Chapter 629: Seize the Oil Depot
However, the Japanese offensive was extremely rapid, and the fortress artillery was much more solid than the ordinary army artillery, and it was arranged inside the semi-enclosed battery, and it was impossible to use the simple method of direct blowing up (Note 1), so although the American officers and soldiers tried their best to do so, it was still difficult to completely destroy it, and the Japanese army did not spend much time repairing it one after another after occupying the fort, but those fortress cannons that had been damaged by themselves before were so badly damaged that it was basically impossible to repair them
Nimitz was more concerned about the island's 4.5 million tons of oil than the destruction of most, but often incomplete, weapons and only a fraction of the ammunition. But long before Nimitz ordered the arson of the oil depot (mainly Nimitz had not admitted defeat at that time), Wang Zicai and his special forces had withdrawn in time, leaving behind the Japanese mob that had successfully attracted a large number of American troops, and concentrated almost all the special forces to seize those flammable and explosive aviation gasoline storage points by surprise, and bullied the American troops at this time Neither aircraft nor artillery, and effectively blocked the enemy's reinforcements with sharp and accurate sniping, so that they had dozens of times the advantage of troops, But he never came closer
If the People's Liberation Army or the Japanese army advocating the spirit of sacrifice are faced with such a situation, they can solve the battle by directly launching a charge, no matter how accurate the sniper pistol is, it will take two or three seconds to kill a person, as long as the distance is closer, in the face of the sharp fire of the submachine gun (or automatic rifle), the sniper will definitely die. However, with the combat style of the US military, often a single sniper can make a platoon or even a company dare not charge
Historically, the U.S. military has generally used firepower superiority against snipers. But now the firepower advantage is all on the other side, and the US military will not be able to fight such a battle at all. It is also a way to deal with snipers with snipers, but the old beauty lives preciously, and it is rare to do so unless there is no other choice in history, not to mention that in 1941, the United States did not have a sniper in the real sense, even if this sniper tactics in time and space attracted the attention of various countries earlier, at present, only China, the Soviet Union, Germany, Japan, and Finland have relatively mature sniper tactics and personnel training mechanisms.
In addition to the sniper kills, the Japanese machine guns also posed a great threat to the US military, although they were all obtained by seizure and lacked sufficient personnel to operate. The number of machine gun firing points on the Japanese side was not too much. However, the arrangement is extremely sophisticated, taking care of threats from all directions, and if the US troops rush hard, they will definitely suffer heavy casualties under the strafing of crossfire. In particular, it is worth mentioning that Wang Zicai also used the two captured anti-aircraft machine guns to shoot at the US troops. The US officers and men who launched a tentative charge were beaten in two and fell to the ground. In a few moments, the floor was littered with corpses, entrails, and blood. The US officers and men, who had never seen an antiaircraft machine gun used in such a way, were immediately frightened by the tragic scene in front of them, and they had dozens of times the number of troops, but they no longer dared to take the initiative to attack. The number of special forces was too small, so naturally they did not dare to rush out, and as a result, the two sides were at a stalemate for a while.
When all the batteries were captured by the Japanese and the infantry brigade was freed up, these American troops finally had to lay down their arms, and the Japanese army successfully captured most of the stored aviation gasoline on Oahu (after all, there is some stock outside the reservoir area), which was enough for Japan's three major aircraft carrier formations to use for a year according to operational standards, and the quality of these aviation gasoline was much better than that refined by Japan itself
But on the other hand, although the first battle of the Japanese special forces achieved satisfactory results, their numbers were too small, and it was difficult to control the light oil depot area with a small area, and they could not take care of the heavy oil that accounted for a much larger proportion, so there were still many heavy oil tanks that were ignited by the US military, and the island was filled with smoke for a while.
However, heavy oil is different from volatile and deflagrated gasoline, its combustion process is much gentler, so although it can ignite, the fire does not spread quickly, and the oil depot is the key to Yamaguchi Tawenjihua, so Nishitake sent a mechanized infantry brigade to seize the oil depot as soon as he captured all the American batteries that could be shelled to the oil depot, and at this time the Americans had not yet started to ignite it.
Although the U.S. military still ignited some of the oil tanks that stored heavy oil because of the time consumed on the road, this brigade came in time, and finally saved more than one-third of the heavy oil tanks, plus some of the heavy oil rescued from the fire fighting (we must thank the U.S. military for the large number of advanced fire extinguishing equipment left behind, although the Americans thought of burning the oil in stock, but did not realize in time that these fire extinguishing equipment had to be destroyed), it was enough to satisfy Yamaguchi Tawen
At 9:28 a.m. on October 26, 1941, a group of U.S. troops on Oahu laid down their arms, and the largest cross-sea sneak attack in human history came to an end. Although the process is not perfect, in terms of the result alone, Yamaguchi Tawen's battle Jihua can still be said to be a great success
In less than a day and a half, the Japanese Combined Fleet sank or destroyed a total of 4 US battleships and 3 aircraft carriers, in addition to sinking or destroying 12 cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and other combat ships with a full load displacement of more than 1,000 tons, and 5 non-combat ships such as transport ships and 6 forced landings. The Japanese shot down a total of the carriers, including the carrier-based aircraft (the ones on Oahu were blown up before they could take off, but there were still planes on other Hawaiian islands that came to the rescue and engaged the Japanese carrier-based aircraft). and the bombing of 512 US military aircraft; killed more than 11,000 U.S. troops and captured more than 32,000 (in addition to thousands more "missing"); In addition, the Japanese army also seized a large amount of materials that made the eyes of the former army officers and men of the Marine Corps shine, including more than 2 million tons of fuel and heavy oil necessary for the Japanese warships
Note 1: In a semi-enclosed space, the power of the shock wave will increase dramatically, and if you want to blow up the cannon beyond repair, you must need explosives, and the power can collapse the entire fortress. The U.S. military didn't plan to bury itself as a fortress, so it basically only destroyed the fortress artillery to a certain extent without endangering its own safety, but the problem was that the facilities and materials at the U.S. military base on Oahu were too complete, and after the Japanese occupied Oahu, they didn't even need to ask for help from home, and it didn't take too long, even if they only relied on local materials, they could repair these fortress guns (to be continued......