After learning of the second battle of Gu Xunlei, Tan Renhao and Huang Xiaotian made preparations for the detachment, and the more than 200 battleships moored in Limon Bay all lit boilers, and seized the time to replenish the battleships with fresh water, food and other supplies. In the afternoon, after Lei Shaoqing sent the news that the US Navy transport fleet from New Orleans was rushing to Tampico in Mexico, the two did not delay any longer and immediately gave the order for the fleet to leave.

Before dark, Task Force 1 sailed out of Limon Bay, followed by Task Force 2, Task Force 3, and then three task forces of the Third Fleet. At about half past eleven in the evening of the same day, both main fleets left the Gulf of Limon and sailed on the route to the battlefield.

The fleet went into radio silence after exiting, and during the initial 4oo nautical mile voyage, the fleet was escorted by shore-based long-range anti-submarine patrol aircraft deployed in the Panama region. Before leaving, Tan Renhao only talked to Huang Xiaotian for a few words, and it didn't take much time, the relevant battle plan had already been determined, and the two didn't need to waste time repeating the orders that had been given.

At this time, Tan Renhao's grasp of this campaign was still not very large. Although the opportunity he needed had arrived, it was still unknown whether the U.S. military would dispatch the Atlantic Fleet, and it was uncertain what Spruance would do and what Spruance would say after the First and Third Fleets left Limon Bay. Tan Renhao had long expected that there would be so many uncertainties. In the campaign plan, the actions of the fleets were not stipulated. According to Tan Renhao's command style, in addition to obeying the unified command and serving the ultimate goal of the campaign, the other commanders have a great deal of free command, which can be regarded as Tan Renhao's full trust in his subordinates and partners.

The fleet sailed at 18 knots, which took two days to reach the strait, and then at least three more days to reach the predetermined operational zone. During this period. Tan Renhao only had one thing to do, and that was to wait for more information from Lei Shaoqing. Before leaving, Tan Renhao talked with Lei Shaoqing alone for a few minutes, and Lei Shaoqing also promised to provide intelligence for the fleet as much as possible. But as a result, Lei Shaoqing not only provided Tan Renhao with information about the US Navy, but also brought over the combat situation on Gu Xunlei's side. It was as if sending and receiving telegrams was a laborious task. This also happened to allow Tan Renhao to grasp the overall changes in the battle situation on the Central American battlefield in addition to considering the combat operations of the fleet in the past few days.

The hardships he endured in the first battle made Gu Xunlei improve his evaluation of his opponent, but less than a day after the second battle began, it proved that Gu Xunlei's estimation of Eisenhower was still insufficient. The progress of the campaign was far from Gu Xunlei's expectations, and even almost made Gu Xunlei cancel the campaign on the evening of the 6th.

On the morning of the 6th, the offensive proceeded relatively smoothly, and the three lightly armored divisions (in fact, only one regimental force per division) broke through the first line of American defense between 10 and 11 o'clock, and opened the gap after the reserves were engaged. At that time, it was southeast of Tewakan. The 21st Hussar Division tore a gap in the American line about 4 kilometers wide. In the northern part of the front, that is, on the line of defense from Twakan to Orisaba. The 77th Hussar Division tore a gap in the U.S. line, and the 68th Hussar Division encountered great trouble in the offensive before breaking through the U.S. line. It was also a little late to put in the reserves to expand the gap, and as a result, it fell into a bitter battle.

Relatively speaking, the offensive in these few hours was relatively effective, and Gu Xunlei also expected that the central offensive route would encounter trouble, so he emphasized this point in the plan, requiring the 77th Light Cavalry Division to quickly reinforce the 68th Light Cavalry Division after completing the breakthrough, but should directly advance to the south and north of Twakan and reach the west of Twacan within an hour to meet the division, so as to completely encircle Twakan. Lay the foundation for the next encirclement and annihilation operation. But the problem is that when the U.S. counterattack began, Gu Xunlei's campaign goal was obviously unattainable.

If we look at the defensive deployment of Twakan, Eisenhower must have been a master of commanding defensive operations. If it weren't for the 6th Air Force at the beginning of the campaign to carry out a deep and interrupted bombing of the US defensive positions, so that the second echelon of the US army could not immediately enter the battle, I am afraid that the troops invested by Gu Xunlei would not even be able to win the victory in the first few hours.

At noon, the US air force first counterattacked. Passing the 77th Hussar Division, within half an hour, P-51 series fighters destroyed a third of the division's armored combat vehicles, forcing the division to stop the offensive. Just when the fighters of the 6th Air Force rushed to cover the 77th Light Cavalry Division, the 21st Light Cavalry Division of the US Air Force, which was advancing deep into the US defense area at that time, most of them were advancing along the highway line, and as a result, under the bombing of the US Army, more than 4o armored vehicles were killed by officers and soldiers, and the 21st Light Cavalry Division also had to stop and reorganize the troops.

The 6th Air Force soon put in more fighters to compete with the US Air Force for air supremacy. It was also at this time that the heavy artillery units of the US army deployed behind the defensive line also participated in the counterattack operation. This time it was the 68th Hussar Division, which was advancing towards Tewakan. In less than fifteen minutes, at least the 68th Cavalry Division fired tens of thousands of shells, and the 68th Hussar Division, which was already holding its grounds, simply came now. By night, Gu Xunlei had to use reserves to replace the heavily battered light cavalry division.

The U.S. military's counterattack was also quite orderly, which was even more unexpected by Gu Xunlei. When Gu Xunlei thought that the U.S. Army would focus on counterattacking the two light cavalry divisions on the flanks, it was the 68th Cavalry Division that was attacked. As soon as the shelling ended, the American reserves, which had reached the front, moved a counterattack, and the battle was fought from noon to evening, and the 68th Hussar Division suffered quite heavy casualties, and ~. By the time Gu Xunlei replaced the reserves, the U.S. forces had already restored the defensive line on this side and plugged the gap.

In other words, the US military's defense-in-depth deployment has played a very important role. Prior to the second battle, the U.S. and Mexican rebels had spent a great deal of effort building the Thuacan Line. Just as Gu Xunlei judged that Thuacan was the only line of defense southeast of Mexico City, the U.S. military recognized this. In order to strengthen the defensive line as much as possible, the U.S. military and the Mexican rebels built a large number of underground fortifications, and even hollowed out a small hill northwest of Thuacan to form an underground military base that could accommodate thousands of combat vehicles and more than 50,000 officers and soldiers. When Gu Xun attacked with thunder, the reserves of the US army were concentrated in this base, and there were almost no losses in the fierce bombardment of the 6th Air Force. At that time, Gu Xunlei only knew that the US military was building underground fortifications, but he did not expect that there would be so many underground fortifications of the US army, let alone that the reserves of the US army were hidden in the underground fortifications. As a result, before the attack, he misjudged the investment of the US troops, and was not able to invest more assault troops, and when the US troops counterattacked, it is not surprising that the three light cavalry divisions that were responsible for the round assault mission suffered heavy casualties.

On the night of the sixth day, the counterattack of the American army reached the high level. At this time, Gu Xunlei had already ordered the 68th Light Cavalry Division to be withdrawn, and at the same time was busy sending the replacement 127th Infantry Division up. The focus of the U.S. Army's prescription at night was the 77th Hussar Division to the north. The division had already abandoned the offensive in the afternoon, and had set up defensive positions before dark, ready for the evening battle. Relatively. None of the officers and men of the Imperial 6 liked to fight at night, after all, there were many troubles in fighting at night, and the support that ground troops could receive at night was quite limited.

Fortunately, the 77th Hussar Division switched to defense a few hours earlier, and by the time the American army >, the division had already entered a defensive state. Most of the fortifications had been built by the U.S. Army, and as a result, on this night, the 77th Hussar Division's 8ooo officers and men held off at least 3oooo several onslaughts.

The battle was fought quite fiercely. Almost every half hour, the commander of the 77th Hussar Division called for fire support. At that time, Gu Xunlei still wanted to continue to advance on the central front, and after considering that the northern front was more important, Gu Xunlei had to give up the idea of continuing to attack the ground at night, and sent all the three artillery regiments originally planned to be put into the central front to the 77th Light Cavalry Division to provide artillery support. It was also in these three artillery regiments. Coupled with the direct artillery support of the five artillery regiments that were originally providing support on the northern front, the 77th Cavalry Division withstood the frantic counterattack of the American army in the night defensive operations that it was not good at.

At the same time, on the night of the same day, the 6th Air Force also dispatched more than 1,000 sorties of bombers to attack the lines of communication behind the US defense line, using incendiary bombs and time bombs to hinder the US troops' forward reinforcements. However, the night bombing was not very effective, and in addition, the aviation could not provide close fire support to the ground forces at night, so it could not directly support the defensive battles of the 77th Hussar Division. It was not until dawn that the 6th Air Force dispatched nearly the 77th Light Cavalry Division to provide direct aviation support, and finally repelled the counterattack of the American army.

By the time the 77th Hussar Division received the order to withdraw and rest. The division has killed 821 officers and men and lost 56. A total of 7,849 bodies of American officers and soldiers were found in the 117th Division. The U.S. Army lost nearly 77 officers and men on the ground positions of the 9th Hussar Division!

On the contrary, the 21st Hussar Division, which had not been subjected to a focused counterattack, encountered it instead: annoying. In the middle of the night, the Americans barely harassed the scouts sent by the 21st Hussar Division, and did not see that the enemy was turning their way against him. Before dark, the 21st Hussar Division did not stop, but after regrouping its troops, it began to attack again. There is no doubt that this is a bad decision.

In the second half of the night, the 21st Hussar Division had advanced about 15 miles, and just when most of the officers and men thought they could complete the mission as planned, the American counterattack suddenly arrived. The first to arrive was the heavy artillery bombardment of the American troops, and by that time the 21st Hussar Division had advanced about 25 kilometers, leaving the rear artillery cover and support range. The troops of the 6th Air Force were also bombing the US reinforcements to the north of the battle line, and there was no force at all to cover the 21st Light Cavalry Division.

After being shelled, the 21st Hussar Division quickly turned to a defensive position. But the offensive of the US ground forces came much faster. As if they had suddenly emerged from the darkness, those American infantry suddenly appeared in front of the officers and men of the 21st Light Cavalry Division. In this case, the 21st Hussar simply did not have time to build a defensive line. By about two o'clock in the morning, the commander of the division was killed, and ten minutes later, the chief of staff of the division, who was organizing the retreat, was also killed. The troops soon lost their unified command, and the regimental commanders gave the order to retreat, but by four o'clock in the morning, all three regimental commanders of the division were also killed.

By the time the bombers of the 6th Air Force arrived before dawn, the 21st Hussar Division had ~ only three battalions remained organized and withdrawn. Later, more than 5ooo officers and soldiers came back in batches. After the war, a total of officers and soldiers of the 21st Hussar Division were found in the US prisoner of war camp, and according to the records of the US army, they captured about 21oo officers and soldiers at that time.

The 21st Hussar Division was the first unit of the Imperial 6th Army to be attacked on the American 6th Battlefield, and it was also the only divisional unit of the Imperial 6th Army to be defeated during the entire war. Perhaps the crushing defeat of the 21st Hussar Division was inevitable, and its reckless move would certainly not have any results. However, the most puzzling thing is, what kind of responsibility should Gu Xunlei bear? Of course, why didn't Gu Xunlei let the fiasco of the 21st Light Cavalry Division before night not affect Gu Xunlei's command, but it was the most dishonorable battle that Lei commanded in his entire military career!