At that time, Hao Dongjue and Huang Xiaotian both thought that they would be transferred to the Central Pacific, and they had good reasons.

In Hao Dongjue's view, the possibility of the Second Task Force being transferred to the Central Pacific Ocean is the greatest. When Lei Shaoqing was the commander of the Second Task Force, the Second Task Force had been operating in the Pacific Theater and had almost become a special fleet in the Pacific Theater. Although Hao Dongjue is now the commander of the Second Task Force, and the Second Task Force is almost a brand new fleet, in the eyes of most people, the Second Task Force is still the fleet that has been assigned to the Pacific Theater, and it is only a temporary cameo role in the Southwest Pacific Theater.

In Huang Xiaotian's view, the Fourth Task Force is more likely to be sent to the Central Pacific Theater, and his reason is very simple: The Fourth Task Force is the task force with the most veterans and the strongest combat effectiveness among all the task forces operating in the Pacific Ocean now. After the 2nd Task Force suffered heavy losses and the 5th Task Force was almost completely annihilated, the 4th Task Force became the second carrier task force of the Imperial Navy after the 1st Task Force. Now that the First Task Force is being sent to the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific to deal with the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet, it is naturally impossible for it to go to the Central Pacific theater to plug the bullet holes. And if you want to use a limited force to block the U.S. Fifth Fleet, which has six fleet aircraft carriers under the command of Spruance, then the Fourth Task Force is more suitable than the Second Task Force for this important task.

Comparatively speaking, Huang Xiaotian's reasons are a little more sufficient. The Imperial Navy did not set up fleets with independent status in each theater of operations, as the US Navy did, but used a more flexible task force structure, the main purpose of which was to enable the powerful task force with independent combat capability to be flexibly mobilized and deployed between various theaters, without any one theater controlling the fleet, and this could give more effective play to the combat effectiveness of the fleet. In the past, Task Force 1 has repeatedly played the role of a mobile fleet. Whichever theater of operations is in need, Task Force 1 will appear in that theater. This fully reflects the flexibility of the Imperial Navy's task force and maximizes the combat effectiveness of the fleet. Obviously, this system is more flexible and effective than the U.S. Navy's method of assigning fleets according to theaters. Previously, the Second Task Force had been operating in the Pacific Theater, while the Fourth Task Force had been operating in the Southwest Pacific Theater since its establishment, mainly because both theaters needed fleet support, and it was enough to have the First Task Force as a mobile fleet.

From this point of view, Huang Xiaotian's view is very reasonable, and Tan Renhao, who is far away in the Indian Ocean, also foresees this. Even if Nie Renfeng left the Fifth Task Force in the Pacific Theater. The Fifth Task Force is still the worst combat strength of the three task forces, and it is simply impossible for it to shoulder the heavy responsibility of being in charge alone. Therefore, the most likely scenario is that the Fourth Task Force will rush to the Central Pacific Theater and share the heavy responsibility of resisting the counterattack of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet with Liao Hanxiang's theater fleet. The Second Task Force, the Fifth Task Force, and the reinforced Southwest Pacific Theater Fleet were responsible for supporting the attack on the Australian mainland.

Of course, whatever the situation, it was still the end of February. The U.S. Navy will not be able to launch a counterattack until the end of March, or even April, at the earliest, and the most important task at that time is to lay the foundation for attacking the Australian continent by taking New Caledonia, completing the task of encircling the Australian continent.

The next day, Huang Xiaotian returned to the fleet, and the 4th Task Force arrived at Lae on the 29th, stayed here for a day, refueled, entered the Coral Sea on 1 March, and reached the waters off New Caledonia on 3 March, and from the next day, the 4th Task Force took part in combat operations. On the same day, Yan Guozhong gave the final order for a general attack and launched a full-scale attack on Noumea.

Hao Dongjue returned to the Second Task Force on 15 February, when Yan Guozhong was dispatching troops to send his campaign reserve to New Caledonia, and had already made adjustments to the attack on Noumea, deciding to seize the large US airfield on the island before attacking Noumea, so that the shore-based fighters of the HNA could be stationed in New Caledonia, so that the HNA could provide timely air support to the Marine Corps, which would not only relieve the pressure on the fleet aviation. It also made the Marine Corps' offensive more powerful. At that time, the main task of the Second Task Force and the Southwest Pacific Theater Fleet commanded by Li Wenlong was to assist the Marine Corps in capturing US airfields.

The battle for the large U.S. airfield at Bray and Moandu continued until the last day of February, and the stubborn resistance of the U.S. forces was unable to stop the advance of the Imperial Marines. Yan Guozhong's adjustment of the campaign deployment has yielded results. Marine Corps engineers then spent two days restoring some of the two airfields, and the first HNA shore-based bombers flew in on March 2 and carried out the first round of bombing of Noumea on the same day. By 4 March, when the Fourth Task Force was up, the two airfields were already capable of supporting the operations of shore-based bombers of the Navy, and Yan Guozhong also issued an operational order to attack Noumea at this time.

The massive reshuffling of the Imperial Marine Corps on the island of New Caledonia caught the U.S. military by surprise. At the time, at least half of the U.S. troops guarding the Burai and Moandu airports were transferred to Noumea. The U.S. commander believed that the Tang Marines would attack Noumea mainly, and that after seizing the port, the Don Marines would be able to get more material support before attacking the airfield. This was also Yan Guozhong's previous attack plan, and the port of Noumea was very important, and for the tens of thousands of Imperial Marines who were fighting on the island at that time, it was impossible to obtain sufficient material assistance with just a few temporary docks. After the attack on Noumea hit a wall, Yan Guozhong reversed the order of the battle, although this caused some trouble at the time, Yan Guozhong even had to use the transport planes deployed in the New Hebrides to airdrop war materials for the marines on the island, but the final result was obvious, the US army guarded the two airports too few troops, and after losing these two airports, it was almost impossible for the US troops to hold Noumea.

In this campaign, the most prominent was the large-scale airdrop and airlift organized by Yan Guozhong. Prior to this, the U.S. military had several large-scale airlift operations in the Pacific. For example, when MacArthur reinforced Port Moresby, he organized hundreds of transport planes to transport reinforcements there. However, the Imperial Navy did not have much airlift in the Pacific Theater, mainly because the Imperial Navy had always had the advantage of sea supremacy. The efficiency of sea freight, as well as the delivery capacity, is much greater than that of air freight, where it is not necessary. The Imperial Navy simply would not have considered airlift to support front-line combat units. And Yan Guozhong really had no way to improve the shipping capacity, so he thought of organizing forces to carry out large-scale airdrops and airlifts.

Unlike most of the islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, New Caledonia is an island formed by crustal activity, rather than coral reefs, like most other islands. Moreover, it is also the largest island around the Coral Sea (excluding the island of New Guinea). The topography of the island is quite complex, and the island itself is a long strip that runs from northwest to southeast, like a lentil. In the middle of the island, there are many mountain streams and streams at an altitude of several hundred meters, and because it is located in the northern part of the southerly wind belt, the island has abundant rainfall and dense vegetation. The combined result of these factors is that all of the island's population focal points, as well as the U.S. military strongholds, are located on the coastal plain, and the island's road infrastructure is rather poor, which greatly limits the movement of ground forces.

At that time, Yan Guozhong's marines landed near Yatai at the eastern end of the island, which was relatively close to Noumea, but it was difficult to sweep the entire island. While attacking Noumea, the Marines also surrounded Noumea from the flanks. This has brought a new problem, the supply of the troops can only be obtained through the two temporary wharves in Yatai, and then transported to the front-line troops by vehicles, but under the condition of particularly poor road traffic conditions, ground transportation can not fully meet the operational needs of the troops. At that time, it was proposed to launch a new landing operation in northern Noumea to solve the problem of logistics and supply, but this would require more effort, and Yan Guozhong did not have that idea. Under such circumstances, Yan Guozhong thought of a way to airdrop war materials on a large scale.

In order to support the front-line troops, Yan Guozhong concentrated about 800 transport planes with a range of more than 2,500 kilometers in the New Hebrides, of which more than 200 were newly equipped four-engine large transport planes of the Imperial Navy, which could carry 5 tons of cargo and fly 1,500 kilometers away for airdropping, and then return to base. With the support of a front-line airfield, it is also possible to transport 5 tons of cargo to a distance of 3,000 kilometers and return after refueling.

Since late February, the 800 transport planes have been traveling back and forth between New Caledonia and the New Hebrides, dropping tons of supplies onto frontline Marine positions. Although airdrops were an extremely costly logistical tool, at the time, they were the most effective means of providing combat units with combat operations as quickly as possible. Especially after the capture of Port Vila, the efficiency of the airdrop has increased a lot after the convoy can already deliver supplies directly into the port. Yan Guozhong's decision to capture the airfields of Burai and Moandu was precisely in the hope of using more effective airlift to support the Marine Corps' offensive.

In the subsequent combat operation to attack Noumea, Yan Guozhong collected another batch of transport planes, expanding the size of the transport aircraft group to about 1,000 aircraft. These 1,000 transport planes fly an average of one sortie per day, and transport an average of 4 tons of supplies to the front line in each sortie, that is, these transport planes are able to provide 4,000 tons of combat materials to front-line combat units every day. At that time, each marine division consumed between 800 and 1,200 tons of supplies a day on average, that is, these transport planes could guarantee the offensive operations of the four marine divisions, plus the two temporary docks in Yatai, the combat support of the guards was not a problem.

This kind of large-scale airdrop is actually a direct manifestation of the combat effectiveness of a country and an army. At that time, in order to be able to transport 4,000 tons of materials by air every day, these transport planes had to consume at least 6,000 tons of aviation gasoline every day, that is, they had to burn all the fuel sent by an oil tanker every day.

The combat operation against Noumea lasted from 4 March to 9 March, and the stubborn resistance of the US troops caused a lot of trouble for the Marines, but in the end, the US troops were completely unable to stop the repeated attacks of the six Marine Divisions supported by three fleets and thousands of aircraft under the condition that their morale was greatly damaged, and their resistance not only added casualties to the Marines, but also increased losses to the US troops.

On 9 March, a few days after Yan Guozhong arrived in Port Vila, after receiving the good news from Noumea, he rushed over on the same day, inspected the situation in Noumea, and encouraged and rewarded the various units of the Marine Corps that participated in the battle. The campaign to sweep away the remnants of Noumea and the surrounding area continued until the 12th, and after the last U.S. troops surrendered, the Tang Marines completed the operation to capture Noumea, and Yan Guozhong also declared control of New Caledonia on the same day, although skirmishes in other parts of the island continued until the end of March.

The capture of New Caledonia was significant, as it was the last large-scale landing operation before the attack on the Australian mainland. After nearly two years of hard work, the imperial admirals led by Yan Guozhong finally took a big step forward. Of course, this is not the end, it can be said that this is only the beginning, the ultimate goal of all attacks in the Southwest Pacific Theater is to capture the Australian continent, and this is not the end until the footsteps of the Imperial soldiers set foot on the Australian continent!

Just as Tan Renhao and Chang Jianxin predicted on the Indian Ocean side, after completing the mission of capturing New Caledonia, the Southwest Pacific Theater Command was divided on the next offensive move, with some insisting on landing directly at the port of Brisbane, while others advocated abandoning the port of Brisbane and choosing another landing site. And this was also a new problem that Yan Guozhong encountered at that time.

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