After three days of shelling, Task Force 1 poured at least 2,500 tons of ammunition on Iwo Jima. The shelling formation also withdrew on the night of the third day and made an emergency replenishment. For three days, the fleet did not get into much trouble, except for a few anti-submarine sirens, and it turned out later that it was a false alarm, and the sonar on the destroyer was too nervous and mistook the whale for a Japanese submarine!

In the early morning of the day of landing, the landing ships carrying the first batch of 2,500 marines gathered in the sea about 15 nautical miles northwest of Iwo Jima. This is the first batch of troops to rush to the beach and land, and the officers and soldiers are in... I got up at 4 o'clock to get ready, and after breakfast at 4 o'clock, I listened to the operational briefings of the various units. At six o'clock, the officers and men of the Marine Corps got on the landing craft one after another.

The shelling formations began at 6:15 a.m. The first round of shelling covered the entire landing site, the shelling lasted fifteen minutes, and at dawn two squadrons of bombers reached the sky over Iwo Jima and dropped a large number of bombs on the perimeter of the landing site, as well as incendiary bombs specifically for the underground fortifications.

While the bombers were leaving, a squadron of bombers again reached the skies over Iwo Jima. This is the "Osprey" group that performs battlefield support missions. Each bomber carried four 100-kilogram bombs, and also hung a drop fuel tank to guarantee patrolling over the island for at least an hour and a half. And the pilot of the bomber can immediately drop the bomb as soon as he receives a request for fire support from the Marine Corps.

At 6:45 a.m., the artillery fire reached **, and the first landing craft that stormed the beach reached the sea less than 500 meters from the beach. The landing craft are all accelerating. Each landing craft had a platoon of Marine officers and men on board. And the first beach-rushing landing was an integrated regiment of the Marine Corps. A total of 55 landing craft were used to transport the officers and men ashore. Only after the beachfront seizure is successful and the beach positions are controlled, the landing ships carrying heavy equipment, ammunition and engineering equipment will rush to the beach. Arguably, in the entire landing campaign, the most dangerous. The most vulnerable is the beginning. Those who can be selected to carry out the beach-rushing landing are the most elite teams in the Marine Corps.

It was also at this time that the artillery of the Japanese hidden fortifications on the coast opened fire. An observation aircraft (in fact, a seaplane carrying observers) carrying out a surveillance mission over the island immediately made a call. The Japanese concealed gun emplacements were reported to the bombers above, as well as to the shelling formations outside the landing site. When the shells fell, the bombers also dropped bombs. More than a dozen artillery positions in the permanent fortifications of the Japanese army were immediately blown into dumb.

The landing craft were still moving fast, and when they were less than 200 meters from the beach, the Japanese machine guns in the hidden fortifications opened fire. The bomber pilots were a little incredulous that they had spent seven days on the island before the Marines landed. Thousands of tons of bombs and shells were dropped, and almost the entire island was plowed with shells and bombs. But those Japanese "rats" have not yet died, and there are still so many firepower points that have not been destroyed.

The bombers swooped down with a roar and dropped incendiary bombs, and they couldn't do much more. The firepower of the shelling fleet has also increased a lot, and even those anti-aircraft guns have joined the ranks of the shelling. The first landing craft ran aground about twenty meters from the beach, and the first batch of Marines rushed out of the landing craft as the ground plank in front of them fell. Rush towards the beach.

The Japanese counterattack was even more violent, and at least half of the officers and men of the first Marine battalion to come ashore collapsed before and after leaving the landing craft, and the sea water was dyed red. In order to prevent accidental shots, the artillery fire of the shelling formations began to extend into the hinterland of the landing field. The second bomber squadron came to the sky over the landing ground at 7 o'clock and immediately began to bomb and suppress the Japanese ground fire points.

The second battalion came ashore without much resistance. With the officers and men of the Marine Corps thrown into battle. Grenades, blasters, flames, and machine guns were all used. The battle also reached a white-hot level at this time, and both sides understood that this time was the most critical and the most tragic.

"Japanese Army, Japanese Army Recoil Strength, Where Are the Bombers, Where Are the Bombers......"

The voice of the bombing guide was heard coming from the loudspeaker. Tan Renhao's eyebrows twitched slightly. He did not command the landing combat operation. At this time, it was up to the fleet to cooperate with the marines. The command is not in his hands.

"The fourth squadron of bombers departed and arrived at the landing site in about forty-five minutes." Lei Shaoqing said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead, "It seems that we have to prepare for the second round of bombing." ”

Tan Renhao glanced at the staff officers in the command cabin, and said to Lei Shaoqing: "Can you arrange two bomber squadrons to support the Marine Corps at the same time?" ”

"It should be possible, but it must improve the ground attendance of aircraft carrier-based units."

"Then mobilize the fighter squadron of the 2nd Carrier Strike Group as well." Vulture's can hang 250 kg and 100 kg ground bombs, which is not very effective, but it is much better than nothing! ”

Lei Shaoqing nodded and immediately made arrangements.

Five minutes later, the dive bomber squadron of the 1st Group, which was supposed to depart twenty minutes later, took off. According to Tan Renhao's order, the fleet will keep two bomber squadrons over the landing site at all times to support the Marine Corps in operations. In fact, this is the first four hours of the landing operation, and as long as the marines have a firm foothold on the beachhead, and the large forces and heavy equipment behind them come ashore, then the pressure on the fleet will be much reduced.

Ahead, fierce fighting continues. At 7:50, after repelling the Japanese counterattack, the marines set up a landing field three kilometers wide and 500 meters deep. With the second regiment ashore, the Marines were rapidly expanding their landing grounds. According to the plan, the Marines will send heavy equipment to the beach at noon.

When the battle reached half past eleven, the Japanese army again organized a counterattack. As a result, apart from the fact that hundreds of corpses were dropped, the Japanese counterattack did not do much at all. The Marines have consolidated the landing grounds, and the landing ships carrying heavy equipment are approaching the beach. The bombers responsible for fire support and suppression had penetrated deep into the rear of the Japanese defense line and began to throw incendiary bombs on a large scale to hit the Japanese underground fortifications.

By twelve o'clock, Tan Renhao finally received the news. The Marines have successfully brought heavy equipment to the beach!

From two o'clock in the afternoon, the fleet resumed normal combat sorties. The pilots are also a little overwhelmed. In the five hours from before dawn to noon, each bomber pilot made at least two sorties, and some places made three sorties, which was comparable to the number of sorties made in the previous day. Prior to that, the fleet had bombed Iwo Jima for several days, with each pilot at least twice a day. Right now. Most pilots have to rest, they are people, not machines, and even if they are machines, they need to rest.

The Marines halted their offensive at 4 p.m., and with the exception of some temporary positions on the perimeter, most of the officers and men returned to the landing ground and began to build fortifications. Tan Renhao also got the day's battle report from a Marine Corps liaison officer at this time. After nearly ten hours of fierce fighting. The Marines set up a landing ground three kilometers wide and one and a half kilometers deep, and sent the first shipments of combat materiel, as well as heavy equipment, to the beach. The Marine Corps lost more than 850 officers and men, of whom 322 were killed. More than 1,000 Japanese soldiers were annihilated, and more than 1,000 Japanese corpses were found. There were also many Japanese soldiers who were killed in underground bunkers, and the number cannot be determined at all.

At five o'clock, Tan Renhao received a telegram of thanks from General Yan Guozhong. Naturally, Yan Guozhong would praise the 1st Task Force in telegram for its strong, timely, and very effective support. At the same time, it was hoped that the fleet would be able to provide artillery support to the landing force at night, and the Japanese would most likely counterattack at night.

"Looks like we have to get the shelling formation to complete the supply as soon as possible!" Tan Renhao smiled bitterly, "Shaoqing, go find out how much ammunition there is in the shelling formation, if the quantity is not enough." Ammo resupply must be completed before six o'clock. Then provide artillery fire support to the Marines at night. We won't be able to leave until the Marines' own artillery is brought in. ”

Lei Shaoqing shrugged his shoulders a little helplessly. They really can't go now.

The two munitions ships responsible for supplying the shelling formations with ammunition were located in the rear of the landing site. After receiving the order, the more than 10 cruisers in the artillery bombardment formation were divided into three groups of four, and in turn they approached the munitions ship, and loaded the ammunition transported by the military ship into the ammunition compartment of the battleship. And the entire replenishment work continued until the second half of the night, so the shelling formations could only provide fire support to the marines with two-thirds of the battleships in the night battle.

The Japanese launched a small counterattack at dusk. It was only a tentative counterattack, and hundreds of Japanese troops rushed through the messy rocks on the island towards the positions of the Tang Marines, but were immediately hit back by a dense barrage of machine-gun bullets and the ensuing artillery shells.

The large-scale counterattack of the Japanese began at half past ten. The first thing the Marines who were hiding in the bunkers they had dug was some "bird language" (a joking name in Japanese) coming from a distance, followed by footsteps, mortar shells falling on them, and finally the sound of Japanese rifles and machine guns firing.

Several flares suddenly appeared in the night sky, which were dropped by seaplanes on a night artillery fire guidance mission. When the Japanese troops who were fighting towards the Marine line were exposed to the light like daylight, the artillery ships on the sea opened fire. The heavy artillery shells of the naval guns were much more powerful than the mortar shells of the Japanese army, and the first shells fell directly into the middle of the Japanese army. Then, machine guns rang out from the Marines' positions. Tracer bullets pierced the night sky and swooped into the darkness.

The first Japanese counterattack during the night was repulsed by heavy artillery shelling that lasted twenty minutes. The Marines were still hiding in their bunkers, and no one was now counting the corpses of the Japanese unless someone wanted to be a corpse as well.

At 11:40, the Japanese attacked again. This time, the Japanese army was much smarter, and did not test the artillery fire in advance, but directly touched the vicinity of the Marine position, and then rushed out with a rifle equipped with a bayonet, shouting. Gunfire rang out again. By the time the flares were lit and the shells were flying, a force of hundreds of Japanese troops had already broken through to the positions of the marines. The officers and men of the Tang Imperial Marines engaged in brutal hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese army, and in such close combat, artillery support did not play any role.

The battle lasted until half past twelve, when the last Japanese troops who broke through the Marine line were wiped out. At least more than 200 Marines were killed. As a result, Yan Guozhong had to send the third regiment to the defensive line as well, and he personally led a guard battalion to guard the beach, protecting important ammunition supplies. In order to boost morale, Yan Guozhong had his tiger head flag raised. This is a military flag handed to him by the then Imperial Prime Minister during World War I, in recognition of the brave performance of the Marine Corps battalion commanded by Yan Guozhong at that time. And this has also become the general flag of General Yan Guozhong.

… At about forty minutes, the Japanese launched a third counterattack, which was still a sneak attack, but at this time the marines had already planted a batch of mines outside the position, and as a result, the Japanese troops who were sneaking up on the mines stepped on the mines, and the explosion was the signal of the battle. The Japanese attack ended in a crushing defeat, and almost all the thousands of Japanese soldiers who participated in the attack were wiped out by heavy artillery fire.

While the Marines were fighting fiercely with the Japanese on the beach, Tan Renhao was sleeping. The aircraft carrier group has been operating in the open sea, and the sounds on the island have not alarmed him at all, and the bomber units will not be dispatched at night, and it is very quiet on the aircraft carrier. Before dawn, he went to replace Lei Shaoqing, who had been on duty for twenty-eight hours in a row, and at the same time guarded the report of the Marine Corps.

After a night of fighting, the Marines eliminated at least 2,500 Japanese troops and suffered more than 400 casualties themselves. The landing ground had been consolidated, and half of the Japanese troops deployed on Iwo Jima had already been lost, and it was no longer possible to organize effective forces to counterattack the landing Tang Imperial Marines.

For the next two days, the fleet continued to support the Marines in their advance into the heart of the island. By the evening of the third day of the landing, the fleet retreated to the open sea, ready to receive new supplies. By this time, the Marines had basically taken control of the flat area of the island, except for Mt. Oriba. It's just that the battle for landing on Iwo Jima has not really begun. Over the next month, more than 30,000 Imperial Marines will engage in a fierce battle against the Japanese on this extinct volcano. By that time, Task Force 1 had already gone on other missions.