afterglow

Chapter 605 Chapter Mexican and Brazilian Cannon Fodder Plan; Battle of Dutch Harbor
The battle was over. Everywhere you looked on Betio Island, you could see dense crowds of American officers and soldiers, as well as the corpses of officers and soldiers from both sides, completely filling this tiny place.

It is not easy to judge the victory or defeat of the Battle of Tarawa, it is too special.

For the Ming army, this was not a failure from a strategic point of view, because its strategy was not disrupted and the expedition to the Aleutian Islands went smoothly.

As for tactics, we fought against a larger force with a small force, fought alone and fought to the end, and used the second-line garrison troops to cripple an entire attacking division and a reinforced regiment. I'm afraid it can hardly be called a failure.

Due to the success of the strategic deception operation, the US military was optimistic that it could win "with little loss" before the campaign was launched, so it mysteriously invited more than a dozen reporters from different newspapers to accompany the army.

The result was completely unexpected. The extremely tragic four days and three nights left everyone dumbfounded.

When landing on the island to take photos of the scene, the broken limbs and organs everywhere made many people vomit.

A famous photo was taken by a Washington Post reporter - next to piles of corpses, three Marines were eating ration cans and smoking, and they looked at the camera with blank eyes.

A few days later, several newspapers began to report on the brutal battle that had broken out over the atoll.

For example, The New York Times used a capitalized headline that included both the synonyms “bloody” and “sanguinary” to describe the bloodiness of the battle.

Through those photos, we can see the bodies of soldiers lying in all directions, or floating on the sea. In order to attract attention, the New York Times even deliberately published some photos with broken limbs.

This deeply shocked the American people and made them realize that the cruelty of war was beyond imagination and was by no means as glamorous and heroic as shown in the movies.

In just one week, the sales of the two anti-war novels about the European War, "A Farewell to Arms" and "Company K", set new records - after their fantasies were shattered, people were eager to know everything about the real war.

Several newspapers took articles out of context and selectively excerpted interviews with some officers and soldiers, deliberately creating the most eye-catching content, such as timeless conspiracy theories and indiscriminate criticism.

Is there an enemy spy in the navy? Is there a serious mistake made by the commander?
The huge casualties and the media's instigation led to public outrage. Faced with endless questioning, the US Navy had to hold a special press conference to calm the emotions.

Navy Secretary Frank Norfolk carefully chose his words, fearing that he would offend the public.

In order to calm the public's anger, the navy could only exaggerate the significance of this battle.

The Pacific Fleet Command was pushed to the forefront and became the target of criticism.

Many families of the fallen officers and soldiers wrote letters to accuse Commander Chester Nimitz, and a large number of accountability letters came in. Statements such as "You killed my son" and "The battle of Tarawa was complete murder" were common, but he insisted on replying in person.

Because there were so many letters of accountability, his staff had to quietly reply to quite a few of them on his behalf.

Because of the capture of the Lexington, not only the public but also the political circles held a lot of malice and suspicion towards the Navy.

Both the Senate and the House expressed dissatisfaction, with members feeling puzzled and skeptical - was it reasonable that they had an absolute advantage in firepower and attacked a place the same size as the University of the District of Columbia campus with three times the number of troops, but still suffered huge casualties?

The congressmen felt they had been deceived and that someone in the navy must have been derelict in their duty!

Maj. Gen. Richmond-Turner attended the requested hearing on Capitol Hill upon his return to Washington.

A senator politely asked: "Mr. Rear Admiral, why did this battle end like this? I think there are only two possibilities. Either those Chinese can ignore the laws of nature, or (your) navy has serious negligence."

Facing hundreds of eyes, the major general calmly explained: "Dear sir, the enemy can be killed just the same. We lack experience and coordination, but no critical mistakes have occurred. The only problem is that the army does not seem to be suitable for fighting in the Pacific."

Then he added: "Although we paid a high price at Tarawa, we also learned a lot and will do better in similar operations in the future. In addition, the second half of the route between the United States and Australia has also been restored."

"There is no hope in this war. I've had enough." A member of the House of Representatives asked excitedly: "How many more islands do we need to capture? How many people will die? Is the occupied land enough to bury the dead young people?"

The newly opened US-Australia route departs from Manzanillo, Mexico, crosses the South Pacific, with only brief stops in French Polynesia and the Cook Islands, then arrives in Wellington, New Zealand, and finally arrives in Sydney, Australia.

This route requires crossing the roaring westerlies, with rough seas and poor sea conditions, which is quite troublesome for merchant ships, so the shipping capacity is very low.

美澳联军通过这条航线运送的物资建立起了一个独立的第77重型轰炸机联队，下辖第180、第181、第182三个大队，大约维持着90架B-17E轰炸机和40架B-24D轰炸机的规模。

It is well known that strategic bombing consumes a lot of energy. Each heavy bomber needs 10,000 liters of aviation gasoline just to fill up, not to mention the bombs and various spare parts it carries. Therefore, the transport capacity of this route is almost entirely occupied by strategic bombing.

Marshal Mai was very dissatisfied with this. He proudly declared: "If these supplies were provided to the ground troops, the Ming army would have been driven out of Australian soil long ago."

His loud calls played a significant role in promoting the movement. In addition, the American top leaders were already making long-term considerations, and it was necessary to expand the influence of the United States in Australia as much as possible. This was also one of the original intentions of the US military to launch the Battle of Tarawa.

Without Tarawa cutting off the shipping route, sea transportation would be much easier.

现在一支代号SX-165的远洋船队已经启程，这支包括18艘自由轮和3艘C3远洋货轮的船队装载了可以武装4个摩托化步兵师和1个装甲师的武器、车辆、装备，以及大量机器设备和原材料。

It can be said that the Battle of Tarawa shocked the entire United States, and some politicians began to criticize the federal government's strategy toward the East.

Europe is more important, so it is understandable that it has to pay a higher price, but is it really necessary to fight to the death on a remote island in the Pacific?
Some right-wing radicals even clamored to ignore the Geneva Convention and use poison gas extensively to reduce casualties.

Rational politicians suggested further winning over Mexico and Brazil, exerting deeper influence and control over them, and thus utilizing the manpower of the two countries to form a large army to engage in a war of attrition.

Mexico currently has a population of about 1900 million and Brazil has a population of about 4200 million, so it is no problem to initially mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops.

At the beginning of the century, Mexico was subject to US interference, with 70% of its mining industry and 50% of its oil industry controlled by US companies and capital, and was deeply oppressed by the Americans. However, President Cárdenas, who came to power in the s, forcefully nationalized all these industries, which caused great dissatisfaction in the United States and led to considerable tensions in relations between the two countries.

The raging war made Cárdenas realize a strategy that would kill two birds with one stone - to show goodwill to the United States and serve as a "vassal army", to gain independence through sacrifice, and to obtain assistance for industrial construction at the same time.

The Mexican upper class is not coming up with this idea out of wishful thinking, but because there are ready-made cases in South America.

In 7000, the United States provided Brazil with an interest-free loan of 150 million US dollars for economic construction in order to win over Brazil, and sent a team of instructors to guide and train the Brazilian National Defense Force. In , Brazilian President Vargas formally promised the United States that if the United States was attacked by non-American countries, Brazil would definitely provide full assistance. In return, the United States quickly passed a proposal to build a steel plant with an annual output of million tons for Brazil free of charge, namely the Volta Redonda Steel Plant, which has historically been a symbol of Brazil's industrialization.

Is it worth the loss of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of lives in exchange for economic aid? Cardenas thinks it is worth it. If you want to move forward, you have to leave something behind. Newton's laws of physics seem to work in politics as well.

However, this does not include the old powers that accumulated capital through colonial plunder and made huge profits.

Both Mexico and Brazil had the idea of ​​exchanging manpower for aid, and the Battle of Tarawa made the United States pay more attention to the feasibility of this strategy.

Another direct reason for accelerating the construction of vassal armies by the US upper echelons was the ongoing Aleutian Islands campaign.

After consideration by the Grand Marshal's Office, the Japanese vassal army was deployed on a large scale for the first time in the offensive against Dutch Harbor, and the effect was acceptable, but not satisfactory.

Unalaska Island is the second largest island in the Aleutian Islands. It is about 129 km long from east to west and about 59 km wide from north to south. It is mountainous and has rugged terrain. The military value of this island is quite high. The Dutch Harbor located in the north of the island is an important naval base.

【Picture】

The Ming army's participation in the battle sequence included the 2nd Marine Brigade, the 44th Division, the 137th Division and other units, followed by the deployment of three regiments of Japanese puppet troops.

This was an attempt to test the combat effectiveness of the vassal state's vassal army.

The objective conditions were also sufficient - the Aleutian Islands were relatively close to the Japanese archipelago, and the US side had sufficient delivery capabilities; Unalaska Island was large and mountainous, and the US military could use the terrain advantage to carry out deep resistance. If they were to be eliminated bit by bit, there would definitely be heavy casualties.

In this case, when the elite Ming army troops completed the first phase of beach landing and annihilated the enemy in shallow and deep areas, the subsequent tedious mopping-up tasks could be handed over to the vassal army.

The Ming army completely incorporated the vassal army into its own system and gave it a temporary number of "such and such 'Yi Cong'". In ancient times, this word meant the surrendered Rongdi tribe, and also meant volunteer army.

The Japanese defense forces participating in this war were: the Saitama 3rd Volunteer Corps, the Sendai 4th Volunteer Corps, and the Fukuoka 7th Volunteer Corps.

In order to save costs, the weapons and equipment of these vassal armies are quite unique, and they are pure light infantry.

They were even equipped with three light machine guns at the squadron (company) level, but each team (squad) was equipped with two submachine guns, and later it was strengthened to four.

In the view of the Ministry of War officials, the submachine gun made with stamping technology is indeed a very good cheap substitute weapon.

You should know that the purchase price of a Type 720 light machine gun was 650 yuan (gradually reduced to 94 yuan), while a Type 60 submachine gun was only yuan (gradually reduced to yuan).

Of course, in addition to these light weapons, they also have basic infantry accompanying weapons such as heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, recoilless guns, mortars, flamethrowers, etc.

By February 2, the Battle of Dutch Harbor was decided.

驻防乌纳拉斯卡岛的美军统共有2个步兵师、2个坦克营、3个重型野战炮兵营、2个海防炮兵营，以及若干勤务单位，总兵力约4.1万人。

Compared with a narrow and tiny area like Tarawa Atoll, the situation of the US troops in Dutch Harbor is much better and more suitable for long-term resistance.

There are continuous foothills here, with sufficient depth and ample room for maneuver.

The US military built thousands of permanent and semi-permanent fortifications, and there were dozens of large and small supply stations in the mountains.

They thought they were well prepared and were ready to fight, hoping to use the pre-fortified mountains and powerful firepower to defeat the Ming army and replicate the Battle of Molokai.

However, they were not so lucky this time. After all, the Ming Navy had seven aircraft carriers participating in the battle. The US military, which had lost air superiority, was suppressed throughout the whole process and could not exert its firepower advantage. The sky was full of Ming army planes.

The 44th Infantry Division of the Army from Anning Prefecture (Qiqihar) performed excellently and won the first battle. With the strength of only one division, it tore through half of the US Army's defense line and killed and captured tens of thousands of enemies.

After capturing and repairing the airport, dozens of dive bombers of the Air Force immediately moved in, followed by several heavily armed gunboats, providing uninterrupted close air support.

"…The clearing work is quite time-consuming. The enemy troops have retreated into the mountainous area in an organized manner. It will probably take another month or so to gradually reduce their space."

In the east room of Zhaoren Hall, Zhou Changfeng reported the current progress to Zhu Lingjing.

"The 44th Division should be rewarded." The latter asked, "What about the strategy for retaking Tarawa?"

"The enemy troops participating in the battle suffered heavy losses and will not stay long. They will probably leave by ship soon to rest." Zhou Changfeng looked at her. "The 140th Division of Rabaul is ready to go. We can set off once the navy gathers the fleet."

"Looks like we have to let them go."

"Yes, but the 1st Marine Division will join the war again sooner or later. If I catch it, I will definitely eat it."

"The battle of Tarawa was fought very well and it was an opportunity," Zhu Lingjing said calmly.

She must now put aside her personal feelings, treat this first annihilating battle with a cold politician's mindset, and prepare to make a big fuss.

According to the pre-war decree, the Tarawa garrison was promoted two levels for soldiers and one level for officers. Shangguan Xun's rank was brigadier general when he died for his country. According to the rules, the Ministry of War posthumously promoted him to major general.

Zhu Lingjing was also generous and posthumously conferred the title of earl on him as a special honor, and all the defending troops were also granted double pension.

"I have worked so hard for so long but am still only a major general and a viscount. When will Your Majesty promote me to two more ranks?" Zhou Changfeng joked with her.

"Oh? Since when did you care about official titles?" Zhu Lingjing also took the opportunity to speak, smiled calmly, and said in a serious tone: "If you commit suicide now, I will grant you the title of Duke."

"Well... even if His Majesty is willing to give it up, people in the court and the country will not be willing to give it up, right?" Zhou Changfeng was at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

They both laughed.

After a while, he suggested, "I plan to ask Madam to go to Shangguan's house to express condolences. Your Majesty, will you send someone?"

(End of this chapter)