Because it is far away in a strange overseas foreign land, there are many uncertainties, so it is destined to rely on improvisation.

The Special Crop Research and Development Committee only gave general instructions, suggesting that fake samples should go to Hinkolobwe through formal channels to wipe out the useless waste ore stockpiles in the local area under the guise of purchasing radium ore.

Useless scrap mines? These abundant uranium ores are obviously a godsend!

The Ming side is secretly Chencang, planning to buy back a large pile of uranium ore without realizing it, and the Americans on the other side of the Pacific are also quietly planning an expedition that can reverse the passive situation.

With the President's permission, Admiral Hasben Kimmel and his staff were working tirelessly to plan the entire operation.

It's just that... The well-connected Mai Dashuai also learned the news.

Although he is now in Brisbane to command the US-Australian coalition to resist the Ming army's attack on Cairns, he is still distracted by this bold action.

He said that this operation was not strong enough, and that he should directly raid Rabaul on the island of New Britain to gain a direct strategic advantage.

He then made the offer that if he could provide an amphibious-trained infantry division and a task force, he could achieve his goal of reclaiming Rabaul from the Ming people in two to three weeks.

But this can be said to be unrealistic, and the maritime transportation capacity of the Southwest Pacific theater is not sufficient.

In the most ideal case, it can guarantee the logistics supply of 10,000 people, but considering that there will inevitably be losses in actual combat, I am afraid that only 3,000 people can be guaranteed.

Admiral Hasburn was unhappy with Mak's remarks, and he felt that the latter had been coveting the commander-in-chief of the army and navy in the Pacific theater.

However, the Chief of Staff of the Army, George Marshall, was interested in Marshal McT's proposal, which he believed was feasible and could put command in the hands of the Army.

But Haspen sternly rejected this fantasy and bluntly called it "stupid and irresponsible", which led to a stiff relationship between the army and the navy.

So in the end, the battle plan went back to the way it was at the beginning, sending an expeditionary force of marines to quietly occupy Guadalcanal and build an airfield there.

Didn't have a chance to play in the army during the entire operation?

George Marshall was unhappy with this, and he demanded that at least one regimental combat team of the Army be sent to participate in it.

However, Hasburn refused, citing the grounds that the Marines are more skilled in amphibious warfare.

The two sides quarreled over this, and the army and navy argued fiercely for a week, sending more than 20 memorandums.

Impatient, Hasburn eventually refused to continue arguing, saying that even the Navy and Marines alone would be enough to get the job done.

This is really too shameless, George is angry, but in order to prevent hurting the harmony, he still chooses to swallow his anger.

But Mr. Mak did not hold back, and he sent a telegram directly to Washington, attacking the Navy in explicit terms.

「…… It is obvious that the Navy is trying to take full command and treat the Army as secondary, but the fact is that the Marines alone cannot defeat the Chinese...... In my experience, this is a plan by naval careerists to control the right to defense, and we must be vigilant......

[This is true, the confrontation between land and sea is not a feature of recruiting nuclear weapons. 】

The telegram caused such an uproar that President Franklin had to take the time to mediate in person.

After some tossing, the final plan still did not bypass the army.

The U.S. 9th Infantry Division has just been deployed to Hawaii to bolster Oahu's defenses, and plans to transfer its 39th Infantry Regiment to form a regimental combat team.

Subsequently, the 39th Regimental Combat Team came into being, which additionally reinforced the 26th Field Artillery Battalion and Company A of the 15th Combat Engineer Battalion under the 9th Infantry Division, with a total strength of 4,000 troops.

In addition, the Americans also hurriedly formed an independent 120th tank battalion, which was very special in its formation, consisting of a medium tank company and two light tank companies, a total of 21 M2 medium tanks and 36 M2A4 light tanks.

However, the 39th Regimental Combat Team is the second echelon, and the first echelon is the 5th Marine Regiment of the Marine Corps.

The 5th Marine Regiment has a long history and became famous in the Bello Forest during the European War.

The French on the flanks at that time suggested retreating, but were rejected: "Retreat? To hell with it!"

The 5th Marine Regiment not only held its position but also took the initiative to counterattack, capturing the 142nd Heights occupied by the Germans, and fought side by side with the 6th Marine Regiment for the next two weeks, resisting the repeated attacks of the German five divisions, and fierce white-knuckle battles broke out almost every day.

But the big problem now is that while Admiral Hasburn claims that the Marines are more skilled in amphibious operations, the reality is not rosy.

The cost of the long period of peace is reflected in the fact that even the 5th Marine Regiment has only conducted a few professional landing trainings - which is too expensive.

One of the landing exercises was horrific and a Navy staff officer described it after returning to Pearl Harbor:

「…… The landing craft turned left and right when they were about to land and could not find the landing site, the officers were shouting and arguing, the soldiers did not know who to listen to or what to do, many of the landing craft collided, and half of the troops came ashore after half an hour, and each company was scattered and chaotic."

But time waits for no one, and there is no time for them to train calmly.

Hasburn sighed, "Tell them we're going to move soon, to a terrible place." ”

Raymond Spruance, who happened to be at the headquarters to receive orders, half-jokingly said, "In Hollywood, a bad rehearsal often predicts a great show." ”

Rear Admiral Frank Fletcher, the black pot captured by the Lexington, has been dismissed, and the next most capable fleet commander is Raymond Spruance.

Intelligence is an important factor in success, rather than weapons and training.

However, the Americans now lack information on the target area, and the situation on Kuah Island is a blind sight for the Americans, and they do not even have a map at hand.

It took a lot of effort for the Navy to find a chart of the Solomon colony printed by the Germans thirty years earlier, and then a dozen old photographs taken by missionaries.

The Marines also made efforts to gather intelligence, but their only result was a book about the Solomon Islands, "A Pure Land of Pristine Flavors—Guadalcanal."

Relying on intelligence to fight a battle with an uncertain future? This is ridiculous.

In order to gather valuable and accurate information, Major Eugene of the 5th Marine Regiment flew to the Solomon Islands on a B-17 bomber while the flotilla transporting officers and men of the 5th Marine Regiment was already on its way to New Caledonia.

He took a series of photographs over Kuah Island and then flew to Tulagi Island, only to be spotted by the local defenders.

The North Korean Navy's No. 7 Maritime Reconnaissance Squadron, which had just arrived here, quickly took off two single-engine seaplanes to intercept it, but the weak firepower could not shake the sturdy B-17, and was instead forced back by its self-defense firepower.

It wasn't until an equally large Ming Army Type 32 four-engine seaplane chased after it and fired hundreds of rounds of bullets from its self-defense machine gun turret that it damaged the B-17.

After returning home, a large number of photographs taken by Major Eugene were quickly developed, and the staff officers seized the time to draw a detailed topographical map, and finally solved the problem of being blinded.

The forthcoming expeditionary operation, codenamed "Searchlight", saw the fleet set off from New Caledonia and headed straight for the Solomon Islands and dropped the 5th Marine Regiment at a suitable landing site north of Kuah.

In addition, the 39th Regimental Combat Team continues to be on standby in New Caledonia, as the case depends.

Task Force TF-27 was commanded by Commodore Richmond Turner and operated in the sequence of heavy cruisers USS Australia, USS Tromp, USS Quincy heavy cruisers, USS Salt Lake City, and nine destroyers.

The fleet will escort the K High-Speed Transport Group, consisting of 12 destroyer transports carrying personnel and equipment from the 5th Marine Regiment, to its destination.

The so-called Destroyer Transport (APD) is a high-speed troop carrier converted from an old destroyer of the European War, with naval guns and torpedoes removed and converted into landing craft hangers, with a standard configuration of 200 soldiers and 40 tons of supplies.

[Picture]

In order to be able to plug the entire 5th Marine Regiment, the Americans had to cut some supplies.

In order to shield this fleet from being attacked by the Ming army's air forces, the American, New Zealand, and Australian air units stationed in New Caledonia, Fiji, and Vanuatu all received orders, and more than 400 planes were ready to take to the air at any time to provide support.

However, due to the vastness of the sea, the combat radius of most single-engine aircraft does not support long-term air stays, and in fact, only 37 B-17 bombers and 28 PBY Catarina seaplanes are capable of calmly carrying out long-range missions.

As the days passed, Operation Searchlight began......

The Ming side was not unaware of it, and the radio listening stations everywhere gathered the intercepted telegrams to the east corner.

After working around the clock, the deciphering team deciphered a small part of the text and concluded that the U.S. military would carry out a premeditated landing operation next.

However, because the rest of the words cannot be deciphered, and the meaning of some code names is not clear, there is no way to know what the goal of the US military is.

“…… Can you conclude that (the Americans) did not send aircraft carriers? Song Zhongkai asked very seriously.

"None of the intercepted telecommunications found the aircraft carrier codename, not a single one of the Enterprise, Yorktown, Saratoga, Raider." Yan Yuansong is very determined.

"Okay, there you go."

"Retirement."

The door was clicked shut, and Song Zhongkai stood up and fell into deep thought.

He frowned slightly, his gaze jumping back and forth on the huge wide map.

What exactly are the Americans up to? Landing in Santa Cruz? Or Nauru?

It's impossible to land directly in Rabaul, right? That's simply unrealistic, self-defeating!

At 17:37 p.m., the northwest sea of New Caledonia ......

The vernal equinox A-9 ocean-going submarine was cruising here, and the submariners spotted a fleet sailing westward, and immediately sent a telegram back to the base.

After sunset, she rose to the surface and pursued at full speed on diesel power. After a night's effort, she managed to overtake the target fleet and take up the ambush position in advance.

At 7:35 the next day, the Equinox A-9 fired a salvo of six 512mm torpedoes at the heavy cruiser USS Salt Lake City, a selected target.

After discovering the attack of the torpedoes, Salt Lake City immediately evaded them and successfully dodged the six torpedoes.

The torpedo continued to sail forward, but some of the ships in the TF-27 fleet were unaware of the approaching danger.

Due to the fleet's strict radio silence, the Salt Lake City had to keep warning with light signals, and the USS McDougall was too late to notice that something was wrong.

"Captain! Torpedo! ”

"What?! Left full rudder, left full rudder! ”

"Knock !!"

One of the torpedoes exploded violently, nearly cutting off the Porter-class destroyer.

The destroyer USS Downs, which witnessed all this, broke away from the fleet and used hydrophones and active sonar to search for sneak attackers.

After succeeding, the Equinox A-9 immediately dived to the extreme depth and remained silent to avoid being pursued.

The two sides were at a stalemate for half a day, and the Downs chose to give up and accelerate the pursuit of the TF-27 fleet.

However, the Equinox 9 was devastating when it was lax, and a PBY Catalina seaplane spotted the Ming submarine and immediately attacked.

At 17:11 on January 12, the vernal equinox 9 ocean-going submarine was sunk in the Coral Sea.

Unfortunately, the telegram she had sent back had misled the Fleet Admiral's Office.

Because the telegram said that the fleet was sailing westward, it was thought that the target of this fleet might be the T-39th Fleet, which was supporting the Cairns landing, so they sent a warning and instructed planes to follow it, but nothing was found.

In fact, on 13 January, a Type 32 seaplane that took off from Tulagi carried out a reconnaissance mission to New Caledonia.

On the way back, one of the crew members saw the TF-27 fleet looming under dark clouds, but the bad weather conditions at the time made him lose sight of what he was seeing.

On the evening of 14 January, Task Force TF-27 and Transport Group K were only 300 kilometers away from Guadalcanal.

"All ships increase their speed, and we will pass through the strait at a speed of 21 knots and reach the north [of Kuah Island] before dawn." Brigadier General Richmond Turner gave the order.

Dozens of warships in long columns sequentially passed through the strait between the islands of Kuah and Makila.

The western sky was dyed blood-red by the sunset, and the waves that broke open the bow reflected the glow of the setting sun, crystal clear and brilliant.

The next day, at 4:43 a.m., off the northern coast of Guadalcanal.

The TF-27 task force arrived as scheduled, the radio silence was lifted, and all of a sudden, noisy communications flooded the frequency band.

Carrying Springfield rifles, the Marines rolled over and jumped onto the landing craft one after another.

The dark night sky was dotted with twinkling points of light, and the starlight from thousands of light-years away was no different from what everyone saw when they looked up at the sky on a farm in the countryside.

"Our task is to establish a zone of control and shoot at the enemy as soon as it is found. Watch out for your rifles......"

"Breakaway!"

The landing craft were lowered by a crane to a height of only a few feet above the surface of the sea, and then slapped on the sea with a "poof".

Two hours later.

The sound of the "jingle jingling" phone rang through the hall, and Xia Xiaoshi, who came with small steps, frowned slightly, and reached out to pick up the microphone.

"Hello?"

"Madame? Please let Zhou Zhizhao and Zhou Changfeng answer the phone immediately! ”

(End of chapter)