Early the next morning, in the early morning of October 4, the US Army Air Corps, which had been waiting all night, hurriedly took off.

Throughout the night, they received dozens of telegrams from front-line army units at all levels requesting support, but they could only watch their comrades-in-arms being harassed by the Japanese army on the beachhead.

The shelling of the Japanese battleships at night lasted for several hours, which was also a kind of torment for the US Army aviation.

Now that it was dawn, the US Army Aviation naturally hurriedly took off to drive out the Japanese naval battleships that were making waves in the Torres Strait.

Naturally, Yamamoto Isoroku would not let the battleship Yamato take risks, so before dawn, the Japanese naval battleship decisively left the Torres Strait.

U.S. Army planes armed with torpedoes and bombs patrolled the entire strait and found no location of the Japanese fleet.

A few minutes after they sent back the news, the U.S. landing fleet rushed into the Torres Strait, carrying the remaining soldiers of the U.S. Army's 1st Army.

Compared with the first day's transportation, the landing force transported by the US military early this morning was mainly armored force, although Patton's 1st Panzer Army did not join the landing operation, this does not mean that the United States does not have armored forces here.

In order to cover the landing force, the United States planted a full 50 M3LEE tanks in the sequence of participating in the landing force.

Because these tanks could not land in the first place, they could only be used as support troops for the next day, going to the landing site.

And while the American landing force continued to expand the landing ground on the plain, the Japanese counterattack was also launched.

The three divisions stationed on the island of New Guinea were numbered the 6th Division, the 29th Division, and the 35th Division.

Among the three divisions, the 6th Division is the most elite of all the troops commanded by Yamashita Fengfumi, and it is also one of the main divisions of Japan's standing army.

The remaining 29th Division and the 35th Division were obviously a number of troops, and these two units were stationed on the island of New Guinea before, and most of them were just in response to the situation on the Japanese side.

Although the 35th Division was established in Tokyo, this division was indeed incomparable to the 6th Division, the core and main force of the Japanese army.

What's more, this time, the 6th Division was also strengthened by the tank troops: the Japanese tank Shoi Takachi Tanaka, commanded the most elite tank units of the Japanese army.

After strengthening, his tank unit has more than 100 tanks, which is almost the strength of a tank wing.

Originally, the commanders of the Japanese tank units were of higher rank, but in New Guinea it became the opposite.

Because they did not originally want to hoard so many tanks in New Guinea, the Japanese army only arranged a tank Shaozuo as the commander.

However, as the scale of this battle continued to expand, the number of chariots commanded by this Tanaka Shaoza also increased.

Today, the Japanese army invested a full 40 tanks on the frontal battlefield, which can be said to be the largest battle in which the Japanese army used tanks on the same day since Japan fought for hegemony in the Pacific.

Type 97 tanks lined up on the battlefield and carried out a large-scale breakthrough operation against the positions of the American landing force.

Yamashita's tactics were simple, he intended to emulate the tactics used by Germany in Europe, breaking through the two flanks in the center and breaking down the defensive positions of the American troops with their backs to the beach.

As soon as the battle began, Major General Thompson received a call for help from the front-line troops: the Japanese tank units were unfolding, and the troops were being suppressed very badly.

Major General Thompson, who got the news, did not hesitate at all, and ordered the American M3LEE tanks that had just landed to be transported to the Japanese counterattack site for counter-assault operations.

A tank battle broke out on the island of New Guinea, which began, with the US military investing about 30 tanks and the Japanese army investing about 40 Type 97 tanks.

The two sides opened fire on each other in the plains, and soon the American tanks gained the upper hand. The Japanese tank units were defeated and retreated, and the Americans quickly stabilized their defensive positions.

Here I have to talk about the M3LEE tank that the US military put into combat, although the performance of this tank is not very good, but it has been tempered in the European theater.

Through the news from the UK and the Soviet Union, American arms manufacturers carried out a large-scale modification of the M3LEE tank.

First of all, it was equipped with protective armor, so that the tank could more or less resist the attack of some German weapons.

Eventually, the thickness of the frontal armor of this modified version of the M3LEE tank was fixed to a thickness sufficient to resist the German rapid-fire guns of 50 mm caliber.

Therefore, the pitiful firepower of the Japanese tanks, at normal engagement distances, it is difficult to shake the armor of American tanks. Because of this, the Japanese tanks counterattacked, and they were thwarted by the American troops after just an hour of fighting.

This situation is not quite the same as the tank battle of the Soviet army in the battle of Nomenkan. Because at that time, the tanks of both sides were still on a horizontal line.

Because the T-26 tank, which was the main force of the Soviet tank force at that time, was very light and thin, the Japanese army did not question the firepower of its tank.

And now, as soon as the American tank appeared, the Japanese army realized that their weapons were really outdated, and the Germans were not wasting their firepower by equipping the tank with a 75 mm caliber long-barreled gun!

The heavy armor of the American tank made the Japanese tank, which was only equipped with a 57 mm caliber gun, seem powerless, after all, the artillery of the Japanese tank is not a long-barreled and high-penetration model.

Yamashita heard of the failure of his first counterattack, and realized that if he did not fight back with all his might, he would probably not be able to drive the American landing force out to sea.

Therefore, he quickly revised his counterattack plan, replaced the 29th Division, which was not very capable of attacking, and took the 6th Division, the most elite of the Japanese army.

Subsequently, in order to target the "heavy tanks" invested by the United States, Yamashita ordered all the tanks under Tanaka Shosa to join the battle and carry out the most powerful attack.

Tanaka Shaosa, who had received the order, was eager to try it, because he really wanted to see if the Leopard tank, a powerful weapon from Germany, was capable of fighting the tanks of the Americans on the opposite side.

"Let the Leopard get started! Cut off the formation of American tanks from the center! After giving the order to attack, Tanaka slipped into the turret of the second Leopard tank to the right and fastened the hatch over his head.

With the roar of the engines, the five Leopard tanks deployed by the Japanese army on the island of New Guinea began to move forward, and the slender 75 mm caliber long-barreled guns pointed majestically in the direction of the American landing force in the distance.