Half an hour after the shelling was carried out, Tan Renhao came to the command cabin. The staff officers all looked back at the energetic commander, and then went on to get busy.

"How's it going?" Tan Renhao gave two hot buns to Hao Dongjue, "Do you want some coffee?" ”

"No, I'll have someone get milk." Hao Dongjue devoured it, and after he had finished the two buns, he said, "The landing fleet is already behind, and the landing craft will start preparing in about half an hour, and we will transfer the target for shelling in ten minutes." ”

Tan Renhao walked to the porthole, and at this time several bombers flew over the fleet, these fighters flew very low, and when they were about to reach the beach, they suddenly pulled up, and then the bomb under the belly of the plane was thrown out. When those small black dots landed on the beach defenses of the American army, a fire immediately ignited.

"The people sent by Huang Xiaotian are all crazy people, they simply use the battlefield as a stage for performances, this is the third batch of bombers to come in half an hour." Hao Dongjue also walked over, with an extra glass of milk still steaming in his hand, "Damn, I have time to teach those crazy people a good lesson, and I dare to take out this broken technique to be embarrassing." ”

The bombers circled around again, this time throwing incendiary bombs at the American beach defenses, and then the bombers flew over the fleet again, flying so low that they almost hit the mast of the battleship, presumably the pilots were greeting the officers and men of the fleet. The battleship was also lively, and some officers and men who had no task for the time being were yelling at the bombers overhead, not knowing what they were shouting about.

"Control the frequency of shelling, and let the seaplanes observe the impact point as accurately as possible, we will hold out here for a day, and maybe we will have to resupply near the battlefield." Tan Renhao turned around, "Has the landing fleet arrived?" ”

"Over there, it's coming over." Hao Dongjue pointed to the porthole on the left.

More than thirty landing ships have already come to the back of the shelling fleet. It's coming to a halt one after another.

The tonnage of these landing ships was so large that they could not be washed directly onto the beach, so they had to be washed up on the beach by the officers and men of the Marine Corps in landing craft. In order to ensure the safety of the landing ships and avoid being attacked by US shore defense guns, they were moored about 15 nautical miles from the beach. The transport ships followed behind the landing ships, many of which had already stopped, and the more than 10 old destroyers escorting the landing fleet and the transport fleet were still carrying out antisubmarine patrols in the open sea to prevent US warships from penetrating. Send a couple of torpedoes out.

The frequency of the shelling was not very high, and the covering shelling was carried out only in the last half hour before the Marines came ashore, and before that, there was a focused clearance, with seaplanes searching for permanent American fortifications in the skies, and then guiding the naval guns to name the fortifications one by one, and then the seaplanes determined whether the target had been destroyed.

The officers and men of the Marine Corps were already making the final preparations for landing on the deck of the landing ship, while the officers and men of the Navy on the landing ship were busy throwing the cable ladder (in fact, a large net made of thick twine) from the side of the ship, and the landing craft had already left the landing ship one after another to test their speed on the nearby sea. After confirming that there is no problem with critical equipment such as the engine. Only then did they successively approach the landing ship and prepare to receive the officers and men of the Marine Corps on the landing ship. There were also large landing craft loaded with tracked armored vehicles, the only armored force the Marines had in the first few hours after disembarking. There are also amphibious armored vehicles that are being prepared in the dock landing ship. They will all drive themselves to the beach.

"Pull the distance a little further so that we don't get in the way of the landing craft." Tan Renhao glanced at the sailing clock above his head, it was almost five and fifteen. "Let the destroyers get ready, start covering the shelling at six o'clock, and find the hidden gun positions of the American troops as soon as possible."

The shelling was still going on in an orderly manner, and the sea was filled with gunsmoke, because the speed of the battleship was not fast, so the smoke from the guns did not immediately dissipate. The main task of shelling was carried out by cruisers, and seaplanes were sent to each cruiser in order to avoid repeated shelling.

Ammunition was wasted, so each cruiser had a fixed area for shelling, and each time only one turret was used for shelling, and accurate shelling data was provided by seaplanes.

The fleet was divided into two, and the formation commanded by Tan Renhao continued to sail slowly in the northwest direction, while the formation commanded by Wei Dongbei made a half-circle on the sea surface and turned to the southeast. The landing channel has been vacated, the landing craft can wash up on the beach at any time, and the officers and men of the Marine Corps on the landing ship are also descending the cable ladder to the landing craft one after another. This time, Yan Guozhong still transferred two main marine divisions.

More than sixty percent of them are veterans.

Suddenly, a loud and dull explosion came, and Tan Renhao immediately turned his head to look in the direction of Port Moresby. Behind the American beach positions rose a huge mushroom cloud, a fiery red mushroom cloud that churned in the night sky and was soon engulfed by the night.

"It was the ammunition hoarding point of the US army, and it was hit by a 240mm shell, which is refreshing!" Hao Dongjue had already put down the phone, it was another cruiser in the formation who did it, and this shot was really accurate.

"When will the heavy bombers arrive?" Tan Renhao also breathed a sigh of relief, he thought it was some secret weapon of the US military.

"Arrived on time at seven o'clock, and now I'm on my way."

Tan Renhao glanced at the navigation clock again, five forty o'clock. He nodded to Hao Dongjue, and then walked to the chart table alone, everything was going smoothly, the U.S. military had not counterattacked so far, and it was obvious that the U.S. army's shore defense artillery couldn't reach them at all, so they kept silent.

Five minutes later, the last carrier-based bombers with incendiary bombs and carrying out the "illumination mission" flew over, and the fire on the American beach defense positions was once again ignited, and the shelling was a little more rapid, and the lookout on the battleship could directly provide the gunners with the shelling parameters, which was much faster than the shelling parameters provided by seaplanes.

At 5:58 a.m., the bombers left the sky over the battlefield. Two minutes later, the shelling suddenly accelerated, and not only all the main guns on the cruiser began to roar, but also the main guns of the destroyers, which had penetrated about five nautical miles from the coastline. This time, the seaplanes provided the battleships with data on a range of shelling, and each battleship was responsible for repeated shelling of a beach position hundreds of meters long and wide. The battle suddenly became fierce.

Tan Renhao looked at the landing ships on the outside of the formation, and the officers and men of the first two regiments of marines who had gone ashore had already arrived on the landing craft, and these two regiments were the most elite regiments of the two marine divisions. Their task was to rush to the beach, clear the beachhead of the American troops, and open up a landing ground for the large forces that arrived later, so that more equipment and supplies could be sent to the beach. The landing craft were activated one after another, heading towards the beach at a speed of less than five knots, while the landing ships were slowly moving to the sides. At this time, several of them looked like merchant ships. But there was no ship carrying any supplies.

"What's that?" Tan Renhao called Hao Dongjue over.

Hao Dongjue glanced at the ships, then shook his head. "I don't know, it looks like a landing ship?"

"No, there's no Bengmen ahead, and it's not a flat-bottomed boat."

"Transport?" Hao Dongjue also felt a little strange.

"No, do you see those things on the deck?"

Hao Dongjue nodded, pressing some iron pipes that were erected and looked like cannon barrels, but they were a little too slender. "Air defense battleships? It wouldn't be an anti-aircraft gun, would it? ”

"We don't have anti-aircraft guns like that." Tan Renhao was also a little confused, "Go and ask."

What are those ships for. What are they doing so close? ”

Hao Dongjue immediately walked to the telephone, quickly contacted the commander of the landing force, and asked for a while before coming over.

"What kind of ship is that?"

"Fire support boats. However, it seems that there is no artillery on it, right? Hao Dongjue still didn't understand a little, "Let's make way for a fairway, and those ships have to come up." ”

Tan Renhao shook his head. "Let's make way for them, and see how powerful the firepower of these ships is, but where are their guns?"

"It's not going to be loaded with explosives and ready to rush to the beach to blow itself up, right?"

Both of them laughed, those ships were indeed too strange, they had never seen them before. And it is not known that there are these "fire support ships" in the naval establishment. It seems that these ships are all temporarily refitted, and the hull should be an ordinary merchant ship, as for where the artillery on the ground is hidden, they can't guess, maybe like the battleships of the Age of Sail, all the guns are hidden in the hull, and then set up gun holes on the side of the side.

The first rays of dawn appeared in the east, and the sky was slightly brightened. The first bombers of the fleet aviation went over the battlefield. This time it was not just a few bombers, but two squadrons of bombers, plus a squadron of fighters with rockets. More than 100 fighters of the three squadrons quickly crossed the sky over the fleet and rushed to the beach defense position, and then the bombs fell behind the American defense line.

"Damn, they used Molotov cocktails!" Hao Dongjue was the first to shout, "This is arranged by Huang Xiaotian?" The son of a bitch has a hard time to eat, they have so many underground fortifications, it's going to be over! ”

Many of the bombers that dropped bombs did not immediately withdraw, but circled over the battlefield, dived, and fired with machine guns for self-defense at the American officers and soldiers who had rushed out of the grounded fortifications. The fighter formation did not stay long over the battlefield, but flew directly towards the rear of the US defense line. Fighter jets with rockets can destroy vehicles on the ground, and even tanks.

The task of these fighters was to prevent the U.S. military from sending reinforcements to the beach positions.

The carrier-based bomber group had not yet left, and in the sky on the Sibi side, a huge group of planes flew closer, all heavy bombers of the strategic strike force. Each of these bombers was equipped with 24 250-kilogram ground bombs, or 24 250-kilogram incendiary bombs. Bombers began to drop bombs at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters, and each time dozens of bombers dropped bombs en masse. Heavy bombers hit important targets such as troop concentration points, barracks, warehouses, roads and bridges behind the US defense line, and their main task remained to prevent US troops from reinforcing the beach defensive positions.

The shelling of the fleet also intensified, and the hidden firing points of the American troops on the beach defensive positions began to counterattack at about 6:20 a.m., and several shells were fired at the approaching destroyers, and the exposed firing points were immediately subjected to more intense shelling. The cruiser formation was also rapidly turning, closing the distance to the beach. In any case, the US artillery is fixed, while the battleship can be moved, and in this kind of artillery battle, the advantage of shore defense artillery is not great, and the US army's concealed fire points are made of reinforced concrete, which can withstand 155 mm caliber shells, but cannot block the blow of 240 mm caliber armor-piercing shells.

The battle was already raging, and on the sea, the landing craft were slowly accelerating. At its best, these landing craft can reach speeds of 8 knots. The experienced officers and men of the Marine Corps looked very calm and hid behind the gangplank in front, which was welded with steel plates more than ten millimeters thick, which could block large-caliber machine gun bullets, but could not block shells. Some of the recruits were extremely nervous, the battlefield was raining bullets, and the less daring were already praying secretly.

"Look, those ships are gone!"

At about half past seven, the slow-moving "fire support boats" reached the surface of the sea only about three nautical miles from the beach, and then slowly stopped. Hearing Hao Dongjue's scream, Tan Renhao immediately looked over there. Several ships came to a halt, and then the "barrels" that had been erected vertically on the open deck suddenly tilted downward. Tan Renhao and Hao Dongjue glanced at each other in surprise, if it was artillery, it would be machine guns at most, which could not play the role of fire support at all. But the two of them were completely wrong.

When the fire dragons rose from the deck of the "fire support ship" and then quickly soared into the sky and smashed down towards the American beach defense position, both of them opened their mouths in surprise.

"Rocket ......"

"No, it's rocket artillery!"

Tan Renhao's "translation" is more accurate, it is indeed rocket artillery, which has been used on a large scale on the battlefield of land warfare before, and this time it finally appeared on the ships of the Imperial Navy.