On December 20, MacArthur had not yet returned. With MacArthur's permission, Li Guang's first military operation as commander of the Allied mixed fleet began.

In order to truly grasp the combat effectiveness of this fleet, it is completely not enough to simply look at information and communicate with officers. In particular, for such a complex fleet with combat effectiveness, it is not easy to give full play to its combat effectiveness without several run-in exercises. And the way Li Guang adopted was to train with battle.

Up to this point, no one in the entire fleet knew MacArthur's next military objective, except for Li Guang and Kincaid.

However, war has rules of war. The surprise soldiers are prominent, and the long drive is certainly exciting. But that's not the norm of war.

The U.S. military has adopted island-hopping tactics, but this does not mean that the islands to be jumped do not pose a threat to the U.S. military. Therefore, in Li Guang's World War I training plan, weakening the Japanese army's military presence scattered on the islands of the Central and South Pacific became the purpose of the battle. It is also the best way to explain the meaning of the battle to officers at all levels.

Li Guang was steady, but the adventurous spirit of the second-rate fleet of the US army, which was raised by the mother, was insufficient, and after consultations, it was finally agreed that the target should be set on the periphery or non-core islands defended by the Japanese army.

There are several advantages to choosing such a target to fight: First, fighting in a sea area where the enemy is divided into two parts, or where the US military already has an advantage, has a considerable psychological advantage over such a mixed fleet.

Second, if such a battlefield is chosen, the probability of a sea battle is not high. With the current strength of the Japanese Navy, it is unlikely that it will fight another decisive battle with the Allies for such a non-strategic location. You must know that although the US Pacific Navy suffered heavy losses, the losses of the Japanese army were not light, and it was not so easy to organize a force that could fight the Seventh Fleet for a while.

Moreover, Li Guang once again sacrificed the tactic of rolling dice. Even if the Japanese army had the heart and wanted to seize the fighters, it was impossible. In this style of play, the First Task Force of the Naval Resistance Force has enough experience to sum up a complete set of tactics in more than half a year of dice whirlwind battles. When the battle plan was released, the US military was all convinced, and Li Guang was very much more face-saving.

Third, based on the information Li Guang has, this mixed fleet under his command. With the current level of training and cooperation, there is not much problem in fighting such a battle.

From the perspective of Li Guang and Kincaid, there is no need to take risks. Whether it's Li Guang or Kincaid, neither of them can afford to lose. And before landing in the Philippines, this mixed fleet, which is not very strong, must not suffer a major setback. Limited military power. MacArthur's ultimate strategic goal must be guaranteed.

According to available intelligence. Although the combat strength of the Japanese navy has been greatly reduced, its overall strength still surpasses that of the Allied mixed fleet. (In U.S. intelligence, the Japanese still had six battleships and more than four aircraft carriers.) ）

Fourth, weaken the Japanese army on the Pacific islands as a target. It was possible to gradually weaken the naval and air forces of the Japanese army in a small war. The Allied fleet, on the other hand, can improve its combat effectiveness in battle, and the various branches of the army can be run in with each other, thus forming a whole.

Under such guidelines, Li Guang sat in the headquarters. Vice Admiral Kincaid led the fleet into a sortie.

For the sake of secrecy, twenty-four hours after the fleet set sail. The dice in Li Guang's hand fell, and the first target of the Allied fleet was the island of Bulville in the Solomon Islands.

Kincaid's command was decent. The battle formation is the most advantageous annular formation of the US military, with seven battleships and cruisers, destroyers as the periphery, and two escort aircraft carrier groups (originally three groups, one of which served as an escort mission) with a total of twelve ships in the center of the fleet.

Due to differences in tactics and habits, the Haitang Army fleet formed its own team, and under the leadership of Rear Admiral Zheng Xuechang, commander of the first task force of the Haitang Army, it was 200 kilometers away from the periphery of the main fleet as a rear strategy.

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Fighting such a battle is completely bullying people with strength, and although there are many problems with the Allied fleet, Li Guang is actually not worried. As the commander-in-chief, although Li Guang does not go to sea, he is not idle to do. One of his jobs was to lead a group of U.S. Navy staff officers to find the unsatisfactory flaws of the Allied fleet in battle. After several years of war, Li Guang's combat experience has become richer and richer, and with a few clicks at key points, the Allied staff officers can sum up a set of lessons and lessons.

The position is different, and Li Guang's consideration is not limited to the current battle, his most important job is to plan the future Philippine campaign.

After Nimitz finished the Battle of Saipan, it was already mid-October, and with the industrial capacity of the United States, it would only take half a year at most for the Pacific Fleet to restore its combat effectiveness. MacArthur invested such a huge amount of money to get a head start. The campaign in the Philippines must be waged before Nimitz can regain combat effectiveness. According to MacArthur's vision, the sooner the campaign was launched, the better, preferably during Nimitz's six-month recuperation phase, when he took Manila, the capital of the Philippines, and established the victory. In this way, the Army needs to be left at least two months (MacArthur began to be arrogant, and he was ready to take Manila in two months after the landing).

In other words, MacArthur was to land in the Philippines around February 15, 44. Therefore, the time left for Li Guang was really not sufficient, and it was very difficult to organize a campaign of this scale in less than three months.

However, Li Guang soon discovered that he was accustomed to living a poor life, and his thinking was not suitable for the US military. The Haitang Army has always taken advantage of the existing conditions to fight. However, in the U.S. military, what is needed is supplemented. The war budget was a big mess, and Li Guang could only envy, envy and hate.

One order after another was issued, and the US military logistics department quickly responded to the time required, and there was no sign of being disturbed by the lack of funds. In MacArthur's view, this state of affairs turned out to be that the U.S. government did not lean enough toward the Army's war materiel.

Among them, there are also those that Li Guang is dissatisfied with, such as the Navy's carrier-based aircraft. If MacArthur could not get it, the logistics of the US military could only report to his superiors, and there was little hope that he could get it.

Under such conditions of abundant materials, Li Guang thought that the hard work of preparing for war was extremely easy. He even had time to care about some chores outside of the battle.

In the Allied fleet, there was a rather special group of personnel. This is a group of photographers arranged by Li Guang in the name of finding flaws and recording the battlefield.

Since Li Guang discovered that several movies produced by Haitang were unbearable, he had an idea. In this era, due to conceptual or economic reasons, there were not many audio and video recordings of battlefield scenes. The U.S. military is slightly better in this regard, while Japan simply does not have this awareness. Throughout World War II, the Japanese side was almost blank in terms of video records of naval battles, with only a few photos and a few short footage clips.

You can make money by making movies, you can make money by shooting battlefield documentaries, and it will be even more profitable. No matter how realistic a movie scene is, it can never compare to the shock of a real battlefield.

Moreover, the value of this kind of lens is not only that it can be edited out and used as a movie lens, but more importantly, it is a real battlefield, a real history, and its value is immeasurable.

The Philippine campaign is exciting to think about. The scale of such a battle will not exceed ten times in the entire history of human warfare. With such an important battle, there is no doubt that the battlefield record is very important. Therefore, Li Guang dispatched almost all of Haitang's young reporters, studio photographers, and even directors and screenwriters, and more than 400 people fully participated in the filming of this war.

Later, a war documentary called "Big Heroes" was released in the United States against the backdrop of the Battle of the Philippines. The main body is naturally touting MacArthur and touting the US military. Of course, we will not forget to promote the Haitang Army, that's for sure.

To talk about boasting, the Soviets said second, and no one dared to say first. The artists who came to Haitang from the Soviet Union have a lot of experience in creating the image of great men. Whether it's the scenes, or the narration, whether it's the music or the close-ups, it's just perfectly disgusting.

Soviet artists used the same grafting scheme used to brag about MacArthur, even in a documentary, in a way that was breathtaking.

Amazingly, Americans still like to watch it. MacArthur was naturally happier, while Haitang earned more than $50 million just because of this film. These precious historical footage, tons of film, in the following decades, created extremely exaggerated profits. (To be continued......)