Nie Renfeng was very diligent, and on the second day after returning to the Navy Headquarters, he resumed his normal work.

Tan Renhao also went to the principal's office after having lunch and resting for half an hour according to the principal's request.

"This is the battle report that General Yan Guozhong just came back." Nie Renfeng was also waiting for Tan Renhao, "You take a look first, and then we will discuss the combat arrangement." ”

Tan Renhao didn't waste time, and immediately looked at it carefully.

When he rushed to Tarawa Island to put out the fire, the 6th team consolidated the Rabaul base, and built three field airfields in ten days, along with the previous one, a total of four field airfields (two of which were of poor quality, no honeycomb steel plates were laid, but a flat ground was sorted out in the woodland, and then the ground was compacted for fighters to take off and land).

Subsequently, HNA deployed at least 35o fighters to Rabaul (some of which were stationed in Lae at night and rushed to Rabaul during the day), and by the end of September, the 6th Squadron had already controlled the air supremacy of New Britain Island, destroyed the US military airfield on the island, and HNA also began to compete with the US military for air supremacy in the Solomon Islands, and it was the turn of the Imperial bombers to "visit" the US military airfield.

While the HNA and the U.S. Air Forces were fighting for air supremacy, Task Force 3 was stationed in Rabaul and began to move south at night, shelling the U.S. bases on the islands north of the Solomon Islands, and withdrawing before dawn. This fleet was called the "Imperial Express" by the US military, which was similar to the "Washington Express" of the United States in those years.

The 6th Division was also ready for the offensive in early October, with Yan Guozhong leaving one 6th Division in Lae, two 6th Divisions serving as reserves transferred to Rabaul, and the other two 6th Divisions participating in new offensive operations (in fact, the five 6th Divisions were in rotation, and this time the two 6th Divisions that had the greatest losses in the attack on Lae were the ones acting as reserves). At the same time, Yan Guozhong formulated a new offensive plan to attack Bougainville Island under the cover of the HNA and the 3rd Task Force. Use this as a springboard and then sweep the entire Solomon Islands south.

The U.S. military presence on Bougainville Island is about 5ooo, mainly concentrated in Buin, south of the island, and there are two U.S. airfields. In addition, the U.S. military has also set up strong defensive positions, and has built several underground warehouses and concealed artillery positions in the mountainous area in the belly of the island.

The offensive on Bougainville began on the first day of mid-October. With strong artillery fire and aviation support, the 6th team quickly seized the beachhead. And then there was a fierce battle with the American army. The intensity of the U.S. counterattack exceeded Yan Guozhong's estimate, especially the actions of the U.S. Air Force, which largely limited the 6th Sentai to the beach. In order to prevent the 6 squadron from advancing inward 6, the American Air Force even used a new type of ammunition. That is, fuel bombs improved from the incendiary bombs used by the Tang Empire to bomb Japan. These bombs were filled with oil, and after exploding, they could burn for more than 10 minutes in an area of more than 1,000 square meters, posing a great threat to the officers and men of the 6 th Squadron exposed to the beach.

HNA is also doing its best to cover the 6 teams and support the 6 teams at the same time. The 3rd Task Force almost washed up on the beach, putting its guns on the bridge of the Yankees' nose. The fighting was extremely fierce throughout the day, and at night, the US military also organized night bombing. As well as fighting back.

The fierce battle continued until the afternoon of the next day. The U.S. Army left more than 2,000 corpses on the beach (many of them charred), and the Imperial 6 Squad lost thousands of officers and soldiers. At this time, the U.S. military gave up the battle for ground on the beach. Retreated to the second line of defense.

This was perhaps the most tragic battle of Deng 6 fought by the 6th team of the Tang Empire in the southwest Pacific, and it took nearly 40 hours for the 6th team to consolidate the beach, while it took nearly five days to establish the 6th battle of Deng. In the first two days of fighting alone, the 6 team lost more than half of its officers and soldiers, and the first two regiments to board the 6 were reduced!

By the time Yan Guozhong came to report the battle, the 6th team had already taken control of Buyin and was continuing to advance towards the 6th team on the island, sweeping away the American troops who had retreated to the mountainous area of the island. Uproot the strongholds of the American army one by one and destroy the underground fortifications of the American army. The battle is still very difficult, the island of Bougainville is densely jungled, and the terrain inside the island is very complicated, easy to defend and difficult to attack, the tanks and armored vehicles of the 6th team are not useful at all, and they can only let the infantry enter the jungle to sweep, so as to do so. It was the infantry of both sides who fought fiercely in the dense forest, and the 6th team of the Tang Empire did not show their superiority in equipment at all.

Looking at the battle report in his hand, Tan Renhao could almost imagine the scene when the small search force of the 6th team went into the dense forest and fought fiercely with the recalcitrant American army. He could also imagine what it was like on the beach on the day of the 6th of the board. He could even imagine how miserable the wounded soldiers would be when they were carried onto the hospital ship. It's not a battle anymore, it's more like a fight between two huge beasts, bloody, no mercy, no pain, no victory, just life and death.

"How do you feel?" When Tan Renhao put down the battle report with a gloomy face, Nie Renfeng opened his mouth to ask, and he also brought a cup of tea.

"Headmaster, that's not the way to go." Tan Renhao took the teacup, "The U.S. military has deployed at least 50,000 troops on the Solomon Islands, and from the northwest to the southeast, almost every island with useful value is heavily guarded. 5ooo U.S. troops let the 6th team fight for so many days, and the losses are so huge, even if we don't consider how many lives of officers and soldiers will be paid along the way, how much time will it take? Perhaps, now MacArthur is snickering, the Solomon Islands are the shackles on us, blocking the pace of our offensive! ”

"As far as I know, MacArthur is a very cold-blooded general, he doesn't care about the casualties of his subordinates, all he cares about is whether he can achieve his goal." Nie Renfeng sat down, "He will definitely laugh, the battle to attack Bougainville Island will last at least until the beginning of next month, and this is the biggest guarantee that Yan Guozhong can do." It will take more than a month to attack one island, and there are more than a dozen important islands in the Solomon Islands, so we will be ready to complete the operation of capturing the Solomon Islands in 26 years. ”

Tan Renhao smiled bitterly. "Then we can only change the offensive tactics!"

"Then what do you think should be done?"

Tan Renhao hesitated for a moment and said, "Jiang Zhongmin put forward an opinion, thinking that we should give up other islands and attack Kuah Island directly. ”

"Kuah Island?"

"Guadalcanal, Guadalcanal is the abbreviation."

Nie Renfeng nodded slightly. "I looked at the plan in the morning, and it was really new, but we had never done it before, feasibility, and. Whether victory can be guaranteed, the threat of American troops on other islands to us, logistical support, and the sneak attack of the American fleet at night, these are all questions, problems of detail, which are not mentioned in the plan. ”

Tan Renhao secretly stuck out his tongue. The principal is a tactical educator, and although he is now in charge of the overall situation, he also attaches great importance to details.

"Do you have a good solution?" Nie Renfeng laughed, "Attacking Guah Island requires at least five divisions of troops, and I can't let tens of thousands of officers and soldiers of the 6th Squadron take risks." ”

"Headmaster, I think this suggestion is valuable and feasible." Tan Ren Haoxun is looking for a solution. "First of all, the U.S. military on those islands is not a big threat, and the sea control is in our hands, as long as there is a third task force operating there. The U.S. military did not dare to act rashly.

Unless, they think they can swim across the sea. They would have to be trapped on the islands. The most troublesome are the US airfields on the islands, but this problem can be solved by the HNA and the third task force can shell these airfields at night. We will first strengthen the air forces in Rabaul, as well as on the islands of New Britain and Bougainville, and seize air supremacy. In the first step of attacking Kuah Island, the focus was on destroying the US ground air force, and as long as these airfields were destroyed, the US air force would have to withdraw from the Solomon Islands, and we would have air supremacy. The supply problem of the 6th team is also relatively easy to solve, and there are quite a few small islands near Kuah Island, and we can occupy one of them first. Or a few small islands, let the 6th team stock up supplies, gather forces, and shorten the length of the supply line. As long as these steps are completed, it will not be very difficult for the 6 teams to land on the 6 melon islands. “

Nie Renfeng pondered for a while and said, "These points you put forward are very effective, and the key is to seize air supremacy. ”

"Headmaster, I'm actually thinking about this new tactic too, maybe. This will be of great help to us in our future operations. Tan Renhao immediately opened the topic, "In the current Deng-6 operation, air supremacy is as important as sea supremacy, or even more important. There is absolutely no need for us to fight island by island, we can immediately deploy a large number of air forces to destroy the enemy airfield on the nearby islands, and then choose another island within the combat radius of the air force to land on the 6, and then establish an airfield, destroy the airfields on other islands on the advance line, and then fight step by step, so that we will capture a lot fewer islands, which can greatly increase the offensive degree of the 6 th Squadron, and can also reduce war expenditures and reduce the casualties of the officers and men of the 6 Squadron. ”

"You must have thought about it for a long time, right?"

Tan Renhao smiled and nodded, after Jiang Zhongmin mentioned this, he had been thinking about this new tactic. "I think we can call this new tactic 'island hopping attack' where we jump to attack, and we can even avoid places where there are heavy US troops and choose the enemy's weak points to attack. Of course, this depends on the actual situation. For example, this time we want to force the US fleet to fight a decisive battle in the southwest Pacific, so we must not avoid the important and trivial, and we must attack Kuah Island. ”

Nie Renfeng walked to the window and looked out at the harbor. Tan Renhao didn't say anything more, he knew that the principal was thinking about something. In fact, Tan Renhao can only make theoretical judgments now, he has not even done a simple wargame deduction, and he still doesn't know if this set of tactics can really work. If there is an opportunity, we should first conduct an experiment, find a battlefield with less difficulty, and launch a small-scale campaign to prove the feasibility of "island hopping attack". But now, the only thing that can be chosen is Kuah Island, and there is no time at all, and there is no ability to conduct a combat test.

"You say, what would happen if the U.S. aircraft carrier fleet didn't go to the southwest Pacific?"

Tan Renhao was stunned, he didn't expect the principal to think so far.

"If the Solomon Islands can drag us out, there is no need for the U.S. military to send its main fleet into the southwest Pacific." Nie Renfeng turned around, he pressed his hand towards Tan Renhao, signaling that Tan Renhao didn't need to stand up, "According to our current offensive level, even according to the deployment of the Xindi Campaign, if you want to attack Kuah Island, it will be mid-December, and by then, the four aircraft carriers of the US army will almost be in the Pacific Ocean." And by the end of December, we are unlikely to threaten the defenders on Kuah Island, which would force us to keep more of our fleet in the Southwest Pacific Theater and leave a gap in the Western Pacific. If I were Nimitz, I wouldn't have easily sent the main fleet to the southwest Pacific, and I would definitely launch a counterattack in the western Pacific! ”

"But the problem is, Nimitz doesn't necessarily have enough 6 teams in his hands."

"It's been a few months since the Battle of the Mariana Islands ended, and the tens of thousands of officers and soldiers who the US army withdrew should have regained their combat effectiveness, and tens of thousands of 6 teams are not a small threat!"

"This ......" Tan Renhao stood up, "You mean, the U.S. military is very likely to choose to launch a strategic counterattack in the western Pacific?" ”

"It's not very likely, but it's by no means impossible!" Nie Renfeng sighed, "I have to consider all kinds of possibilities, and Nimitz is a difficult opponent to deal with, the Pacific Fleet is in his hands, and he and MacArthur have always been at odds, so he will definitely not easily send the fleet to the southwest Pacific." Taking into account various factors, the possibility of US forces attacking the islands in the western Pacific region is actually not small. ”

"Then we will only be able to intercept the US fleet in the Pacific theater." Tan Renhao's eyes rolled, "We have a backup plan, if the U.S. military plans to counterattack the Mariana Islands at that time, then they will definitely attack Wake Island first, and we can fight the U.S. Navy in the waters near Wake Island!" ”

Nie Renfeng nodded. "I've seen that plan too, but it's just a backup plan."

Tan Renhao shrugged his shoulders, the backup plan would not be very detailed.

"In two days, Yan Guozhong and Liao Hanxiang will be back, let's discuss how to fight this battle then!" Nie Renfeng didn't discuss it with Tan Renhao anymore, "You go and improve the plan as soon as possible, and when the time comes, make a decision based on the actual situation." ”