.Chapter 33 The final counterattack

During the day of July 27, the Japanese troops on Iwo Huang Island launched a desperate counterattack.

At noon that day, the Japanese army gathered nearly a thousand officers and soldiers, half of whom were armed non-combatants, and launched an attack on the Marine-controlled airport.

The battle was very fierce, and the Marines suffered the most severe test since landing.

Affected by the particle storm, the Marines not only did not launch an attack during the day, but also ordered that no open air activities were allowed at noon, and all Marines were hiding in underground bunkers. As a result, when the Japanese army launched a counterattack against the scorching sun, the Marines did not react at all.

It was only when the Japanese army approached about two hundred meters that the Marines discovered it.

According to the previous method, the front-line commander of the Marine Corps first called for fire support. Within two minutes, two cruisers and two destroyers hovering near Iwo Yu Island opened fire first, and six large-caliber electromagnetic guns fired hundreds of shells in the first round of strikes.

The artillery fire was very fierce, but it failed to eliminate all Japanese troops.

As the Japanese approached, artillery support began to weaken, and Marine Corps officers and soldiers had to swallow radiation-proof drugs and put on special radiation-proof suits to fight the Japanese army.

Fortunately, after shelling, the Japanese counterattack power had been greatly weakened.

The close-range battle lasted only more than ten minutes. With the call of machine guns, automatic grenade launchers, mortars, small-caliber machine guns and hand grenades, the Japanese army left hundreds of corpses on the Marines' defensive positions, and a few Japanese troops who escaped by chance retreated back to Zhebo Mountain.

The Marines suffered little damage in this short and fierce battle.

But the battle is not over yet.

At less than two o'clock in the afternoon, when the Marine Corps officers and soldiers believed that the Japanese army was unable to counterattack, the battle started again, and the Japanese army launched an attack in a way that the Marine Corps did not expect.

At that time, the Japanese army used manpower to dig an underground tunnel leading directly to the airport from Zhebo Mountain within three days.

It must be admitted that the Japanese army is indeed very tenacious.

In order to destroy the airport, the Japanese army accumulated tons of strong explosives at the end of the tunnel.

The violent explosion left a bomb crater with a diameter of more than 20 meters and a depth of more than 20 meters on the ground, killing hundreds of Marine officers and soldiers in more than a dozen nearby underground bunkers, and shattering more than 20 underground bunkers, causing nearly 300 Marine officers and soldiers to be killed and killed.

After the explosion, more than 200 Japanese troops lurking hidden near the position launched an attack.

At this time, the artillery fire strike was useless.

When the forces of both sides intertwined, the warships did not dare to fire easily.

Because the battle happened very suddenly, most of the Marine Corps officers and soldiers rushed into the battle. Before rushing to the surface position, only a few took anti-radiation drugs, and most of them did not wear anti-radiation suits and directly fought with the Japanese army under the scorching sun.

The battle lasted for about half a day, and as the last Japanese army was eliminated, the Marine Corps officers and soldiers retreated into the underground bunker.

In order to avoid unnecessary casualties, Pang Yuelong immediately issued an order after the battle, prohibiting any officers and soldiers from being exposed to the surface positions. Only military doctors who are prepared for protection can treat the wounded. As for the bodies of officers and soldiers on the positions, they can only wait until dark before being treated.

In this battle, 187 Marines were killed and 265 were disabled.

In addition, nearly 500 officers and soldiers were seriously burned due to exposure to the sun for more than an hour under the scorching sun, and more than 300 of them died of illness within two years.

This is the most casualty battle since landing on Iwo Huang Island.

Before that, the number of Marines killed less than one hundred

Although Pang Yuelong took the initiative to take responsibility after the war and did not implicate grassroots officers, the main responsibility lies with grassroots officers, according to the situation at that time, the main responsibility lies with grassroots officers. According to the post-war investigation, after the battle at noon, most grassroots officers did not remain vigilant, but instead let the soldiers who returned to the underground bunker take off their radiation protection suits, and some grassroots officers left the command post in the name of reporting on the war situation. If the highest vigilance was maintained at that time and the defense was arranged strictly in accordance with tactical tactics, such as taking turns to arrange posts, the Japanese army would not have succeeded in sneak attacks. If the grassroots officers were all in the command post, there would not have been so many soldiers who were not ready to go into the battle after the outbreak, and the small-scale battle against only 200 Japanese troops would have lasted for an hour and a half.

Of course, Pang Yuelong also has an unshirkable responsibility.

For example, before this, Pang Yuelong believed that the Japanese army had lost its counterattack ability when retreating to Zhebo Mountain, so he placed all the armored forces of the Marines near Zhebo Mountain, and only a few self-propelled anti-aircraft guns were deployed around the airport. Moreover, the main task of these anti-aircraft guns was to bombard the Japanese firepower points on Zhebo Mountain. If there was an armored force near the airport at that time, even if there were only a few tanks or infantry fighting vehicles, the Japanese counterattack would not have caused such a huge loss, and the Japanese army would not have the courage to launch a counterattack.

You should know that the Japanese army did not have suitable anti-armor weapons.

Even if the Japanese army launched a counterattack, the Marine Corps officers and soldiers could enter the battle more calmly with the support of armored weapons such as tanks and tanks.

After suffering, Pang Yuelong immediately adjusted his defense deployment.

In the afternoon of the same day, he sent a tank platoon to the airport and set several tanks as fixed firepower points.

However, after this, the Japanese army did not launch a decent counterattack again, and at most hid on Zhebo Mountain and fired cold guns at the Marine Corps officers and soldiers a few kilometers away.

At that time, the Japanese army did not have much force.

After the battle ended on the afternoon of the 27th, less than 200 Japanese troops trapped in Zhebo Mountain, and about 100 wounded people were left.

Because there were no anti-radiation drugs, the situation of these Japanese troops was very difficult.

To put it bluntly, the surviving Japanese troops suffered severe particle radiation, and even if the Marines didn't fight, they would be ruined in a few days.

According to the Japanese military's combat records, more than half of the survivors had already developed symptoms of radiation.

When the Marine Corps occupied Zhebo Mountain, only twenty-two Japanese officers and soldiers survived. Although they were immediately sent to the "Sun Simiao" medical ship and received timely treatment, none of them survived until a week later and all died of severe radiation diseases.

Of course, these twenty-two Japanese officers and soldiers did not die in vain.

Through them, the military doctors on the "Sun Simiao" mastered the main characteristics of the later symptoms of particle radiation disease, obtained first-hand information on the treatment of particle radiation disease, provided help for the later development of more efficient antiparticle radiation drugs, and laid the foundation for saving more people.

If neither side turns and slows down, they will encounter it within an hour.
Chapter completed!