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Chapter 2045 Two Different Landing Battles

At 11 a.m. on 7 February, four divisions of the 23rd Army of the Japanese and Australian Forces, under the cover of two battleship formations, two heavy cruiser formations, and four destroyer formations of the Combined Fleet, rushed toward Tasmania, which was held by the US forces, with more than 1,000 landing ships. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info(--net.)

Tasmania is a perfect "heart" shape, the island's inhabitants proudly call the island "the heart of the world", the northeast and northwest of the island are large areas of highland and dense forest, very difficult to navigate, the east and west coasts are also high mountains, and the southeast capital Hobart is also a city built on a mountain range.

The focus of Koichi Ishikawa's plan to capture Tasmania was to break through the middle of the heart, that is, to open up the Taima River that connects the center of the island to the north, and through this waterway, which can reach more than 10 kilometers at its widest point, it can reach the city of Launceston more than 60 kilometers to the south.

The central part of Tasmania has many plains and convenient transportation, and if the center is completely divided from the American forces located in various parts of the island, the American army will inevitably be in great confusion, and it will be convenient for the Japanese army with superior forces to break through one by one.

At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the fighters of the two sides engaged in a fierce battle over the Bass Strait, and the F4F fighters of the US Navy and the P38, P47, and P51 fighters of the Air Force engaged in fierce air battles with the Zero, Super Zero, and Gale fighters of the Japanese Army and Navy Air Force, as well as the Meteor and Zidian fighters developed on the basis of the captured fighters of the US Army.

While the fighters of the United States and Japan were scuffling over the vast sea, the two aircraft carrier formations of the Japanese Navy were covering a large number of landing ships, and from the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean respectively, they quietly advanced to the ribs of Tasmania, preparing to launch a surprise attack on Port Strahan in the southwest of the island and Hobart in the southeast.

An hour later, a mixed formation of the 1st Battlefleet and the 1st Cruiser Squadron rushed into the Taema estuary, and the shelling of the Japanese fleet began in earnest, and the shells rained down on the batteries on both flanks of the estuary occupied by the Americans.

The U.S. troops quickly began to return fire, and when the fortress shells made a huge noise like the roar of a train in the air, almost all the crew members of the Japanese fleet turned pale - in the middle of the 203-caliber heavy artillery group deployed by the U.S. troops, there were a large number of 300-millimeter or even larger caliber fortress guns, and after each shot, a huge wave of dozens of meters high rushed over the sea.

At this time, the Japanese fighters and bombers had already come to the coastline, and when they saw the fire from the roar of heavy artillery below, the planes in the sky flew straight over.

When they just flew over the fortress, the anti-aircraft artillery groups standing in various parts of the fortress artillery fortress bombarded together, and the anti-aircraft guns arranged at multiple points in the triangle directly blocked the flight path of the planes, and in an instant, the four planes had already dragged up black smoke, and the two planes exploded directly in the air. --Net.

"Spread out a little more!"

The captain of the Japanese Army Air Corps, Nakano Masataka, reminded loudly that although he had expected the cruelty of the mission, he did not expect the anti-aircraft fire below to be so fierce.

"Attack the air defense positions first!"

Seeing the black smoke constantly exploding in the air, Nakano Masataka Nakasa had to change his previous plan, the density of anti-aircraft artillery had greatly exceeded his expectations, and the aircraft group was greatly threatened, if the anti-aircraft artillery was not prioritized, there was no way to carry out accurate bombardment of those fortress guns.

"Boom-"

A muffled thud exploded next to the Gale fighter piloted by Masataka Nakano, and the fragments pierced holes in the wings. Fortunately, the gale was different from the Zero War, with a self-closing fuel tank, so it avoided the fate of becoming an air lighter, and rushed away unharmed, but a nearby ninety-seven heavy explosion was hit by the engine, and immediately swirled in the air with black smoke, and quickly fell headlong.

"Baga—"

Nakano Masataka Nakasa couldn't help but curse, the artillery fire of the US anti-aircraft artillery positions below was too dense, and because of the VT tube added to the shells of the 127-mm anti-aircraft guns, the hit rate was amazingly high, and once it exploded near the target, the nearby aircraft were seriously affected.

The VT signal tube developed by the U.S. military according to the technology provided by the British, built-in vacuum tube radio wave transmitter, after power-on, 180 to 220 megahertz of radio is emitted outward, when the projectile is close to the reflective object, part of the radio wave is reflected, as the distance between the artillery shell and the target decreases, the Doppler effect makes the reflected radio wave in the current of the transmitter to cause a low-frequency signal of 200-800 Hz, after filtering and amplification, when the signal strength exceeds a certain limit, it will be detonated, compared with similar shells, the power of anti-aircraft artillery fire has increased by four times.

Because of this, the slower bombers did not dare to fly too low, but there were still dense shells staring at them, and under the dense barrage of bombs, the Japanese pilots could only rely on flexible maneuvering and praying for good luck.

"How did the enemy's anti-aircraft artillery hit so accurately?"

Seeing that there were planes falling around him, Nakano Masataka muttered in his heart, at this time, a Zero fighter broke through the anti-aircraft fire network and arrived above the anti-aircraft gun fortress below, and the bomb hanging under the fuselage was thrown down and exploded quickly, but Nakano Masataka saw very clearly that there was no imaginary hole on the outer wall of the anti-aircraft gun fortress near the explosion point except for a charred black. (--net.)

At this time, two more super-zero fighters relied on high speed and flew into the air more than 600 meters above the anti-aircraft gun fortress, and carried out a bombing attack, and a bomb that directly hit the top blasted open the outer skin of the fortress, but the opponent's anti-aircraft guns still did not stop firing, and the two super-zero fighters flew too low to avoid the artillery fire fired from the surrounding area, and quickly turned into two brilliant fireworks.

More than 200 127-mm and more than 60 40-mm Bofors and 20-mm Erlikon anti-aircraft guns, plus several thousand twin large-caliber heavy machine guns, blocked the sky together, and the Japanese planes fell like dumplings.

At this time, the landing ships carried by the Japanese army soldiers had already assembled on the sea north of the Taima estuary, and the first wave of landing officers and soldiers were jumping onto the landing craft, and then like dense locusts, they were advancing at high speed towards the southern beaches.

It is a pity that the air supremacy of the Japanese air force was not stable, and a large number of planes either crashed to the ground or simply exploded in the sky, and it was simply impossible to suppress the fortress artillery fire on the ground. At the same time, US fighter jets deployed in Otlands, Hobart and other places in southern Tasmania finally arrived, and the two sides engaged in fierce battles in the air.

The US fortified artillery positions on both sides of the harbor constantly roared, and when a heavy artillery shell fell, several landing craft around the perimeter would capsize, and if they hit directly, it would be even worse, and the landing craft would be smashed in an instant, and even the soldiers on it would be instantly turned into flesh and blood, and the steel fragments sputtered out covered the surrounding distance of 50 to 100 meters, and a large number of landing craft were either sunk by steel fragments penetrating the ship's plank, or as if they had been cut by a cutting machine, all the soldiers on the landing craft were strangled.

The guns of the Japanese battleships, heavy cruisers and destroyers were also desperately counterattacking, only to see a 410 mm heavy artillery shell fall on the fortress artillery fortress, and with a dull roar, a large crack appeared on the fortress, and the thunder from the American fortress artillery finally stopped.

But before the Japanese naval officers and men could breathe a sigh of relief, the muzzle of the 356-mm fortress gun spewed flames again.

It turned out that the fortress guns of the US army, except for some standard guns, most of the rest used the main guns used by battleships or heavy cruisers in history, and then the turret was installed on the fortress fort together, and the reinforced concrete fortress was supplemented by cover, which was powerful and protective. For example, the struck fortress gun used the 356 mm main gun of the Texas-class battleship built before the last European war, and it was extremely powerful.

On the sea, the Japanese landing force kept rushing forward under the dense artillery fire and machine gun fire of the US army, but the US army's firepower was too fierce, and those landing craft just rushed to the beach, and the soldiers were knocked to the ground before they could rush off the boat.

More landing craft, the moment they approached the beach, were enveloped by small-caliber artillery, and one ship after another turned into coffins of fire floating on the seashore.

Seeing that the Japanese landing force was suffering huge losses, the Japanese bombers could no longer care about sacrifice and continued to dive attack, and although the sacrifices were amazing, many bombers still rushed to the vicinity of the fortress artillery fortress along the torn anti-aircraft fire network.

After a series of loud explosions, some fortress guns or anti-aircraft gun fortresses were finally opened skylights, and the muzzles of the black holes in front and pointing upwards gradually fell silent. But soon, these bombers, who had completed a brave throw, were hit by the surrounding firepower, and instantly turned into dazzling fireballs.

The horror of the Japanese bushido spirit was finally revealed, and immediately another bomber flew over and carried out another dive bombardment, and it was not long before a 127-mm anti-aircraft gun finally fell silent.

However, the US anti-aircraft artillery was too great to be defeated, and the battle lasted from afternoon to evening and from night to the next morning, and after paying the tremendous sacrifice of more than 30,000 people and the loss of more than 500 landing craft, the Japanese army received news that the attack of the first and second aircraft carrier formations on the two ribs of Tasmania had been prepared for a long time, and after paying the sacrifice of more than 100 fighters in vain.

Koichi Ishikawa, who was in charge of the Australian Army Headquarters in Mozi City, had to urgently issue an order to retreat. At this point, the fifth landing operation of the Japanese army on Tasmania was once again declared a failure.

On 8 February, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Republic of China solemnly announced at its daily news briefing that it had reached an agreement with the governments of Spain and Portugal to complete the acquisition of the Madeira and Canary Islands in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Cape Verde Islands in the south, and to formally exercise sovereignty over these areas.

A week later, on 15 July, a joint combat force composed of the US military, the British and French forces, and the 18th Group Army of the Chinese Expeditionary Force officially began to carry out the "Operation Torch" plan.

The purpose of the operation was to liberate North Africa, which was held by the forces of the French Vichy government under German control, and to completely cut off Germany's foreign supply routes. U.S. Army Vice Admiral Dwight D. Eisenhower served as commander-in-chief of operations, and British Admiral Cunningham served as commander-in-chief of the navy.

The landing force totaled 120,000 men and was supported by more than 700 aircraft carriers, 6 battleships, 10 cruisers, and a large number of destroyers, minesweepers, and various landing ships.

During the voyage, the participating ships were organized into three task forces, of which the eastern task force was commanded by British Rear Admiral Baller, and the Anglo-American coalition forces commanded by Rear Admiral Ryder of the US Army were transported to the Algiers area.

Task Force Center, commanded by British Commodore Trubbridge, transports another Anglo-American coalition under the command of Rear Admiral Fredendel to land in the Oran area. The U.S. forces in this unit consisted mainly of three divisions of Army units composed of American volunteers who went to the British mainland at the beginning of the war.

Task Force West, commanded by U.S. Rear Admiral Hewitt, transports Lloyd. A small number of U.S. troops in South Africa under the command of General Fredendall, as well as the troops of the Free French Movement and the Eighteenth Army of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, landed in French Morocco.

A total of 2,000 aircraft of the British Air Force and the Free French Flying Corps, in Arthur. Under the command of Admiral Teide, Gibraltar was used as a base to carry out campaign cover.

These landing areas are garrisoned by more than 200,000 troops of the French Vichy government and have more than 500 combat aircraft.

On 15 and 18 February, the Eastern and Central Task Forces set sail from the Orkney Islands, the Hebrides, the Clyde Sound in Scotland, and the Solway Bay in northern England, respectively.

Ten days later, the fleet converged in the southwestern bay of Portugal, sailed eastward through the Strait of Gibraltar, sailed to the sea north of the intended landing area, turned southward, and made a surprise landing at each landing section in the early morning of 2 March, achieving the suddenness of the battle, occupying Algiers in the evening and Oran on the 4th.

On 15 and 21 February, respectively, the Western Task Force set sail in batches from the ports of South Africa and Equatorial Africa, rendezvous in turn, changing course frequently in order to narrow down the target and confuse the German submarines and reconnaissance planes sent by the Vichy government of France, arrived in the waters around Morocco on the night of 1 March, made a surprise landing in the early morning of 2 March, occupied Casablanca on 3 March, and occupied Safavi on 4 March.

So far, the "Torch Operation" plan has been successfully completed.

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