Before the advent of aviation ammunition, capable of playing a more destructive role, artillery had a position that bombers could not replace. For example, a 200 mm high-explosive bomb can leave a five-meter diameter crater on concrete floor, while a 500-kilogram aerial bomb can create a crater that is about that large. The 400 mm caliber bomb blew up a crater diameter of more than 10 meters on the concrete floor, which was unattainable by the aerial bombs commonly used at the time, and no simple repair equipment could quickly fill such a large hole.

Judging from the technical conditions at that time, even if the bomber was already the dominant force on the battlefield, the role of artillery was still very huge in actual combat. In the Pacific theater, the status of artillery has not been lowered, and in fact, in the continental theater, the role of artillery is even more obvious.

In many cases, it is difficult to completely destroy an airfield by bombing alone, but a sudden shelling can have a more desirable effect. This is also the reason why the warring sides should first dispatch bombers to paralyze the enemy's airfield, and then immediately arrange for artillery bombardment of warships to expand the results of the battle.

While the bombers of the HNA continued to bomb the US airfield, the battleships of the First Task Force led by Tan Renhao joined up with the support warships sent by the Fourth Task Force and the Second Task Force on the afternoon of 13 July. Tan Renhao made a new formation of the fleet before the evening, and the formation under his command consisted of seven cruisers and seven destroyers to go to Makila Island for artillery bombardment, while the formation commanded by Wei Dongbei had six cruisers and eight destroyers to go to Rennell Island for artillery bombardment.

While the two formations continued to sail southeast along the Strait of St. Georgia, Tan Renhao drew up an artillery timetable for northeast Wei to set the time for the fleet to reunite and the sea area.

"Let Wei Dongbei pay attention, don't run out of shells, let him use our method, let the seaplane drop the incendiary bomb first, and then the seaplane will observe the impact point, don't carry out blind shelling!" Tan Renhao gave the last advice to the staff officer who went to deliver the order, "We won't have a chance to resupply." So this time, we can only consume a maximum of thirty percent of the ammunition, let Wei Dongbei figure this out, if he consumes too much ammunition, we will not be able to continue the following tasks. ”

After the staff officer went out, Tan Renhao smiled at Hao Dongjue.

"Wei Dongbei is measured, he knows what to do, you can rest assured."

"It's not that I'm worried about him." Tan Renhao walked out of the command cabin, "How are we preparing here?" ”

"It's all ready. Just wait until after dark to let the Yankees taste the cannonballs. ”

The fleet was sailing at high speed, and Tan Renhao didn't say anything more. According to the plan, the fleet was to arrive at the battlefield around eleven o'clock, and the shelling began in ten minutes. The timing is sufficient, but the biggest problem is not here.

The biggest problem with ground shelling at night is accuracy. During daytime artillery battles, lookouts and artillery school planes can observe the impact point and then have the gunner correct the shelling parameters. And in the artillery battle at sea at night, it is possible to observe the muzzle flash of the enemy battleship, or the artillery fire is guided by radar. But. Ground artillery hit during the night. Whether it's a lookout, an artillery school, an aircraft, or a radar. It is difficult to accurately judge the position of the target on the ground, and even if the impact point is observed, it is difficult to judge how much the shell has deviated, and it is even more difficult to accurately adjust the shelling parameters.

This problem is the most difficult to solve in night ground artillery fire, and most of the previous methods have been reckless, that is, to destroy targets with more ammunition through large-scale blind shelling. Even if the accuracy drops a lot, as long as there is enough ammunition and covers the entire target area, there is always a guarantee that a few shells will hit the target. But the problem is. This time, Tan Renhao and the others have two missions: after shelling Makila Island and Rennell Island, they will immediately move to Port Moresby, and it is impossible to get ammunition supplies on the way, so they cannot consume ammunition at will, and they must improve the accuracy of shelling, otherwise, it will be difficult to achieve the goal of destroying the airfield.

Later, Hao Dongjue proposed this method. This problem had existed in night bombing before, and the pilots had inadvertently found a solution. That is, throw incendiary bombs first, light a few fires on the ground, and then bomb so that the pilot can see the target on the ground. This time, Hao Dongjue only added a link in the middle, that is, first let the seaplane drop a few "incendiary bombs," and then let the seaplane observe the impact point over the island, and then provide the gunners on the battleship with shelling correction parameters, so as to achieve the purpose of improving the accuracy of shelling.

At that time, Task Force 1 did not have regular incendiary bombs, and the solution was to install a trigger ignition device on the auxiliary fuel tank of the seaplane (in fact, it was just a fuse removed from the mortar shell), and then throw the auxiliary fuel tank containing several hundred liters of aviation gasoline and use it as an incendiary bomb. In order to prove the effectiveness, Hao Dongjue also organized a test the night before, which proved that this method worked, and after the liquid gasoline splashed on the ground, the fire produced by combustion was brighter, and the effect was much better than the use of incendiary bombs. Subsequently, Hao Dongjue asked the aviation service personnel on the cruiser to prepare dozens of auxiliary fuel tanks equipped with trigger ignition devices, ready to be used at night.

At 10 o'clock, the night reconnaissance plane of the Hainan Airlines sent the last piece of information, saying that a large number of personnel were moving on the five US military airfields, and that the US military had also dispatched engineering vehicles and was making every effort to repair the runways. Obviously, the support planes of the US military will definitely arrive at night, and the US military is ready to repair the airfield at night so that the fighters can take off after dawn.

Tan Renhao immediately gave the order to prepare for battle, and the officers and men of the fleet began to eat supper to replenish the physical strength consumed, and in addition, the cruiser's ground aviation service personnel and pilots were also busy. They will be the eyes of the fleet, and whether they can destroy the US airfields at night depends on whether these seaplanes can "set the airfields on fire."

At 10:50 a.m., when the 11th Formation (the formation commanded by Tan Renhao) was still about 25 nautical miles away from Makila Island, three seaplanes on the "Wei Chigong" took off, and at that time, there were a total of 15 seaplanes on the seven cruisers, and each group of three was dispatched to drop an "incendiary bomb" on an airfield, and each incendiary bomb could continue to burn for about half an hour. The seaplanes returned home as soon as they dropped the incendiary bombs, and the second group of seaplanes was responsible for providing the battleships with shelling correction parameters and dropping new incendiary bombs as soon as the incendiary bombs were extinguished. That is, each batch of seaplanes patrols the battlefield for only half an hour. There were two hours to travel back and forth between the fleet and the battlefield, as well as to refuel and load incendiary bombs, which was plenty of time, and the pilots even had a chance to rest for a while.

At eleven twenty a.m., the fleet was about 10 nautical miles from the island of Makila, and then it was divided into three groups, each containing four or five warships. They split up and headed for their respective airports. Tan Renhao also arranged for two other artillery commanders, and he himself personally commanded five warships to deal with the airfield in the westernmost part of Makila Island.

At this time, the island was already "burning", and the fire caused by those "incendiary bombs" even Tan Renhao and them could see, as if it was a little ghost fire on the distant sea. At 11:23 a.m., the first salvo of the nine main guns on the "Wei Chigong" was fired, and the shelling officially began. After three salvos, the seaplanes sent the corrected parameters, and from the fourth round of shelling, the shells landed exactly over those targets that needed to be completely destroyed.

Within five minutes. The shelling of two other groups of warships also began one after another. The island of Makira shook up, and the shelling came with unusually ferocity. The cruiser stopped at a distance of 5 to 8 nautical miles from the island and bombarded important targets on the island with 200 mm and 240 mm heavy guns. The destroyers, on the other hand, rushed forward and repeatedly shelled some secondary targets on US airfields with 155-mm guns.

When the shelling began, a large number of engineers at the US airfield were clearing the time bombs that had not exploded and rushing to repair the damaged runway. According to the plan, the reinforced fighters will arrive after 12 o'clock, and in order to clear a section of the runway in time, the US engineering corps moved a lot of equipment used to repair the runway out of the underground warehouse and stacked it next to the runway. The first few rounds of shelling of the three groups of warships were aimed at the runway, and apart from the equipment used to repair the runway, a large number of US engineers exposed to the field at that time had no time to conceal themselves. More than half of them were killed and wounded.

The shelling was quickly transferred to the quarters of the American military personnel, then to the control tower, and to the entrances and exits of the underground warehouses. In order to prevent the destruction of ammunition depots and fuel depots, the regular airfields of the US military are equipped with underground warehouses, and these underground warehouses are guaranteed to withstand a direct attack of 500 kg of bombs.

But the problem is that there must be entrances and exits to the underground warehouse, and as long as these entrances and exits are destroyed, it is impossible to transport the materials inside. In addition, underground fuel depots must all have pipes to the surface. And if these pipelines are blown up, they will certainly not be able to provide fuel for warplanes.

The shelling of the airfield infrastructure continued to about one point, and in order to improve accuracy and save ammunition, the rate of shelling was not very fast, and the cruiser's main guns fired a salvo about every three minutes, while the destroyer's main guns fired only one shell every two minutes. In order to ensure that the airfield could be destroyed, Tan Renhao also asked the cruiser to launch some armor-piercing shells to hit the runway, but it turned out that the armor-piercing shells with too small charges were not ideal against ground targets. In particular, there were a large amount of ammunition and fuel scattered in the woods around the two field airfields, and during the day, the bombers of the Navy dropped incendiary bombs on these woods, and the effect was not very good, mainly because the US military had already removed the ammunition and fuel hidden in the woods before that. At night, the U.S. military brought back the ammunition and fuel, but this time it was too late to send the supplies away.

"Damn, it's like the whole island is burning, how much aviation gas do those Yankees have?"

"There are hundreds of tons anyway." Tan Renhao only made a rough estimate, "Contact the other two sides to see how they are doing, if they don't continue to shell the land value, then let's retreat." ”

The shelling ended after two o'clock, and the three US airfields on Makila Island were completely destroyed, and more importantly, most of the US engineering troops on the island suffered casualties, and almost all the engineering repair equipment and equipment were destroyed. If the airfields are to be repaired, the US military will not only have to bring in more engineering personnel, but will also have to send engineering equipment and equipment by ships, otherwise it will not be possible to repair these three airports at all.

At the time of the shelling of Makila Island, two US military airfields on Rennell Island were also heavily shelled. Although Wei Dongbei was a very straightforward person, he was not a brute general, which was reflected in his previous combat operations in command of the Southwest Task Force. In fact, there was no need to talk about Renhao to remind him, Wei Dongbei knew that he had to use ammunition sparingly. The method he took was the same, with "incendiary bombs" dropped by seaplanes, and then the battleship was provided with corrective parameters for shelling.

The shelling of Rennell Island began at 11:40 and continued until 2:30. In order to ensure that the US airfield on the island had been destroyed, Wei Dongbei asked the seaplane to drop several "incendiary bombs" that had not been used up on the airfield, and repeatedly observed the results of the shelling twice, and finally after determining that there was no value in continuing the shelling, he withdrew to the sea near Rennell Island and went to the scheduled rendezvous area to wait for the arrival of the formation commanded by the fleet commander.

The situation on Rennell Island was similar to that on Marquila Island, when the shelling began, the US engineers were busy repairing the airfield, and the loss of personnel was extremely huge, and most of the equipment was destroyed, and the airfield could not be repaired at all.

The five U.S. airfields on the two islands were never put into operation until the Tang Empire sent troops to occupy Rennell Island. It was also from this night that the U.S. military lost air supremacy over the southeastern Solomon Islands, which had a very huge impact on the battle on Kuah Island, and later on Rennell Island.

While Tan Renhao and the others were rushing to the scheduled rendezvous area, the other two task forces were also rushing to the scheduled attack area, and a new battle would start in a few hours.