From the perspective of the American fleet, the target beach was completely covered in flames and smoke, and the sailors thought that the bombing and artillery bombardment had been so successful that they should have greatly weakened the enemy.

"Sir! We can't find any targets to attack anymore. The captain of the USS California said confidently.

As far as the eye could see, the entire beach had been scorched by the terrible and indiscriminate bombardment, and the island was dead silent, with no sign of the activities of the Ming army.

Brigadier General Charles White, commander of the 7th Division, agreed with the naval judgment that the Kauai Ming army must have suffered heavy losses after such heavy artillery preparations, and he estimated that it would only take three to four days to retake the island.

However, on the other side of the battlefield......

With Zhou Changfeng's order, Yu Daixin and a major who were a few steps away actually said eagerly in unison: "Fire!" ”

Holding the microphone in his right hand and the bottom of the microphone in his left hand, the captain's communications staff officer said nervously: "All units fire according to the original plan, and all departments fire according to the original plan!" ”

This final silence lasted about six seconds, and from the seventh second, the anti-tank guns in the concealed bunkers on the forward positions suddenly erupted from their muzzle flames, firing the first shot of the Ming army's defensive battle on Kauai.

The famous LCVP landing craft has not yet appeared, and the US military is now using the LCM landing craft copied from the British army, which is 14 meters long, 4.3 meters wide, has a displacement of 29 tons, and has a maximum speed of 7.5 knots.

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Compared to a tank, this large, slow target is almost like a live target.

The 48mm armor-piercing blast projectile fired by the Type 38 anti-aircraft gun flew towards the target a kilometer away, easily penetrating the bow armor of the landing craft only 0.25 inches (6.35 mm) thick, and then exploded inside.

It's like throwing a grenade into a crowd, blood splattering everywhere, and screams of pain one after another!

Like the mainstream anti-tank guns, the Type 38 also uses a semi-automatic wedge bolt, which automatically opens and exits the empty shell after each shot, and the loader only needs to load in new shells.

In just one minute, half of the landing craft that were about to rush onto the beach were hit, and the worst one was the one in charge of the Lanyi beachhead, which suffered six piercing bombs in a row, and only six or seven of the army officers and men in the platoon were still able to move.

One of the landing craft that hit the cockpit lost control and yawed to the left, and the one on the left could not dodge and could only watch as it crashed into it......

While the anti-tank guns in the forward positions were getting more and more aggressive, the positions of the Mountain Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Marine Brigade remained silent - according to the plan, they would wait until the enemy had already come ashore and began to seize the beach before launching the shelling.

Ten seconds later, at the Red II beachhead, the landing craft numbered LCM-124 was the first to rush onto the beach.

Next, the rest of the landing craft on the entire front also rushed to the golden sand beach under the bright sun one after another.

On the left and right sides of the boat were corpses and wounded leaning against the bulkheads—all of which had been killed and wounded by anti-tank guns.

The pedals on the front of the landing craft were lowered and slammed into the ground.

"Once on land, we must take out the nearby enemy and take control of the landing area!"

Sergeants and officers shouted "go" repeatedly, and the U.S. soldiers in the boat passed between the corpses and the wounded on either side, their boots stomping on the blood of their comrades before stepping onto the sand.

They rushed out with Garand semi-automatic rifles and rushed to the front of the sudden opening.

However, there were thunderous roars in the direction of depth, and the sound of rolling artillery excited the Ming officers and men and frightened the American officers and men.

80mm and 112mm anti-personnel blasting shells fell one after another, and the Mountain Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Marine Brigade directly fired at the beachhead according to the shooting elements that had been measured long ago.

In the midst of the scream, shells fell in graceful parabolic trajectories.

In a very short period of time, dozens of bombing sites appeared in the 2,500-meter-long landing area from south to north, and the entire beachhead was quickly enveloped in gunpowder smoke from the explosion.

A 112mm anti-explosive bomb landed impartially only two meters to the right of a landing craft, setting off a wave nearly 20 meters high.

Not far away, several panicked infantrymen were still struggling whether to lie down or disperse first, and a shell landed in front of them.

The flames appeared, the smoke and dust overflowed, the stumps and severed arms flew into the sky with blood mist, and the fragments of khaki military uniforms slowly fell......

Within five minutes of the battle, the first wave of US landing troops suffered losses of more than 300 men.

The 7th Infantry Division, lacking a baptism of battle, performed poorly and in disarray, with many companies cowering.

Many soldiers were so shocked by the tragic scene that they hid behind the shattered concrete cube obstacles, and some even ran back to the landing craft.

In the mortar bunkers, soldiers in gear up continuously put shells into the muzzles, and the mortars fired with a crisp thudding sound.

The shells that fell from the sky blew up the American soldiers who were still in place, and they were in a dilemma.

Before the operation began, the U.S. military made a clever decision to send a few tanks up in the first wave of the attack to provide cover and support for the infantry.

However, the real situation was very different from what the staff officers had imagined, and the M2A4 light tank, which had finally been driven off the landing craft, was simply a mobile target.

Anti-aircraft guns, anti-aircraft machine guns, anti-aircraft guns, recoilless guns...... All kinds of anti-tank weapons gathered together to catch fire on the American tanks, and the weak light tanks were quickly destroyed and turned into steel coffins worth more than $10,000.

The beach was littered with the corpses of American soldiers, the wreckage of various weapons and equipment could be seen everywhere, and the beachhead was soaked in blood red.

In the morning, the golden sand beach is turned into blood-stained gold in the bright sun!

Company F of the 17th Regiment, which was in charge of the Blue Second Beachhead, showed the bravest performance, and although some officers and men were missing due to the disorganization, they still managed to launch an attack.

They rushed to the forward position of the Ming army in front of the left, trying to capture it.

Nothing happened for the first few hundred meters, there was no movement on the side of the positions that had been indiscriminately bombarded, and the enemy had either retreated or died?

When the distance was less than 70 meters, someone triggered the tripwire, and the anti-infantry jumping mine was thrown up and exploded violently.

Steel balls and short steel rods burst out in all directions, and a large piece of the surrounding American troops was knocked down in the blink of an eye.

Immediately afterwards, the noise of the battlefield was pierced by the sharp and piercing whistle, grenades, mortars, bazookas, light machine guns, heavy machine guns, submachine guns, ...... All sorts of weapons fire almost simultaneously!

All kinds of firepower were overwhelmingly beckoned, and the US troops, who had been fired back at such a close range, were suddenly in a mess, and completely became a live target in the eyes of the Ming officers and men.

"Listen up! Fast in and fast out! Fast in and fast out! ”

"Kill!"

"Beep-beep-"

Defending this place was a reinforced platoon of the 3rd Brigade and 5th Regiment, and the lieutenant who led the team immediately ordered a countercharge.

The U.S. troops, who had just been attacked in a hurry, had not yet come to their senses, and were still lying on the ground shooting indiscriminately, and in the face of the Ming Marine infantry who suddenly jumped out of their positions and rushed in shouts, they immediately became in chaos.

Soon someone turned around and fled, but this was quite clever, in fact, most of the rookie army infantry was still in a state of blindfolding.

Captain Fred, the commander of F Company, yelled eagerly, but was quickly blown down by a rocket-propelled grenade, and by the time he opened his eyes in pain, dozens of figures had already rushed more than ten meters away.

Fred drew his pistol and fired three shots in quick succession to knock down one of them, and was immediately shot with a 9.6×20mm punch.

Company F's offensive collapsed in an instant, and the panicked American soldiers fled back, and people were constantly hit to the ground by bullets flying from behind......

The Ming army only pursued and killed less than 100 paces away, and only half of the more than 100 people in F Company who participated in the attack fled back.

More than 30 corpses were scattered along the 120-metre-long road, most of them shot in the back, thrown to the ground, and heading to the beach, many of which were trailing with long crawling marks and blood trails behind them.

An hour and a half later, the scene was filmed by a reporter accompanying the 3rd Marine Brigade.

In the afternoon, aboard the battleship Colorado, Commodore Charles White stared unblinkingly at the beach.

In radio communications, American officers on the beachhead were hysterically shouting for fire support and reinforcements.

It has only been half a day since the landing, and the casualties of the ten companies in the first wave of landings have probably reached one-third or even more, what a terrible number!

The first wave of attacks made no progress, and not a single position was captured from the Red Beach to the Yellow Beach Head, and more than 1,000 officers and men were suppressed by the Ming army on a beach about 2,500 meters long from north to south and less than 200 meters deep.

The severity of the battle made some people in the division tremble...... Is it still necessary to send a second wave of troops?

At the same time, Zhou Changfeng was quite surprised by this situation, and he found that he had overestimated the combat effectiveness of the US army.

If you think about it carefully, the US Army today has not yet experienced the tempering of war, and it is extremely lacking in actual combat experience, and it is estimated that ordinary land battles will not be able to fight well, let alone complex amphibious operations.

According to the confession of a captured wounded, the 7th Infantry Division, which had been well garrisoned on Oahu, suddenly received an order to counterattack Kauai, and then came in a daze on a landing craft.

Zhou Changfeng didn't know whether to be angry or laugh - even the pre-war drills were omitted, and the U.S. military regarded itself as a soft persimmon?

"Tut-tut, it can be described as a careless disregard for human life." Yu Daixin shook his head slightly, and speculated: "I'm afraid that the upper-level elites are too anxious and force the attack." ”

Zhou originally expected that the U.S. military could capture the forward position today, but now it seems that there is no play.

In fact, he did not deploy too many troops on the front line at all, and the forward positions were very weak, which was essentially used for vigilance and surveillance, and at the same time covered the anti-aircraft artillery and mortars.

No, why are you so vegetable, U.S. military, you are advancing!

Zhou Changfeng picked up a stack of documents and shook it, and said hatefully: "What to do, it seems that the plan made in a hurry has been done in vain." ”

Everyone in the command laughed.

Then Zhou Changfeng restrained his smile and muttered: "The enemy's large army must find a solid landing site, and tomorrow they will probably choose a little to attack." ”

According to the information confessed by the captives, everyone also knew that they had miscalculated—the enemy was not attacking one or two regiments, but the entire 7th Infantry Division, and Oahu was reinforced by the 501st Airborne Regiment.

But this is nothing, the poor performance of the US military today has doubled Zhou Changfeng's confidence, not to mention that he has already made all preparations.

The main forces at his disposal were more than 7,000 men in the 3rd Marine Brigade and more than 2,700 people in the 7th Regiment of the 4th Marine Brigade, and the total number of these specialized infantry units was just 10,000.

In addition, there were also ground support units that arrived with the air force units, and the third service detachment of the air force had more than 400 people.

In addition to these, after some of the warships were sunk, the crews did not evacuate with the fleet, but formed into armed sailors, with a total of more than 300 people.

Air Force ground crews and Navy personnel also received emergency training and were issued weapons and equipment — U.S. weapons captured during the capture of Kauai were just in use.

Compared with the forward position built by the drafting rate, the next three lines of defense are a more solid moat.

The second and third lines of defence are expected to be completed in six and seventeen days.

The third line of defense, still under construction, surrounds the headquarters at the southern foot of Mount Cavichini, and the soldiers have adapted the terrain to the natural cave to a hiding cave and a hidden firing point.

All bunkers and strong support points are not allowed to exist alone, they must be horns of each other, able to cover each other, and there is a certain overlap in their respective shooting ranges, eliminating dead spots as much as possible.

It makes sense that those sturdy support points are named "sturdy" -

The engineer battalion of the 3rd Marine Brigade is reinforced with steel plates and I-beams, which can withstand direct hits of 105mm high-explosive shells, and also uses steel plates and levers to make a trap that can rise and fall up and down, and if the enemy approaches, the trap can be closed to prevent grenades and blasters from being thrown in.

In order to defend against the threatening flamethrowers, the entrance to the cave is artificially changed to an upward slope, and there are two consecutive turns, and all bunkers based on the cave should in principle have alternate exits and alternate vents.

The headquarters was even more impressive, the cave where it was located was already huge, and the Ming army had opened a total of five main entrances and exits and two alternate entrances, all of which had been remodeled to prevent flamethrowers.

The sappers also dug three wells overnight, and the supply was greater than the consumption, and the Ming officers and men in the headquarters even had the leisure to put beer in baskets and put it in the well water to chill.

The field hospital of the 3rd Marine Brigade is stationed in it, with a total of 280 beds; A good projector seized from a cinema in the city of Kauai County was also housed, but the fly in the ointment was that for the time being, there were only one and a third of the film's films.

Zhou Changfeng is very satisfied with this masterpiece, although there are many shortcomings, but considering the limited time, it is not satisfactory to be able to do this.

Brat! Impregnable!

At 16:24, the second wave of American troops came ashore, and the Ming army greeted them with artillery fire.

By the time the sun went down, the US forces were still trapped in the narrow landing area on the beachhead, and had not made an inch.

In a shelter unit located in the forward position of Yizi No. 3, Lieutenant Fan Canyuan of the 1st Battalion of the 6th Regiment was discussing problems with several non-commissioned officers.

“…… It's still quite adventurous, and you'll have to find a few daring ones. ”

"Relax, I'm out of the horse, and I can do it!"

Because the Battle of Demagi was the first time that the Ming army and the British army went head-to-head, the specific experience has since been used as a model for the whole army to study.

What impressed Fan Canyuan was that Zhou buried the duds dropped by the British planes in front of the position at that time, and detonated them when the British troops attacked, and the effect was outstanding.

Although he did not have a bomb on hand, he did have two...... Mine.

(End of chapter)