Take Taobao to fight against Japan

MacArthur, the commander-in-chief of the Wright Island operations, supervised the battle on the light cruiser Nashville, and authorized Kinkaid to command the sea operations.

It's just that Kincaid can't command Halsey, and the relationship between the two is only to inform each other of the situation.

Halsey not only took orders from Nimitz at Pearl Harbor, but also had the right to dispose of the situation.

The Japanese fleet did not appear in the first three days of the landing battle, and Halsey had nothing to do. He once wanted to cross the Philippine Islands and enter the South China Sea, but was strictly prohibited by Nimitz.

直到10月23日，由7艘战列舰、2艘航空战列舰、4艘航母、13艘重巡、6艘轻巡、31艘驱逐舰、36艘潜艇组成的日本联合舰队终于“姗姗来迟”。

And this is already the maximum mobilization of the Japanese combined fleet.

Soon, the Allied fleet, which had been prepared for a long time, launched an active attack, and launched an unprecedented and tragic sea battle within hundreds of kilometers of the Philippine Islands.

The Pacific naval battle model has gone through three years. The Japanese know very well that sea confrontation is unthinkable without sufficient aviation power, but they have to fight desperately to slow down the pace of the Allied offensive.

In the case of completely unequal aviation power, Japan once again launched an organized suicide attack by the Kamikaze Special Forces, which successively sank two light aircraft carriers, a heavy cruiser and other Allied ships, which had a more obvious effect.

At this time, compared with a few months ago, the suicide attack of the Japanese army has greatly improved both in terms of the number of personnel and the way of attack.

In addition to the previous Zero-type ship-based fighters, the kamikaze special attack team also has Comet-type carrier-based dive bombers and Sakura special attack aircraft.

The comet-type carrier-based dive bomber is a dive bomber that Japan began to produce in 1943, and is now transformed into a suicide aircraft dedicated to the kamikaze special forces.

The perimeter of the cockpit is equipped with bulletproof armor and bulletproof fuel tanks, and a fixed bomb rack is installed, which can mount an 800 kg bomb.

In the Wright Gulf naval battle, the US light aircraft carrier USS Princeton was sunk in a suicide attack by a Comet carrier-based dive bomber.

The Sakura attack aircraft is an all-wood special attack aircraft with a length of 6.06 meters and a wingspan of 5.12 meters. It is equipped with a rocket engine with a thrust of 79 kN and carries 1200 kg of high explosives.

The maximum speed is 876 kilometers per hour, and the furthest range is 37 kilometers. A type of land attack aircraft is used as the carrier aircraft. The troops that use the cherry blossoms to fight are called the Shenlei Special Attack Team to distinguish them from the Kamikaze Special Attack Force that uses aircraft.

The Sakura attack plane is mounted by the bomber and thrown near the enemy ship. Only one-way fuel is provided. The special attack team is tied to the special attack plane or fighter plane, and no parachute is provided, cutting off their hope of survival.

Its purpose is to pilot an aircraft loaded with explosives and hit enemy ships without hesitation.

Due to its special purpose, the Sakura attack aircraft is not equipped with any weapons or landing gear. In essence, it is actually a special aircraft similar to a missile.

In addition, the navy has also developed the Huitian torpedo for suicide attacks.

Huitian torpedo, 1 meter in diameter, can carry a crew inside the torpedo. The crew can confirm the position of the enemy ship and manipulate the torpedo through a small periscope to increase the hit rate of the enemy ship. The amount of explosives loaded is three times more than that of ordinary torpedoes.

Early versions of the Sky Return torpedo had a crew escape system, programmed to allow the crew to eject from the torpedo before the torpedo's final attack acceleration phase was activated.

In practice, however, there is no record of any occupants escaping from a torpedo that had successfully self-released and returned to the submarine or other vehicle.

In the later stage, the Huitian torpedo simply gave up the setting of the crew escape system. Once the torpedo attack fails, a self-destruct system allows the crew to manually destroy the torpedo.

The Japanese army had only a weak air force, and all naval battles took place under asymmetrical conditions.

The cruel reality is always so cold and objective. The first thing that affects the success or failure of a battle is strength, and tactics and ruthlessness can only play a supporting role.

In the history of mankind, the sea battle, which ranked first in the world in terms of total displacement of participating ships, lasted for four days and nights, and did not come to an end until October 10.

最终战役结果，盟军击沉日军8艘航母、3艘战列舰、6艘重巡、3艘轻巡、9艘驱逐舰、9艘潜艇，合计标准排水量27.68万吨，击落日军舰载机600余架，击毙日军舰员1万余人。

盟军方面则是损失了3艘轻型航母、4艘护航航母、1艘重巡、3艘轻巡、5艘驱逐舰、4艘潜艇、护卫舰1艘、3艘登陆舰、2艘补给舰，320架舰载机，人员伤亡总数达到了4000余人。

Another 6 aircraft carriers, 1 cruiser, and 4 destroyers were injured to varying degrees.

The Allied fleet won the final victory without any suspense. The Japanese combined fleet did not achieve the expected combat goal at all: to attack the US amphibious forces and landing sites in Wright Gulf and defeat the Allied maritime forces.

The combined fleet of the Japanese Navy, which was far inferior in number, was defeated, 13 heavy warships above cruisers were sunk, and Japan's sea-based and land-based aviation forces in the Philippines were wiped out, which severely hit Japan's overall strength.

The victory of this battle laid a solid foundation for the Allied forces to successfully capture the Philippine Islands, Okinawa and other places.

Chapter 1627 The Last Attack

On November 1944, 11, in a basement ward of the Tei University Affiliated Hospital in Nagoya, Japan.

I saw a pale man lying on the hospital bed. His eyes were closed, his eye sockets were sunken, and his face was haggard. He was motionless, like a clay sculpture.

If it wasn't for the constant heaving of the chest and the opening and closing of the mouth, it would be easy for others to misjudge that the man was completely dead, but in fact he was just a cold corpse.

This dying man is not an ordinary person, but Wang Zhaoming, the top leader of the Wang puppet government.

Wang Zhaoming was shot and injured while attending the 1935th Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Kuomintang on November 1, [-]. Although he was cured, the bullet was not taken out.

In August 1943, the old injury recurred, and then Nanjing Japanese Army Hospital performed an operation on him, took out the bullet, and once controlled his condition.

However, in mid-January 1944, Wang's condition began to deteriorate again, and he was diagnosed with vertebral compression neurosis and had to be sent to Japan for treatment.

On March 3, Wang Zhaoming went to Japan for medical treatment and was admitted to Nagoya Tei University Affiliated Hospital. The hospital organized Japanese medical authorities to perform surgery on Wang. His condition improved for a while, but soon continued to deteriorate.

At this time, the US military began to bomb Nagoya, and the hospital could only move Wang to the basement.

Wang's condition suddenly worsened. His body temperature was as high as 40.6°C, his pulse rate was 128 beats per minute, he had difficulty breathing, and he lost his appetite.

At the end of his life, no one knew what he was thinking, whether he was afraid of the current end of the road, or whether he regretted what he had done.

But one thing is certain, that is, if he could start all over again, he would definitely not make the same choice!

On November 11, Wang Zhaoming's body was transported back to Nanjing and buried in Meihua Mountain in Nanjing. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, his tomb was blown up by the national government.

Beginning in November 1944, the U.S. military began strategic bombing of 11 cities in Japan. This unprecedented strategic bombing would last for 98 months until the eve of Japan's declaration of surrender.

During this period, the U.S. Air Force dispatched 29 B3.3 bombers, dropped 16 tons of bombs, killed 23 people, and injured 35 people. 24% of the houses in Japan were turned into ruins, 1600 aircraft were destroyed, and 1650 ships Was sunk and wounded.

The U.S. military carried out large-scale bombing in the true sense, starting from November 1944, 11. The U.S. military sent 24 bombers to attack Tokyo, intending to carry out a precise bombing during the day.

The plane dropped the bomb at an altitude of 10,000 meters. As a result, only about 30 planes found the bombing target, and about 10% hit the intended target. Only one aircraft factory was slightly injured.

This is a failure for the U.S. military, and it is far from meeting the strategic requirements.

After summing up experience, the U.S. military changed its bombing method and decided to carry out carpet-type incendiary bombing at night. It sent bombers to bomb Japan's major cities at an altitude of 1,500-2000 meters, and made "experimental" incendiary bombing air strikes a new priority. Order.

Because the U.S. military discovered that the best way to bomb Japan is to use incendiary bombs, because most of the buildings in Japan are made of wood and are easy to burn.

Under the key care of the US military, Tokyo has become the city most severely damaged by conventional bombs, and it is also the city with the most deaths from conventional bombs in the world.

The three bombings in 1945 alone killed 14 people, burned more than 50% of the houses in the city, and left more than one million people homeless. ?

The United States used incendiary bombs to bomb residential buildings in Tokyo, causing 10 deaths, most of them civilians, which caused great controversy. In addition, the casualties caused by the subsequent atomic bombing forced Japan to surrender unconditionally.

The purpose of this strategic bombing behavior is mainly to destroy Japan's ability to produce war materials and lower the morale of the Japanese. In the theory of total warfare, this offensive is an acceptable behavior.

Although later, relevant people continued to condemn the United States, pointing out that the bombing of Japanese civilians by the US military was an "anti-human" act.

But it can only be said that they will pay back sooner or later. Japan's indiscriminate bombing of "Chongqing Bombing" and "Chengdu Bombing" on China was already doomed.

After the Normandy landing, the Allied forces marched bloody all the way on the European Western Front, pinning down most of the German troops.

At the same time, on the Eastern Front, the Soviet Red Army was not idle. Finally, on October 1944, 10, the Soviet Red Army captured the first village in mainland Germany: Nemmelsdorf in East Prussia.

At this time, the war was approaching from the east, west and south to the German mainland, and the German Supreme Command secretly planned a large-scale campaign plan.

The plan was personally designed by the German head of state. He tried to force the Allied forces to withdraw from the German mainland through the last offensive on the Western Front in Europe and regain the initiative on the Western Front.

The main content of this battle plan named "Rhine Guards" is: concentrate superior forces, quickly break through the Allied defense line, forcefully cross the Maas River, capture Antwerp, the main supply port of the Allied forces, and divide the Allied forces in two.

Four Allied armies were then surrounded and wiped out, forcing the Allies to negotiate under conditions in which the Axis powers prevailed.

If this battle is successful, the head of state can concentrate on dealing with the Soviet Union.The campaign was planned in extreme secrecy, almost entirely in radio silence.

Although Allied intelligence personnel showed signs that the Germans would launch an attack, the Allies ignored the possibility of this raid.

In addition, due to the blind self-confidence of the Allied forces, busy offensive planning, insufficient aerial reconnaissance, and the relative lack of combat experience of the US First Army, it further provided an opportunity for the German assault.

阿登战役于12月16日打响，2000门德军的大炮打碎了第8军的好梦，德国3个满员的集团军总计兵力27.5万人，潮水般向美8军扑来。

Composed of the 8st Airborne Division and its task force, the 101th Infantry Division, the 28th Armored Division, and some artillery units, the Eighth Army was no match for the Germans.

Soon, the German army surrounded it in Bastoni and other small areas, advancing 30-50 miles in depth to the US military.

American casualties were mainly concentrated in the first three days of the battle, in which two of the three regiments of the US 106th Infantry Division were forced to surrender.

By December 12, the British and American Air Forces had complete control of the German supply lines. Despite the utmost self-sacrifice of the Luftwaffe pilots, there was still no way to relieve the burden on the ground troops.

The heavy air raids of the Allied forces almost completely cut off the most urgently needed ammunition and supply transportation for the German combat troops, especially the fuel supply.

The fuel of the German offensive force was spent today without tomorrow. In the end, under the overwhelming air superiority, when the German vanguard was only 4000 meters away from the Meuse River, the Allied forces finally blocked the German advance.

On the whole, the Battle of Ardennes was the bloodiest battle of the United States in World War II. The number of U.S. troops killed in battle reached 15000, more than 7.1 were injured, more than 1.4 people were missing, and more than 7.3 people died in non-combat, a total of 172963 people.

On the German side, 12500 people were killed, 56000 were injured, and 13000 were captured, for a total of 81500.

The Battle of Ardennes was the largest positional counterattack on the Western Front. Germany also consumed the last of its elite troops, and there was no reserve force to replenish. Therefore, the Battle of Ardennes became the last offensive launched by the German army on the Western Front.

Chapter 1628

Just as the Battle of Ardennes was on the line, the Allied Southwest Pacific Theater was not idle. Starting from December 12, the Allied Air Forces began to carry out large-scale air strikes on Luzon Island based on Wright Island and Mindoro Island.

At the same time, the Allied fleet put up a posture of landing on the southern coast of the island to lure the enemy to defend the south with heavy forces.

Yamashita, commander of the Japanese No.14 Front Army stationed in the Philippines, originally administered 9 divisions and 4 brigades, with a total strength of about 40 troops, more than 1200 aircraft, and more than 1400 tanks.

Among them, the garrison of Luzon Island, which focuses on defense, has as many as 30 people. Coupled with the defense system that has been painstakingly managed for many years and the vast strategic space, Luzon Island is undoubtedly a very hard nut to crack.

However, under a series of operations such as the Wright Island landing campaign, the Japanese defenders in the Philippines have been weakened to a considerable extent, and the air force has been exhausted.

But even so, the Allied forces did not underestimate the enemy. Before launching the landing operation on Luzon Island, they still adopted the same formula and carried out high-intensity artillery preparations on Luzon Island for half a month.

Until January 1945, 1, Kruger led 9 divisions of the U.S. Sixth Army, supported by about 4 warships from the U.S. Seventh Fleet, and landed in Ren Yain Bay in the northern part of Luzon Island. The U.S. Third Fleet and the Army’s No. 600. No.13 Air Force provides air support.

The Japanese army once again dispatched a large-scale kamikaze attack team to attack the landing formation. Under the crazy suicide attack, 8 US ships were sunk and 7 ships suffered serious damage.

But for the extremely huge landing fleet, it was completely like a mantis arm blocking the car, and the Japanese army's frenzied suicide attack could not save the defeat at all.

That night, the U.S. Army landed 6.8 troops and opened up a beachhead 17 kilometers long and 12 kilometers wide.

After a week of fighting, the U.S. Army broke through the Japanese defense line on the Agno River and advanced towards Manila. An unprecedented tank battle broke out near Clark Airport.

In this battle, the Japanese army used the newly developed Type IV medium tank on a large scale for the first time on the Pacific battlefield.

The Type IV medium tank is a medium tank developed by Japan at the end of World War II. The total combat weight is 30.8 tons, which is a qualitative leap compared with Japan's "medium tank" with only more than 10 tons.

It is a completely new design and a new type of tank that focuses on tank battles.The main purpose is to fight against tanks, and its performance is superior to that of the US M4 medium tank.The Type IV tank has a total length of 6.343 meters, a crew of 5 people, a vehicle width of 2.865 meters, a vehicle height of 2.772 meters, and a width of 2.61 meters, which is much larger than the Type III tank.

The main weapon on the Type 75 medium tank is the Type [-] [-]mm anti-aircraft gun, which uses an automatic loader and can fire Type [-] armor-piercing shells and Type [-] grenades.

When firing a type of armor-piercing projectile, it can penetrate 1000 mm thick steel armor at a shooting distance of 75 meters.

In order to improve the armor-piercing power, while strengthening the material of the projectile body, 65 grams of high explosives were added to the warhead, and the armor-piercing thickness reached 100 mm at 146 meters.

辅助武器为2挺7.7毫米机枪，1挺为并列机枪，1挺为前机枪，弹药基数5 400发。

The defensive armor is a new type of alloy armor up to 75 mm thick, which has a strong defensive power.

Therefore, the Type IV medium tank has a strong bulletproof ability, and the M4 medium tank of the US military must fire at a very close range to threaten the Type IV medium tank.

The four-type medium tank basically represents the highest technical level of the current Japanese tanks, but the development time is too late.

So far, the total number of Japanese Army troops is more than 1200 vehicles.

This time, in order to resist the Allied forces' capture of Luzon Island, the Japanese army urgently transported more than 400 Type IV medium tanks to strengthen the defense force.

Because of the lack of control of the sea and air, Yamashita wisely did not use these new tanks in the Allied beach landing battle.

Instead, he was holding back his big move and waited patiently until the Allied landing forces went deep into the island and began to attack Clark Airport. Only then did Yamashita bite his teeth and ordered all tanks and armored troops, including 400 Type IV medium tanks, to come out in full force. They then launched a counterattack.

This time it really hit the snake to seven inches!

As soon as the fire was fired, the Japanese Type [-] medium-sized tank group, which had already suffocated and had the will to die, showed an extremely fierce aura, and rushed up directly with all their brains, desperately fighting for their lives.

Caught off guard, the U.S. landing force, which had been going smoothly, suffered heavy casualties in an instant. One after another, Sherman tanks and amphibious tanks were directly blown up, and the army units following were frantically slaughtered and crushed. .

The U.S. landing troops were directly stunned, and the U.S. commanders who were watching the battle in the rear were also dumbfounded. They never dreamed that the Japanese would be so insidious and cunning, hiding such a powerful tank and armored force.

The supreme commander of the U.S. military felt bad, and Kruger immediately issued an order to send a large number of air forces to suppress firepower, and ordered the army armored forces in other directions to immediately go to support.

However, the long distance cannot quench the near thirst, and at this moment, the Japanese troops are already fighting with the U.S. troops, and it is difficult for ground artillery and air force to provide accurate and effective firepower suppression.

This unprecedented and tragic tank battle lasted for a whole day and night, and did not gradually come to an end until the next morning.

Although the Japanese army was very hardworking and fierce, but in the case of losing control of the sea and air, they could at best make a more beautiful exchange ratio to slow down the offensive rhythm of the Allied forces.

In the end, the Japanese army ended in a disastrous defeat at the cost of losing more than 420 tanks and killing 4780 people. Only more than [-] tanks escaped.

The U.S. military lost 322 tanks and more than 5000 casualties, and the price paid was quite heavy.

The Battle of Luzon Island continued until January 1. MacArthur sent an army of the Eighth Army to land in Subic Bay on the west coast of Luzon to assist Kruger's troops in accelerating their progress and prevent the Japanese army from retreating to the Bataan Peninsula.

Two days later, the No.11 Airborne Division of the U.S. Army landed in Nasugbu, south of Manila, and formed a pincer offensive against Manila. More than 2 Japanese troops fought desperately and fought fiercely with the U.S. troops.

On February 2, Manila was liberated, and about 23 Japanese troops withdrew to the mountainous area in northern Luzon until the end of the war.