On the sixth day of the Battle of Tarawa, the total number of US officers and soldiers on the island had exceeded 3,000, and they not only controlled the beachhead, trestle bridge, airfield and other key locations, but also continued to increase their troops. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Shibasaki learned about the enemy's movements in the area around the pier through the front report, and decided that although he wanted to maintain a living force, he could not turn a blind eye to the enemy's continued increase in troops and replenishment of supplies, and after hesitating, he dispatched three squadrons to launch a limited counterattack through underground secret communication trenches.

The Japanese began to shoot artillery fire at the trestle and reef, and the American troops on the causeway, who were replenishing supplies, were caught off guard and fell into the sea one after another, and the rest of the American troops immediately suppressed them. Before the U.S. troops could finish dealing with the assault here, another shower of shells came from behind the side, several landing craft that were unloading hurriedly pulled anchors to evade, and some people tore their throats and shouted, "Don't fight, your own people, your own people ......", the artillery fire came from a stranded landing craft, and the marines thought that some comrades-in-arms could not distinguish the situation and fired indiscriminately, they did not know that this was actually a small group of Japanese troops who used the cover of night to sneak into the broken ship with weapons and keep shooting at the American troops.

After seeing the grenadiers and iron fists flying out, the marines realized that the ship had been controlled by the enemy, and they turned their guns to suppress it, and the destroyer's fire also opened fire fiercely, and finally completely annihilated the infiltrated Japanese army, but just now after such a hesitation, half a platoon of soldiers plus 2 landing craft were destroyed, and the trestle was also partially destroyed.

On the head of the Red First Beach, more than 400 marines gathered on the positions that they had finally captured, used Sherman tanks and 81-millimeter mortars to open the way, and under the cover of destroyer gunfire, they attacked southward by foot, gradually occupying a depth of 150 meters in front, and finally occupied the green beach -- this was the goal of the second day's advance that Holland had set for the Third Marine Division, and it was now 100 hours late.

Not only did the ammunition brought by the landing run out long ago, but even the ammunition carried by the fallen soldiers was collected by his comrades-in-arms, and Devin hid in the command bunker -- the bunker where Connery once stayed, and now it has been temporarily upgraded to the division headquarters.

But what made Devin angry was that in addition to the urgently needed ammunition, flamethrower fuel, radio parts, fresh water and rations, the troops risked their lives to deliver supplies, as well as a large number of tents, wine and other materials that could not be used temporarily, which not only occupied valuable transportation capacity, but also pressed all the urgently needed materials underneath.

The innovative American army quickly came up with an excellent offensive plan, taking advantage of the thick skin and rough skin of the bulldozer converted from the Sherman tank, and burying the Japanese army's very low gun holes and possible holes in the enemy's army with sand and rubble. More bulldozers are toiling on the runway, hoping to repair the runway as soon as possible and secure an open space so that troops can be resupplied by airdrop or airlift.

Due to the rapid depletion of ammunition for the main guns of battleships, the stock of high-explosive shells on each ship was generally less than 120 rounds, and the officers and men who had the wit to use armor-piercing shells against the Japanese bunkers were not good or bad -- if they could hit directly, the effect of armor-piercing shells was far stronger than that of high-explosive shells, and if they could not hit directly, they could basically only hear a sound. But Holland, who was red-eyed, couldn't care about so much, the armor-piercing bullet still had a deterrent and shock wave, which was stronger than doing nothing.

Devin tried to summon planes from aircraft carriers to provide close support, but because most of the US pilots were novices, the ground-air communication was not smooth, and the position and distance distribution of the US military advance could not even be fully understood by his own people, many marines were accidentally injured. The stupid Devin had no choice but to give up, relying solely on the ground troops to attack, they would be blocked by the Japanese army every time they pushed further in depth, with heavy casualties, and the casualty rate of the new 7 battalions had even exceeded that of a few days ago, taking the unit of Captain Curt as an example, although he still had nearly 200 people under his command, there were only 34 soldiers in Company B of the old unit at the beginning, and the rest were all battalions fighting the remaining troops and could not recover the downsizing of the formation, and now his number has become the Curt battalion-level battle group.

In the afternoon of the same day, the last infantry units of the 3rd Marine Division continued to climb the beachhead, and the artillery units also landed two battalions, and the US troops used 105mm howitzers to destroy the Japanese bunkers and fortifications one after another with direct aiming at extremely close range, and they were also scarred by the Japanese machine guns and mortars that appeared out of nowhere.

The U.S. troops on the beachheads advanced step by step, and more and more tanks came ashore. They staggered over craters, tree stumps, and battlefields, breaking through Japanese strongholds one by one, and the whole attack rhythm began to return to the familiar track of the American troops, and by 5 p.m., the excited Devin reported to Holland: "We are winning, we have fully occupied the positions on the north bank, we are advancing to the south bank, and it is expected that we will achieve all our objectives in one day."

Nimitz and others finally breathed a sigh of relief, the battle has been fought until now, everyone has been completely numb to the numbers, at the beginning of the casualties of 2,000 people shouted and screamed, and then when they had to pay thousands of casualties every day, the courage of the American army was stimulated, by the 6th day, the total casualties of the American army had exceeded 6,000 people, although four regiments and divisional engineer battalions were used in one breath, but still felt that the front-line troops were not enough, the first batch of landing troops after a short rest of 2 days and then readjusted the establishment and put into the attack, Now it is equivalent to the main force of all the infantry of the 3rd Marine Division pressing on the island.

After continuous fierce fighting, the Japanese army did not do much better, Shibasaki had lost more than half of its manpower, and a large number of wounded soldiers either died directly on the battlefield with the American army, or struggled to die in the bunker due to lack of medical care. The structure of his two brigades was completely disrupted, and some squadrons were completely wiped out. While constantly harassing the American troops, his troops were divided and surrounded by the enemy in many isolated strongholds, some of whom could not even drink a sip of water, and if they did not want to surrender, all that awaited them was death. However, the telegram he sent to the Combined Fleet was still very optimistic: "The enemy is attacking desperately, suffering heavy casualties, our army is bravely resisting, fighting for every inch of land, at present the troops still have half of the troops, ammunition and food can still be supported, and the officers and men of our army will wait for the arrival of the Combined Fleet in the spirit of fighting to the death!" ”

Different from history, this time, because of the reinforcement of the Combined Fleet, although the Japanese officers and men were in a difficult situation, they did not dare to charge to the death and commit suicide out of despair, on the contrary, they were full of confidence in the final victory, and the most heard sentence was that the Combined Fleet would avenge us! According to Shibasaki's arrangement, after the battle on the seventh day, all the surface positions on the north bank were abandoned, and the whole army went underground, and the positions on the south bank resisted for another day, waiting for an opportunity to go underground as well.

Beginning in the early morning of the 7th, the U.S. forces launched a large-scale offensive, with the main goal of clearing all enemy forces on the north bank and storming the south bank at the same time. The resistance of the Japanese army was as stubborn as ever. Every bunker, every trench, every machine gun nest, and even every coconut tree became a difficult target. In the heavily fortified area on the south bank, the Japanese were determined to give up, but their resistance was unprecedentedly stubborn. The U.S. troops advanced a few dozen meters in a few hours, and finally used a large number of armor-piercing shells to attack continuously for two hours regardless of the cost, and finally swept the area flat.

After counting the number of effective combat personnel yesterday, Dai Wen was shocked by the huge number of casualties, and finally woke up from the frenzied atmosphere; in view of the fact that victory in seizing the whole island was in sight, he no longer asked the officers and men of all units to push forward relentlessly, but instead adopted the tactics of relying mainly on technology and equipment and sacrificing as few personnel as possible to make concerted efforts to attack the fortified positions. At the junction of the defensive positions on the north and south banks, the Japanese army had a huge bunker group, equipped with one 8-inch naval gun, several 75mm guns and more than a dozen machine guns, surrounded by thick steel plates and coconut wood. The U.S. forces have never been able to get close, and the battleship can't hit this dead end because of the angle.

Dai Wen personally used the radio to direct the aircraft carrier aircraft to drop bombs, and finally with the assistance of the newly landed naval and air liaison officers, he used 24 SBD drops to drop 500 kilograms of aerial bombs to collapse this bunker group, and then the surrounding ambushed flamethrowers swarmed up, dozens of pillars of fire aimed at this wreckage and attacked fiercely, completely destroying the remnants of the Japanese army with burning and scorching heat.

Of course, in addition to the soldiers who fought bravely, there were also those who suffered from "battle phobia", disturbed by the cruel reality of the battlefield and the attacks of their dead and wounded comrades, who were disturbed by their nerves and nervous breakdowns, and who not only shouted hysterically, but often acted irrationally. A recruit from Massachusetts went crazy at night, picked up his Thomson submachine gun and ran out of bullets at his comrades, and finally gave himself a melon grenade, which almost broke the morale of the entire battalion.

Almost at the same time, the main forces of the combined fleet entered the 400-kilometer air defense circle of Perth, but no one detected the arrival of the fleet.

At 4 o'clock in the afternoon Australian time, Tsukahara 243 gave the order to attack, and nearly 175 attack aircraft groups lined up in two echelons and began to attack. At 5:15 a.m., a terrible siren sounded over Perth, and at this time, more than 60 kilometers before the arrival of the Japanese attack planes, it was completely too late.

At 4:57, Mitsuo Fuchida led a group of attack planes to break into the sky over Perth City, and Comet Gai and Tianshan Gai dropped a large number of bombs and incendiary bombs, and the city was full of panicked Australian people, and there were very few Australian planes and anti-aircraft guns that could fire shells when they took off to meet the enemy. At 5:18, a raging fire burned throughout the city, and the firelight reflected half of the sky, completely obscuring the sunset.

While the confidential staff officer carefully handed over the urgent telegram from Australia, Holland was informing them that the attack was progressing in parallel with the construction of the airfield, and that Tarawa Airport was expected to be operational in two days.

The mood of the crowd had just improved, and the news had stunned them again.

It is clear to all: the combined fleet is coming...... (To be continued.) )