"Boom! Rumble! Boom ......"

The first to meet the ferocious "armored assault" of the US forces were the 356mm and 152mm high-explosive shells fired from the two battleships "Hiei" and "Kirishima" in the ocean near Haleiwa Beach. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Info: That's two battleships firing guns! The whistling shells smashed on the front line composed of American tanks and infantry, and the 152mm secondary artillery shells were better, as long as they did not directly hit the tank, that is, they killed and injured some infantry.

The power of the 356mm shell is amazing, just when it flies from the air, there is the sound of a train speeding by, and every 356mm shell explodes, it blows up a huge gap in the offensive line of the US army, throwing out everything within the range of the explosion power, and even the M3 tank is easily overturned. As for the infantry, they didn't even have time to scream, and their bones were blown up.

In the face of the huge lethality of the battleship's main guns, the tank, the king of land warfare, is really not much different from a child's toy. However, tonight, the offensive formation of the US troops was relatively loose, and the number of Japanese battleships participating in the shelling was only two, so the scene looked scary, but the damage caused was not too great. However, the attacking American soldiers were still quite shaken, and the infantry following the tanks were in confusion, some turned and fled, some were frightened by the power of the battleship's main gun bombardment and shouted and ran around, but many more people lay down and looked for concealment, and no one cared about covering the tanks.

The tanks that rushed ahead had nowhere to dodge, and they did not mean to stop at all, but increased their horsepower, as if they wanted to rush through the death zone hit by the battleship's gunfire. As long as you rush into the position of the Japanese devils, you can crush the yellow-skinned monkeys who dare to offend the majesty of the American Empire with their tracks!

"Disjointed?" Maruyama Masao, who was overseeing the battle, saw this scene through the binoculars and whispered an armored term in English.

"Yes." Paulus also replied in English, "The infantry must never forget that it is their important mission to protect the tanks, and the tank crews must not forget to protect the infantry." This is the basic principle of the operation of armored forces, but many troops cannot do this, and as soon as the artillery hits, the infantry will be disjointed. ”

"So we'll be able to repel the Americans soon?"

"It's not that easy," said Paulus, "the first line of defense will definitely be breached, because the shelling of the battleship's main guns will not last more than a few minutes, and your navy doesn't say that the main guns are running out of ammunition?" The 152mm secondary gun can't make such a noise. However, the American tanks will be greatly weakened after breaking through our first line of defense, and the second or third line of defense should be able to hold these tanks back, and then we can counterattack with the support of naval guns. ”

Paulus's method is what the Wehrmacht is now preparing to use to defend against the Soviet tank sea -- instead of concentrating forces on the front line, it adopts a deep arrangement, using space to consume the kinetic energy of the armored forces to attack, and at the same time avoiding the collapse of the entire line of defense due to the breakthrough of one line of defense.

While Paulus was talking to Maruyama, the American tanks and part of the infantry (not all of them lying still) had rushed to a distance of less than 250 meters in front of the first line of Japanese defense.

At this time, dozens of flares were fired from the mortars deployed behind the Japanese positions, forming "small suns" shining white above the charging US tanks, illuminating the battlefield below in a miserable white.

The commander of the anti-aircraft artillery brigade attached to the 2nd Division of the Japanese Army, Yusaku Yamada, removed the grass ring on his head, and pointed forward with his command knife: "Release!" ”

19 37mm rapid-fire guns deployed behind the Japanese positions showed their muzzles, and the gunners also removed their cover and violently pushed the bullets into their chambers. Then pull the fire rope, and each muzzle spits out deadly tongues of fire!

The Japanese Type 37mm rapid-fire gun was an improved version of the Type 94 anti-aircraft gun, which was originally intended to be used against the new Soviet tanks (I don't know if it was KV1 or T34?). Now the M3 can be used against the United States. The M3 tank is a light tank with a total combat weight of 12.7 tons, and the frontal armor is 44mm thick at its thickest. At a distance of 250 meters, it was barely possible to penetrate with a 37mm rapid-fire gun.

The 2nd Division's anti-aircraft artillery was all well-trained, and the distance of about 250 meters was close enough. Therefore, the accuracy of the first wave of shelling was very high, 15 of the 19 37mm armor-piercing shells hit, of which 4 did not penetrate the armor of the M3 tank due to the angle of fire, 3 of the remaining 11 shells hit the tracks of the M3 tank, and 8 rounds penetrated the armor of the M3 tank and exploded inside the tank to paralyze the tank.

The American tanks that had been hit by the anti-tank guns all stopped advancing and began to turn their guns and fire at the place where the muzzle flame had just come out. A small number of infantrymen following behind the tanks also immediately dispersed, also firing at the Japanese trenches in front with Browning M1918 light machine guns and M1 Garand rifles.

In a shallow trench dug by the Japanese army more than 200 meters in front of the American infantry and tanks, the Japanese infantry also began to return fire with Type 38 rifles, 11-year light machine guns, Type 92 heavy machine guns, and 50mm grenadiers unique to the Japanese army. For a moment, the battlefield was full of orange and dark red rays flying around at a very fast speed, as well as fireballs rising from time to time, and scattered cannon flames. It looks very lively and attracts everyone's attention.

Jiro Yamada, a soldier from the countryside of Kurokawa-gun, Sendai Prefecture, poked his head out of a foxhole camouflaged with the branches and leaves of Hawaiian coconut trees, and immediately smelled the choking smell of gunsmoke, bullets and 37mm shells whizzing over his head, bringing gusts of hot wind.

However, Yamada did not pay any attention, his eyes were drawn to an M3 tank that was firing with a 37mm and machine gun 30-40 meters ahead. That's what he's crouching in this mud-covered foxhole! He picked up the "Iron Fist" anti-tank grenade launcher, which was unreliable no matter how unreliable he looked, and then, according to the requirements of the training, first opened the safe, then carried the "Iron Fist" on his shoulder, and then aimed the spindle-shaped warhead at the tank in front of him, and suddenly pressed the firing switch. I only felt a stream of heat erupt from my back, and the "Iron Fist" launcher on my shoulder shook violently, and the spindle-shaped warhead flew towards the M3 tank, which looked very huge in front of it, at a speed visible to the naked eye, and in the blink of an eye, it slammed into the front of the M3 tank, turning into a huge fireball. Then I saw an orange-red fire suddenly burst out from the top of the tank!

Jiro Yamada, who was ready to become a god, was stunned by the scene in front of him - a weapon with such rough workmanship really worked! There's no need to go to Kudanzaka for the time being.

"This is ......" Colonel Collins jerked down his binoculars and turned to Admiral Short, "Admiral, I saw several tanks explode!" ”

"Explosions? It was killed by a 37mm gun, right? Admiral Short also noticed that from time to time the M3 tanks were fireballed by the Japanese on the battlefield - this M3 tank was too unreliable, right? After the battle of Hawaii, it must be recommended that the War Department make the tank stronger, and the frontal armor should be at least 100mm thick.

Colonel Collins agreed with Admiral Short's conjecture. However, there is nothing to be afraid of anti-tank guns, unless these anti-tank guns can be deployed in a mobile way and move positions at any time, they are the target of howitzers. So he suggested: "General, the artillery has been redeployed and can begin to bombard the rear of the Japanese front." ”

"Okay, 10 minutes of shelling should be able to clear out more than two-thirds of the anti-tank guns." Admiral Short immediately nodded and agreed with Colonel Collins' suggestion. His current tank cluster operations are similar to those of infantry, and the key is to cooperate with artillery.

Admiral Short believed that tanks should be paired with artillery, while his opponents, the Japanese, believed that tanks should be paired with submarines......

At the same time that American tanks on the Oahu plain and the Japanese "Iron Fist" collided passionately, about 30 tanks of the Japanese Navy had quietly surfaced under the cover of night in the sea near Waikiki Beach south of Oahu.

Rudolph. Feng. Ribbentrop was standing on the conning tower of the I-16 submarine at this time, his eyes wide as he watched a bunch of naval fiddling with tanks.

He saw these naval tankmen take out a bunch of machines from the open hatch of the submarine, and then began to install, this is the engine and generator of the tank, in order to prevent water ingress during transportation, it must be disassembled and preserved, installed before being put into service. The naval tankmen who assembled the engines and generators were all skilled workers, and the installation took less than 15 minutes. Then the men began to install the pontoons with their hands and feet, and after the pontoons were installed, a tank was transformed into a boat, a boat with tracks and four pairs of load wheels, and the whole process took about 30 minutes.

While the naval tank crews were equipping themselves with engines and pontoons, large numbers of Japanese marines began to climb out of the cabins of 15 large submarines that had risen above the water. Each submarine carried forty-five heavily armed Marines.

In addition, each large cruiser will carry three "small engine boats" on its deck, and 60 Marine Corps "standing boats" will be divided into three "small engine boats" and rushed to Waikiki Beach with amphibious tanks called special II internal fire boats.

If the beach assault succeeds, 30 tanks will guide 900 Marines to the Diamond Head near Waikiki Beach. If the surprise attack on Diamond Hill can also be successful, then the 305mm mortars deployed there by the US army may be destroyed or captured! (To be continued.) )