Nimitz weighed it again and again, and finally decided to fight with the Combined Fleet, because the Japanese attack on Australia and New Zealand was too serious to overwhelm the impact of the Battle of Tarawa, and if the Pacific Fleet could not avoid the battle, then there would be no need to fight in the future. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

He understood Admiral King's hint the other way around: assuming that the Battle of the Azores was won, the Pacific Fleet would not matter whether it won or lost; Assuming that the Azores battle is lost, then the Pacific Fleet will have to come forward to fight a battle -- if it does not fight, the Azores will lose again, and I am afraid that the Pacific Fleet will be completely reduced to an existential fleet in the future.

As for the possibility that Australia and New Zealand will fall if they lose the naval battle, he does not believe it, because the hundreds of thousands of Australian and New Zealand officers and soldiers and the US Army have nothing to do with the Japanese Navy, so can't they deal with the Japanese Army?

Although the success or failure of the Azores did not constitute a constraint on him, he was concerned about the relevant situation, and took advantage of the opportunity to rest and recuperate at Pearl Harbor, and without waiting for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Admiral King to speak, he took the initiative to sum up the experience of the Battle of Tarawa and some of the officers who had participated in the actual battle (including Holland and Devin) and others to send back to China, so that they could teach the lessons and lessons to the country, and all parties praised this.

On the second day of his flight to Washington, Holland described the experience and lessons of the Battle of Tarawa to senior British and American officers preparing for Operation Overlord:

"Amphibious landings must be carefully planned in advance: they must conduct detailed and meticulous reconnaissance and strive to survey the enemy's firing points; Naval artillery firing and air strikes should be sufficient, accurate, and well-coordinated, and should not be disjointed. It is necessary to equip amphibious vehicles and amphibious landing tanks of sufficient quantity and good quality; It is necessary to draw up the tide table as accurately as possible, and to dispatch and arrange the troops as much as possible according to the time of the ebb and flow tides, and the distance at which a soldier lands is one yard away from the beachhead increases the likelihood of his death.

It is necessary to have a complete set of equipment and tactics against semi-underground pillboxes; Logistics is very important, ammunition and supplies will be consumed much faster than expected, and communications and communication equipment are critical; The strength of the troops must be sufficient, and when the battlefield conditions are available, there must be a 3:1 or even 5:1 superiority in troops; The commander's orders must be decisive and adaptable, and must be carried out in case of mistakes - for example, if there is a mistake in the place during the landing, it is much wiser for two troops to attack at the same time than to land in another direction; Soldiers need to be brave and highly trained...... All of the above has a direct impact on the outcome of the battle. ”

Holland finally concluded: "The best way is to pick a place for combat readiness training, to completely simulate the situation of the enemy troops that we have detected, the worst scenario we can conceive, and the terrain on the spot, and then let the troops experience it in actual combat, especially to educate our officers and men to learn how to fight without air superiority, in the dark of night, and in the case of suppressed firepower......

The people below whispered, and what Holland said at the end was almost the usual three-no-play, and everyone couldn't help but beat a little in their hearts......

"Excuse me, how do you think the airborne troops should be used rationally in the battle to seize the island? It seems that the Germans used Crete very poorly. "It was the commander of the 82nd Infantry Division, Brigadier General Matthew Bunker Ridgway who stood up to ask questions.

"Frankly, I don't think the airborne division should be present in Operation Overlord." Holland pondered for a moment and said slowly, "It's not that I underestimate the combat effectiveness of the 82nd Infantry Division, generally speaking, the Airborne Division is more effective than ordinary army units, but the Azores are very small, and as long as the wind blows a little stronger, it may fall into the sea during landing." As for the landing, I think it's very difficult for a German airfield to be controlled by us. ”

"My 3rd Panzer Division was identified as one of the first landing forces, and the key question was how to get that damn heavy equipment up there?" The second to ask questions was the commander of the 4th Panzer Corps, Major General Walton Walker.

"The method used by the Germans is an amphibious tank, most of them are No. 4, and I heard that there are also Tiger types, but I haven't seen them." "Tanks and armoured vehicles get off the LST landing craft and then climb over the shallows and back ashore, which is very dangerous because it's a lot slower than usual...... As for artillery, especially howitzers of medium and large caliber classes, I don't think you can count on them in 3 days, at most you can use some mortars. ”

"And who will assist in the suppression of enemy fire?"

"Rely on the long-range artillery fire of battleships and the proximity suppression of beach-rushing warships, and then rely on the artillery cover of small warships such as destroyers and frigates, and perhaps if you are lucky, you can also get aircraft cover."

"What does it mean to be lucky?"

"When the two sides are staggered, the fire from the air will not help, the slightest deviation will fall on their own people, this time we went to hit Tarawa, and there were at least 2 companies of soldiers who died under the bombs and shells of their own people." Holland showed a very sad expression, "Bombers, especially dive bomber pilots, are inexperienced, and close support will be terrible......"

The participants shook their heads, they were all veterans of the army for many years, and although the long-range fire of the battleship guns was powerful, it was difficult to use them on a large scale as soon as they landed; The 5-6 inch tubes on destroyers and frigates were not as ferocious as the enemy's firepower - I heard that the Germans had built a large number of permanent fire points on the island that had been converted from naval guns.

Now that everyone has finally understood the true meaning of what Holland just said about "fighting a war with suppressed firepower", Major General Alain Aldair, who led the LinkedIn Janissary Panzer Division, frowned, as the only remaining commander of the British Empire's armored forces with sufficient combat effectiveness, he was under a lot of pressure, although Prime Minister Churchill was full of expectations and encouragement for him, but Marshal Brooke secretly talked to him before departure, asking him to pay attention to preserving his strength and not burying all the essence on the Azores.

Holland told a lot of the difficulties, and the men listened, but most remained cautiously optimistic about the prospects of the battle - wouldn't Tarawa still be taken no matter how difficult it was? The Azores is such an important place that it is widely believed that even if the cost is greater, it will be a victory!

While they were commenting on the Battle of Tarawa, there were those who insisted that the Battle of Tarawa was not over.

"Sir, all kinds of supplies have reached the warning line." Cao Lu Yi said with a little concern, "75% of the fuel carried by each oil tanker has been used, and the surplus fuel on the merchant ships and oil tankers intercepted in the middle has also used this ratio, and at present, the internal fuel of each ship is basically full, according to the current consumption rate, the destroyer will run out of fuel in about 5 days, and the light cruiser will run out of refueling in about 7 days, although they can all pump fuel from heavy cruisers and battleships, but there is still uncertainty."

In terms of ammunition, the remaining ammunition of the guns of the capital ships was about one-third to one-half, the cumulative loss of 127 planes, and the loss of 39 pilots or the missing of 39 people, after the selection of spare planes and reserve pilots, the fleet was at a full strength rate of 94 percent. ”

Horikichi nodded: "Where are Tsunoda's troops?" ”

"It is expected to meet us within 10 days, and according to your request, he will bring two tankers from Borneo with a total of 15,000 tons of heavy oil, which will probably barely support us until we return home." "But there has been no response from the Tarawa side for nearly 20 days, so is the fleet going to hold on?" Or just send destroyers to see? ”

"There are still reserves of oil at the Truk anchorage, so don't worry. We promised them that we would definitely go, and besides, we were late. Horikichi sighed, "The enemy army has a powerful character, and the fleet is so attacking Australia and New Zealand, he just won't take the bait." ”

Nobutake Kondo laughed: "The enemy was frightened by your sweeping posture and Tsukahara-kun's suspicious tactics. ”

The ANZ Air Force has repeatedly reported that the Japanese fleet has 5 to 6 aircraft carriers, which is very consistent with the situation that Nimitz had before the war, and in addition the ground air planes have been attacked by a large number of carrier-based aircraft, so he has no doubt that he is wrong; in fact, the aircraft carriers of the combined fleet that can really fight a war are only two large and one small aircraft carrier, and the other three are all supplementary aircraft carriers and auxiliary aircraft carriers, and the planes placed on them are all true, but they cannot take off and land for operations, but they are only supplemental aircraft carriers -- this is also the secret of the Japanese air force to maintain a high sortie rate and intact rate.

In order to increase his chances of victory and avoid the strength of the Combined Fleet, Nimitz decided to wait for the arrival of new reinforcements.

"Go north, go to Tarawa and see if there are any survivors left......"

On 19 August, the main force of the Combined Fleet crossed the waters between Tonga and the Cook Islands and headed north, and on the same day, the rest was completed, and Nimitz, who was supported by the mainland, led the fleet to restart.

In this cold winter (it is winter in the southern hemisphere), Australia and New Zealand have really tasted the bitter fruits: the air forces of the two countries, including the US Army and Air Force, have lost more than 700 planes, except for those veterans and a very few lucky ones who insist on flying back the damaged planes, the rest of the pilots either froze to death in the sea or became prisoners of the Japanese army.

Except for a few larger capital ships that escaped with the Pacific Fleet's participation in the Battle of Tarawa, the rest of the navies in ports were almost wiped out in shelter or escort missions, with a total loss of nearly 150,000 tons. In addition to warships, the merchant fleet also suffered heavy losses, the entire Auss-New Zealand route was cut off by the Combined Fleet, and the Allies lost (sunk or captured) more than 300,000 tons of merchant ships at sea and in ports.

What's worse is the destruction of the coastal strip of Australia and New Zealand by Japanese bombing and shelling, with an estimated total loss of more than $5 billion, and the two countries were forced to relocate and evacuate more than 2 million people. To make matters worse, New Zealand, where major cities such as Wellington, Auckland, and Christchurch are all located along the coast and have been wiped out by the Combined Fleet. Even though the two governments evacuated and relocated the population in a timely manner, tens of thousands of people were lost outside the army, accompanied by production halts and chaos. (To be continued.) )