On November 14, the landing fleet arrived at the battlefield under the escort of the First Fleet.

On that day, the First Fleet and the Second Fleet launched the most violent fire strike in several days on the scheduled landing site: Wanguu Island in the New Georgia Islands.

The New Georgia Islands are part of the Solomon Islands. In the northwest of Guadalcanal, Wonuu Island is about 300 kilometers away from Guadalcanal, just within the range of long-range artillery of the Marine Corps. Moreover, the US guards on the island are weak and have not built too many solid fortifications. More importantly, Wonuu Island is relatively flat. There is a US air base and two field airports on the island, and there is a sufficiently open coastal level, there is enough space to accommodate tens of thousands of officers and soldiers of four Marine Divisions, and more airports can be opened. In addition, the average water depth of the strait adjacent to New Georgia Island is more than 30 meters, which can be used for large ships of all levels to enter. It is an ideal anchorage and a mulberry dock for ships to temporarily dock. [..com]

These factors make Wangwunu Island the first choice for the Chinese Marine Corps.

Later, some people believed that the US military was too careless and did not build a solid defensive position on Wangwunu Island, and even did not deploy enough defensive forces.

Obviously, this view is simply untenable.

There are more than 100 islands in the Solomon Islands, of which the area is large enough to serve as a bridgehead for the Marine Corps. Even if the island is centered on Guadalcanal and within a radius of 400 kilometers, that is, the maximum range of long-range artillery of the Marine Corps cannons shall be based on the maximum range of Marines. If the US military fully builds defense facilities based on the standards of Guadalcanal and deploys considerable forces, then the engineering materials to be transported will not be tens of millions of tons, but hundreds of millions of tons, and all the US ground forces must be used. In other words, relying entirely on the construction of fortifications and strengthening defense deployment, the Solomon Islands cannot be defended at all.

Tactically speaking, guarding the archipelago is not about building a strong fortification or deploying a large number of ground troops, but about controlling sea and air supremacy. As long as there is sea and air supremacy, even if the fortifications are not built or deploying ground troops, it can be defended. When the sea and air supremacy are lost, guarding the island by strengthening ground defense can only delay the enemy's advance speed at most.

To put it bluntly, it is to do its best to make the Chinese Navy spend more time capturing the Solomon Islands.

During the war, time is everything.

With time, the US military can obtain more warships, reorganize its fleet, and have the opportunity to regain the Solomon Islands captured by the Chinese army.

In fact, this is the defensive strategy of the US military.

Judging from the situation at that time, as early as early as early 2053, after the US military gave up its march into Okinawa, France, who had just been promoted to commander of the Pacific Fleet, realized that sooner or later, the Chinese Navy would enter the Solomon Islands, and the US Navy would be unstoppable at that time, so it invested huge manpower and material resources, turning Guadalcanal into the most powerful military fortress in the southwestern Pacific in a very extreme way.

French did all of these to buy time for the US military.

In French's view, as long as the Chinese army can be held back in the Solomon Islands for a few months, the US Navy will be able to regain its sea control after its strength is restored.

Of course, it is obviously impossible to achieve this goal by relying solely on passive defense.

In fact, as long as the Chinese army disintegrates the combat capabilities of the US military on Guadalcanal, there is no need to attack the island.

From a tactical point of view, this is also the main reason why the Chinese Marine Corps attacked Wangwunu Island.

To put it bluntly, even if Guadalcanal has reserved enough supplies for the US military to live for a few years and the strong underground fortifications can protect the US military from fire, under the high pressure of the Chinese army, the US military cannot pose a threat to the Chinese Marines on nearby islands.

Next, the Chinese Marine Corps only needs to turn Wangu Nu Island into a bridgehead for entering the Australian continent.

However, the construction of the Chinese Marine Corps on Wangwunu Island is a process that cannot be completed in one day and will last at least several months.

For the US military, if we want to defend the Solomon Islands, in addition to preventing the Chinese army from capturing Guadalcanal Island, we also have to prevent the Chinese army from building military facilities on Wanwunu Island. The most direct way is to cut off the route. Obviously, the US military does not have this ability at all, so we can only try to make the Chinese army spend more time on Wanwunu Island. In other words, the US military must destroy the construction of the Chinese army, such as attacking ships transporting materials to Wanwunu Island, attacking military facilities and troops on the island, etc.

The only ones capable of performing this mission are the US Navy except for the aviation troops deployed in Australia.

At that time, French had already prepared for this within his ability.

According to his deployment, the Third Fleet was divided into five small fleets that were individually active, of which the 31st Fleet consisted of four cruisers and four multi-purpose destroyers, another cruiser of the 32nd Fleet, three multi-purpose destroyers and four anti-submarine destroyers, the 33rd Fleet consisted of six anti-submarine destroyers, another anti-submarine destroyer of the 34th Fleet and sixteen missile speedboats, and the 35th Fleet consisted of twelve missile speedboats and sixteen hydrofoil boats. Each fleet has special arrangements and shoulders a unique mission.

According to French's vision, in addition to the 31st Fleet and the 32nd Fleet, the other three fleets will be the main combat forces to fight against the Chinese Marine Corps landing on the Solomon Islands.

The reason is that the other three fleets are mainly small and medium-sized warships and have strong combat flexibility.

In early November, the 34th Fleet and the 35th Fleet had already entered the Solomon Islands. The 34th Fleet was deployed in the port of Honyala on Guadalcanal Island, and the 35th Fleet was based on Tavalaha on Makira Island. According to France's deployment, the 34th Fleet was mainly responsible for blocking Chinese ships entering the waters of the Solomon Islands, and the 35th Fleet mainly attacked the landing ground of the Chinese Navy at night.

As for the other three fleets, all are deployed in ports in Australia.

At that time, French did not have much hope for the 31st and 32nd Fleets, which were mainly large warships, but felt that when necessary, these two fleets could be allowed to lure the Chinese main fleet into the Coral Sea or approach the Solomon Islands to create opportunities for small fleets to attack at night.

The 33rd Fleet is the main escort fleet, responsible for covering the troop transport ships heading to the Solomon Islands.

It can be said that French used all the naval power that could be used.

At that time, in the Third Fleet, in addition to the American warships, there were fourteen Australian Navy and six New Zealand Navy warships.

However, these warships are old and backward.

In fact, except for the six anti-submarine destroyers of the 33rd Fleet, none of the Third Fleet was the main warship in the U.S. Navy when the war broke out. For example, among the five cruisers, only one of the Australian Navy's cruisers was more advanced, and the other four were old-fashioned warships that were unsealed after the war.

The destroyers of the US warships that survived the Battle of Solomon were all repaired in Australian shipyards, while cruisers all returned to shipyards on the west coast of the United States. In fact, even if these warships were repaired, they would not be incorporated into the fleet, because their performance could not be carried out with the "American" class aircraft carriers at all. Afterwards, all warships built before the war were all incorporated into regional fleets or escort fleets by the US Navy. Since 2054, facing the increasingly threatening submarines, the US Navy has also formed a large number of escort fleets, and according to the practices of the Chinese Navy, the rapid cargo ships were converted into escort aircraft carriers that could carry anti-submarine patrol aircraft.

In the Solomon Islands, the real main force of the US Navy is already those missile boats with a displacement of only a few hundred tons.

Later, many people believed that the US Navy did not build small all-electric submarines was a big mistake, because in an environment like the Solomon Islands, small and flexible all-electric submarines have unparalleled value and can move in places where attack nuclear submarines cannot go. Some people even believed that if the US Navy also had enough all-electric submarines, the Chinese Marine Corps would not be able to board the Solomon Islands, because those ships entering the landing ground would be the living targets of all-electric submarines and would not be able to survive.

Of course, this statement has some truth and was later proven by actual combat.

However, at the end of 2053, the US Navy did not have fully electric submarines at all, and did not even begin to build such cheap submarines. It was not until 2054 that the production of fuel cells was increased and the army's ground warfare system was still surplus, the US Navy began to build fully electric submarines and form a special electric submarine force. It was not until 2055 that the US military's fully electric submarines could play a significant role in the battlefield. By that time, more than 600 fully electric submarines were in service and under construction in the Chinese Navy.

By November 15th, all preparations before landing were in place.

It can be said that everything is ready, but only the east wind is not available.

However, the weather conditions on the 15th day were very bad, with the waves on the sea surface exceeding four meters. Even if you can land, there are greater risks.

The weather conditions still did not improve in the next two days.

The result was that Sima Wenzheng had to postpone the login time again and again.

It was not until the early morning of the 18th that the wind began to drop, and it was predicted that there would be a time window of more than ten hours, and the weather conditions would not change until the night of the 18th.

Sima Wenzheng did not wait any longer and issued a combat order before dawn.

At this time, the Marine Corps officers and soldiers who had been waiting on the landing ship for three days were already impatient and were eager to board the island that they had not yet entered.

In fact, on the night of the 14th, a small team of special forces from the Marine Corps boarded Wanwunu Island.

This unit is the amphibious special forces that Mu Haoyang initially served, but it has long been renamed the Special Marine Corps. It is the most elite special forces of the Marine Corps and is called "China's Navy SEALs" by Western countries. The officers and soldiers of this unit are all proud of being teammates with Mu Haoyang.
Chapter completed!