The Japanese continued to fire, as if they were going to pull the trigger and shoot all the bullets, and the Americans could only fire with Garand rifles and limited machine-gun fire. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 Fortunately, in order to maximize concealment and defense, Shibasaki built Betio's bunker very low, not only with low shooting holes, but also with a narrow shooting range, and if there were relatively tall protruding obstacles along the way, Japanese bullets would not be able to hit the American troops.

The 3rd Marine Division was not a first-time soldier in battle, having fought bloody battles with the Japanese in Bougainville, Munda and Lae for many islands, so its morale was still maintained, and the surviving soldiers did not collapse after hitting the beach, but cleverly clinged to the beach, looking for stones, wood, and other things that could be used for shelter in place, and digging improvised fortifications to avoid artillery fire. Then they attacked from the flanks by slowing down, blowing up the bunker with melon grenades or explosives packs - but it was inefficient.

At this time, the US military structure was in disarray, and except for the troops who climbed the beachhead and crawled on the beach, most of the stragglers of the rest of the units were blocked under a low sand embankment, and they could not advance or retreat. It was the height of summer, and the sun was scorching the sand, and their faces were about to be burned on the sand, and their teeth were cracked, but no one dared to raise their heads and relax—all their companions who dared to do so were killed by the machine-gun bullets fired frantically from a few inches above their heads.

Captain Curt's B Company was in a good position, overcoming the coral obstacle and the blockade of Japanese small arms, skillfully using recoilless guns to eliminate the two Japanese fortifications from the side, not only advancing more than 100 meters as a whole, but also winning a large area of depressions and craters to avoid - all of which were masterpieces of 406mm naval guns. But then they were subjected to a fierce side shot, and had to temporarily shrink inside and remain motionless, and everyone squatted in the pit close together, and did not dare to make a sound. At this time, a grenade or cannonball will be smashed down, and the litter will have to be reimbursed. Luckily, I didn't receive such enthusiastic "care".

At first, this was the focus of the destroyer firepower, many Japanese fortifications were destroyed, the landing was very smooth, and the speed of advance was also fast, but just after a multi-company infantry advanced in depth, the Japanese suddenly turned out several hidden fire points from the depression behind them, and also began to shoot on the side of the landing force, all the amphibious vehicles were destroyed by the iron fist at the first time, and the infantry were knocked down one by one by the bullets whistling from behind them and on the flanks before they could figure out what was going on. In the end, all the more than 200 people who landed on this beachhead were killed, and not a single one remained.

The Iron Fist is now the most handy offensive weapon of the Japanese army, much more powerful than the grenade, whether it is a dense crowd or an armored vehicle, there is nothing that an iron fist cannot deal with. This kind of ultra-portable, simple launch, and good concealment of individual weapons is very popular with the Japanese army, especially the iron fist with anti-infantry scattered bombs, the effect is better than that of mortars, and it is a large piece when it is exploded. Because of their long-term experience in the use of grenadiers, many veterans are very accurate in fighting, often directly hitting targets or groups of people from 60 meters away, making the US troops miserable, and the effect is much stronger than that of the German army.

Although the U.S. military had a large number of recoilless guns and bazooka rocket launchers, which surpassed the Iron Fist No. 1 in power and accuracy, the problem was that it was too cumbersome, and the Japanese Iron Fist flew over without waiting for a few fights in a short encounter.

From 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., in just a few hours, more than half of the first three Marine battalions to land were killed or wounded, and when viewed from the North Carolina, which was the closest and best observed, the beachhead and reef shrewd were covered with the corpses of American Marines, which looked shocking. However, the powerful main gun could not be used yet, so it could only be vented with the 127mm high-level dual-purpose gun, and even then it still could not suppress the firepower of the Japanese troops in the bunker.

"More tanks and troops must be sent up!" Dai Wen, who was watching the battle in the rear, was red-eyed, and shouted hoarsely, "I have to send flamethrowers up, the Japanese army is a group of marmots, I will scorch and scorch them all!" ”

The use of flamethrowers against fortifications is the experience of the previous battles for the islands: not only is it powerful, but it is also unaffected by the low bunkers, narrow firing holes, and many bends of the enemy's bunkers, and as long as the fire can be sprayed through the openings, the defenders will definitely die, and there is almost no way to slip through the net.

"Calm down." Holland frowned, "With such a fierce artillery fire, how can the flamethrower with a heavy load go up?" ”

"Why don't you try the Spitfire?" A staff officer suggested, "We brought several. ”

Holland's eyes lit up, and he nodded, "Okay, I agree to give this a try." ”

"You can't just tanks, you have to have infantry." Dai Wen said anxiously, "Let the 7th Regiment go to reinforce the 3rd Regiment, right?" The enemy did not seem to be as few as expected, with such heavy fire, it was estimated that there were at least 2 brigades. Holland agrees, believing that the idea that the Japanese army is only 1,000 to 2,000 is too optimistic.

At 16:34, the two supporting battalions of American troops continued to land in the fourth and fifth waves, and because the amphibious vehicles had lost most of them in the previous engagement, most of them were forced to switch to landing craft.

The distance from the shore of the landing craft depends entirely on the tide, but Gilbert's tide is still an irregular small tide, rising and falling several times a day, which is called "unpredictable tide". At high tide, the water level rises by 1.3 meters and stops for 3 hours, then drops 0.3 meters in the next 3 hours and stops for another 2 and a half hours. By 18:15, the water level had dropped by another 0.6 metres, and two hours later it had risen by another 1.1 metres...... It is a "high unpredictable tide" that allows the landing craft to climb over the reef if they are lucky enough to run into it. There is also a "low and unpredictable lake", where the water level rises by less than a metre. The timing of the cessation and resurgence of the tide is uncertain, and the landing craft cannot climb onto the reef. There is a half chance of two tides.

Unfortunately, the first wave fell at around 4 o'clock, and the reef water was much shallower than at noon, and the landing craft could barely get by, but there was still a long distance from the beachhead, and the soldiers were forced to wade through the water. Beneath your feet are knife-sharp coral reefs, and in front of you are shells fired from time to time by the Japanese army. Unlucky American soldiers were massacred in the process, and blood stained the sea. And the North Carolina, which was close in front of her, was afraid of hurting her own people, so she could only watch this tragic situation happen again and again, and she was at a loss.

In the fifth attack wave, in addition to the conventional Sherman tanks, there were 5 Spitfire tanks that landed together, but the landing craft they carried were hit in advance, and a few of them barely drove onto the reef, opened the front hatch and released the tanks to rush to the beach, and a few of them ran aground directly at the reef, and the engineers couldn't get the tanks out with all their might, so they could only hope that the destroyers could come and tow them away, but now the destroyers were busy suppressing the firepower on the island and couldn't spare their hands at all.

In the end, only 7 ordinary Shermans and 3 Spitfire tanks managed to rush ashore, and the beachhead was full of lying American soldiers and wounded soldiers, and the tanks had to pay attention to the enemy anti-tank fire in front of them, and on the other hand, they had to be careful not to run over their own people, and the advance was very slow. As a result, one was stuck in a crater on the reef and could not move, one was blown up by a mine, and the other was destroyed by a Japanese shell. However, the Spitfire was lucky, and all of them managed to move forward.

After the tank was emboldened, the marines who were crawling on the ground to avoid machine gun fire immediately had the backbone, and followed the tank unhurriedly, while directing the enemy fire points in front of the tank, while trying to use rifle and machine gun fire to cover the Japanese infantry who rushed out next to them and tried to destroy the tank with an iron fist.

A Spitfire tank rumbled towards the bunker, indifferent to the machine-gun bullets that hit the front armor, and when it approached nearly 80 meters, there was a "whoosh" sound, and a fire dragon dozens of meters long erupted and swept directly towards the bunker, followed by a heart-rending scream. A moment later, the bunker, which had been spewing fire just now, suddenly fell silent, and a disgusting smell of meat filled the air.

A Spitfire tank crashed into an anti-tank shell fired from the side after destroying a bunker, and after a loud "boom", the detonated fuel tank exploded earth-shatteringly, and the bones of the tank crew, including the nearby infantrymen, were all gone.

At 17:50, relying on the fierce attack and attraction of tanks, the marines who were blocked under the sand bank were finally liberated, and the Japanese bunkers that suppressed them were either destroyed or the personnel inside were wiped out by Spitfire tanks, and it was no longer possible to pose a threat. But for this distance of less than 200 meters, the US military paid the price of destroying 6 tanks and all 3 Spitfire tanks, and more than 140 casualties were also involved.

The assault on the nearly 1,000-meter-long Pence Pier was the key to Betio's landing, and it was one of the few highlights of the U.S. offensive on this day.

This trestle controlled the two beachheads, the Red 2 and Red 3, and served both to unload equipment for the landing force and to serve as a shelter for the attacking troops. The U.S. military attached great importance to it and sent a special assault platoon to capture it. On the one hand, carrier-based aircraft were used to strafe and suppress the beachhead, and on the other hand, four destroyers were used to intercept firepower and build a tight barrage.

The assault platoon fought all the way to the end of the bridge, occupied the entire trestle and stormed the island, and then beckoned about 1 company of American troops to come and hold on. By the time they took full control of the trestle, it was getting late, and the tide had dropped, making it impossible to deliver any more supplies that day.

Holland and Devin were overjoyed at this, taking it as a great achievement in one day, and resolved to bring in more men and equipment the next morning at high tide.

The total number of Marine Corps and Navy casualties exceeded 2,000, the number of casualties was as high as more than 1,400, and nearly 200 tanks, landing vehicles, and landing craft were destroyed -- this figure was originally the price paid by the Fifth Amphibious Army for the entire Tarawa campaign.

They achieved their goal ahead of schedule on day one! (To be continued.) )