Beacon 1937

On November [-], [-], China, the United States and Britain signed the "Cairo Declaration", and on December [-] issued a declaration of war against Japan in the form of a press communiqué.

On May [-], [-], the fourth Changsha battle started.Since then, Ai Wen has rarely received any letters from Chen Yuchen.They each fought on different battlefields, and faced the same enemy.He was worried about him, but he missed him even more, more and more.From time to time, I regret that I chose to leave Chen Yuchen, but soon I will remember who I am, my respective beliefs and perseverance, and I am convinced that the day when victory will come.

In June of the same year, good news came that the US military successfully landed in Normandy, France (Note [-]).Later, due to the emergency on the Eastern Front, the European occupied areas were recovered one by one by the Allied forces, which made the German army's failures obvious.

This month, the U.S. military in the Pacific theater won another victory in the Mariana naval battle (Note [-]) in just three days.

However, when everything began to develop towards the increasingly powerful Allied Forces, Changsha fell and the news of the failure of the Hengyang Defense Battle followed.When Aiwen learned that China's Changheng campaign had failed, he was about to hand a letter to Huston... He hadn't received a letter from Chen Yuchen for a long time.

Lieutenant Horston hesitated for a moment, and finally told Ivan the news.

"They should have withdrawn to Chongqing, so don't worry too much for now. Now, the Japanese can't put all their energy on the Chinese, can they?"

The doctor, who was shocked and worried by the news of the fall of Changsha, immediately calmed down after hearing Halston's words.

That's right, so that the enemy can't concentrate on dealing with one, as long as this side continues to win and gain the advantage of commanding the sea and the air, the Japanese army will have to transfer their forces to this side and come back to defend their original territory.

On October [-] of the same year, the U.S. victory in the Wright Gulf Naval Battle (Note [-]) completely cut off the lifeline of Japan’s “Southern Line” resource delivery to the mainland, and cut off links with China, North Korea, and the mainland in Southeast Asia.

February [-], [-], Iwo Jima (Note [-])

After the U.S. military occupied the Marshall Islands in February [-], the Japanese army strengthened its military strength on Iwo Jima. Iwo Jima and the Ogasawara Islands became the last line of defense against U.S. air strikes on the Japanese mainland.Japan, which has lost control of the sea and the air, whether it can keep Iwo Jima becomes extremely important.

For this reason, the Japanese army was determined to build Iwo Jima into a strong fortress. Most of the fortifications were underground tunnel positions. The concrete fortifications were organically combined with natural caves, and there were traffic trenches connected to each other.

The U.S. military carried out carpet bombing on Iwo Jima before landing on the beach, and warships on the sea were constantly bombarding it.For Japan, Iwo Jima is their throat, and behind them is the capital Tokyo.Those Japanese soldiers defended desperately, and even hid in the underground fortress holes during the air raids. Even if they got malaria, they could not move even if they had maggots on their bodies.

The U.S. troops went forward and landed on the beach. At first, they were secretly injured by the Japanese soldiers nested in the cave, but they had no choice but to use flamethrowers to spray fire on the cave, set fire to the fortress, and threw grenades to force them to escape from the cave.

This bloody battle caused several U.S. recruits to collapse several times, but those Japanese soldiers fought to the death one by one and never surrendered.Some people even took the local villagers on the island...the helpless women, children and children as hostages when they were cornered by the U.S. military.

The American soldiers who never killed civilians could only find ways to kill the Japanese soldiers hiding behind women, children and children on the spot while keeping the hostages.Sometimes, inevitably, a GI or two will be sacrificed.

This made them very angry: taking their own civilians as hostages had already violated their inverse scales, and also caused several companions to die in a non-rush state. So far, no one will show mercy.

In order to protect the medical team in the rear, the U.S. military specially set aside a ship and turned it into a temporary field hospital. It is the place where Aiwen has been stranded since the Battle of Iwo Jima.

It was March 1000. After more than a month of bloody fighting, the US military finally planted the Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima today.Except for more than 2 captured by the Japanese army, more than [-] people were killed in action.

Houston led a few people to search carefully on the island in case there were any omissions.

Iwo Jima was already a piece of scorched earth where not a single blade of grass grew. When the American second lieutenant thought that they would not be able to gain anything in this area near the shallows, there was a sudden noise from the scorched ruins beside him.

He immediately ordered his subordinates to stop with gestures, and then cautiously approached quietly.When they surrounded there, a corporal suddenly lifted the charred black board that gave off a scorching smell, and everyone aimed their guns at that place.

Unexpectedly, it was not a Japanese soldier hiding inside, but a Japanese boy who seemed to be only seven years old, hugging his younger sister, who was only three or four years old, trembling all over... They were covered in mud and black scorched earth, their clothes were ragged and skinny .

The brother tried his best to cover his sister's mouth, but still couldn't stop her sobs from flowing into Halston's ears.The moment the little girl saw a few uncles pointing guns at them aggressively, she couldn't help it anymore, and burst into tears.

"Hush, it's okay, it's okay...we won't hurt you. Look! Uncle put away the gun!" Hoston and the others hurriedly put away the gun.

He coaxed the two children in English, and walked forward slowly, with his hands spread out to show that he was not a threat.

But to these two kids, soldiers in full uniform were scary...whether they were Americans or their own soldiers.

The elder brother folded his arms even harder, and moved back holding his only remaining relatives, staring at Holden in horror.

The American second lieutenant sighed helplessly, thought for a while, took out half of the chocolate in his pocket, unwrapped the tinfoil wrapper, and held it up in front of the boy.

"Look! This is chocolate! Here it is, all of it. It belongs to you!" In order to make them let go of their vigilance, Halston took a bite, expressing that there was nothing wrong with this piece of chocolate.

The boy who couldn't understand what the other person was saying could only stare at the American and then at the piece of chocolate.

After a long time, when Halston's arm was raised a little sour, the boy suddenly got up and snatched the chocolate from his hand, and couldn't wait to bite down.The sweet, bitter dark brown food melted in his mouth, his eyes lit up immediately, and he immediately fed the rest to his sister.The girl who hadn't tasted such delicious sweets for a long time, even the thin rice porridge for several days, burst into laughter instantly, and she and her brother happily gobbled it up, filling their mouths with chocolate.

The American soldiers breathed a sigh of relief, and all of them laughed.

Horston was finally able to get close to the two children to observe their situation carefully. When he found that the siblings had injuries of varying degrees, he couldn't help frowning.

"Go and bring Dr. Abel!"

A corporal took orders and ran away in a hurry.

Note 300: The Normandy landings were a large-scale offensive launched by the Allied forces on the Western Front in Europe during the Second World War. The battle took place at [-]:[-] am on June [-], [-].The combat operation was code-named "Operation Overlord".The battle ended after crossing the Seine-Marne River on [-] April.The Battle of Normandy was by far the largest sea landing operation in the world, involving nearly [-] million soldiers across the English Channel to Normandy, France.

Note [-]: The Battle of the Marianas, also known as the Battle of the Philippine Sea, was a naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy and the US Navy on the Pacific battlefield in World War II near the Mariana Islands.It was the largest aircraft carrier battle in history.Because Japanese planes were easily shot down by U.S. fighter jets during the battle, it was dubbed the "Mariana Turkey Hunt" by the Americans.

Note [-]: The Battle of Wright Gulf was a naval battle that took place near Wright Island in the Philippines on the Pacific battlefield in World War II.In terms of the total tonnage of warships put into the battlefield by the two armies, the Wright Gulf naval battle can be regarded as the largest naval battle in history, and it was also the last aircraft carrier battle, which completely destroyed Japan's aircraft carrier power.

Note [-]: Iwo Jima is a volcanic island located in the Ogasawara Islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It is the territory of Japan and its administrative division belongs to Ogasawara Village, Tokyo.Iwo Jima is located [-] kilometers south of Tokyo and [-] kilometers south of Guam, almost in the middle of Tokyo and Saipan.It got its name because the island is covered with a layer of sulfur caused by volcanic eruptions.

(The above annotations are partly taken from Baidu)