For the European battlefield, Haitang's intelligence sources are insufficient, and he can only roughly grasp the pace of the Allied offensive. But in the Pacific theater, Haitang's intelligence was endless.

After Nimitz began his military campaign against Iwo Jima, MacArthur sent constant telegrams.

At the beginning of the battle, MacArthur's tone was sour. But a few days later, the situation on the battlefield changed abruptly, and MacArthur gloated a little between his words.

Nimitz suffered heavy losses on Iwo Jima, and there was a possibility that he could lose the battle.

Li Guang was a little skeptical about this, and purely in terms of strength comparison, the Third Fleet under Nimitz had surpassed the Japanese Navy in an all-round way. And it's a big score overtaking. As for the army, although Nimitz's troops were not as good as MacArthur's, they were much more elite. Although the historical Battle of Iwo Jima was cruel, no matter how cruel it was, it was the US military victory, and although the process was difficult, there was no suspense about the victory.

With the continuous arrival of information, Li Guang finally knew the reason for MacArthur's excitement.

The Battle of Iwo Jima meant that the U.S. forces were approaching the Japanese mainland, which shocked Japan even more than MacArthur's occupation of the Philippines. Japan had to fight.

The U.S. Navy has been resting for more than half a year, and the Japanese Navy is also resting. Although the two sides have the same time to recuperate, the results are very different. The Japanese only repaired the damaged ships and trained a group of kamikaze pilots. And the U.S. military, especially Nimitz's Third Fleet, has not only repaired ships, but almost doubled its strength.

In World War II, the Soviet Union exploded in a sea of tanks. The United States exploded in a sea of aircraft and warships. In this period, nothing else. U.S. aircraft carriers are like blowing bubbles. By June of '44, Nimitz had only twelve regular aircraft carriers.

In particular, it should be noted that these twelve aircraft carriers. It is only Nimitz who is currently commanding the operation, not all the aircraft carriers that have completed outfitting and put into training.

Nimitz dared to leave MacArthur aside and attack Iwo Jima alone, naturally he had enough capital - sinking three or five aircraft carriers would be unbearable pain for other countries, but for Nimitz, it would be replenished in a few days.

In this sense, the huge gap in economic power between Japan and the United States is simply not something that can be bridged by tactics and courage.

But. Whether Nimitz can really get his wish depends not only on whether the Japanese army agrees, but also on the performance of his generals. Furthermore. Whether MacArthur would allow Nimitz's power to continue to expand, the answer is absolutely no. Because, MacArthur has already done it.

Due to the brilliant performance of MacArthur's Seventh Fleet, Vice Admiral Kincaid became increasingly famous. Of course, more important is MacArthur's many activities. From July. Every month, there is an Essex-class aircraft carrier that will be in the pocket of the Seventh Fleet. Marshal MacArthur had an appetite and his goal was six aircraft carriers.

Later, due to the change in the situation, Mai Dashuai only got three regular aircraft carriers. Even then, the corners of Nimitz were dug up. It is said that Nimitz once lost his usual gentlemanly demeanor for this incident and scolded MacArthur for the case.

As for why Nimitz cursed. See how the Battle of Iwo Jima unfolded.

Early stage of the campaign. Pre-war bombing by the U.S. military, naval support. The process of landing the army and other processes went extremely smoothly. However, after the Japanese army reacted, the American army began to fight hard. In particular, the U.S. Navy was once again caught in the same embarrassment as the Battle of Saipan, where the fleet was drawn around Iwo Jima, and the Japanese were constantly launching kamikaze attacks, launching waves of suicide attacks.

The strength of the US naval aviation is now in full swing, and the level of equipment and pilots is comprehensively surpassing that of the Japanese army. In addition, the US military has switched to the offensive, and its morale is high, so it is natural that it will not be afraid of little devils. So it was launched, one after another strangulation and blocking.

Within a few days, the Japanese army had buried nearly 1,000 warplanes in the hands of the US Navy. And the losses of American fighters were less than a hundred.

If it continues at this rate, I am afraid that in a few days, Japan will have an embarrassment of having no fighters available. However, on June 11, the Japanese Navy slashed.

The Japanese Combined Fleet used a simple decoy tactic: Jizaburo Ozawa led all six of Japan's existing aircraft carriers as decoys.

The two main battleships, the Yamato and Musashi, brought a group of frigates as the main offensive force.

By this period, the Japanese Navy had already known that the aircraft carrier was the king of the sea, and the normal practice should be to use the battleship as a bait and the aircraft carrier to sneak attack. However, Japan was helpless and could only use aircraft carriers as bait. Just one point, you can see the helplessness of the Japanese Navy, six aircraft carriers, only one hundred and seventy fighters. And the pilots are all rookies.

Such an aircraft carrier fleet can only be used as a decoy.

The helplessness of the Japanese army played an extraordinary role in the battle. On the battlefield, Halsey, commander of the US Third Fleet, discovered the Japanese aircraft carrier formation, and it was six aircraft carriers. It was immediately judged that this was the main force of the Japanese Navy. As a result, the main fleet was all on top. (In the historical Battle of Leyte Gulf, Halsey was fooled like this, and the author did not mean to black Halsey.) )

Halsey is known as a bull, a bull. This time it took a heavy price for his recklessness.

When the battle to destroy the Japanese aircraft carriers began, Halsey received a telegram: The Japanese battleship formation had attacked the American escort aircraft carrier fleet. But the main navy had no time to turn around and come to the rescue.

As a result, Halsey destroyed all six Japanese aircraft carriers. But around Iwo Jima, the American escort aircraft carriers, as well as the escort cruisers, destroyers suffered heavy losses. The two main battleships of the Japanese army were imposing and went straight into the flock of tigers and sheep. The U.S. escort aircraft carriers desperately released their fighters, but it was difficult to inflict fatal damage on the two Japanese battleships, which could be called giants. On that day, 25 US warships of various kinds sank, more than 40 warships were injured, and more than 10,000 casualties were imposed. The Japanese only sank a few torpedo boats and destroyers, and the two capital ships were only scratched a little.

By the time Halsey had brought the fleet back and the range of the fighters could barely radiate Iwo Jima, the Japanese battleships were already shelling the U.S. ground attack forces on Iwo Jima.

The two battleships of the Japanese Navy fled immediately after withstanding a wave of air raids by US carrier-based aircraft. Halsey's anger was thunderous, but there was nothing he could do.

The "kamikaze" rose, and the gale saved the lives of the Japanese soldiers, and the two Japanese capital ships were already injured at this time. However, the US aircraft carrier aircraft could not take off again.

So, unwilling to be humiliated, Halsey took nine battleships and began to attack and intercept.

However, having lost aerial reconnaissance, it was not so easy to intercept the Japanese fleet. A day later, Halsey had no choice but to withdraw his troops.

What saved a little face for the U.S. military was that the battleship Musashi was forced to slow down due to serious injuries in the process of escaping, and it happened to be taken advantage of by a U.S. submarine. The U.S. submarine fired six torpedoes and achieved an astonishing five-way hit. As a result, the Musashi floated on the sea for three days, reluctantly accepting the fate of being buried in the sea.

In this battle, it cannot be said whether the US military lost or won. Because Halsey not only completely annihilated the Japanese aircraft carrier fleet, but also killed a Japanese battleship. The achievements are not small, and the victory is actually barely counted. According to the habit of the US military -- strategically the US military has won, the Japanese navy has been completely crippled and has no strength to fight.

However, under the extreme superiority of the US military, the losses were so heavy that they caused very bad consequences. Although the main battleship and the main aircraft carrier were not damaged, the tonnage of the sunken ship exceeded that of the Japanese army. More importantly, the heavy losses of the US auxiliary ships greatly dealt a blow to the morale of the US transport fleet, and there were many complaints for a while.

You must know that the US transport fleet is extremely large and has a special structure, and it is neither completely under the control of Nimitz nor under the command of MacArthur. It's needed by that side, and managed by that side. Sometimes, depending on the situation of the Pacific and Atlantic wars, they are deployed between the two oceans.

The U.S. military has temporary military ranks and temporary military personnel, while the transport fleet is mostly temporary military personnel and non-military engineering personnel. Such troops, who were not front-line combatants in the first place, suffered casualties and low morale can be imagined.

For the US military, the impact of this battle is greater on the ground combat forces. Although the shelling of the two capital ships of the Japanese army did not last even an hour, it disabled an entire elite marine division of the American army.

Nimitz was so stubborn that in the final stages of the Battle of Iwo Jima, he had to deploy a large number of defenders of Pearl Harbor to Iwo Jima, and finally paid a heavy price to occupy the island. In the course of the battle, MacArthur played a little trick and sent an army division to land on Iwo Jima on the grounds of worry, and although he did not participate in the battle, he really shared the credit of the navy.

In this battle, Nimitz was a little brilliant, but it also caused a serious overdraft of the navy's land offensive capability. Nimitz no longer had the ability to independently land operations. situationally, he had to be reduced to MacArthur's vassal. As for whether Nimitz will be willing, one can imagine.

MacArthur sent a report to Li Guang, and the meaning of schadenfreude came from this. Mai Dashuai once again saw an opportunity, an opportunity to unify the command of the Pacific Theater. For a pure person like Mai Dashuai who is for fame and profit, such a temptation cannot be refused.

Mai Shuai intended to unify the command of the Pacific Ocean, and Li Guang naturally enthusiastically supported it, and Mai Dashuai won the victory to make a loan of 300 million US dollars to Haitang, and the first phase of 100 million US dollars has already been received, and the cooperation is pleasant.

So Li Guang immediately made a move to Boss Mai - the US army only occupied half of the Philippines, and the rest of the region only maintained pressure and did not attack. The whole army was directed at Okinawa.

It is impossible for Mai Dashuai to think of this move, but Li Guang took the initiative to put it forward, which is naturally an attitude. Attitudes are important, and there are countless interests involved. For example, on the island of Luzon, the tattered king group of Haitang has been registered, and business is doing very well. Under the instruction of MacArthur, the grain trade was monopolized by the Haitang, and countless hard currencies flowed into the hands of the Haitang merchants.

Under the intentional or unintentional organization of some people in Haitang, the Chinese people on Luzon Island have gradually become a close-knit whole, rather than the previous scattered state. A large number of Chinese teenagers began to take US military ships to Datang Island to receive free education. (To be continued......)