afterglow

Chapter 603 Chapter Hell Night! Farewell

The more than 124 people of the 80th Regimental Combat Team who landed on the island suffered a devastating blow in a very short period of time. The commander and chief of staff were both killed, and 50% of their equipment and % of their personnel were lost. This was destined to be a humiliating defeat that would go down in history.

The Ming army's fierce counterattack during the anti-landing operation made the American army terrified.

In fact, Blue No. 2 Beach did not hold out for long, because the dispirited Army soldiers attacked their own positions, preventing the Marines from opening fire.

In a blink of an eye, the Ming army tanks and infantry that were following in pursuit rushed over, and the fierce close-range fighting began again.

The surface ship forces did not dare to open fire, and Major General Alexander Vandegrift could only pin his hopes on the air force.

American carrier-based aircraft took off from the Glorious and Saratoga and attempted to provide close air support. Blue-painted Dauntless dive bombers swooped down one after another.

They strafed and dropped bombs at extremely low altitudes, and when they pulled up again, the smoke and dust from the explosions could touch the tails of the planes.

The Ming army's anti-aircraft guns located deep in the territory continued to fire at them, trying to disperse these hateful enemy planes. The evening sky was almost torn apart by the traces of tracer bullets!

Some carrier-based aircraft dropped bombs on their own people's heads, and the soldiers cursed loudly.

The 1st Marine Regiment reported that dozens of people were accidentally injured by air support and accused the aircraft carrier of murder. The commander of the Saratoga's VB-3 squadron shouted angrily: "Open your dog eyes and look at the Chinese anti-aircraft fire. My men are risking their lives to support you!"

At this moment, a Dreadnought was hit by multiple shells during a dive and fell out of control.

It hit the ground at a speed of several hundred kilometers per hour, leaving no trace of the pilot and the rear machine gunner. A huge ball of flames erupted, and a mushroom cloud with black and red colors rolled up!

The position of Blue 2 Beach was shaky, and the landing commander, Major General Richmond Turner, made a decision - abandon the position, gradually retreat, and concentrate on defending Blue 1 Beach.

It just so happened that part of the 730th Tank Battalion had already landed, and with about 16 tanks to support the battle, they should be able to withstand the Ming army's offensive.

The U.S. troops began to retreat westwards while alternating between covering each other, and the Ming army's counterattack troops pursued and attacked them fiercely, holding on to them tightly and refusing to let go.

People were constantly knocked down by flying bullets during the retreat, falling to the ground screaming in pain.

Most of the American officers and soldiers could not protect themselves. Only a few wounded were lucky enough to be rescued in the chaotic battlefield, while most were left there to die.

Visibility became increasingly low at dusk, and the Ming army soldiers, who were blinded by killing intent, often subconsciously shot at the enemies who were still moving. In such a situation, lying down and pretending to be dead was more likely to survive than surrendering voluntarily.

When the sun sank below the sea level, only a blood-red glow remained in the western sky.

As of 18:30, all the US troops that had landed had retreated to Lanyi Beach.

Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Herbert, commander of the 1st Marine Regiment, they built a fairly solid defensive position. The entire area was triangular in shape and located in the northwest corner of Betio Island. There were more than 10 officers and soldiers gathered here, and the heavy weapons included 6 Stuart tanks, 11 Sherman tanks, and 75 mm howitzers.

Even though the US fleet's blocking firepower was extremely dense, the Ming army still managed to find some flaws and carefully passed through the narrow gaps in the "wall of fire".

In addition to the three infantry companies that first joined the battle in the afternoon and the counterattack force of a tank team, the Ming army successively deployed two more infantry companies.

This is the limit. If there are more, subsequent defense will be difficult to sustain.

Betio Island was too small, and half of its area was occupied by the airport runway, so the Ming army could not build many semi-dug bunkers, and there were few options for moving positions after the howitzers had fired for a while.

The U.S. military spent an afternoon figuring out which artillery positions there were, so four destroyers were assigned to carry out uninterrupted suppression missions.

The situation of the mixed heavy weapons battalion became difficult. Several howitzers were destroyed, and the remaining howitzers and rocket launchers could only provide intermittent artillery cover.

Despite the difficulties, the anti-landing counterattack continued.

A destroyer continuously fired flares, illuminating almost one-third of Betio Island.

At 19:50 in the evening, a large number of Ming troops had approached the US front line despite blocking fire and occupied the starting position for the attack - less than meters away from the US front line.

Half a quarter of an hour later, as two red flares shot into the night sky, the brutal battle began.

Hundreds of infantrymen and the only five remaining tanks launched an attack on this tiny corner of the land!

The U.S. troops behind the horseshoe-shaped main position opened fire with all their light and heavy firepower in an instant, and the battle entered a white-hot stage in the first minute.

The scene of the collapse of the 124th Regimental Combat Team in the afternoon is still vivid in my mind. In order to survive, the American soldiers in the trenches fired desperately like crazy.

Countless shells fell one after another. The 60mm, 75mm, and 81mm high-explosive shells drew parabolic trajectories of different curvatures and exploded with orange-red flashes.

Amid the continuous explosions, the Ming army infantry took turns to cover their advance, repeating the two actions of leaping forward to charge and lying down to shoot.

The only five remaining tanks did not actively lead the infantry charge as they did in the afternoon, but instead stopped near the starting position to provide support.

After destroying several heavy machine gun fire points, they quickly engaged in a firefight with a larger number of US tanks.

On the hundreds of meters long battle line, Liu He arranged the assault deployment with two infantry teams each taking half of the battle, one on the left and one on the right. According to the military regulations, the width of the infantry team's assault front was 250~300m and the depth was 300~400m.

Hundreds of Ming army infantrymen charged forward one after another under the dense barrage of bullets fired by the American army. The front ones were shot and fell to the ground, and the next ones passed by the corpses, and they advanced forward little by little.

"There is no enemy but me! Kill!"

"Wan Sheng!"

The US military's front-line positions fell one after another, and many people were shot to death in the trenches before they could retreat.

On the horseshoe-shaped main position, Stuart and Sherman tanks fired in all directions, and howitzers and mortars fired shells at the fastest speed, and the ground was covered with smoking brass shells.

As the distance shortened, the US tanks began to be attacked by the Ming army's recoilless guns and rocket launchers.

A Sherman suddenly burst into a flash and stopped firing. A few seconds later, flames sprayed out evenly from its turret ring to the surrounding area!

Time passed in the bloody battle, casualties occurred every minute and every second, and life and human rights depreciated rapidly.

This piece of land, covering only ten hectares in the far southwest Pacific, became the place where the blood and fire of the Ming and American armies were tempered. It can also be said that it was a collision between Eastern and Western civilizations. The debris and sparks from the collision turned into flaming steel fragments and splattering blood.

As midnight approached, the brutality of the battle reached its peak.

All of the Ming army's tanks were paralyzed, with bullet marks and holes all over their bodies, and several tanks were still burning.

Only four of the more than ten American tanks were left. Of course, several of them were destroyed by Ming infantry using recoilless guns and rocket launchers.

The remaining Shermans and Stuarts also ran out of ammunition after several hours of continuous fierce fighting. The crew members jumped out of the vehicles under a hail of bullets and ran to the supply station dozens of meters away, returning with the bullet boxes.

In contrast to the corpses on the ground, there were a few flares in the night sky at regular intervals. They were 127mm artillery flares fired by Fletcher-class destroyers. The British pilots of the Glorious refused to take off at night, and only the pilots of the Saratoga took the risk to take off. The carrier-based aircraft dropped several M46 aviation flares, which were suspended under parachutes and floated over the heads of officers and soldiers on both sides for a long time, like huge lanterns, illuminating the entire battlefield as if it were daytime!
If you take a series of photos with long exposure, you can see countless red, white and yellow lights intertwined together, forming an impenetrable fire net.

【Picture】

At 0:06 in the middle of the night, another company-level position was lost in the southwest corner of the horseshoe-shaped main position. The English calls disappeared and were replaced by Chinese shouts.

After being attacked by a round of rocket launchers and infantry assaults, only 7 people were left alive in Company B, 35st Battalion, th Marine Regiment, including only one officer, Lieutenant Colvin.

He retreated with the remnants of his troops, but was severely criticized by the battalion commander, who ordered him to immediately counterattack and retake the position.

"Major, this is an impossible mission, I need reinforcements," he said.

It happened that at this time, several signal soldiers returned to the battalion headquarters after completing the repair mission, so the battalion commander pointed at them and said, "They are."

The American army also suffered heavy casualties because it was compressed into a small area of ​​only more than ten hectares, and the Ming army's artillery fire caused greater casualties than normal.

The destroyer USS Bache (DD-470) received the order and fired eight salvos at the lost position of Company B, turning the place into a sea of ​​fire!
Lieutenant Colvin led dozens of people to launch a counterattack. There were not many surviving Ming army officers and soldiers left on the position, and the blocking fire was very sparse.

Grenades were thrown at him from time to time. Lieutenant Colvin, who was once a star player on the university baseball team, slapped the grenades in the air with his hands and knocked another one away with the butt of his carbine.

Finally, the rocket launcher's bouncing bomb exploded next to Colvin, and the steel balls shot out and turned him into a bloody sieve...

The battle went downhill soon after reaching its peak.

The Ming army in Tarawa had a total of five infantry units, a tank unit, and several suicide squads involved in this counterattack, and now they have suffered heavy casualties.

The sound of gunfire gradually became sparse, and the most iconic whistle sound was no longer as ubiquitous as it was at the beginning.

The horrific counterattack that terrified the U.S. military has finally ended.

On the eve of dawn, only dozens of people withdrew to the Ming army position and rejoined their troops.

When daybreak came and the British pilots finally agreed to take off, they saw a bleak scene that will be forever etched in their memories.

There were countless corpses floating on the sea. A careful count revealed that there were probably several hundred of them, drifting with the waves.

The entire beach was littered with corpses and body parts of soldiers from both sides. The dark green ones were from the Ming army, and the olive green ones were from the American army.

The wreckage of dozens of tanks and amphibious transport vehicles of various types was emitting wisps of black smoke, and some of them were still burning.

Richmond Turner, with bloodshot eyes, stretched out his hand and made the sign of the cross on his chest, thankingly: "Thank God, we were not driven into the sea."

A steady stream of wounded were sent by speedboat to the hospital ship anchored offshore, and the unimaginable number of casualties kept the military doctors busy and overwhelmed.

The U.S. military began to reorganize its situation. As the floating trench bridge was assembled, the remaining troops of the 1st Marine Division were continuously transported ashore, and the remaining tanks of the 730th Independent Tank Battalion also drove onto the beachhead one after another.

"What are you waiting for? Get that cannon ready!"

Lieutenant Colonel Grove, commander of the 11th Marine Field Artillery Regiment, was patrolling in a Willys jeep, urging his subordinates to quickly set up artillery positions.

At the same time, inside a destroyed Type 40 medium tank a hundred meters away, loader Private Huang Hua woke up from a coma.

The tank was hit by an armor-piercing shell fired by a Sherman tank last night, which pierced the turret, and then hit by a bazooka rocket in the hull.

He found that all the fingers on his right hand except the thumb were cut off by fragments, and he had several wounds on his body, and the other four were killed.

Huang Hua dug out the first aid kit, got an injection of painkiller, then lit a cigarette and took two deep puffs, and then checked the surrounding environment through the periscope and observation window.

It was already daybreak, the battle was over, and the enemy was all around.

The surviving American soldiers were exhausted and no one came to check this Ming army tank, which looked dead enough.

Huang Hua spotted a jeep a few dozen steps away, with officers inside shouting and yelling.

He turned around without hesitation to get the shells, only to find that the turret ammunition rack was empty. Finally, he found a high-explosive bomb on the vehicle's ammunition rack with great difficulty.

Since he only had the thumb left on his right hand, the loading action that was usually smooth for him became extremely difficult. After struggling hard, he finally inserted the gun into the barrel and closed the bolt.

Huang Hua pulled off the gunner with only half of his head left, and sat on the blood-soaked seat. The motor that drives the turret to rotate must be unusable now, so he carefully rotated the turret by hand and finally aimed at the jeep.

At this time, a soldier noticed the unusual movement, pointed at the tank and shouted, and the surrounding American soldiers all looked over.

Huang Hua, who was holding a cigarette, saw through the V-shaped reticle of the scope that the enemies in the jeep were looking at him, so he immediately pulled the trigger.

The 80mm high-explosive bomb manufactured by Handan Arsenal in September last year flew out of the muzzle and hit the target accurately. The flames produced by the explosion of 0.81kg TNT-Tetryl mixed explosive instantly engulfed the jeep.

The U.S. troops reacted immediately and opened fire on the tank, completely destroying it.

In the next half hour, the snake-bitten American soldiers fired three more rounds of bazooka rockets at all the Ming tank wreckages on the beach.

"The Americans are fighting the legions of Satan," the experienced British liaison officer aboard the Washington wrote in his diary.

Alexander Vandegrift, feeling heavy-hearted, ordered a classic telegram to be sent: "Casualties: large. Mortality: high. Progress: small."

After a day of rest, the US military resumed its offensive and continued to advance deeper into the enemy territory.

Betio Island is only about 500 meters wide, and it only takes a few minutes to run from north to south. The US military quickly divided the Ming army's positions, and the latter had to fight on their own.

The battle was still fierce. In order to capture the intertwined Ming army positions, every inch of advance came at a price in blood.

Despite heavy losses, the Ming Air Force from Nauru continued to provide support, and their results in bombing the beachhead positions cannot be ignored.

On the afternoon of February 2, in the east side room of Zhaoren Hall...

Zhou Changfeng was reporting to Zhu Lingjing on the landing progress at the Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands when Luo Fu trotted in hurriedly.

He handed over a telegram and said solemnly, "Your Majesty, this is a call from the Tarawa Defense Command. It's a farewell message."

"Read it." Zhu Lingjing nodded slightly.

(End of this chapter)