.At 4:00 a.m. on May 10, twenty nautical miles east of Saipan, the second largest and central island of the Mariana Islands.

At this moment, the sea surface of several kilometers around this area has been vaguely covered with shadows, covering as if there were few gaps. If it weren't for these black shadows with huge size differences, they would sway up and down with the waves from time to time, making people think that a new group of reefs has emerged here.

Of course this is not a reef, but a fleet composed of hundreds of ships of various types and implemented strict lighting controls.

In addition to some patrol ships on the periphery, the fleet can be divided into several layers from the outside and the inside. The first layer is several destroyers and light cruisers; the second layer is landing transport ships and some large landing crafts (medium and small landing crafts are all hidden in the arms of the landing ships). At the core of the entire fleet are a heavy cruiser and several logistics auxiliary ships.

The Dirk landing transport ship, parked slightly left at the center of the fleet, is a dock landing transport ship with a displacement of 8,700 tons. At this moment, two Chinese officers of similar age are standing silently on the fore deck braved the warm and strong sea breeze of the Central Pacific Ocean.

"Ah! It would be great if the Japanese fleet was undefeated so quickly!" Han Dongsheng, who had been staring at the vast night in front of him, let out a meaningful sigh.

Xu Jingren, who had a deep sense of his elders, also interspered with regret: "It doesn't matter if the Japanese are nervous, but they have cheated the more than 20,000 brothers. If they hadn't cooperated with the US infantry too unfamiliar with the fight, they would have said that they wouldn't ask General Doug for his own way!"

In fact, not to mention the Chinese officers and soldiers who suffered a lot, even General Doug, who was the most popular in his life, thinks of the Mariana Marine Battle, which has just become history, and is mixed with joy and sorrow.

As for why this is the case, it all has to start from late last month.

On April 27, two Japanese transport fleets successively anchored from the Sulphur Islands. Under the escort of Japanese land-based aircraft along the islands, they quickly moved closer to the Mariana Islands from different directions.

The U.S. Navy generals from Wuxia Amon, who had been in the early Pacific War, realized at the first moment how cruel and tricky the Japanese seemed to be.

Everyone with a little military knowledge understands that when this war is imminent, if the defenders of the Mariana Islands can receive strong reinforcements from the rear, they will have a harsh impact on the Allied forces' next military operations. This means that it is absolutely impossible to not implement maritime interception. From the current terrain situation, relying solely on the US surface ships, even if there are aircraft groups taking off from the Marshall Islands as a backing... it is thought that both the two teams of aircraft taking off from the vast sea and all annihilated the two teams with considerable strength and a large number of land-based aircraft provide air cover for them. However, they are still unable to meet the ground.

But if the ship's mother formation was dispatched, Spruins and others were afraid that they would fall into the Japanese army and lure their troops to the sea, so as to at least break the traps along the way. Although even if the Japanese were sold out, the strong US fleet might not be defeated, who would be willing to make a sea battle that was originally sure to win and win unpredictable.

The fight was fought against the steady faction led by General Spruins (Fifth Fleet) and the fighters who supported Lieutenant General Mitchell (Fifth Fleet) were irreconcilable. In the end, the commander-in-chief of the US Pacific Fleet, General Nimitz, personally decided on the strategy of competing with the US Pacific Fleet to fight.

Perhaps it was God's will! Lieutenant General Ozawa had less luck from beginning to end in this gamble planned by the Japanese side. Putting aside Ozawa who was waiting for the net in the waters north of the Mariana Islands, the 58th special mixed fleet with strong combat power among the two US fleets. The aviation commander on the Mariana Islands concealed his troops from Tokyo and Lieutenant General Ozawa for face reasons. The loss of more than half of the bad deeds in the previous air battle is enough to make this Japanese lieutenant who was an adjutant of the 56 Yamamoto General. You must know that without the strong cooperation of the land-based aviation forces, the Japanese First Fleet, which still seems to be weak in power, will never have a chance of winning.

As a result, the naval battle between aircraft carriers, which broke out at 9:00 a.m. on the 29th, lasted only five hours, and the 58th Special Mixed Fleet won the winner's crown alone.

Since the 58th Special Mixed Fleet does not need to put the safety of the landing fleet first in the history of the time and space where Cheng Jiaji came from. After defeating the Ozawa fleet, Mitchell's troops launched a thousand-mile pursuit of it, so that the Japanese Ozawa fleet was extremely defeated, and the space carrier alone lost seven ships (four ships in history).

Although this battle allowed the US military to control the sea and air power of the Mariana Islands, it forced the Allies to greatly accelerate the pace of occupying this area. In any case, the Allies could not watch the tens of thousands of defenders on the island who were determined to fight the trapped beasts, and the crazy fortifications day after day! They could not sit and wait for Tokyo, which was so angry that they could gather some seas and air forces to tangle!

So, after more than a week of precision shooting near the island and bombardment by the main US fleet, General Doug, who had arrived at Marshall to supervise the battle, finally waved his army to rush to the Mariana Islands, which had been cleaned by steel, and the time was set at a certain quarter of an hour that would soon arrive.

Just as Han Dongsheng and Xu Jingren sighed with grief, Cheng Jiaji, who was settled in the most luxurious cabin on the fleet flagship San Francisco, was so anxious that his eyes were red and the room was running around. Although they were both worried, they could hold up the burden on their shoulders, but Cheng Jiaji felt much more anxious and nervous than his subordinates.

Cheng Jiaji knew that he was very experienced in amphibious combat. The reason why he was willing to violate the taboo of military strategists and changed the formation to a new battle. He changed the tactics that originally only landed in one place in the southwest, and pushed the front line in the first line after the army went to the island to attack three sides, and each advanced to centripetal. He wanted to use nearly 100,000 troops to force the garrison to cross the 21-kilometer-long island, which was 8 kilometers widest, and more than 40,000 Japanese troops, including the 31st Army Command of the Japanese Army, to make up for the pre-war preparations of the Allied forces. It was generally inadequately carried out.

The task of the task force was to advance eastward from the west of the island to the Shanghai beach. Tosepan Island has many mountain peaks, hills, gullies, caves and land. Although the beach in the west of the island is not as full of cliffs as the Omaha Beach in Normandy, there are many natural defensive positions composed of two or three-meter high limestone layers that are not connected, it is very difficult. At the same time, this puts the task force in a dilemma, either honestly fighting a restraining attack and finally becoming a US military

foil; or at all costs, he would use the bodies of officers and soldiers to build a bloody road to the hinterland of Saipan. To be honest, Cheng Jiaji, who believed that the responsibility of a senior commander was to minimize his casualties as much as possible, was unwilling to take this second game. But he could not accept the first ending. Just as Cheng Jiaji had been thinking about it for a long time and wanted to give up the obsession in his heart. When he made up his mind to fight to the death, a thought flashed through his mind in a flash.

"Three treasures! I'm asking Qian to come here." Cheng Jiaji first sorted out his thoughts and shouted in a hurry.

An hour later, a news that all the participants of the New 150th Division were surprised and happy, and together with the order to transfer to the landing craft, they were conveyed to the Dirk. They will join the two battalions of the New 152nd Division to take the lead in the Saipan Island.

The army's life is like a mountain. Thousands of soldiers who were deeply inspired by the soldiers' persistence in honor were not too late to think about it, so they quickly stepped into landing crafts, which might be called more appropriate in the machinery.

The distance of twenty miles was not too far, and the landing craft were all driving at the highest speed. After about an hour and a half, the officers and soldiers saw the outline of the island in the distance. Of course, the officers and soldiers saw five or six destroyers and light cruisers coming from behind were desperately pouring shells onto the island from a nautical mile off the coast. It was dawn.

"Notify all ships to prosecute the war preparations for the last time!" Although he had already realized that the combat expertise of the two troops who were ordered to steal the beach happened to be one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them, one of them was the second major force of the Forty-Eighth Army, but Xu Jingren could not think about it further. After all, this was an extremely dangerous amphibious landing battle, and it was just a victory. A slight defeat would be the danger of the destruction of the entire army. How dare he not tremble without fear.

The communication squad leader holding the newly issued walkie-talkie quickly conveyed Xu Jingren's order to the communication soldiers scattered on the boats.

The landing craft formation flexibly bypassed the rows of warships and rushed towards the beach.

When it was more than 100 meters away from the beach, the Third Battalion, which was well on its way, encountered the first trouble. A medium-sized landing craft suddenly hit something fiercely, which immediately caused a strange shock to the hull. Not only did the steel guardrail of Zuoxian be knocked out into a large hole, but more than a dozen fully armed officers and soldiers were thrown into the sea from the opened landing mouth.

Fortunately, the troubles the brothers suffered on Yanbei Island were not in vain. Although the brothers who fell into the sea were thrown away one by one, they still quickly cut off their straps and gave up their backpacks, and crawled towards the land ahead with both hands and feet.

Seeing this, the landing craft behind him had bumped into a reef hidden underwater or the Japanese army buried a cement ship barrier, but in order to seize precious time, he rushed towards the beach without hesitation.

So, landing craft were playing bumper boats near the beach with the stumbling blocks beneath them.

After ten minutes of hard work, most of the brothers of the Third Battalion, who served as the arrows of the first landing troops, lay on the beach, but a considerable number of them were emitting the saline-alkali smell that was strange to the sea water.

"Look at the camp." The ninth company commander who approached Xu Jingren's ear pointed to the piece of rock that was about 100 meters long in front of him. He saw that it was three or four meters thick and one person tall, and asked loudly for instructions.

Xu Jingren, who was originally thinking about waiting for the tank platoon of the base to land, first looked at the rock formation that had been closely guarded by US military guns, then turned around and looked at the follow-up troops that were rushing to the beach, and then solemnly explained: "You lead the troops to attack from the front, you should be careful when you act. I guess there is a reputation behind this rock formation. In addition to using artillery fire from the entire battalion, I will let the Eighth Company deputy lead a reinforced platoon detour from the right wing.

"Yes!" The Ninth Company Commander was impatient. As soon as he said that, he half-beared and rushed forward. The officers and soldiers of the Ninth Company were very familiar with their company commander's temperament, and they started only half a beat slower than him.

Immediately afterwards, the detour troops also set off.

Looking at the backs of the two troops, Xu Jingren, who felt inexplicably uneasy, gritted his teeth and shouted at the top of his throat: "The whole camp gathers artillery and shells, and the rock formations ahead of the target."

After the full replacement, the third battalion equipped with artillery was more than twice as many as before. With Xu Jingren's call, groups of mortars and Makazu rocket shells immediately hit the top of the rock formation, causing rock fragments to splash everywhere.

Xu Jingren, who had never fought such a generous battle before, was extremely satisfied with the effect of the artillery. He thought that even if there was a small Japanese army stationed behind the rock formation, he would be suppressed. As long as the two troops attacked could seize the opportunity, this could be used as a barrier and as a starting point for advancing deep into the island, he would basically be obtained.

It’s a pity that the joy in Xu Jingren’s heart was just a flash in the pan.

"Dong, dong, dong..." The next moment, with the sudden sound of a dull heavy machine gun strait fire from the rock formation, Xu Jingren's face, who realized what he had missed, was pale and bloodless: His grandma, how did the Japanese build hidden firepower points inside the hard and crisp rock formation?!

In fact, it is no wonder that Xu Jingren, who was fighting on the island for the first time, must know that it was a coincidence that the Japanese army could lay two heavy machine gun fire points in this limestone layer. If the rock layer had not been washed by sea water for millions of years, the Japanese would have been perverted and could not have made such a trick. Moreover, one of the fire points was exposed by the artillery bombardment of previous warships, killing four or five Japanese. However, these two fire points also caused devastating losses to the Ninth Company that had already pushed the rock layer closer to it.

The platoon of machine gun fire that rushed into the head was all explained to the men's passion that surged out of the soldiers a hundred meters away from the rock formation, dyeing the golden and brilliant beaches reflected by the rising sun into a dark red that makes people feel depressing!

The remaining people in the Nine Corps were also pressed against the beach and could not move forward or retreat.

"Let the reinforced platoon of the Eighth Company not go deeper, let them block the Japanese firepower points from the side and support the Ninth Company!" In view of the bloody lesson, Xu Jingren did not dare to take risks again. He felt like a mirror in his heart that the three m3 light tanks in the camp could get ashore when they were young. At that time, the lifespan of the Japanese hiding in the rock formation was the end, and it was useless to run. No matter how long the Japanese's legs were, could they go faster than the shells?

Although it was not long before it could avenge the brothers of the Ninth Company, the shadow of unfavorable development still enveloped the hearts of every living officer and soldier in the Third Battalion!
Chapter completed!