Iron Cross

Ps: I wrote it wrong earlier. The Iowa is still in the Atlantic Fleet. I changed it to the Indiana. Sorry!

When everyone realized that something was wrong with the North Carolina, the giant ship had swallowed more than 10,000 tons of seawater and tilted 13 degrees to the right. Although the damage control team tried their best to block it, it was obviously difficult. The water was getting more and more, and the sinking speed was getting faster and faster.

"Approach the landing site and prepare to hit the beach!" Captain Hurstvedt suddenly issued a surprising order.

"Sir?" The surrounding staff were in an uproar: the damage control did not report that the warship could not be saved. If it hit the beach, the ship would be completely finished.

"Idiot, execute the order immediately and report to General Halsey!" the captain shouted, "The attack on Betio obviously requires firepower support. How can we get the strongest firepower without sacrificing battleships? Don't you know that the enemy used the Mutsu to block the Panama Canal?"

"The North Carolina sent a telegram saying that the ship was attacked by enemy suicide rockets and was seriously damaged. It is planned to run aground and serve as a fixed artillery position."

Halsey's teeth were clenched, his face was gloomy, and he handed the telegram to Nimitz without saying a word. Although the latter did not interfere with his specific combat command, it was always right to ask for instructions on such a major decision.

Nimitz did not even look at it and calmly issued an order: "Agree to the captain's request. Be sure to maintain the firepower of the entire ship. Their sacrifice will be valuable!"

The staff all looked gloomy. The Battle of Tarawa had just begun, and they had lost a battleship. The situation seemed bad. From the commander's decision, it can be seen that he was under great pressure: the loss of a new battleship was certainly distressing, but if the Gilbert Islands could not be taken, the Pacific Fleet would not be able to explain to the HSD and the Joint Chiefs of Staff at all - if the Combined Fleet was not there, they could not capture an island, so what would happen if they were there?

"Indiana reported that they also encountered enemy suicide rockets, one turret was destroyed, and the rest were fine."

"Inform all ships to be careful, but do not give up fire support for the landing troops." Halsey thought for a while, "I estimate that the enemy's suicide rockets should be about the same."

"Beached! Beached!" Under the gaze of many warships, the North Carolina was like a king on his way to the end, bravely rushing to the Tarawa beach. The coral reefs encountered at first were all shattered by the powerful impact of the warship, but then the ship was like a stranded whale, motionless on the beach. Due to the increased draft after taking in water, the waterline position of the stranded North Carolina rose by 2.4 meters.

"Maintain the power supply of the entire ship and one-third of the engine room, ensure that all turrets are available, and the damage control department will find a way to plug the gap and drain the seawater." Despite the big change, Captain Hurstvedt remained calm and issued orders in an orderly manner, "Aim the main guns at the enemy turrets and attack, don't let a single RB devil go."

"Board! Board!" Seeing the North Carolina run aground, all the Japanese soldiers guarding the island shouted in joy, feeling proud of having severely damaged an enemy ship - this was almost a battleship of the Nagato level.

Only Major General Shibasaki's face changed drastically: although the stranded giant ship was doomed, the island's fortifications were also under the direct deterrence of the battleship's firepower. Now the enemy has heavy turrets and main armor belts to rely on, and can attack at close range without fear of being sunk. This firepower advantage is too obvious - the enemy commander is also a ruthless person!

In fact, this account should be attributed to Hori Teikichi. If he had not let the Mutsu and Hiei both advance and run aground, eventually paralyzing the Panama Canal, the US military would not have been willing to use battleships to do such a thing. The only difference is that Panama is in a crucial position, and Tarawa does not seem to be that important yet, but for the Pacific Fleet that cannot afford to lose, Tarawa is their Panama.

In addition to the hidden firepower and fierce suicide rockets on the island, other situations also made Nimitz frown: the troops reported that the nautical chart they used was an old one drawn by the British a hundred years ago. Not only was the orientation wrong, but even the shallow water on the map has now become a deep sea. Several locations scheduled for landing missions were forced to be abandoned, and one location even submerged a landing vehicle directly due to the depth of the water, so everyone had to find another way out.

Now Nimitz, Halsey and Holland all have doubts about the quick capture of Tarawa, but the battle must continue, otherwise the North Carolina will be sacrificed in vain.

American soldiers generally thought that the Betio defense system had been turned into dust under the fierce artillery fire, but the actual effect was far beyond their expectations. The island is flat and covered with a large amount of absorbent coral sand and coconut wood, which greatly weakened the destructive power of aerial bombs and artillery shells. The results obtained by pouring tens of thousands of tons of ammunition were extremely poor. Only the airport and ancillary facilities with obvious targets were destroyed. The defenders' firepower points only cleared two 8-inch naval gun turrets and three tanks, and cleared some Japanese fortifications and communication systems exposed on the surface. But for most of the defense facilities hidden under the surface, the damage was extremely minor.

However, the RB defenders soon felt the power of the North Carolina, and the close-range pouring of 406mm caliber shells formed a strong suppression. Many Japanese artillerymen did not die from shrapnel, but were shaken to death by the huge impact force. As time went on, the Japanese counterattack artillery fire fell silent again.

"We must bring the enemy up to fight." After listening to reports from all sides, Shibasaki said, "Otherwise we will always face the threat of enemy battleships and heavy artillery, which is too troublesome."

The other men nodded in succession. They also woke up from the initial frenzy of severely damaging the enemy ships - a stranded battleship was more difficult to deal with than three other battleships that could still move.

At 14:21, the U.S. military launched another landing. This time the charge was much more cautious. The minesweepers cast smoke screens while sweeping a channel from the landing craft group area to the lagoon. The seaplane reconnaissance aircraft on the Indiana guided them to lay navigation marks and threw smoke buoys to mark the location of the shoal. Under the guidance of the Necessary minesweeper, the destroyers Ringgold and Dashiell broke into the atoll gap channel and prepared to provide close-range fire suppression.

The Japanese artillery on the west coast of the island fired again with a fluke mentality, but before firing two shots, the North Carolina's counterattack naval gun shells whizzed in, and the only remaining artillery was lifted into the sky. Taking advantage of the opportunity of the Japanese firepower being fully suppressed, a large number of landing craft took the opportunity to rush into the lagoon. Subsequently, to avoid accidental injuries, the battleship guns stopped firing.

The development of the war proved that Shibasaki's decision was correct: only in close combat would the enemy battleships cease fire, and the fort defenders who had just ventured to fire without authorization had gone to see Amaterasu.

Hundreds of amphibious landing vehicles and a group of tank landing craft formed three attack waves, and under the command of Colonel Connolly, the commander of the 3rd Marine Regiment of the 3rd Marine Division, drove onto the reef and rushed straight to the north shore of Betio.

The first wave of amphibious vehicles successfully landed on Hongsantan. Under the command of the loud-voiced Kurt, the trembling soldiers continued to fire with their M1 rifles to boost their courage, while wading forward with less than standard tactical movements, but the Japanese did not respond. Connolly, overjoyed, immediately called the second wave to prepare for landing. The second wave also landed smoothly in amphibious vehicles and began to land. Now there were two companies landing on each beach where they were scheduled to land. The US military immediately launched the third wave of landing. After this wave, basically each beach had a battalion of troops.

But just before the first two waves landed successfully and the third wave just approached the reef, Shibasaki, who had been waiting patiently for a long time, suddenly issued an order to open fire.

With the lesson of the destruction of the west coast artillery, the Japanese army learned their lesson and never risked opening fire again. Instead, they waited until the US infantry approached the front line with only more than 100 meters before opening fire fiercely. Most of the small-caliber infantry artillery used this time, 75mm, 57mm and 37mm shells were fired at the landing crowd. Most of the slow-moving amphibious vehicles were hit with flames and ammunition exploded. There were broken limbs and screams everywhere.

Seeing that the artillery was at a disadvantage, the Sherman tanks began to charge forward bravely, trying to use armor and artillery to tear a bloody path for the infantry. They used machine gun fire and tank shells to try to suppress the opposite infantry fire, but the good times did not last long. The Japanese army quickly launched the Iron Fist from the bunker. Captain Kurt saw clearly that the dozen Shermans in the front were covered by rockets that came out of nowhere, and the "boom" sound was endless. Then the tank soldiers ran out of the tanks in a mess, and in a blink of an eye they were knocked down in a pool of blood by dense machine gun and artillery fire.

The rest of the tanks rushed in panic. Some drove into the reef pits on the reef and could not climb out for a long time. Finally, they simply turned off the engine; some rushed to the beach, but were not destroyed by the Iron Fist, but instead hit the oncoming anti-tank artillery fire. Only 6 of the more than 20 tanks escaped back to the vicinity of the lagoon by chance - it turned out that tanks without infantry cover were a fixed target when fighting on islands and reefs.

Seeing that there was no way to retreat and the wreckage of their own tanks blocked their way in front, the soldiers on the amphibious vehicles jumped into the sea frantically under the command of the officers, trying to use infantry to outflank the enemy's firepower points. These soldiers who abandoned their vehicles and waded through the water held their weapons in both hands and slowly advanced on the reef. If they were not careful, accidents would happen: they would either be tripped into the sea by the reefs under their feet or the bodies of their companions, or be knocked down on the reef by the Japanese Type 92 heavy machine guns.

Few soldiers crawled through the wading area and rushed to the designated beachhead safely. Even if they went up, the situation was not ideal. They were pressed to the beach by Japanese machine guns, and occasionally grenade launchers or grenades exploded in the crowd, constantly harvesting lives.

Holland, Daven and others who were watching the battle on the battleship in the distance were angry and anxious, but they did not dare to let the ship's guns fire. If the 406mm shells were fired directly, it would be a massacre covering hundreds of meters without distinguishing between enemies and friends. Now they can only hope for the 127mm firepower of the destroyers for close support. They have increased the firing rate to the maximum, but even so, facing the firepower emerging from all directions on Betio Island, they still cannot completely suppress it.