The support of the fleet played a key role on the morning of the landing day, and accurate, timely, and rapid fire support opened the way for the marines to land. It can be said that in the first hours of landing, more than seventy percent of the American troops were killed not by the infantry of the Marine Corps, but by the shells on the supporting battleships and the bombs dropped by the bombers. This is also the only tactic for landing operations, and powerful firepower strikes are the main guarantee for a smooth landing.

At noon, the 1st and 2nd task forces withdrew from the battlefield on their own initiative, and according to the plan, only the 3rd Fleet and the new 3rd Task Force were responsible for providing fire support to the landing force that afternoon. Tan Renhao and Hao Dongjue would take over the Third Fleet the next morning, giving Huang Xiaotian and them a chance to rest and resupply. This is also the new tactic arranged by Tan Renhao, that is, in addition to the Third Task Force, the five aircraft carrier task forces will take turns to avoid carrying out fire support tasks at the same time, and they will be able to avoid being attacked by the US Fifth Fleet at the same time.

"We don't need to resupply ammunition yet, the fleet has enough ammunition left for tomorrow's bombing."

"Then let the officers and men seize the time to rest, and the reconnaissance mission will be arranged for the seaplane." Tan Renhao took Zhu Rongzhe into the command cabin, "In addition, contact Hao Dongjue, the task of our two fleets tomorrow is very heavy, and the bombing plan must be taken out at night." ”

"General Tan, should we arrange a reconnaissance mission tomorrow?"

"Why?" Tan Renhao turned around, when performing fire support missions, the fleet does not need to undertake reconnaissance missions, that is the matter of the Third Fleet.

"I don't think Spruance will sit idly by, now that our Marines have come ashore and are expanding their beachheads, in just a few days, as long as the Marines are on their feet, it will be impossible for the U.S. Army to hold Kauai, if Spruance wants to do it. These two days are the best time, and for us, these are the most dangerous two days. ”

"I know, at least we've spent half the day safely." Tan Renhao laughed, "Don't worry, Spruance will definitely come, although we don't know when he will come, but we can be sure of one thing." Spruance will definitely come, and now that our two fleets are in turn, as long as Spruance does not know exactly where our two fleets are, he will not take it lightly. ”

"You mean—"

"What I mean is that as long as Huang Xiaotian and the others hide well tomorrow and are not discovered by the US military reconnaissance planes, that will be our greatest security guarantee, understand?"

Zhu Rongzhe thought for a moment, then nodded.

"Alright, let's contact Task Force 2. We take turns taking breaks. The combat missions have been heavy these days, and with Spruance in the future, we can't afford to be exhausted.

When Task Force 1 and Task Force 2 withdraw from the battlefield. The other four fleets are still fighting on the front lines. In the afternoon of the same day, the bombers of the Third Fleet flew four waves, each consisting of more than 300 bombers and more than 100 fighters. Because there is no longer a need to undertake escort missions, the fighters of the Third Fleet, in addition to ensuring the air defense of their own fleet, have the main task of dropping bombs on the island and bringing into play the bombing performance of the "peregrine falcon."

Tan Renhao went to bed in the afternoon, and when he got up in the evening to have dinner, he received a battle report from Huang Xiao, Tian and Han Shaofeng.

During the daytime battle, the Third Fleet lost more than 30 fighters, most of which were ground by ground anti-aircraft artillery fire, and six of the "Peregrine Falcons" were shot down by anti-aircraft machine guns during the battle. This surprised Tan Renhao a little, there were very few records of fighter jets being shot down by anti-aircraft machine guns during bombing missions. This situation has already been summed up by the staff officers in the fleet, and the situation will certainly be fed back to the aircraft factory, which will make corrections to some problems on the fighters.

The landing fleet ground fire support fleet lost 48 fighters in the daytime battle, because the quality of the carrier-based aviation on the escort aircraft carriers was much worse than that on the fleet carriers, and almost all of them were novices, so it was normal for the losses to be a little larger. More than 20 of them were shot down during an air battle with US fighters. In addition, the Marines had taken control of the beachhead during the day, and the two Marine Divisions and a Marine Regiment that had come ashore before dark had already established defensive lines. The improvised pier was set up in the afternoon. Sappers are rushing to build two more wharves, and a large number of war supplies and heavy equipment are being sent to the beach. Han Shaofeng has brought five artillery battalions of the Marine Corps ashore, and at night, these artillery will be the main support units of the Marine Corps infantry.

"The U.S. military will definitely launch a full-scale counterattack at night, should we send bombers......"

"No, let Han Shaofeng worry about this, anyway, he didn't ask us to carry out night fire support." Tan Renhao yawned, feeling that he hadn't slept enough. "The Third Fleet has been withdrawn, right?"

"The area of operation is being withdrawn, the third task force has also withdrawn, and now only the artillery formation of the fourth task force is still active on the front line."

"That's good, Huang Xiaotian knows what they should do tomorrow, we just need to do our own thing." Tan Renhao walked into the officer's cafeteria, "Let the pilots sleep well at night, and arrange the mission after receiving the bombing plan sent by Hao Dongjue, and tomorrow it's time for us to show our hands." ”

Zhu Rongzhe also followed, and he didn't think there was anything to be proud of in the ground bombing.

"You can go and rest for a few hours later, I will be on duty at night, and in the second half of the night, I will send someone to call you." Tan Renhao looked at his partner, "Don't hold on, this is still a low-intensity battle, there is no need to let your energy be overdrawn, I have a hunch, in a few days, we will fight with the Fifth Fleet, and then we must all have strong energy, otherwise, don't try to defeat Spruance." ”

"I know, then I'll go to sleep after I've eaten."

Hao Dongjue lined up a seaplane in the early hours of the morning to send the bombing schedule for the second day, which was a bombing list summarized according to the battle of the first day and the battle report of the Third Fleet. The two task forces will conduct joint operations and attack separately to ensure that the combat effectiveness of all carrier-based fighters can be brought into full play as much as possible.

Tan Renhao also received a new battle report from Han Shaofeng in the early hours of the morning, and the US troops carried out several tentative counterattacks in the first half of the night, but they were all beaten back by the marines. However, the American army's will to fight was not defeated, and Han Shaofeng expected that the American army would launch a full-scale counterattack in the second half of the night, so he asked the fleet's aviation support to arrive at dawn. The Marines will try their best to withstand the attacks of the US troops at night, and whether they can withstand the counterattack after dawn depends on whether the supporting units can quickly provide fire support to the Marines. It was precisely because of Han Shaofeng's telegram that Tan Renhao decided to let the first batch of bombers take off at half past five, and these bombers could reach the sky over the island before dawn, and as long as they could see the target clearly, they could drop bombs and provide the most timely fire support for the marines.

On May 6, the fighting intensified. The U.S. forces used the night to concentrate a large number of troops deployed in the hinterland of the island to the front line, and launched a large-scale counterattack in the early hours of the morning. The defensive line of the Imperial Marines was repeatedly breached, and on several key sections of the defensive line, officers and men on both sides engaged in brutal white-knuckle combat. Relatively speaking, night was more advantageous for the defending side, and the officers and men of the Imperial Marines were more adapted to fighting at night. It is very difficult for the U.S. military to break through the Marine Corps' defense line without the strong support of heavy firepower.

The fierce battle continued until dawn, and the American counterattack was completely crushed as the bombers arrived and the Third Task Force returned to the battlefield. Han Shaofeng showed no mercy to his subordinates, less than half an hour after the U.S. troops stopped counterattacking. He threw the Marine Division, which had come ashore at night, into the attack. Taking advantage of the retreat of the American troops, a counter-assault was launched. As a result, the retreat of the American troops quickly turned into a "rout" by about nine o'clock. The U.S. forces finally gained a foothold, but by this time the U.S. forces had retreated to the third line of defense, "ceding" the entire landing field to the Imperial Marines.

At noon on the same day, Long Zhen and Fang Xiaoxian commanded the ground marine corps to successfully "rendezvous", encircled a US Marine Division in the joint area, and advanced the front line to the vicinity of the US army's large field airfield. Han Shaofeng did not immediately let the marines attack the airfield, because his second batch of three divisions of marines would not be able to go ashore until the afternoon, and this unit was the main force attacking the airfield, and the three marine divisions that went ashore on the first day were exhausted and the attrition was quite serious. It is necessary to withdraw and recuperate, and at most it can only participate in defensive operations, and it is difficult to serve as the main force in offensive operations. More importantly, the tanks and other heavy equipment used to attack the airfield landed 12 hours later than expected, and Han Shaofeng had to temporarily adjust his combat operations.

On that day, the U.S. forces organized several small counterattacks, but none of them posed much of a threat to the Imperial Marines. The encircled U.S. Marine Division surrendered to Long Zhen's forces in the evening. At the same time, the second batch of three marine divisions all went ashore, and Han Shaofeng quickly adjusted the arrangement of the defensive line. All three Marine Divisions were deployed in the direction of the attack on the airfield, while the first three Marine Divisions to go ashore were deployed to other defensive lines.

In the following days, the U.S. forces insisted on launching counterattacks at night, but as more and more Imperial Marines came ashore, the effectiveness of the U.S. counterattacks became worse and worse, and by the evening of 8 May, the U.S. counterattacks had become extremely blind, almost taking the initiative to rush to the Marines' machine-gun fire network and making senseless sacrifices. During the day, the two fleets took turns to clear the way for the Marines with bombs dropped by bombers. On 7 May, Task Force 3 moved northwest of Kauai, the main direction of the attack on the large American field airfield. On the same day, Han Shaofeng asked Fang Xiaoxian to command the offensive operation to attack the airport, but as a result, the Marines ran headlong into the key defense points of the US army. At least the American generals are not stupid, knowing that the first thing the Imperial Marines will take down is the airfield, so the airfield is set as the most important defensive location.

The battle around the airfield, which the US military called "Louis," was the focus of the first phase of the landing operation, and from 7 May to the night of 9 May, the fifth night after the start of the landing operation, the two sides successively invested more than seven Marine divisions to fight for control of the airfield. Han Shaofeng was also red-eyed, and originally planned to take the airport on 8 May, but it took an extra 24 hours to barely occupy the core area of the airport, and he was not able to completely clear the US troops on the east side of the airport. This allowed him to constantly increase his troops to the front line, and even put all the Marine artillery that could be mobilized into the attack on the airfield. The U.S. military also used the night to continuously increase troops to the front line, and at the same time put those artillery that were not blown up by bombers into the battle here. As a result, in less than three days of fighting, the U.S. military committed at least four Marine divisions, more than 30,000 U.S. officers and soldiers were killed, more than 20,000 were wounded, and more than 30,000 were captured, or surrendered voluntarily. By the night of 9 May, that is, when the core area of the airport was captured, the attrition rate of the three marine divisions was about 60 percent, and the remaining officers and men of many companies did not even have the strength of a platoon.

On 10 May, when the heavy tanks advanced to the airfield and the engineering units of the Marine Corps began to repair the airport facilities at full speed, the airfield was already littered with corpses, and just disposing of the corpses of the dead officers and men of the US Army made a Marine Corps engineer regiment busy for a day. By this time, nearly 50,000 American officers and soldiers had been captured, and these prisoners of war needed to be escorted to the rear, and more than a dozen transport ships were needed to transport these prisoners of war alone!

Generally speaking, the resistance of the US military is very tenacious, but the difference in strength makes the tenacity of the US army only increase casualties. The capture of the airfield took only half a day longer than expected, and was largely within acceptable limits. The engineers of the Marine Corps "chased" back this half-day while rushing to repair the airfield. On the night of the 10th, the first batch of fighters of the HNA were transferred. This was the turning point in the first phase of the landing operation, marking the successful landing of the Imperial Marines on Kauai, and the next mission was to annihilate the American forces on Kauai, and finally capture this extremely important island.

Tan Renhao didn't go to celebrate the victory, he knew that the battle had actually just begun. The site where the Marines landed was the weakest point of the U.S. military's defenses. In addition, as the Marines advanced into the heart of the island, the support of Task Force 3 would hardly play an important role, and the only way to open the way for the Marine infantry would be to rely on aviation and the Marines' own artillery. What's more, Spruance is definitely nearby and waiting for the best time to strike!