The landing on Wanunu Island was the easiest battle in the entire Solomon Islands.

In addition to the special forces that went to the island to reconnaise in the early stage, the first to board Wangu Island was the air assault battalion of the First Marine Division. After stepping onto the ground, the Marine Corps officers and soldiers discovered that there might be no enemy on this island that can still resist, because Wangu Island has no solid foundation for defense.

This is an island made of mud and sand! [..com]

The Marines then proved this speculation: of the 4,000 American troops guarding Wangwunu Island, less than a thousand persevered until the moment the landing war began.

More than a thousand U.S. officers and soldiers were killed in the fire strike on November 14.

In the next few days, due to the unsatisfactory weather conditions, the Marines were not on the shore for a long time, and the firepower attack was not interrupted, and more than a thousand US troops were killed.

As a result, all the more than a thousand U.S. soldiers who survived were injured.

Before noon, when the Marines on the island were less than 5,000, the remaining US troops surrendered.

When these US troops survived, they mainly carried out fire strikes. The fleet forgot a beach in the southeast corner of the island with no defensive value. The US troops happened to build underground fortifications here, and after the battle began, it became a shelter for the wounded.

Later, these wounded U.S. military personnel were well taken care of.

On that day, all the seriously injured were sent to a medical ship parked in the New Georgia Strait. In order to distinguish it from the warship, the medical ship was painted conspicuous white, and the flag of the medical ship was hung. There were very eye-catching red cross marks around the hull and on the flight deck. In order to avoid being attacked by enemy submarines, there was also a set of high-frequency sonar on the medical ship, and the identity signals were continuously sent with Morse password.

During the entire war, the US military did not attack the Chinese Navy's medical ships, and the Chinese Navy also showed special mercy.

It can be said that this is also a more humane point in this cruel war. From the reason, both sides know that the other party's medical ship is also receiving injured prisoners of war. Attacking the other party's medical ship is equivalent to sending those compatriots who unfortunately become prisoners of war after a bloody battle to the bottom of the sea.

In fact, during the Pacific War, the Chinese Marine Corps treated US prisoners of war very well.

Of course, this is a relatively common result. Compared with other battlefields, the Pacific battlefield is considered relatively civilized and is mainly related to the tradition of the navy. In addition, the US military's heroic performance on the battlefield has given the same brave Chinese Navy and Marine Corps officers and soldiers a great favor. There is another special reason, that is, except for some battlefields, most of the time, the US military is very rational and rarely uses "glorious bombs". In most cases, the injured US military will give up resistance and calmly accept the fact of being captured.

After the war, many people believed that both sides of the war were very civilized and had a lot to do with the fact that both sides of the war were mainly "professional soldiers". First of all, all naval officers and soldiers were professional soldiers, because naval officers and soldiers needed professional skills and had to receive professional training. Only professional soldiers could have the necessary professional qualities. Secondly, the expansion speed of the Chinese Marine Corps was not fast in the early stages of the war, and the scale of the entire war was not very large. They mainly recruited retired soldiers, and the recruits recruited later also received at least one year of training. On the other hand, there is no need to say much about the US Navy, and the professional quality of the US Marine Corps was not very poor.

It is this "professionality" that makes both soldiers appear more rational.

On the contrary, on the land battlefield, the situation is not so optimistic.

Not to mention the army of other countries, even the Chinese army is not considered a professional army, because in the first year of the war, the Chinese army's strength expanded tenfold. Excluding the emergency recruitment of retired soldiers, more than 60% were recruits, and mainly conscripts.

In fact, the degree of professionalization of the Chinese army was still the highest among the warring countries in the entire war.

At the end of 2053, more than 95% of the Russian Army were conscripts, the proportion of the US military reached 75%, and even the IDF exceeded 60%. As for countries like Iran, it was close to 100%.

It is undeniable that conscripts were the absolute main force among the armies of all countries in World War III.

The problem is that compared with professional soldiers, conscripts are not only inferior to combat capabilities, but also their understanding of war and their ways of dealing with war.

It can be said that among the conscripts who actively and voluntarily serve, most of them are nationalists, or joining the army with hatred against the enemy. Especially in some countries with relatively weak national strength and low national quality, national hatred is almost the only way to encourage civilians to join the army.

Fortunately, this phenomenon is not very common in the two major belligerent countries.

This also explains why Chinese and American soldiers were more rational during the entire war, while countries like Russia and Iran performed more extreme.

Of course, these are all off-topics.

During the day of the 18th, more than 30,000 Marines boarded Wangwunu Island, 50% more than scheduled to send only one Marine Division.

There is nothing strange about it. Since the US military has not resisted, it can speed up the delivery of troops.

However, in the evening, the weather conditions became more harsh and the landing operation had to be temporarily stopped, and only the inclined rotary wing aircraft transported engineering equipment and engineering materials to the island.

According to the landing plan formulated by Sima Wenzheng, after the two land warriors came to the island, a simple dock would be built so that large transport ships that could not enter shallow water areas would unload cargo, especially long-range artillery, air defense systems and combat materials including large numbers of artillery shells.

That night, the US military launched its first counterattack.

The one who was in charge of the attack mission was the 35th Fleet, which was highly anticipated by France.

Nearly thirty small ships rushed into the landing ground, creating the most severe disaster that the Chinese Marines suffered after the war began.

It can be said that this night was the darkest night for the Marines.

When the US military launched a counterattack, the Marine Corps did not prepare at all. At that time, near the landing ground, there was only a guard force composed of four anti-submarine warships. Although these four warships had naval guns, they were all ordinary naval guns, not powerful electromagnetic guns.

Faced with a group of missile boats that looked like a pack of wolves, the four warships were simply unable to parry.

What's even more terrible is that the First Fleet and the Second Fleet stayed north of the Solomon Islands and did not enter the narrow waters, so they could not cover the landing fleet in time.

As for the escort aircraft carriers and fire support ships, they are all in the New Georgia Strait, one hundred kilometers away from the landing ground.

In other words, when the Chinese fleet reacted, it was too late to cover the landing fleet.

In less than two hours, thirteen large landing warships and twenty-four transport ships were hit by missiles or artillery. Three of them and seven transport ships sank before dawn, four and eight transport ships were stranded, and the other warships also evacuated the landing ground after dawn.

At that time, even the amphibious assault ship "Taiwan Island" where Sima Wenzheng was located was almost hit by a missile.

At a critical moment, if it weren't for the rapid-fire gun on a nearby integrated landing ship that fired in time and shot down the anti-ship missile that had just been launched from the missile boat, Sima Wenzheng would probably have gone to see the Dragon Prince.

This melee caused extremely heavy losses to the landing fleet.

Of course, the US military also paid the price. Seven missile boats and six hydrofoil boats were sunk, and three missile boats and five hydrofoil boats were captured after being damaged. Only two missile boats and five hydrofoil boats escaped. They were all sunk by fighter jets that were chasing them in the early morning of the 19th.

The 35th Fleet of the US Army almost changed history with its self-sacrifice of annihilation.

You should know that if the Taiwan Island is sunk, the Chinese Marine Corps is likely to terminate the landing operation. In fact, this attack directly caused the landing operation to take an extra week, because among the seven sunk transport ships, three were loaded with large-scale engineering equipment necessary to build military facilities, and about 150,000 tons of engineering materials that could not be replaced. Subsequently, the Chinese Navy dispatched a fleet of transport ships to send the equipment and supplies to Wangwunu Island, which was a week later, which was equivalent to a week delay in the entire combat operation.

Obviously, this has changed history.

You should know that this week has irreplaceable value in the coming battle.

The U.S. military's night counterattack also awakened the two fleet commanders.

On the afternoon of the 19th, the Second Fleet entered the New Georgia Strait and sent six anti-submarine warships equipped with large-caliber electromagnetic guns to the south into the Coral Sea. Although the Second Fleet paid a heavy price for this in the subsequent battle, just two days later, the Second Fleet successfully collapsed another counterattack from the US military, namely a night sneak attack launched by the missile boat troops of the 34th Fleet.

In this battle, none of the landing fleet was damaged, and only one anti-submarine warship in the second fleet was injured by the US missile boat that was carrying out suicide attacks. The twelve US missile boats were sunk by the large-caliber electromagnetic cannon of the anti-submarine warship.

To deal with missile boats with a displacement of only a few hundred tons, a large-caliber electromagnetic cannon shell is enough.

It is undeniable that the US military's counterattack has achieved some results, but it has failed to stop the Chinese Marine Corps.

By November 22, the Marine Corps' engineering troops set up a mulberry pier in the northwest corner of Wangwunu Island, and dozens of transport ships began unloading.

Two days later, there were five mulberry wharfs, which could be used for unloading ten freighters at a time or for five amphibious warships to dock.

Later, the Marines also sent two large dock ships here to carry out field repairs on some warships that were slightly damaged during the battle.

Obviously, this temporary anchorage is not just for the Marines.

For the fleet that later marched into the Coral Sea, this is still the nearest naval base to the battlefield, and Wangunu Island has also become a place for naval fleet officers and soldiers to undergo temporary rest and recuperation.
Chapter completed!