.Chapter 121 Singing and Progressing

On the battlefield, the situation has not improved.

In the face of the panicked People's Army, the US military's No. 6th Fighting Division was invincible, and even the reserve divisions of the 6th Korean Army showed high combat effectiveness.

What determines the degree of ground attack in the coalition forces is not how powerful the ground troops are, but how powerful the support force is.

During the first twelve hours of the attack from Hamxing, the 16th War Division mainly provided firepower support by the US Air Force deployed in South Korea and the South Korean Air Force. In order to enhance its strike force, the US military also used a second cruise missile nuclear submarine shortly after the ground attack began, and fired hundreds of "Tomahawk" cruise missiles at the People's Army fortress on the route of the attack of the 16th War Division. Then, he arrived in the substitute of the 71st Special Mixed Fleet and began to dispatch carrier-based fighters to provide support to the ground forces. The escort warships also used cruise missiles to participate in the combat operations.

At this time, the 71st Special Mixed Fleet was the only aircraft carrier battle group of the coalition forces on the battlefield.

Because the aircraft carrier battle group has always undertaken high-intensity ground support tasks, the US military has incorporated six aircraft carriers into two special-mix fleets and took turns to the field. The 71st special-mix fleet returned to Japan's naval base for rest.

The 71st Special Mixed Fleet has been resting in Xinyu Port for five days.

The officers and soldiers who came ashore had already recovered, but the warships that were harboring were still maintaining. The high-intensity combat missions greatly shortened the maintenance cycle of aircraft carriers, especially key equipment such as catapults and obstruction cables, which needed timely maintenance. Five days were obviously not enough.

When I received the order and left Xinhuan, the 71st Special Mixed Fleet was not in good condition.

None of the three aircraft carriers were able to complete all maintenance operations as required.

The most serious problem is the most critical equipment on the aircraft carrier: the steam catapult.

Before the "Ford" class was completed and put into service, the US aircraft carriers were equipped with steam catapults, and the "Nimitz" class was equipped with the C-13 series. According to the US military's maintenance code, even the more new type of C-13-3 catapults must be maintained after 2,500 use. During the non-war period, the US military's maintenance cycle for the C-13-3 was 2,000 to ensure that the catapult was in its best condition.

During combat operations, it is not difficult to use the catapult 2,500 times.

A Nimitz-class aircraft carrier has four steam catapults. During high-intensity combat operations, the intensity of the sunrise is definitely more than 200 times. On August 13, when the Western Front Army advanced to the south bank of Huangzhou Sichuan, the Lincoln of the 71st Special Mixed Fleet set the latest record of 378 times of the sunrise. Even at other times, the daily momentum of the US aircraft carrier-based aircraft carriers was more than 200 times.

In theory, it only takes one and a half months to overhaul the four catapults on the aircraft carrier.

The actual situation is that at most one month, the aircraft carrier's catapult can't stand it anymore because before heading to the battlefield, the US aircraft carrier did not return to port for maintenance, and the catapult was not in its best condition.

When the 71st Special Mixed Fleet retreated, the three catapults on the Lincoln and the two catapults on the Bush were close to the overhaul period. The average usage of the four catapults on the Reagan was over 1,200 times, and they could only perform combat missions of ten days at most.

With the state of the 71st Special Mixed Fleet, it would be great to be able to perform a week of high-intensity combat missions.

The coalition's offensive plan was based on this foundation.

According to General Aron's requirements, the 16th War Division must advance along the coastline of the East Korea Bay to Seongjin Bay within a week, posing a threat to the largest Cheongjin Port in Northeast Korea. After that, the 16th War Division will rest in Jince and prepare to welcome the full-scale counterattack of the Volunteers.

If this battle is fought well, the situation will become very beneficial to the coalition forces.

The straight-line distance between Chengjin Bay and Qingjin Port is less than 100 kilometers, which is within the maximum range of the m27o long-range rocket launcher. Therefore, the coalition forces can use ground fire to strike and block Qingjin Port.

This means that Chinese submarines can no longer stay in Qingjin Port.

Because in Northeastern North Korea, only the Cheongjin Port has relatively complete military infrastructure that can support the conventional submarines of the Chinese Navy, after the safety of Cheongjin Port cannot be guaranteed, Chinese submarines entering the Sea of ​​Japan will not be reliable and their combat capabilities will be greatly reduced.

Although theoretically speaking, after entering the Sea of ​​Japan and completing combat missions, Chinese submarines can return from the Korean Strait or the Sogo Strait, without a forward base, the combat deployment time of conventional submarines in the Sea of ​​Japan will never exceed five days.

It is almost impossible to achieve a record in such a short time.

More importantly, for these five days of combat deployment time, the submarine has to spend 35 days entering and leaving the Sea of ​​Japan, and has to rest and maintain it in the rear for ten days, with combat efficiency of only 10%. If it can be deployed at the port of Kiyoto, the combat efficiency of conventional submarines in the Sea of ​​Japan can exceed 70%.

To achieve the same combat effect, six times the submarine force is required.

Let’s not talk about whether the Chinese Navy has so many conventional submarines, such low combat efficiency is unacceptable.

If Chinese submarines cannot perform combat missions normally in the Sea of ​​Japan, the coalition's maritime supply line will have no worries, and the ground combat troops will have no worries.

In addition to changing the maritime combat environment, the situation of the coalition forces on the ground battlefield will also be completely changed.

After capturing Jince Port on the west bank of Chengjin Bay, the coalition forces only need to take one step forward to capture Jizhou, the center of Jtong hub in northeastern North Korea.

From Jizhou, the coalition forces could not only go north to attack Qingjin Port, but also attack Huishan in the upper reaches of the Yalu River to the northwest.

Although the railway j-transport system in northeastern Korea is completely independent, it can only go south along the coastline, from the plateau between Hamhung and Wonsan to the west, and into the railway network in the western region, the railway will terminate when it reaches Huishan. If you want to attack Jiangjie and Shinyiju, you either go down the Yalu River or take a road to cross the Gaima Plateau. The Yalu River is a Sino-Korea border river and belongs to a sensitive area. The coalition ground forces that rely heavily on logistics support will not bet on unreliable roads, so the possibility of advancing from Huishan to the west is not great. However, the military value of Huishan must not be underestimated. If the volunteers enter North Korea from the north bank of the Tumen River, the coalition can limit the battlefield to the northeastern North Korea by occupying Jizhou and Huishan. If the volunteers cross the Yalu River, the coalition can leave from Huishan and attack the flanks of the volunteers.

It can be said that as long as the 16th War Division successfully completes its combat mission, even if the ground war begins, the coalition forces will still take the initiative in the battlefield.

Because the ground forces of the Volunteer Army have not yet entered North Korea and the air force has not been fully restored, the coalition forces have only one difficulty, their own extreme combat capabilities.

It is not easy to advance from Ham Hung to Kim Ce within a week and follow North Korea's rugged highways for more than 200 kilometers.

Two days before the attack, except for the more tenacious resistance in Xinpu, the coalition forces had almost never encountered the People's Army that built the war.

Along the way, the biggest trouble for the coalition forces was to repair bridges and tunnels that were blown up by the People's Army and clear mines on the road.

A few hours after leaving Shinpu, the 16th War Division had to put the engineering troops in front and let the armored forces acting as vanguards slow down.

In the first forty-eight hours, the coalition forces lost hundreds of engineers.

The progress was not smooth, which seemed to indicate that the offense would not have a good result.

But in other aspects, the coalition forces did not encounter any problems as expected.

By the third day, the air force of the Volunteer Army did not appear, or did not pose a threat to the coalition ground forces. Although when the 16th War Division attacked Hongyuan, the Volunteer Army's fighter planes crossed the Yalu River again and challenged the coalition forces, the US air-controlling fighter planes, which were ready to attack immediately, gave the opponent a headache, and drove away the enemy planes effortlessly, and did not threaten the ground forces.

What the coalition ground forces need to do is to speed up the progress and do not take 1 time.

On this day, two things happened. One was that the "Sea Snake" that arrived at Qingjin Port completed the maintenance operation and once again had the ability to leave the port for combat. After the supplementary torpedo was delivered, Wang Yuhan was able to lead the "Sea Snake" to sea again to challenge the coalition's maritime hegemony. The other was that the "Sea Dragon" that had been hiding in the sea of ​​Japan for several days finally appeared, and entered Qingjin Port that night.

Because it was not attacked by coalition anti-submarine forces and did not consume much missiles during combat, the "Sea Dragon" only needs to stay in Qingjin Port for a few hours to replenish fuel for the system and carry out basic maintenance, and then it can go to sea with the "Sea Snake".

There are not many two submarines, but they are better than nothing.

In order to commend the heroic performance of the officers and soldiers of the "Hailong" in combat and their great contributions, Huang Zhibo personally awarded the special combat medal to Safimo, while the "Hailong" was awarded the collective special merit. Because Huang Zhibo was a general of the 6th Army and Xu Fantao had important tasks, Zhou Yusheng, the volunteer naval submarine combat staff, presented the medal to Safimo and others.

Mu Haoyang went to Qingjin Port with Zhou Yusheng.

He did not go to present medals to the submarine soldiers, but discussed new combat missions with Wang Yuhan and Safimo.

There are also a group of pilots who escaped from parachuting during the counterattack in the actual control area of ​​the coalition forces. Although these pilots have joined the guerrillas behind enemy lines, the coalition forces have strengthened the blockade on the front line, and the guerrillas cannot send the pilots back, so special forces must be sent over.

Under Mu Haoyang's struggle, the Volunteer Army Command gave this glorious and arduous task to the amphibious special forces.

Without air supremacy, submarines are the only delivery tool to go deep behind enemy lines.

For this reason, while the "Sea Snake" was still under maintenance, the Navy sent the pressure relief chamber over. Because he didn't expect the "Sea Dragon" to come back at this time, there was only one pressure relief chamber.

However, the return of the "Sea Dragon" has greatly increased the success rate of special infiltration operations.
Chapter completed!