"Boom!" Inside the telescope, a cannonball exploded on a wooded ridge in the distance, sending up a black column of smoke.

Lowering the binoculars, Brigadier General Horace Harding, the artillery commander of the 1st American Army, nodded with satisfaction.

The U.S. military has been fighting for almost half a month in the battle to attack New Guinea, and they are still only slowly expanding their gains on the plains, unable to cross a single step over the northern ridge.

The Japanese had built a solid defensive line in the mountains, costing American troops dearly for every step they took.

In half a month of fighting, the United States lost as many as 30,000 troops, but it did not even see the light of day to recapture New Guinea.

Yamashita Bongfumi's tactics changed, and originally he was just thinking about counterattacking, trying to quickly drive the United States into the sea to end the battle.

Later, due to the limitations of logistics and supply, as well as the lack of his own troops, Yamashita lost confidence in garrisoning the entire island.

But with the strength of the northern mountain defense line, Yamashita seems to have found a rhythm of defense again, and it began to give the United States a headache.

"Keep shelling in that direction! The ground offensive forces ran into the Japanese line there, there were quite a few fortresses! Brigadier General Harding commanded.

He was an experienced artillery commander and led the most powerful artillery unit in the world – more powerful than the Germans.

The artillery units of the First Army of the United States are equipped with 155 mm howitzers, which are extremely powerful and have amazing suppressive power, and are a very powerful weapon of war.

In the face of this artillery threat, the Japanese had to abandon their defensive positions little by little, retreat to the mountain defense line, and use anti-oblique fortifications to resist strongly.

"Yes! Checkmate! When an officer heard the order, he immediately saluted, turned and walked out.

"How's the Japanese counterattack? I don't seem to have heard from them to fight back today! As he gave the order, Harding asked the staff officer beside him.

The other party hurriedly replied: "General! It is true that the Japanese artillery did not return fire today, and it seems that there is indeed a problem with their ammunition supply! ”

"Excellent! As long as something goes wrong with them, it's fine! This proves that we are not far from victory! Harding laughed and spoke.

The U.S. military's offensive operations in New Guinea eventually turned into a war of attrition against internal forces.

Both sides are waiting for the other to make the first mistake, or to show their flaws in the attrition now.

Obviously, the Japanese army has exposed its own flaws, and its flaw is the lack of logistics and supply - in just ten days of fighting, the Japanese army's ammunition supply began to be unable to keep up with the speed of consumption.

"Look! Their artillery returns will only get less and less, because their logistical supplies can't keep up! Harding keenly spotted the problem and gave his own speculation.

In fact, he had already guessed that the Japanese army's heavy artillery ammunition reserves were indeed somewhat insufficient, and the Japanese army had to limit the number and intensity of artillery return fire to save its own ammunition reserves.

The destroyer transport, nicknamed the Tokyo Express, did not ease the supply pressure on the New Guinea islands - but as Yamashita's troops continued to be depleted, the logistical supply pressure was somewhat improved.

……

In Yamashita Fengfumi's headquarters, the Japanese general nicknamed the Malay Tiger was already extremely pale.

With his command knife in both hands, he sat in front of a huge map of New Guinea and looked thoughtfully at the strategic points on it.

The Americans were storming his northern mountain defenses, and his defenses were already crumbling in the face of American attacks.

Although he still had some tanks in his hands and some valuable reserves, he knew that it was impossible to defeat the American army by counterattacking.

What he can do now is to cram the precious reserves in his hands into the defensive line little by little, and maintain the current state as much as possible.

"Your Excellency, General! The 300 officers and men who had been rotated from the defensive line had arrived at the temporary port to help unload the supplies delivered by the destroyers. An officer walked into Yamashita Fengfumi's headquarters and opened his mouth to report.

"Yo Xi!" Yamashita Fengwen nodded, answered softly, and then opened his mouth and ordered: "Count all the supplies, start today, and centralize the rationing!" ”

A large part of the previous supplies were immediately distributed to the various units, and the 29th, 35th, and 6th divisions were distributed by themselves.

However, Yamashita knew that in this situation, he could only maintain the supply of most of the army as much as possible, and ensure that the combat effectiveness of more troops would not be lost as much as possible.

The 29th Division, which was holding out to the east, was facing the least pressure, so they should be correspondingly less reinforced...... On the contrary, the 6th Division had the heaviest defensive burden and should have received a correspondingly more supplement.

"Your Excellency, General! Tanaka Shaosa, please fight! Hope to lead the chariot troops to the death and recapture the lost position! Another officer walked in at this time and said to Yamashita Fengfumi.

When the Japanese counterattacked on the plains, they used almost all of their tank units. Most of these tank units were lost in the plain counterattack.

However, there were still 2 Leopard tanks, as well as a dozen Type 97 combat vehicles, which retreated with the Japanese army to the mountains.

Some of the tanks were used as fixed batteries, left in positions to serve as defensive fulcrums, while others retreated to the rear and never had any decent tasks.

Yamashita had no intention of initiating a counterattack, so these tanks remained idle and became an unscrupulous "existential force".

As the commander of this army, Tanaka Shaoza was anxious to see that the battle situation was becoming more and more unfavorable, and the idea of breaking jade in his heart became stronger and stronger.

This was the third time he had asked Yamashita to fight, and he was willing to use a suicidal counterattack to help the Japanese recapture part of their defensive positions.

Although it is not possible to invest a large number of tanks in the mountains, as long as one or two tanks are invested, it can form a local advantage and achieve some results.

Yamashita Fengfumi, who was a little irritable in his heart, decided not to let Tanaka Shaoza be a shrunken turtle this time.

He looked at a small salient that was intended to be placed for the U.S. army, and gave a stern order: "Let Tanaka Shozo come to my headquarters!" I'm going to give him a tough task! ”

"Let's hope that the only remaining German tanks can surprise us......" Yamashita muttered softly as he watched the herald leave.

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