The occupation of Santiago was the turning point of the whole campaign, and it was also the turning point of any landing campaign, except for some small islands, the capture of an important port. It can be said that the Imperial Marines have honed their training in the Pacific theater for so many years, and have long summed up the characteristics of landing campaigns, and they have become very skilled and shrewd in landing operations.

The characteristics of the landing campaign are quite obvious, such as far exceeding the enemy's firepower, absolute sea and air supremacy, and the heavy forces invested in the early stage of the campaign. These are different from other ground battles. Among them, seizing an excellent port, so that the follow-up troops can arrive faster, and obtain war materials more conveniently and quickly, is one of the criteria for the success or failure of the entire landing campaign.

From the Ryukyu Islands to the Mariana Islands, to mainland Australia, the Hawaiian Islands, Panama, Jamaica, and now Cuba, any landing campaign has culminated in the capture of ports. After Han Shaofeng successfully seized the beachhead, he did not rush to expand the depth of defense inland, but concentrated all the forces in his hands to attack Santiago, including the troops advancing inland, all of which went to attack Santiago, but they were not the main attacking force.

August 6, the fourth day of the landing operation, was the most critical day of the assault on Santiago. After the fleet entered the port of San Diego, the Marines fought their way southeast of downtown San Diego before dawn along the passage opened by the fleet's artillery fire. After hours of artillery bombardment, the U.S. forces were also rapidly adjusting their defensive lines, especially as the Imperial Marines began to advance into the city, and the U.S. commanders realized that the adversary would have to quickly take San Diego and capture the port, if it fell. Then there is no way to drive the enemy out of Cuba.

Then. The U.S. forces stationed in San Diego had two and a half infantry divisions with a total strength of four to four, including about 5,000 civilian troops serving in the harbor. By this time, all the U.S. forces had been armed, and in addition to continuing to send reinforcements to Bradley in Havana, the U.S. front-line commanders had also transferred some of the troops originally placed north of the city to strengthen the defenses south of the city.

Ground fighting arrived at about half past seven a.m., and the Marine Battle, which was responsible for attacking from the south, advanced to less than five miles from the city, since the port was to the west of the city. So it's a little further away from Minato.

When the U.S. military was adjusting its defensive deployment, Han Shaofeng was also actively deploying troops. It can be said that this time, Han Shaofeng was not only determined to quickly take Santiago, but at least to take the port, but also to strive to restore the port's throughput capacity as soon as possible, so that the second batch of six marine divisions could go ashore directly from the port without going to the landing site with poor conditions. To achieve this. Han Shaofeng has not only invested a large number of combat troops, but is also concentrating non-combat troops, preparing to go to the port as soon as possible to restore the port's throughput capacity.

Then. Han Shaofeng actually had four dissatisfied ground divisions in his hands, and all four of them suffered heavy losses during the landing operation, but each division still had at least nearly seventy percent combat effectiveness. Initially, Han Shaofeng wanted to wait until the second batch of six marine divisions arrived before attacking San Diego, and these four divisions were left by him on the beach position, on the one hand, he continued to expand the defensive depth of the position. On the other hand, it is responsible for assisting the engineers in the construction of temporary docks, and finally can also act as a general reserve for landing, so that it can come in handy in case of unexpected situations. Now that the fleet has helped the Marine Corps tear apart the defense line of the US army, the time is ripe for an early attack on San Diego, and it is the most important thing to invest reserves to expand the results of the battle, so Han Shaofeng immediately mobilized these four marine divisions, of which the two marine divisions with the most serious attrition were all deployed to the defense line of the beachhead to prevent the US troops from taking the opportunity to attack the beachhead. The other two Marine Divisions advanced all along the coastline in the direction of San Diego, serving as reserves for the 29th Division.

It's obvious. Han Shaofeng left much more reserves than the troops that were really put into the attack, which is a bit inconsistent with the common sense of landing operations, because in the case of a backwater battle, the victory or defeat is often determined by the number of troops invested, but at that time, Han Shaofeng could only invest at most one division of troops to attack at the front, and the 29th Division has always sent an infantry regiment at the front to be a tactical reserve.

At that time, the main reason for restricting the offensive input was that the battle line was too narrow, and the passage opened up by the fleet was less than 3 miles, and at this point in the offensive width, a maximum of 2,000 troops were invested, and there were not many troops that really played a role. More importantly, the artillery and aviation of the US army have not been destroyed, and if the density of troops invested is too large, then it will lead to a lot of unnecessary casualties. It is precisely because of this that Han Shaofeng is now powerful. Second, with strong fire support, the key to the offensive is no longer the number of troops, but the quality of the first-line attacking troops. If we can make full use of fire support, we can not only reduce the investment of troops, but also achieve the fastest offensive speed. The 29th Division is one of the most elite marine divisions in Han Shaofeng's hands, plus those artillery guides who accompany the 29th Division to advance and provide target information, the strength of the attacking force is not bad.

At the same time as mobilizing the combat troops, Han Shaofeng also organized all the engineering units that had planned to build a second improvised wharf at the landing site. As long as the port of San Diego can be laid, there is no need to build another improvised pier. The effect is even more pronounced when engineers can go and restore the infrastructure in the port, and the engineering materials and equipment that have already been sent to the beach can be used in the port. Of course, until the Marines took the port, the engineers were able to stay in the rear. Because there were still a large number of war materials hoarded on the beachhead at that time, Han Shaofeng asked these engineers to strengthen the defensive positions first, rather than immediately following the Marines to San Diego.

This decision was quite important, because the supplies needed by the Marines fighting on the front line were basically on the beachhead, and most of the supplies were still loaded and unloaded at the improvised docks that had been built on the fifth day. Therefore, in laying the saint

Previously, the beachhead remained the main way for the Marines to obtain supplies. It is impossible that the officer did not fail to discover this point, so the U.S. military would not have been completely passive in the event of a Marine attack on San Diego. Defeat the Imperial Marines who have not yet captured the San Diego Land by capturing the beachhead. This is the most effective means. Later, if there was no second line of defense built by the engineers at that time, perhaps before Han Shaofeng captured San Diego, the American army would have captured his beachhead, and the result would have been difficult to predict.

On the morning of the 6th, there were only a few skirmishes between the two sides, and no large-scale fighting broke out, mainly because both sides had to adjust their troop deployments, and the 29th Division was also weaving at that time. Besides. The firepower confrontation between the two sides, as well as the aerial confrontation, remained extremely intense. Han Shaofeng suffered a dumb loss at this time, and one of the fire support ships he sent to replace the Third Task Force was hit by long-range artillery fire from the US troops in the morning battle, and had to withdraw from the battle ahead of schedule, and the Third Task Force had already gone to the open sea to replenish ammunition, and it was impossible to continue to come to support the Marine Corps in the battle. Han Shaofeng had to continue to send more fire support ships to suppress the long-range artillery of the American army.

At noon, a fierce confrontation broke out between the two sides, to be precise, both sides attacked almost simultaneously. The time of the attack of the 29th Division was 12:25. And the American troops also broke out of their positions only two minutes later. It was probably the commander of the American army, who thought that the Imperial Marines had been unrelenting for several hours, and were in a hurry to launch a counterattack, with the result that the officers and men of both sides rushed out at the same time. This was also the beginning of the fierce fighting that took place in San Diego in the next three days.

The battle lasted only about an hour and a half, and the 29th Division was engaged in nearly two-thirds of the casualties, most of them wounded. The losses of the American army were even heavier. At least one officer and soldier were killed, and countless more were wounded. Both sides withdrew on their own initiative after losing the ability to continue the offensive. By 315 p.m., the 29th Division had sent another infantry regiment and dispatched more than 20 tanks and amphibious armored fighting vehicles, and the U.S. troops were still organizing defenses when the second round was launched.

The battle on the afternoon of the 6th was fierce, but the Marines were not able to advance much distance. The main thing is that the will of the US military has not been broken, and there are still quite a few reserves. Only the 29th Division attacked in front, and the offensive force would not be too great. In addition, at that time, the U.S. military had already moved most of its artillery to the residential areas of the city, and the fire support ships responsible for suppressing them were a bit of a stinger and did not bombard the residential areas on a large scale, so the U.S. troops were still able to receive a steady stream of artillery support. In particular, those heavy mortars with a range of several kilometers, because they can easily and flexibly transfer positions, often leave before the fire strikes arrive, and the effect of fire suppression is not very good.

The fierce fighting continued until dawn on the seventh day, when Han Shaofeng withdrew the 29th Division from another marine division. At the same time, Han Shaofeng also ordered the fire support ships to focus on suppressing the US army's ground support artillery fire, not to be timid, and to completely crush the US army's support firepower. With Han Shaofeng's orders, more than a dozen fire support ships carried out repeated shelling of residential areas in San Diego for several hours, and by the afternoon of the same day, at least half of the residents' houses were destroyed. Fortunately, most of the city's inhabitants had fled, otherwise civilian casualties would have been enormous. In addition, when dealing with the mobile artillery units of the US army, the fire support ships adopted the method of covering the shelling, that is, quickly covering all places near the US firing points with firepower, so that even if the US artillery moved quickly, it could not be faster than the shells that were smashed. What's more, in order to deal with several heavy mortars of the US army, several rocket artillery ships simply fired all the rockets at once, blowing up an area of tens of thousands of square meters around the exposed US firing points into ruins. A rocket artillery ship can fire hundreds of rockets at a time, and only a few mortars are destroyed, and if the officials who count military expenses know, they will definitely go crazy!

There was some progress in the battle on the 7th, and after more than a day of attrition, by the evening of the 7th, the Marines had basically broken through the American lines and advanced to the edge of the city. U.S. troops have also retreated into the city, relying on the buildings in the city to continue to resist. Han Shaofeng did not let the Marines attack the city, but continued to advance along the coastline towards the port to the west. At that time, the most important thing was to seize the port as soon as possible, and as for the capture of the city of Santiago, it depended. That night, Han Shaofeng threw the last Marine Division into battle. It was on this night that the U.S. military began to counterattack Han Shaofeng's landing site.

At that time, the two assault forces of the US army were divided into two directions to attack the landing site. First, a light armored unit of the US army from Guantánamo was killed from the northeast. The force left Guantánamo in three days and nights, marching at night for fear of being bombed, hiding in the forests or mountains during the day, and spending four nights on the road. The other was an American infantry unit from Tiguavos. The unit set out on the morning of the 4th, but was subjected to heavy bombardment, and then switched to a night march and concealment during the day, and spent three full days on the road.

The significance of Han Shaofeng leaving two marine divisions to guard the beachhead was reflected, and the engineering corps also repaired the second line of defense at that time. But the problem is still more serious. The first is that there was no way for the aviation to make a sortie that night. Secondly, most of the fire support ships were on the San Diego side to support the attack. And finally, and a serious problem that existed in the Reich Marine Corps at that time, and indeed in all the ground forces of the Reich, the lack of effective individual anti-tank weapons! When facing the armored forces of the American army, the officers and men of the Marine Corps can only rely on flesh and blood to fight the enemy.

By about 4 a.m., the eastern line of defense of the beachhead was the first to collapse, and the Marines had to retreat to the second line of defense that had just been built. At this time, there were still two and a half hours before dawn, and the US troops were still continuing to advance. Although all the officers and men of the Marine Corps knew that the bombers would arrive after dawn to help them repel the enemy attack, would they be able to hold out until dawn?

。 Book Fun Corner_