In the face of an unexpected surprise attack, the US shore defense artillerymen who were caught off guard were shot and killed before they could see the enemy.

Many of those who had been napping in the shelter were killed in their sleep by the grenades thrown in their sleep and never woke up.

The latch of the first 152mm coastal defense gun was pulled open and stuffed with thermite incendiary grenades, and in the dazzling white light, the alloy steel was melted at a high temperature of 3,000 degrees Celsius, and it was completely scrapped.

It was only at this time that the American troops, who had just woken up from a dream, reacted, but the nearest infantry unit was also several kilometers away, and it was impossible to rush to reinforcements in a short time.

"Where did they come from?!"

"Damn! Will they fly? ”

The shore artillerymen used pistols and old Chuntian rifles to fire at the Ming in an attempt to stop the enemy from nowhere.

The fortifications, shelters, and ammunition depots were all connected by traffic trenches, and the fortifications built by the extravagant Americans were all made of reinforced concrete, and the side walls of the communication trenches were hung with wires, and there were light bulbs every ten meters.

The officers and men of the Yiluan Division advanced along the communication trenches, clearing out the recalcitrant enemies one by one.

In a sense, this scene is exactly the same as the shooting games of later generations!

At the corner of the Z-shaped traffic trench, several American soldiers did not aim, but just stretched out their hands and fired indiscriminately, which also caused obstacles to the special forces of the Ming army.

A corporal lowered his automatic rifle to the ground and retrieved a grenade from a canvas chest hanging.

Pull off the tab, let go, the safety grip immediately pops off, the firing pin smashes down, and the grenade extension tube begins to burn, gradually approaching the detonator.

Holding the grenade for two seconds before throwing it out with his backhand. To the east, at sea level, the sun was already showing a corner, and the faint morning light reflected in the dark green grenades.

"Boom!"

Explosions and screams are almost in no particular order.

Bolt-action rifles are not at all useful in such a situation, and the crucial disadvantage is that the US shore defense artillery does not have grenades, the lack of which is fatal for close combat.

However, how could an artillery carry a grenade with him like an infantryman?

At 6:03, Song Zhongkai ordered all ships to prepare for the shelling of the opposite shore, and this time it was no longer a sound attack but a real move.

At 6:10 a.m., more than 200 kilometers away over the 22 nd Air Raid Fleet, more than a dozen carrier-based planes had already taken off against the rising sun.

If the Yiluan Division fails to solve the enemy's batteries, then the carrier-based aircraft formation will carry out a low-altitude bombardment of the target mountain to suppress the shore defense artillery as much as possible.

Conversely, if the raid is successful, then the carrier-based aircraft formation will carry out an air attack on the enemy's beachhead.

At 6:18, Zhou Changfeng, holding a telescope, stood on the platform outside the bridge of the Yongle and witnessed the fire from the mountain range twenty kilometers away.

About ten minutes later, two yellow flares were launched from there in quick succession, indicating that the assault on the battery was largely successful.

Thinking that he would set foot in Hawaii soon, Zhou Changfeng couldn't hide his excitement at the moment.

"Zhou waits for the edict, please give an order." Seeing that he was distracted, a lieutenant colonel staff officer next to him reminded.

"The order was as follows: at eight o'clock and 3 o'clock, the first echelon launched a landing on the beaches of A1 and A2; At ten o'clock, the second echelon followed; The third echelon began the landing on the beachhead of B-1. ”

"Yes! The first echelon ...... against A at 8:45 a.m.

With the threat of shore defense artillery eliminated, the Ming fleet was able to boldly approach Kauai without having to maintain a safe distance of 20 kilometers.

At 7:05, the 1st and 5th formations officially began shelling on the opposite shore.

The scene when the Yongle and Xuande salvos were the most shocking, the roar of the triple cannon resounded in the sky, and the huge explosion made people feel that all their internal organs had been torn hard, and their ears were even more stinging.

The Type 39 triple 416mm main gun shot out an anti-personnel blasting projectile weighing nearly one ton and smashed it heavily into Kauai Island, a few kilometers away, and the shell landed with a flash of light, raising a large cloud of smoke.

As soon as the cannon sounded, there were ten thousand taels of gold, not to mention the big guys on the battleship.

In addition to the value of the shells themselves, the main gun barrel life of the Yongle-class battleships was only more than 200 rounds, and the inner chamber had to be replaced after the battle, and the actual cost was even more expensive.

In comparison, the Type 36 128mm high-level dual-purpose gun used by the destroyer can have a barrel life of 3,500 rounds.

Moreover, the lethal effect of the battleship's artillery bombardment on the shore is completely worth its cost, and the medium-caliber naval gun is the best support weapon, and the role of the large ship's giant artillery is more reflected in the psychological level - to boost one's own morale and suppress the enemy's morale.

Zhou Changfeng put down the blue pencil in his hand and said to the officer in front of him: "You don't need to fight more, stretch the interval a little, half a volley, and just play half a round in a few minutes." ”

The latter hesitated for a moment, but still clenched his fists and took the order, "Yes." ”

Next, he left the Yongle and took a transport boat to the fifth formation, where he boarded the amphibious command ship Lu Xun.

During this period, five minesweepers ventured close to the coastline to begin demining operations, followed by the beach-grabbing strike battalion of the 3rd Marine Brigade.

The U.S. forces on Kauai seem to be able to hold their breath, or perhaps because they were suppressed by artillery fire, the vanguard was not attacked in an organized manner, only sporadic bullets were fired.

After that, every few minutes, a large column of water splashed up, which was a coral reef or artificial obstacle under the water in front of the demolition landing site by the officers and men of the beach-grabbing Election Battalion.

At 8:33, 27 carrier-based aircraft from two Ziweiyuan-class ships carried out heavy bombing and strafing of the deep positions on Kauai Island.

At Zhou's request, eight of the Type 36 torpedo bombers were loaded with white phosphorus incendiary bombs, which set the entire field on fire, and the toxic ash smoke was as thick as a wall.

The communications staff officer of the 3rd Marine Brigade flew in a seaplane to observe the effect of the fire preparations, and he said that all the targets visible to the naked eye had been destroyed and that there were fire points everywhere.

Counting down to a minute, Zhou Changfeng stared at his watch, watching the second hand click and walk.

At 8:45, as the green flare flew into the blue sky, the first echelon of the landing team set off on time.

The first landing force consisted of the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 5th Regiment of the 3rd Marine Brigade, both of which were responsible for the 1st and 2nd Beachheads, respectively, and both reinforced with a floating tank battalion.

Looking down at the battlefield from top to bottom, I saw a whole row of landing craft heading towards the coastline, leaving white tracks like a huge comb across the sea.

When they were still more than 2,000 meters away from land, the four fire support ships also pinched the time and began to fire a salvo.

One rocket after another dragged the tail flames, roaring and heading straight for the landing site, and it is not an exaggeration to call it a hundred tigers running together.

The tide brought great trouble to the Ming army and disturbed the order of the first echelon.

The tiny landing craft became uncontrollable under their interference, and the trajectories of many of them became crooked.

When they were less than 400 meters away from the beachhead of A. 1, two landing craft had a serious collision, with more than a dozen casualties, and the deputy captain of the 3rd squadron of the 1st battalion was hit in the temple by the muzzle of a light machine gun, and he fell unconscious on the spot.

When the battalion was carrying out blasting and obstacle clearance operations, it found that there were two particularly huge coral reefs that could not be solved, so they set up buoys and smoke canisters there.

However, the waves engulfed and obscured one of the spots, causing a landing craft to run aground without knowing it, and the soldiers staggered to the ground, and the bottom of the boat was cut by the hard reef, and it came to rest.

The American artillery also opened fire at exactly this time, but only two field artillery units in the second-line positions were connected to the firing order.

Five of the eight 75mm field guns are still undestroyed, and an artillery ensign subconsciously thought of a strange connection - a gun designed by the French forty years ago, made by the Americans twenty years ago, is now being used to bombard the Chinese?

The high-explosive bomb flew straight to the Ming landing craft approaching the beachhead, and the No. 2 infantry landing craft of the Ming army's standard was made of wood, and only the pedals that could be put down in front were made of steel, which could only resist infantry shells, and could not withstand this level of direct fire.

Landing craft were constantly wrecked, and the surviving officers and men had to swim across the river with heavy individual equipment on their backs after falling into the water.

At 9:23, the first landing craft washed up on the beachhead.

As the bow pedals were lowered, a platoon of more than 40 officers and men streamed out of it, fanned out against the incoming bullets, and then lay on the ground and crawled towards the nearest crater or bunker.

Strictly speaking, however, two hours ago, soldiers from the beach-grabbing battalion had come ashore in powered kayaks.

At 10:10, the assembled 1st Battalion and 2nd Squadron began to try to advance in depth, but they were soon blocked by the American troops and could not advance.

Major Mu Xuewu, the battalion leader, also went ashore at this time, and before the temporary command post was set up, he personally went to the front line to command the troops available at hand to attack.

The tide caused half of the amphibious tanks to deviate from the landing site, and the three Type 35 amphibious tanks that successfully landed on the Jiayi beachhead immediately joined the battle.

The old 38.4mm tank gun was extremely weak, but no matter how bad it was, it was still a gun, not a machine gun.

Five machine-gun firing points were taken out one after another, and the appearance of tanks dealt a heavy blow to the morale of the American troops.

The U.S. troops, who were in a hurry, then brought in several Browning M2HB heavy machine guns and fired wildly at the Ming amphibious tanks.

Immediately, a Type 35 amphibious tank was destroyed by concentrated fire, first emitting white smoke and then blazing fire.

The front of the tank is riddled with bullet holes, which are not visible to people with dense phobias.

In the interwar period, when European armies were equipped with 37mm anti-tank guns, the naïve US military chose to use 12.7mm heavy machine guns as anti-tank weapons for regimental troops, and it was not until last year that they woke up from a dream and began to imitate the Pak35 anti-tank guns of the Germans.

After an hour of fierce fighting, after paying the price of 18 killed and 47 wounded, the 1st Battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment defeated the enemy in front of them, and roughly counted 50~60 enemies killed and 3 prisoners.

By 11:45, the 1st Battalion of the 5th Regiment had not only stabilized the 1st beachhead, but had also advanced 600 meters in depth, and a few of the top soldiers had even touched the perimeter of Lihue Airport.

In contrast to the smooth passage here, the Jiaer beachhead, a kilometer away, seems to have attracted too much attention from the US military?

Shells from the depths fell on the beach one after another, and the smoke and sand completely covered the place, and it was impossible to see anything.

Zhou Changfeng stood behind a thirty-fold binoculars resting on a tripod, carefully observing the battle situation.

According to experience, at this moment there is about a battalion of 12 howitzers firing at the 2nd beachhead.

As a matter of common sense, if the U.S. military in Kauai still has extra artillery, it should be impossible to remain silent, so this is probably all artillery.

He muttered: "Send a telegram to the fifth formation, asking to search the enemy's artillery positions in depth and suppress them, and ask for one or two destroyers to get closer to a thousand meters. ”

"Huh? A thousand meters?! ”

"No, eight hundred meters."

The 2nd Battalion of the 5th Regiment at the 2nd Beachhead suffered heavy losses as a result of heavy shelling, with more than 120 casualties and the destruction of a number of landing craft and supplies.

The twelve M2 105mm howitzers of the 45th Field Artillery Battalion of the US Army were scattered in the fortified rear bunkers, firing non-stop so that the barrels were red-hot, and the artillerymen did not need lighters to light cigarettes.

Within three hours of the start of the landing, 60 percent of the total casualties of the Ming army and 70 percent of the total loss of equipment were caused by these dozen howitzers.

In addition to several screen ships, the fifth formation sequence also includes the Beiluo Shimen light aircraft carrier and two seaplane carriers.

Among them, the Beiluo Division's gate was originally conceived to serve as a part-time air defense and shore support for the fleet, but people found that in reality it could not be taken into account at all, because the fighters taking off and patrolling had to be constantly rotated, and the take-off and landing capabilities of light aircraft carriers were relatively weak.

The light cruiser Yanoe ejected a seaplane and flew into the depths of Kauai to search for enemy artillery positions.

The 45th Field Artillery Battalion immediately stopped shelling and remained hidden, while more than a dozen anti-aircraft machine guns deployed nearby opened fire together.

The pilot was taken aback and hurriedly drove the plane away from this place of right and wrong.

"Hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire! I'm going to fly farther! ”

In the bridge of the Lu Xun, Zhou Changfeng witnessed this scene in its entirety, and the officers present also heard the pilot's voice in the radio frequency band.

"You're so cunning." Someone complained.

Thoughtful Zhou Changfeng looked at the island of Kauai in the distance, and said, "If they had a machine gun just now, they would definitely have opened fire, huh...... Let the gunboat take off. ”

At that time, when bidding for large seaplanes, Yanjing Uplink's work was directly rejected because it was expensive and bulky.

But the Air Force felt that it was very suitable for use as a gunboat machine, and Zhou's opinion was the same, so he placed orders for more than 20 planes one after another.

The resulting Type 39 heavy gunboat was equipped with 8mm or 12mm thick steel plates, 50mm bulletproof glass, double-layer self-sealing fuel tanks, and used the Army's Type 37 112mm infantry gun as the main weapon, in addition to two twin 12.8mm aviation machine guns.

This kind of four-engine large seaplane can only be carried by the Westlake-class seaplane carriers, and the Taihu Lake in the fifth formation carried three of them specifically for the expedition to Hawaii.

A special 40-ton crane lifted the heavy gunboat to the surface, which then accelerated into the open distance and then slowly took off from the sea.

After swerving slightly in the air, the heavy gunboat, with the call sign "Cormorant VII," calmly flew over the fleet and swooped down on Kauai like a goshawk.

(End of chapter)

.