanded to three times that of the first day, and the soldiers who landed in the follow-up no longer had to be suppressed on the beachhead like the previous five groups of comrades. After paying the price of nearly 3,000 casualties and more than 300 tanks, tracked vehicles, and landing ships, the 3rd Marine Division finally gained a foothold on the three beachheads scheduled to land, but it was still very early for them to completely wipe out the Japanese troops here.

Several high-ranking generals frowned after reading the battle report, and did not dare to take it lightly.

Holland's voice was already hoarse: "Our army has suffered great losses, the 3rd Regiment of the first attack has lost nearly 40% of its soldiers and half of its officers, and its combat effectiveness has weakened to the point where it is difficult to maintain; The 7th Regiment reinforced 2 battalions on the first day, and the losses of these 2 battalions amounted to a quarter today, and in the evening I sent the remaining 1 battalion of the 3rd Regiment and the 3rd Battalion of the 7th Regiment up, but even then the strength felt insufficient; The division commander, Colonel Devon, was ready to take command tomorrow, and he asked me to send the 13th Regiment and the engineer battalion directly under the division as well......"

"Tomorrow with these forces can we complete the task of occupying the whole island?"

Holland shook his head: "I'd love to say yes, but the truth is that I can't. ”

Halsey sighed and handed him the fleet bulletin: "More than half of the battleship's main gun shells have been consumed, and the 127mm shells have been replenished twice, and we can hold out for up to 2 days with such high-intensity firepower as today, if you can't take it on the 4th day, you can't expect such a fierce naval artillery attack to support you from the 5th day." ”

Nimitz added: "This is still because the North Carolina and Indiana each have a problem with one naval gun, and the ammunition is saved for other main guns, otherwise it would not have been able to maintain even four days." ”

"I'm going to end all the fighting in five days." Now Holland did not dare to say anything more about clearing the enemy army in three days.

Nimitz didn't force him, but said patiently, "Give yourself some leeway, I'll give you 7 days, but the casualties must be reduced, I don't want to see the 3rd Marine Division lose its combat effectiveness after this battle." ”

"Yes, sir!" Holland glanced at Nimitz gratefully, and his mood relaxed slightly. (To be continued.) )