You must know that in the two phases of the Battle of Pittsburgh alone, the total number of dead and missing US troops reached more than 300,000, and more than 100,000 people were seriously injured and disabled, and the number of permanent attrition exceeded 500,000! In addition, there are almost a number of American troops injured or sick, and the total attrition is not less than one million!

And this is not counting the casualties of the militia, otherwise the number will be even more terrifying, the title of "meat grinder" in the Battle of Pittsburgh is indeed well deserved, even in the historical Battle of Verdun, the only difference is that Verdun suffered heavy losses on both sides, while the casualties in the Battle of Pittsburgh were mainly Americans......

Such an exaggerated exchange ratio even Li Hui, the planner of the Heavenly Punishment Operation, failed to expect it, and couldn't help but regret that he had invested too little force, but then again, in fact, it was precisely because the Heavenly Punishment Column did not seem to have a lot of troops that the US Army dared to desperately besiege, otherwise the US Army was likely to adopt a long-term siege strategy, and even the Heavenly Punishment Column itself would continue to fight a war of movement, and would not turn to the defense so early. Pen ~ Fun ~ Cabinet www.biquge.info Considering the high cost of biochemical troops, as well as the impact of the upgrade of US weapons and tactics after a long time and the high cost of additional military salaries, it may not be much more cost-effective to expand the scale too much, and the outside world will inevitably have greater suspicions that its logistics supply has never been a problem.

In any case, at least the goal of Operation Heavenly Punishment has been perfectly achieved, and the results have far exceeded expectations, which is a matter of celebration in any case, and the heroic performance of more than 55,000 people who sacrificed all their lives without surrendering to the enemy is also a typical example by the Chinese propaganda department, calling on the people of the whole country to learn from the Mo people to "do the way for heaven and die without turning their heels." "The great spirit. That's right, the more than 35,000 people are now ink masters, even if they weren't before the battle, they will be posthumously awarded the title of ink makers after they die, and as for the 20,000 people who falsely claimed to be sent by Xia Ke Island, they are naturally all ink masters......

Although the Western media also praised the bravery of the Heavenly Punishment Column, they scoffed at the boasting of the Chinese propaganda department, because the Heavenly Punishment Column killed more than 10,000 or 20,000 "civilians" in the United States, which in their opinion could not be called "doing the right thing for heaven" in any case. As long as the right to speak is not monopolized, when have the Chinese ever lost?

In fact, in Li Hui's view, the destruction done by the Heavenly Punishment Column in the United States is their greatest contribution, even more than the elimination of so many American troops, including the Pittsburgh steel industry, more than 15% of the heavy industry and transportation facilities in the United States were destroyed (some of them were done by the Americans themselves, but it can also be attributed to the heads of the Heavenly Punishment Column). The direct economic losses exceeded $30 billion, equivalent to more than two years of the U.S. government's fiscal revenue, not counting the military expenses spent during the war and the bereavement expenses of the casualties, and the indirect economic losses were even more incalculable. Among other things, the enormous loss of population alone was enough to deeply distress President Roosevelt.

According to the estimates of the post-war U.S. government, the total number of people in the United States who decreased due to these factors in this war, or the total number of people who increased less, even exceeded 10 million, and this does not include the loss of land and the loss of population, with the population of the United States before the war was only 80 million. Such losses can be compared to the Soviet Union in World War II, and the Heavenly Punishment Column, which went deep into the heart of the United States and turned the world upside down, can also share at least half of the credit......

From this point of view, Theodore Roosevelt's insistence on seizing the time to directly destroy the Heavenly Punishment Column instead of fighting a protracted war to slowly trap it to death actually makes some sense, but a force of 50,000 or 60,000 men can actually persist in fighting to the last man, and completely do not affect the morale and the average quality of the combat personnel because of casualties, which is really too contrary to common sense, and then when President Roosevelt discovers these anomalies, he is already a tiger, and can only harden his heart and finish the Battle of Pittsburgh according to the established plan.

And even with the heavy casualties, the second phase of the Battle of Pittsburgh still had great positive significance for the US military, first of all, it completely shattered the myth of the invincibility of the Chinese army and boosted the morale of the people at home; Then there was the proof of new weapons such as submachine guns (light machine guns and mortars were also used at the end of the campaign, although because it was too late to have much success, but their usefulness was proved sufficiently. The great value in actual combat, and contributed to the early birth of advanced tactics such as artillery offensive tactics, which greatly narrowed the gap between the Chinese and American armies in weapons and tactics, and since then, the casualty exchange ratio between the two sides in battle has begun to rapidly close; Another point is that the US military has proved that it is fully capable of annihilating any of China's division-level troops in a structured manner, so that the Chinese government will no longer dare to carry out a similar plan and send troops deep into the hinterland of the United States, so that American industrial enterprises can finally breathe a sigh of relief and produce with peace of mind.

Compared with the third phase of the Hundred Regiments Battle, which is somewhat similar in history, the results of the second phase of the Pittsburgh Battle are also relatively better, and in terms of the proportion of casualties, the latter must be greater, but the Hundred Regiments Battle consumed more than half of the ammunition reserves of the Eighth Route Army, and this directly led to the fact that most of the ammunition still relied on the captured Eighth Route Army and fell into a vicious circle of "insufficient ammunition - more difficult to win the battle - less captured ammunition - more and more insufficient ammunition". It took several years before the outbreak of the Pacific War and the technological breakthrough of its own military industry (at the end of 44 years, the bullets were already completely self-sufficient, and even the production of basically qualified 75mm shells was possible, which was an indispensable material basis for the later major counteroffensive. Turning the tide; In contrast, although the losses of the US military are large, they are backed by the mobilization capacity and industrial strength of the United States, and they can fully recover their losses within a few months.

As for the problem of serious losses among veterans, for a real industrial country, the impact is actually far less huge than that written in many military novels, even if there is not a single veteran of the US military who has had enough military age, the combat efficiency will drop by two or three percent at most, and considering the application of new weapons and new tactics, the actual combat effectiveness is much stronger than that of the previous veterans. (To be continued.) )