In the Pacific Theater, a brutal island battle is still underway - the Battle of Kuah Island.

On 7 August last year, the U.S. military began a local counteroffensive, landing on Guadalcanal Island in the Solomon Islands, and waging a long-term battle with the Japanese army; at present, the two sides have engaged in more than 30 naval battles in more than five months, with both sides losing 24 destroyers and above combat vessels, and the U.S. Navy has lost about 3,300 killed and about 2,500 wounded; The Japanese Navy suffered 25,000 casualties.

Li Junhao knew that this battle was nearing the end, because the Japanese navy was no longer able to support the defenders on the island, and now the Japanese troops on Kuah Island should have starved to death more than half, and this most brutal strangulation battle was about to come to an end! At the same time, it was also the beginning of the crushing defeat of the Japanese army in the Pacific.

——

When the time came to February 20, Li Junhao received a battle report from the Allied Far East General Headquarters: The Battle of Kuah Island was over.

In this brutal and bloody battle, which lasted more than half a year, the US Navy and Army participated in the battle with 80,000 troops, with a total of about 5,000 killed, 6,700 wounded, and 24 warships, 3 transport ships, and about 250 aircraft.

The Japanese navy and army participated in the battle with 70,000 troops, a total of about 50,000 people were killed, and 24 warships, 16 transport ships, 892 aircraft, and 2,362 pilots were lost.

Among them, the Japanese army invested about 36,000 troops on Kuah Island, about 14,000 were killed in battle, more than 9,000 died of wounds and diseases or their whereabouts are unknown, a total of nearly 23,800 people died, and more than 1,000 people were captured.

In this protracted battle, the Japanese army not only suffered heavy losses in navy and aviation, but even the 2nd Division, the most elite of its army, and other units also suffered huge losses, and the losses of large warships, aircraft, and skilled pilots were even more irreparable by the Japanese army.

Li Junhao laughed out loud, he knew that after the end of the Battle of Kuah Island, the strategic posture of the United States and Japan in the Pacific Ocean was completely changed, the Japanese army's superiority in naval and air forces was gone, the strategic initiative was lost, and it would have to switch from strategic offensive to strategic defense.

The US military will use the following period of time to speed up the preparation of land, sea, and air forces, and will have a major strategic counteroffensive in a few months!

He wondered how he could play a greater role in the counteroffensive operation.

At this time, he had a goal in mind: to win a few more battles, and to become a five-star general after the war, just to replace MacArthur, who was kicked out of the army by himself, and write it in the military history of the United States! ——

In mid-March, the commander of the Japanese Burma Front, Yamashita Fumi, and the 5th Division came to Bangkok from the Malay Peninsula to establish the front headquarters, and then the 48th Division drawn from the 14th Army attacking the Philippines and the 38th Division drawn from the 16th Army occupying the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) also arrived one after another.

At present, the main force of the 105th Battle Group of the Allied 101st Army is stationed in Nakhon Sawan, which is only more than 200 kilometers away from Bangkok, but both sides maintain a certain degree of restraint because they are not ready for battle.

The first to attack was the 10th Air Force in the Indo-Burma Theater, and its P-40 squad continued to intercept and kill the Zero fighters of the 21st Independent Flying Group of the Japanese Army in the airspace southwest of Thailand, shooting down 26 of its planes in half a month in mid-to-late March, but only 4 of its own, and the pilots were all rescued by the Allied rescue team!

The 21st Flying Squadron, which could not withstand such losses, had to cower in the skies over Bangkok and became an airport escort.

This situation made General Yamashita both angry and helpless, and he could only urge the country to bring the newly formed 19th Air Force as soon as possible, but in view of the current battlefield situation, it was necessary to send it to the Malay Peninsula and Phnom Penh first, and then go forward to regain air supremacy after the large aircraft group was in place.

——

Li Junhao, on his side, basically stayed in Mandalay all the time, mainly staring at the training of the 50,000 recruits from northern Shaanxi, and occasionally went to Tonggu and Li Qiwei to discuss the latest airborne tactics......

In this process, he also specially designed a compact all-terrain vehicle using a motorcycle engine, and several prototypes were built by the maintenance brigade of the logistics brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division, which were respectively equipped with heavy weapons such as Gaoping dual-purpose M2 heavy machine guns, 20mm aviation cannons, automatic grenade launchers, and recoilless guns, which were well received by the airborne troops after trial.

At present, the drawings of this all-terrain vehicle have been sent back to China, and Ernst will arrange trial production and send it to the War Department for inspection, which is believed to be another large order. At present, the first batch of airborne all-terrain vehicles and supporting special amplification parachutes have been shipped from China and will be sent to Myanmar in half a month.

This incident made Li Junhao's prestige in the 82nd Airborne Division much higher, and Li Qiwei was also grateful to him, with an armed all-terrain vehicle that could accompany the soldiers to parachute, it could greatly enhance the heavy firepower level of the airborne troops, so that the airborne troops could fight better at the same time, and increase their battlefield survivability, which was of course extremely important to him, the commander-in-chief.

The assiduous consciousness and speed of progress in the training of recruits in northern Shaanxi surprised and admired all the officers and men of the US army and the expeditionary forces, and Sun Liren and other Kuomintang generals said to Li Junhao in private: When you see these recruits, you can see the future of the underground party -- a force with faith, well-trained, well-equipped, and complete tactics will be a terrible force!

In this regard, Li Junhao said on the surface that he needed such an army to fight the Japanese army, and the stronger the better! In his heart, he is secretly happy, which is exactly what he is for!

In the eyes of outsiders, the two met either at a military meeting, or because of training and equipment issues, it seems that they have never had private contact, but only the two know that they have long had a heart-to-heart relationship!

Speaking of which, Peng Xuefeng is the general named by Li Junhao, in addition to the fact that he knows that he is an excellent commander and military strategist, and more importantly, in his original history, he will die in a battle in the second half of next year, and he hopes to change this ending.

——

In April, Li Junhao suddenly thought of one thing, contacted the CIA in China, and asked it to strengthen cooperation with the Naval Intelligence Bureau, strengthen the decipherment of Japanese naval telegrams near the Solomon Islands in the near future, and strive to find an opportunity to kill the Japanese Navy Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku who was in the area!

Donovan and Wen Qiang, who presided over the work of the CIA, were very puzzled, but they still faithfully carried out his orders, and soon really got the news, which made the CIA and the Naval Intelligence Bureau shocked General Pansen!

(End of chapter)