On this magnificent sea, there is the continuous rumbling of artillery in my ears, the fighter planes and bombers that are constantly whistling overhead, and there are groups of well-equipped and high-spirited marines on the flat deck in front of me.

"Ladies and gentlemen, ahead is Okinawa, the last fortress of little Japan outside the main island, our fleet has taken control of this sea, our aircraft have taken control of this sky, and our mission is to ...... Sweep the island! ”

"Oh...... Oh ......" The soldiers cheered, the Japanese navy had long since fallen, their largest overseas colony, Korea, was also in danger of facing the German army and navy, and the once invincible Japan had fallen into a situation of complete encirclement, for these German officers and soldiers who had been fighting on the front line for a long time, there was nothing more inspiring than this!

"Remember, there are tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers in front of us, tens of thousands of diehards who don't know what surrender is, so we can't take it lightly at any time!"

Adolf glanced at the soldiers in front of him, each of them putting away the excitement they had just had, and each face, young or mature, had a sense of vicissitudes that had been tested by life and death.

"After we go to the island, we will meet many Japanese residents, but we must not treat them as ordinary people, each of them may have deadly weapons hidden on them, and they may attack us in various ways, this is by no means alarmist! We can't slaughter civilians on the island at will, but we must be 200% vigilant against them! ”

Although it feels like the war is very cruel, but the experience in the Hawaiian Islands and the Marshall Islands is the best proof, in these two large-scale battles Adolf lost a total of 420 soldiers, of which less than 300 were wounded or killed in frontal battles, and the rest are mostly the remnants of the Japanese army, prisoners and Japanese expatriates "results", you must know that it is still the loss of the Japanese overseas colonies, the current Okinawa is almost no different from the Japanese mainland!

"Alright. Without further ado, the amphibious combat vehicle battalions of the 1st and 2nd regiments have already begun to land, and then it's time for us to play! Boys, do a good job, medals and honors are waiting for you! Now, each company board the boat in turn, be sure to be safe! ”

As he spoke, Adolf waved his hand.

The platoon composed of more than 1,200 officers and men of the battalion of 3 infantry companies and 1 amphibious combat vehicle company began to move, this is a 5,000-ton troop carrier converted from a merchant ship, and if it wants to rush to the beach more than ten nautical miles ahead, the soldiers also have to change to landing ships and landing craft with smaller displacement, most of the original versions of these landing ships participated in the landing in Britain in 1914, and in the past 15 years, their families have grown larger and developed several series- These include 10-ton small personnel landing craft, 20-ton vehicle landing craft and 40-ton light tank landing craft that can be carried by large landing ships, as well as 120-ton mechanized landing craft and 200-ton tank landing ships that can sail independently.

Look at the soldiers who are constantly going down from the ship's gangway nets to the landing craft. Adolf silently prayed in his heart:

"Lads. You're all going to come back alive for me! ”

Although this prayer was not possible, Adolf hoped that the narrow island in front of him would not consume the lives of his soldiers too much. However, long before the arrival of the German landing fleet, the Japanese officers and men stationed in Okinawa received orders from the mainland: hold their positions and never let Okinawa fall into the hands of the Germans!

At the same time, the German High Command feared that Emperor Showa himself issued an edict requiring every Japanese citizen, whether an old man, a woman, or a child, to be prepared to fight to the end against any invading enemy, whether with rifles, bamboo guns, or kitchen knives. According to the reports of German spies lurking in Okinawa, Okinawa has apparently become the first "testing ground" for the Japanese government's all-out tactics since the fall of Hawaii. The 400,000 inhabitants of Okinawa were organized in an orderly manner for combat training, and the Japanese government also brought from the island a large number of obsolete and obsolete weapons, which were said to be enough to fit 674 to five army divisions from the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War.

At 10:20 a.m., Adolf, as the last boarding unit of the 1st Battalion of the 4th Regiment of the 2nd German Marine Division, boarded a light tank landing craft that could carry 75 soldiers and Lion tanks. By this time, the landing fleet had been preparing for a day and a night, and aircraft from aircraft carriers and land-based fighters taking off from temporary airfields on nearby islands had also carried out heavy air strikes on Japanese fortifications, buildings, and communications on the island, and the Japanese troops on the island had long been unable to use artillery fire to stop the German landing ships approaching the beach. Thus, before approaching the beaches in the southeast of Okinawa, the German troops did not lose a single landing craft.

However, with the landing ship the front of the baffle was lowered. The German officers and soldiers soon began to experience the cruelty of war - as soon as their legs stepped into the cold water, deadly bullets flew from the woods behind the beach, and the German soldiers who rushed out of the landing craft were shot and fell at the first time, but the soldiers behind continued to rush forward desperately. The sailors on the landing ship retreated the empty ship and tried their best to suppress the fire in the direction of the woods with the light and heavy weapons on the boat, and amphibious tanks and armored vehicles soon joined the battlefield, and some tanks even began to fire at the Japanese positions as soon as the landing ship baffle was lowered - although most of the woods there were leveled by bombs and incendiary bombs dropped by the German guns and warplanes, and there were only burnt wooden stakes and black scorched earth as far as the eye could see. Many Japanese soldiers survived with their tenacious vitality like rats, and used all the weapons available in their hands to shoot at the German soldiers who landed.

When there were still two or three nautical miles from the beach, Adolf and his soldiers could already hear the sound from the beach very clearly, it was the sound of fierce battle, and it also meant the sound of bloodshed and sacrifice, some of the recruits who were added after the landing campaign in the Marshall Islands were tense, and those veterans who had participated in two or even three landing operations were also silent, almost everyone was silently waiting for the moment when the landing barrier was lowered, the moment when they stepped into the place of life and death! (Full Text)