Whether it is Rabaul, Truk, or Palau, they are the most important core fortresses of the Japanese army. After being hit so badly and having the death of a Combined Fleet commander, the Japanese Combined Fleet was still a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

Even if Li Guang took the initiative to leak the flaw, the Japanese army did not attack.

This worries MacArthur even more.

Li Guang is also worried that the more this is the case, the more likely it is that when the US forces land in the Philippines, the Japanese Combined Fleet will be able to strike an all-out blow.

Thus, on March 1, a small Allied landing battle began in the Pacific. The war had three intentions: First, to find a foothold for land-based fighters for the US military to land in the Philippines. Rather, it once again tempted the Japanese Navy to fight. If the Japanese navy can be destroyed or weakened before the Philippine campaign, it is obviously much better to be wary of the Japanese navy than to be wary of the Japanese navy when landing. In addition, there was a tactical intent to conceal the landing site.

The destination of this landing was the island of Berry Iwo. It is located in Mindanao, a large island in the southern Philippines, but only five or six hundred kilometers. Once occupied, U.S. land-based aviation will have a stepping stone, and Mindanao will be within full range of U.S. bombers.

The Philippines has a large island in the north and south, Luzon in the north, Mindanao in the south, and a group of small islands in between.

The US military's posture is clearly a prelude to the capture of the Philippines, and its strategic purpose has undoubtedly been leaked. Of course, there were also deceptive tactics that made the Japanese army mistakenly believe that the American troops were going to land on Mindanao.

However, even in such a clear situation, the Japanese army was still stationed on the island, and the Japanese navy still had no intention of attacking.

As a result, before the Beri Sulfur was taken, the U.S. military increased its weight again. On 7 March, the Allied fleet again stormed the main island of the Palau archipelago, 200 kilometers from the island of Berry Iwo.

The tactics of the two landings were the same, and the fleet dealt with the Japanese air defense. After the shore artillery defense, the same army was again sent to land and storm the island of Palau. And the Allied fleet was even more divided into two, and the forces could not be concentrated. The flaws have clearly leaked out.

However, the result remained: the Japanese Navy again made a shrunken turtle.

March 15th. It was already time for MacArthur to land in the Philippines, hundreds of thousands of troops had gathered, and thousands of ships were also waiting for the enemy.

March 18th. The Allied fleet, under the command of Vice Admiral Kincaid, made a headline for Leyte Gulf in the central Philippines. The Battle of the Philippines officially began.

Just like the historical Philippine Campaign, the U.S. Army landed on Leyte Island. On the first day alone, 100,000 U.S. troops landed. And the defense of the Japanese army on Leyte Island was not strong at all, only one division.

MacArthur also waded through the water and landed as he did in history, and gave a speech that he had promised that I would be back. The United States cheered and the allies congratulated. Mai Dashuai's scenery is unmatched for a while.

Unlike in history, the grand Battle of Leyte Gulf did not take place. In the first phase of the landing battle, which lasted for ten days. Only a fleet led by Vice Admiral Shima Nishimura of the Japanese Navy's southward relocation fleet launched a suicide raid on Leyte Gulf.

If there are any characteristics of the sneak attack of the Nishimura fleet. There are only two words - seek death.

Lieutenant General Nishimura has the temperament of a tragic protagonist, but the battle process is not interesting to Li Guang at all. According to the dishes prepared by the Manchu and Han people, only one "guest" came, which made Li Guang how could he be interested.

Both in terms of strength and technical and tactical level, the Allied fleet had complete superiority. Under the command of Li Guang, the Allied fleet easily built a pocket. Wait for the Nishimura fleet to enter the encirclement. The naval guns fired in unison, and immediately there was a wild and indiscriminate bombardment. Even the aircraft carrier aircraft were not used, and the Nishimura fleet went to the bottom of the sea. This was a rare example of total annihilation in the history of naval warfare, and it further boosted Li Guang's prestige. Although Li Guang has no intention of promoting himself. But Mai Dashuai reciprocated the favor and took the initiative to help Li Guang build momentum.

In this battle, the Allied fleet only sank one destroyer, two torpedo boats, one battleship was wounded, and one cruiser was wounded, with less than 100 casualties, and completely annihilated this small death-seeking fleet, including two battleship carriers. Lieutenant General Shima Nishimura, who was bent on finding his death, was killed on the spot in the battle.

The Japanese Navy's Southern Fleet was removed from the list, and the Japanese Navy forgot to even put on a façade at this time, and did not rebuild the Southern Fleet at all, even if it was a Southern Fleet on paper.

There have been too many changes in history, and Li Guang originally had a little impression of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and he wanted to use a little historical impression to ruthlessly clean up the Japanese Combined Fleet. But I really didn't expect that this big war didn't happen.

Li Guang's butterfly instigated wings, the storm gradually revealed its power, and it actually swept away this famous naval battle. Fortunately or unfortunately, it is impossible to tell.

The Philippines is so important, and the Japanese admirals, speaking from the bottom of their hearts, certainly want to fight. Even if you send it to death, you have to fight.

However, the difficulty is too great, even if you are bent on hanging yourself to find death, you have to have a rope.

Let's take a look at the state of the Japanese Navy.

A new commander of the Combined Fleet who has just died, and he has to find another commander to fight, and it will take time. It was easy to find Vice Admiral Toyoda as the commander of the Combined Fleet, but before he could formulate the so-called Jet-1 operation plan in history, the US landing battle in Leyte Gulf had already begun. Therefore, there was no naval battle of Leyte Gulf either.

Can't you go to sea to fight without prior planning? For the current Japanese army, it really can't. It's not that there is a lack of warships, it's that supplies and soldiers can't keep up. The Japanese army is really embarrassed now, that is, hanging and lacking a rope.

First of all, in terms of troops: there are four or five aircraft carriers in the air, but they are not even equipped with carrier-based pilots. During the Battle of Saipan, Jizaburo Ozawa really consumed the Japanese naval pilots too cleanly, and now he can't even find a few instructors. In three or four months, only a group of rookie pilots who have just been trained can only be trained, and the lack of fighters and fuel makes the training not so normal, in short, the level of these pilots is simply difficult to go to the battlefield.

In addition, although Yamamoto Isoroku has been dead for several months, his influence is still there. Many generals in the Japanese Combined Fleet still hold the mentality of exchanging space for time, and are ready to accumulate strength and fight another battle similar to Saipan (the Japanese Navy believes that the Japanese Navy has achieved its strategic goal in the Battle of Saipan. Because it is true that Nimitz's Third Fleet has not spoken for a long time. Buy time for Japan.

Li Guang was a little puzzled, what to do with time? Wouldn't it be nice to die early and take care of your life early?

However, the importance of the Philippines, whether it is any general of the Japanese army or navy, knows very well that the occupation of the Philippines by the US military means the cutting off of communication between Nanyang and the Japanese mainland.

The reason why the Japanese Combined Fleet sent the Southern Fleet led by Nishimura was that the Southern Fleet was the only fleet in the Japanese Navy that could scrape together enough fuel. What is more important is to plug the mouth of the army. Although the biggest losses were the two battleship carriers, the four battleships were seriously lacking in combat effectiveness and had no pilots. Just waste. Under the mentality of breaking the jar and breaking it, the two battleships, which were originally the heavy weapons of the country, were thrown out like garbage.

The deep-seated reasons are already clear - the Japanese Navy is seriously short of supplies, and the number of transport ships has dropped sharply.

At this point, Li Guang is actually not so far-sighted. Or see the subtle knowledge. His impression of Japan during World War II was that it was very strong in the early days of the navy. In the later period, it was defeated due to lack of materials. But. He did not know how low Japan's material and production capacity was.

If we count the achievements of the Haitang Army and US submarines in striking Japanese merchant ships, we can see how weak Japan is.

Before the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Haitang Army had sunk more than 800,000 tons of Japanese merchant ships.

It is a little more than the number of sunks in the whole of the US military in 42 years in history.

In 42, the U.S. Army and the Haitang Army sank 1.9 million tons of Japanese merchant ships.

It is still a little more than the amount of Japanese merchant ships sunk by the US military in four or three years in history.

And the past four or three years. The number of Japanese merchant ships sunk by the U.S. military and the Maritime Resistance Army was more than 3.9 million tons.

It is slightly worse than the record of the US military in four or four years in history.

However, this slight difference is yet to be analyzed. Because at the end of the fourth or third year, the performance of the Haitang Army's submarines declined seriously, from an average of 10,000 tons per boat per month to less than 1,000 tons. It's not that the submarine forces of the Haitang Army do not fight hard. It's about not finding a target worth hitting.

The US submarine record is much better than that of the Haitang Army, because the US military has a lot of money, and expensive torpedoes are used to attack fishing boats of several tons or dozens of tons. That kind of garbage is not even comparable to the cost of a torpedo, and of course the Haitang Army is reluctant.

In other words, although it is only the beginning of four or four years, the number of transport ships in Japan today is basically the same as it was at the beginning of four or five years in history.

There is an even more serious sign, due to the war, Japan's agricultural production has been seriously affected, and in the past four or three years, the submarine of the Haitang Army has burned Japanese rice fields, and the country is already full of famine. The Japanese wanted to bring back grain from the occupied areas, but they had no ships, so they could only look at the mountains of rice piled up in the warehouses occupied by the Japanese army in Northeast China, Vietnam, Thailand and other places, and sigh and sigh.

Under these circumstances, not only did Japan's oil reserves actually reach the same level as it did at the beginning of four or five years in history, but even grain began to run short. The war potential is exhausted.

On the surface, the losses of the Japanese army, especially the army, were not large. But on the naval side, the war potential is already sunset. Nishimura Shima is not a reckless man, he sees very clearly that Japan has been defeated, and he can only look for death in addition to looking for death.

Japan's rapid weakening was not caused by simply one or two battles, but there was another crucial reason: Li Guang once regretted that the United States had not reversed its strategy of first Europe and then Asia in the past four or three years. Rather, it contributed to the fact that the United States maintained a 55-5 ratio of material distribution between the European and Asian theaters.

You must know that in history, the United States has allocated only 30% of its resources on the Asian battlefield in the past four or three years.

In other words, the United States is now investing more than half of its resources in the Asian theater than it has historically.

Twenty percent of the United States, that's a huge amount, almost all of Japan's.

Therefore, the pressure on Japan is staggering, and it is an all-round consumption and pressure.

One of the most obvious circumstances is that MacArthur easily prepared 1.5 million tons of supplies and ammunition needed for the Philippine campaign when the Panama Canal was bombed and transportation was blocked. To put it bluntly, the US military has a huge inventory in the Asian theater, and four or three years of inventory is enough for Japan to drink a pot. This 1.5 million tons of ammunition and ammunition is equivalent to the ammunition and ammunition of more than 100 divisions and regiments of the Japanese army. And the speed of Japan's military expansion is so fast that most divisions and regiments do not have a single share of materials and ammunition in stock.

Japan's predicament has been undoubtedly exposed, and the Imperial Japanese Navy, after the last Battle of Saipan, spent three or four months, and did not raise enough fuel, fighters, and pilots for a fleet expedition.

It is estimated that many generals in the Japanese Navy are lamenting: regret not being at the beginning. But the so-called repentance of the little devil refers to the launching of the Pacific War. In fact, what should be lamented even more is that the Japanese Army, when it occupied Northeast China, was already destined and was bound to lose.

In a comprehensive evaluation, Li Guang's butterfly weakened Japan's maritime power: in the early four or four years, it had already reached the level of the early four or five years in history. But the weakening of the Japanese Army almost only reduced its war potential for two or three months.

It is also because of this that not only is there no talk of defeat in the entire Japanese Army. Instead, it is even more frenzied, not only to defend to the death, but also to counterattack. A little bit of brain, began to shout for a local decisive battle. (To be continued......)