The Southwest Pacific Theater is indeed in trouble, and only the First Task Force can solve this trouble, and Yan Guozhong will also demand that the First Task Force return to the Southwest Pacific Theater. This is not a bad thing that Hao Dongjue imagined, nor is it as ideal as Tan Renhao thought.

When the 1st Task Force moved to the Marshall Islands, the 6th Squadron under the command of Yan Guozhong began to storm Lae. Like the general's character, after besieging Lae, the 6th Sentai did not immediately sweep the U.S. troops in the surrounding area, but directly attacked Lae, using the fire support of the HNA and the 3rd Task Force to let the 6th Sentai step on the corpse of the American troops and kill Lae.

In addition to the two 6th Divisions invested by Yan Guozhong (the other division was used as a tactical reserve), HNA also deployed the Third Task Force on the three airfields occupied by the 6th Brigade and a newly built field airfield, and every night it would enter Huon Bay and greet the American fortifications with shells. Even the officers and men of the Navy and the Third Task Force attacked Lae with 80,000 troops, while the U.S. troops defended Lae with only more than 15ooo troops.

The U.S. military worked hard in Lae for more than 20 years (it was only after World War I that the U.S. military established a military base here), built a large number of fortifications, hollowed out several nearby hills, built a large number of underground warehouses, a complete tunnel system, and a large number of hidden fire points. It can be said that Lae is a military fortress, although there are only more than 15ooo American GIs here, but they have caused a lot of trouble to more than 20,000 officers and soldiers of the 6th Squadron of the Tang Empire.

The battle for Lae began on 10 August and lasted for 14 days, from 10 August to 24. On average, the distance advanced by the 6 teams is only 2oo meters per day! In order to take the city, the bombers of the Navy dropped a total of enough ammunition for the 3rd Task Force to fill the bomb bays of all the warships in the fleet three times, and the artillery of the 6th Squadron also consumed more than 20,000 shells. Combined, these munitions amount to at least 50,000 tons. However, the US military's defense area in Lae is only about 15 square kilometers. That is, the Don army dropped more than three thousand tons of bombs per square kilometer! Even if you stack up these ammo, it's enough to cover the whole of Lae!

The biggest trouble for the 6 Sentai of the Tang Empire was the underground fortifications of the American army. Before, the 6th team of the Tang Empire had already experienced the troubles caused by the underground fortifications of the US army on the Mariana Islands. This time, the 6th team of the Tang Empire really understood that the Yankees' ability to dig underground tunnels was by no means under the Japanese devils. At that time, in order to defend Iwo Jima, the Japanese hollowed out almost the entire Origami Mountain. And this time, in order to defend Lae, the U.S. military is afraid that there are hundreds of thousands of square meters of soil dug out of the construction of underground fortifications! These underground fortifications are reinforced with steel bars, which are more difficult to deal with than those built by the Japanese army, and even heavy artillery shells and heavy bombs are difficult to destroy them.

The 6th Sentai used a lot of methods, such as the blasting method against the Japanese, and in the end the real habit was to bury. There was no way to completely blast the fortifications of the American army. And when blasting. When the sappers were under great threat, they buried the fortifications with cement or earth. That's easier and less troublesome. To this end, the 6th Squad even temporarily modified dozens of tanks, installed bulldozers in front of these tanks, and directly used the tanks to deal with the underground fortifications of the American army. It worked. The U.S. military's light weapons could not pose a threat to tanks at all, and if artillery was used, the point of fire would be immediately exposed, and it would be subjected to retaliatory shelling or bombardment. And the mines planted by the U.S. military did not play a big role, at least those bulldozers could not distinguish between rocks and mines, and after the mines were detonated, they would blow up the bulldozers at most, but not the tanks.

The stubborn resistance of the U.S. military was another reason for the slow offensive of the 6th Sentai of the Tang Empire. It is necessary to remove the firing points of the US military one by one. Blocking the exit of its underground tunnel, it is already very good that Team 6 can advance 2oo meters a day. And the result of the stubborn resistance of the U.S. army, in addition to killing more than 3ooo officers and soldiers of the 6th Squadron of the Tang Empire, also made them go to the grave themselves. By the 20th, the 6th Squadron of the Tang Empire had stopped accepting prisoners, and the tragic casualties had left the officers and men of the 6th Squadron with nowhere to fire, who would want to take prisoners? As a result, when Lae was defeated by the 6th Sentai team, only more than 8ooo of the more than 15ooo US officers and soldiers who defended Lae survived. Others were either smashed into hornet's nests, blown to pieces by shells, or buried alive. More than 20 years after the end of the war, an American civil society group came to Lae to exhum the bodies of the fallen American officers and soldiers, and as a result, in the past few decades, a total of more than 5ooo American officers and soldiers were exhumed, and almost all of these people were buried alive in the underground fortifications they dug themselves, and the underground defense system of the American army became the grave of the American army itself.

The bloody battle in Lae also made Yan Guozhong start to think about the problem from another direction. It was not the US 6 Sentai that defended Lae, but the units of the U.S. 6 Army. Although during the Battle of the Mariana Islands, units of the U.S. 6th Army also participated in the battle, but its scale was not large, and the main opponent was the U.S. Navy 6th Sentai Force. The Battle of Lae was the first large-scale battle between the 6th Sentai of the Tang Empire and the 6th Army of the United States. The result of the battle was very clear: The quality of the officers and men of the US Sixth Army may not be as good as that of the Navy Sixth Combat Team, but they will never be below the Sixth Naval Combat Force. In addition, the U.S. 6th Army and Ground Infantry were better at positional defensive warfare, which created a lot of trouble for the 6th Combat Team of the Tang Empire.

By the end of September, the engineers of the 6th Squad had built a headquarters for Yan Guozhong on the ruins of Lae, and then began to build barracks, repair ports, expand airports, build warehouses, and so on, in preparation for the next attack on New Britain.

By September 3, the day the dragon flag was raised at Majuro Atoll, Yan Guozhong's 6th team was ready to go out, and the next day, the attack on New Britain Island began.

New Britain Island is the largest island to the east of New Guinea Island, straddling the Bismarck Islands and the Solomon Islands, and the U.S. military has three bases on the island, because of the complex terrain of the island (mainly a large number of rivers, and covered with tropical rainforests, it is difficult to build roads), so it is not the focus of the U.S. military's defense. Then. In fact, the US troops on the island are mainly ground crews of the aviation units, mainly providing support for the aviation units. But for the same reason, it is also very difficult for the 6th team to quickly occupy the island of New Britain, the poor transportation base, the relatively scattered US military bases, and the complex geographical environment also limit the offensive efficiency of the 6th team.

Before that, there were staff advisors. Abandon the 6 New Britain Island, occupy Rabaul in the northeast corner of the island at most, and then use it as a base to cut off the sea passage between the Bismarck Islands and the Solomon Islands, and sweep the Solomon Islands southward, abandoning the offensive operations of American forces in the rest of the island.

Judging from the situation at the time, this suggestion is more valuable. The other two field airfields of the US military on the island are not large, and as long as the Tang Empire gains sea and air supremacy, these two airfields are actually of no value, and those US troops will have to retreat sooner or later. There is simply no need to move forces to attack. But Yan Guozhong did not accept this suggestion. According to him, since the island of New Britain was to be occupied, the whole of New Britain should be occupied. Not part of the island, after all, the U.S. troops who remained on the island were a threat, and it would have to leave him with more defensive forces in the future.

Perhaps, Yan Guozhong's decision is also reasonable. He also took the advice of the staff officer, changed the 6 o'clock to the vicinity of Rabaul, went ashore directly from the north-eastern corner of the island, occupied Rabaul and the nearby airfield, and then used it as a base. A small group of 6 teams was dispatched to sweep two other US strongholds.

The U.S. troops deployed in Rabaul were about 25oo defenders. It is the only port on New Britain that can accommodate thousand-ton ships, and the only U.S. military airfield on the island. The difficulty of the Deng 6 battle was not great, Yan Guozhong only invested two regiments of the 6th team, and it took three days, that is, by September 7, Rabaul fell under the control of the imperial 6 team, most of the 25oo American troops were annihilated, and only a few hundred fled into the jungle.

That's when the problem arises. Because at that time, HNA fighters were deployed near Lae. It could not threaten the U.S. airfields in the Solomon Islands, where U.S. bombers could easily bomb Rabaul. Since the 6th Squadron boarded the 6th on 4 September, the US bombers have not stopped bombing operations. HNA dispatched fighters and bombers to support the attack of the 6th Squadron to the best of its ability, and provided anti-aircraft cover for the 6th Squadron, but this cover was not uninterrupted.

In addition, the 3rd Task Force did not join the ranks of supporting the 6th Squadron in combat, and the main concern was those tactical bombers of the US military.

After the occupation of Rabaul, the US bombardment not only did not weaken, but intensified a lot. MacArthur, who commanded the U.S. military in Brisbane, also knew very well that after the fall of Lae, the purpose of the Don Army's capture of Rabaul was to prepare for the sweep of the Solomon Islands. Now that the Marshall Islands have fallen, the Gilbert Islands will certainly be attacked soon, and if the Solomon Islands are captured by the Tang Army again, then the door to the northeast corner of Australia will be open to the Tang Army. Holding the Solomon Islands will delay the offensive of the Don Army and wait for the Navy to regain its combat effectiveness. In order to hold the Solomon Islands, it is necessary to delay the preparations for the Tang army's offensive, and the best way is to concentrate on bombing Rabaul, so that the Tang army cannot use Rabaul as a springboard to go south, at least not in the short term.

In order to achieve this goal, MacArthur not only mobilized hundreds of American tactical bombers on the Solomon Islands, but also reinforced more than 3oo fighters to the airfield here, and long-range bombers deployed in northeastern Australia also began to bomb Lae (these bombers were intercepted by Imperial naval fighters and suffered extremely heavy losses). MacArthur made a desperate bet on the defense of the Solomon Islands, and it was only natural that Rabaul was heavily bombed by American troops.

Yan Guozhong also quickly realized this trouble, if the HNA could not deploy fighters to New Britain Island, it would not be able to suppress the US airfield in the Solomon Islands, and dispatch heavy bombers, because without the escort of fighter jets, the losses would be extremely heavy (the runways of the airports around Lae are all within 15oo meters, and it is difficult to deploy heavy bombers). The only solution was to establish a field airfield on the island of New Britain as soon as possible. However, the key target of the US bombers was the field airfield built by the engineers of the 6th Combat Unit.

By the 12th, the engineering troops of the 6th Squadron had failed many times, and the operation of advancing to the other two US strongholds had also encountered great difficulties, and it was difficult to occupy the two US field airfields in the short term (in fact, the US forces had already destroyed the support facilities of these two field airfields at that time, and even if the 6th Squadron went to occupy them, HNA would not be able to deploy fighters here). In order to repair the US airfield in Rabaul, hundreds of engineers of the 6th squad fell in the bombing of the US army, and a large number of engineering equipment and construction materials were destroyed.

After careful consideration, Yan Guozhong had no choice but to make a request for the First Task Force to immediately rush back to the Southwest Pacific Theater to bomb the US airfield on the Solomon Islands, paralyze the US air force, and provide cover for the 6th Squadron to consolidate Rabaul as a bridgehead. It is true that this task can only be completed by Task Force 1, and no one will expect Task Force 3, which can only fight with artillery, to be a death squad and fight out the American airfields on the islands!

"Looks like we're working part-time again!"

After receiving these news, Tan Renhao and Hao Dongjue first breathed a sigh of relief, at least the attack of Team 6 was going well, but the two also had this strange idea at the same time.

"No matter how much it is, first gather the intelligence and determine the number, distance, and importance of the targets to be bombed." Tan Renhao didn't want to delay time, "Come up with a bombing plan as soon as possible, it seems that General Yan Guozhong doesn't want to wait any longer, and the brothers of the 6th team are waiting for us to help them out of this evil breath!" ”

Hao Dongjue shrugged his shoulders, what else could he say?

"By the way, don't forget to count the ammunition of the fleet, and if necessary, replenish the ammunition first!"

"Alright, I got it!"

Tan Renhao looked at the figure of his partner walking out, and he also smiled bitterly, this kind of short-term work for the 6th team is really thankless!