413 "Gift" Wake Island's landing

The capture of Wake Island will make the strategic place a hot yam, which the United States has to defend and the Japanese army has to take. In order for the United States to be forced to shift its strategic direction, the Naval Resistance Army is willing to pay the price, and Li Guang is willing to take risks.

To say that Li Guang's decision is to trap the United States is actually not entirely correct. This is because Li Guang's action to capture Wake Island will cause relatively large casualties to the US military at this stage, after all, the US dumpling-like warships have not yet been assembled in large numbers. The army is also poorly trained.

However, by capturing Wake Island, the U.S. military could begin the most famous tactic in the Pacific theater in history - island hopping.

The reason for this island-hopping tactic is very simple, that is, to bypass the islands where the Japanese army is heavily concentrated, attack the weak islands of the Japanese army, and jump to Tokyo step by step.

The patent for this famous tactic generally belongs to MacArthur. But in fact, such a strategic tactic, even if someone can think of it, cannot be determined by one person.

This is because this kind of tactics at the strategic level have a great stake and almost have a bearing on the success or failure of a country's strategy.

In fact, this tactic was successfully used by Vice Admiral Halsey of the U.S. Navy in the second half of '43 to try to bypass an island where Japanese troops were heavily concentrated. Both Admiral Nimitz and MacArthur saw the benefits, and in the end, MacArthur successfully performed and persuaded Roosevelt to implement it.

The biggest advantage of this tactic for the US military is that there are fewer dead. If the islands are gradually occupied one by one and hit Tokyo, the US military does not know how many people will die. Moreover, there is no rush in time, and it may not be possible to capture all the islands occupied by the Japanese army in three or five years.

MacArthur was very good and was bent on fighting back to the Philippines. The best tactic he could choose was to attack from the South Pacific, as he has done historically, and jump all the way to the Philippines.

However, Li Guang's island-hopping tactics were to attack from the central Pacific. This greatly shortened the offensive line of the US army. The advantage is obvious, that is, you only need to occupy a limited number of islands. That is, it can reduce casualties.

For the U.S. military, supplies are nothing, equipment is nothing, and human life is the key. In the face of such a huge advantage, MacArthur will attack the Philippines if he still stubbornly.

Then the name of disregarding the life and death of the soldier will immediately be put on MacArthur's head. In a country like the United States, once MacArthur has such a reputation, he will not be able to do it for a day.

At present, Li Guang's personal envoy is already waiting for news in the United States. This tactic was a special gift from Li Guang to Vice President Truman. For an ambitious politician, this gift couldn't be better. It is more effective than sending Truman $100 million.

Future. As long as Americans mention the tactics of island hopping, such a genius idea, when talking about military strategists, Truman is indispensable to think of immediately. There were few American GIs killed in the Pacific Theater, and Truman's merits were immeasurable. With such a political achievement. Is it hard to be president?

Truman became president, so he didn't forget to dig wells. Naturally, the Haitang Kingdom has sufficient interests. As for whether Truman will be in debt. How good is a country's account? Although the ethics of a politician are not valuable, there are some aspects that must be credible.

Wake Island is the best springboard for the U.S. military's future island-hopping tactics. This springboard will shorten the length of the American offensive line, and three or four jumps will be enough to capture Okinawa. As a result, the connection between Nanyang and the Japanese mainland was blocked, and the transportation of materials was cut off, and Japan had no other choice but to finish.

No better idea. For Li Guang, taking Wake Island is the key.

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When Wake Island was in the hands of the Americans, it was already constantly building fortifications, and when it fell into the hands of the Japanese devils, it began to be further fortified.

Wake Island is actually three small islands. Its shape is very similar to the character "介" in Chinese characters. The "people" are Wake Island, and the two verticals below are Peel Island, and Wilkes Island.

With a total area of only 9.5 square kilometers, a small inland sea is formed between the three islands, with a water depth of tens of meters, which can enter and exit ships of several thousand tons. Due to the protection of the atolls on three sides, it blocks the strong winds and waves from the Pacific Ocean, making the "Inland Sea" an ideal anchorage place for calm and calm seas, and naturally becomes a sea fortress that is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

On Wake Island, the word "man" is brushed one by one, and on one side are barracks and other fortifications, while two airport runways are built on the other. The intersection was the heart of the Japanese fortifications. The two small islands below were also fortified with fortifications and batteries. The result is a solid triangular defense system.

At 1 a.m. on the 21st, Li Guang gave the order to act.

At three o'clock in the morning, the first strike group of the USS Indian Ocean aircraft carrier flew over Wake Island.

This time, the strike force of the Naval Resistance Force is no longer the same as the covering strike a few days ago. The first wave of strike forces was entirely concentrated on Peel Island, an affiliate of Wake Island.

The tiny island of Peel is about two kilometers long and only five or six hundred meters wide. In fact, this two-kilometer length is actually difficult to expose even one kilometer to the sea at high tide.

If calculated according to the radius of 200 meters of 800 kg bombs, this small island only needs a few bombs to deliver a covering blow. However, because the Japanese army built strong fortifications on this small island, and even built underground tunnels, a few bombs could kill and injure the living forces on the ground, but they could not completely eliminate the devils defending the island.

The ultimate goal of the Naval Resistance Force is, of course, to take Wake Island. But to take Wake Island, it is necessary to break the triangular defense of Wake Island.

Therefore, the capture of Peel Island was the first step for the Naval Resistance Army to take Wake Island. To this end, more than 30 warplanes of the Maritime Resistance Force dropped more than 20 800-kilogram bombs on the tiny island of Peel. A small coral island, ploughed several times.

The explosion of more than twenty bombshells, heard from a distance, seemed like rolling thunder. The huge cloud of smoke rose higher and higher, even in the moonlight at night.

Before the smoke cleared, 16 landing craft of the Maritime Resistance Army had already washed up on the beach of Peel Island.

Li Changjiang led an amphibious landing company, which had already waded through the water and landed before the smoke of gunfire had dissipated. Everyone struggled to move forward in waist-high water.

The most dangerous stage of the landing battle is at this time, and before the landing, everyone who is immersed in the sea is a target.

No matter how accurately the Air Force's fighter planes drop bombs, it is impossible to get rid of all the devils. Before the devil wakes up from the blow, step on the ground on the coral island. is the first step to survival.

The fighters of the Maritime Resistance Army each dragged their heavy equipment and bravely marched forward in the sea water, and Li Changjiang, the young amphibious company commander, took the lead in rushing to the front.

The fighters of the Maritime Resistance Army were about to set foot on Peel Island, and the Japanese opened fire.

Thunder rumbled on Wake Island, shells of various calibers came out of their chests, and in an instant hit the lagoon, on Peel Island.

The devil's three-inch and five-inch anti-aircraft guns fired quickly and accurately. The 75-mm and 37-mm anti-aircraft and infantry guns had low ballistics, and the shells swept through the sea like a wind.

Li Changjiang yelled: "Hurry, hurry." Come on. The devils can't see us, and they're firing indiscriminately. ”

In the fierce artillery fire, Li Changjiang's judgment was very accurate. Due to the smoke caused by the air raids of the Naval Resistance Army, the Japanese commander Toshiichi Sato did order his men to open fire indiscriminately. The artillery fire was not from the Japanese on Peel Island, but from Wake Island.

There is only a few tens of meters of sea water between Wake Island and Peel Island. The furthest artillery on Peel Island is only three or four kilometers away.

If we talk about the last air raid, Toshiichi Sato thinks it was just a harassing air raid by American ghost animals. And the Maritime Resistance Force concentrated on attacking Peel Island. Immediately, Toshiichi Sato realized that the enemy's goal was to capture Wake Island.

In the air raid just past, Toshiichi Sato saw the terrifying air raid, the blow of more than 20 bombshells, which made Toshiichi Sato have no expectation of survival for the more than 100 devils on Peel Island.

In fact, Toshiichi Sato did not see the actions of the landing craft of the Naval Resistance Army at all. The smoke and night obscured his vision. However, Toshiichi Sato has been on the battlefield for a long time and has made a very correct judgment, and he doesn't care if there are still living devils on Peel Island. Immediately command all kinds of artillery to strike at Peel Island.

Even if the Japanese could not see clearly, all the shells would not fly too far. The tiny island of Peel has dozens of artillery strikes and violent explosions, stretching endlessly, like a hell of death.

Subsequently, the Wilkes Island devils on the opposite side of Peel Island also joined the shelling.

Amid the rumbling of artillery, Li Changjiang was no longer able to command effectively. But long-term training has made all fighters understand that in the sea is death, and landing can also be death. Whether you can survive or not depends on luck at this moment. Although the establishment has been disorganized, everyone is rushing towards the smoke of Peel Island.

Smoke and dust filled the tiny island of Peel amid the rumbling of gunfire. No one knows that there is a way to survive and only to crawl on Peel Island by instinct. After Li Changjiang landed, he found out that he was actually the commander of the light pole, and the soldiers had already run away. He was lucky enough to find a concrete fortification that sheltered the artillery fire, and lay there screaming.

However, in the sound of the cannons, his call could not be reached for a few meters at all. In this case, it is impossible to gather troops.

The arrival of the second wave of strike aircraft of the Maritime Resistance Force gave the amphibious troops a chance to breathe. Bombshells continued to explode on Wake Island and Wilkes Island, and the violent shaking and powerful shock wave affected the sea resistance fighters on Peel Island. No matter how much the bombs of the air force had a great impact on the brothers of the Navy, there was no artillery fire raging by devils, and as the smoke cleared, the vision gradually became clearer, and the soldiers hid in the ditches or tunnels.

It had been more than ten minutes since he landed on the island, and Li Changjiang could see clearly where he was hiding. This turned out to be a shore artillery fortress of the devils. And Li Changjiang's head is a long cannon barrel. Regardless of whether there were still living devils inside, Li Changjiang hurriedly threw a grenade into it.

During the bombing of the third wave of aircraft of the Naval Resistance Army, Li Changjiang finally resumed his command. The Brethren began to search for the remnants of the enemy in shards as planned.

Under the blow of more than 20 bombshells, few of the little devils on Peel Island were alive, and they were quickly wiped out by the Naval Resistance Army one by one.

By the time the third wave of strike aircraft bombing by the Maritime Resistance Army was over, Peel Island had completely fallen into the hands of the Maritime Resistance Army.

Occupy Peel Island, and the Maritime Resistance Army suffered more than 70 casualties. (To be continued......)