afterglow

Chapter 616: Betrayal? True or False! The Iron Torrent
Is there anyone else who survived?
Yu Fengchang and the officers present were amazed. This was too horrifying.

"The 420th Regiment encountered these three people when they were searching Bairiki Island. They thought they had seen a ghost." The warrant officer said excitedly.

"This is amazing!" The Chief of Staff of the 140th Division was delighted and asked, "Where are the people? How are they doing?"

"The base on the west coast of Bairiki Island is said to be fine and there is no major problem."

"Okay, okay, okay, send a boat to pick them up."

Unlike others who showed their joy, the military supervisor of the 140th Division cautiously reminded: "The more abnormal something is, the more careful you should be. You should pay attention to identify it."

At this time, on Bairiki Island, 4.5 km east of Betio Island...

Three ragged men sat on the beach and wolfed down their field rations. The dozen or so soldiers present looked at them with awe.

"Don't eat so fast, be careful not to overeat." A lieutenant military doctor came over in an off-road vehicle, carrying a medical box.

The three surviving officers and soldiers belonged to different units and their experiences of escaping death were also different.

The tall Wu Guguang was a regular soldier, an anti-aircraft artillery soldier. After his troops were annihilated, he and several others fought and retreated. In the end, only one person was left. Because Betio Island was too small and there was nowhere to break out, he simply rushed into the sea and swam to Bairiki Island using two empty water bottles as floats.

The thin Kang Yun was a private, a communications soldier. He was blown to the beach by the shock wave of the US aerial bomb and fell into a coma on the spot. When the tide rose, he was carried away by the tide. After he woke up, he swam to Bairiki Island by grabbing a piece of coconut branch.

Hou Shu, a well-proportioned corporal and engineer, was one of the dozens of people who followed Shangguan Xun to defend the last fortress. He was seriously injured and lost blood, and was captured. A few days ago, when the US military was evacuating Tarawa Atoll, he escaped at night when the guards were slack. He made a simple float with the plastic bags that the US military used to wrap their rifles, jumped off the boat and fell into the sea, and swam to Bairiki Island with the help of the high tide.

That’s what they said, anyway.

Bairiki Island is one of the many islands and reefs that make up the Tarawa Atoll. It is just to the east of Betio Island and is smaller than Betio Island. The Ming army garrison did not set up defenses here at the time. The US military later only landed on the island, took a hasty tour and left.

"Those foreigners were so wasteful. They ate half and threw away half, and left a lot for themselves," Wu Guguang recalled.

The US patrol that landed on Bairiki Island consisted of only a few dozen people, and they were too lazy to take the remaining supplies with them when they left. They relied on picking coconuts, fishing, and those unopened C rations and K rations to fill their stomachs.

Then, the order came - to send the three surviving officers and soldiers to Betio Island immediately.

At the same time, Yu Fengchang sent a telegram directly to the Guam Governor's Office to report the situation and ask for advice on what to do.

No matter how small the probability is, it will definitely happen if the sample size is large. Everything is possible during wartime.

Either these three people were really as tenacious as monsters, or they defected to the enemy after being captured by the US military and were deliberately released.

Song Zhongkai, who was in the Governor's Office, was greatly excited when he heard the news, but he called back and instructed not to publicize it on a large scale for the time being.

We certainly can't rush to publicize the heroes' triumphant return now. If something goes wrong it would be a joke. We must be responsible for the morale of the troops.

So Song Zhongkai further reported the matter to his hometown and ordered the selection of capable candidates to carry out the screening work.

"You're worrying too much. It's not that complicated. No matter it's true or not, if you say they are heroes, then they are heroes." Zhu Lingjing didn't care.

"Shouldn't you be more careful?" Zhou Changfeng asked puzzledly: "What if the enemy really uses this to make a fuss?"

He recalled that the Americans had done this kind of thing in history during the Korean War - using threats and inducements to make some prisoners defect to the enemy, and then sending them back.

"People's minds are unpredictable. It's impossible to tell the truth from the false. So..." Zhu Lingjing smiled calmly and said lightly, "All three were promoted three levels, awarded the rank of cavalry lieutenant, transferred from active service, and stayed in the local reserve to conduct propaganda tours. They are genuine heroes, endorsed by the court. If you dare to question them... that would be malicious slander."

After saying that, she seemed to feel that it was not generous enough, so she changed her words and said, "Forget it, just make him a senior cavalry captain. It would be fine if I gave him two more ranks."

"Okay, this countermeasure is unreasonable, but it is indeed effective and goes straight to the point." Zhou Changfeng said helplessly.

"Oh, is it difficult to say a few nice words?"

"Your Majesty, this is an objective evaluation."

"Oh, be more subjective next time."

Honorary officer is an honorary title, which does not necessarily correspond to official officer or official post. In terms of rank, the rank of Shangqi Duwei is the fourth rank, which is the same as Lieutenant Colonel.

The three survivors were promoted three ranks and were only non-commissioned officers. A reserve non-commissioned officer with the honorary rank of lieutenant colonel? This was a rare event that had never happened before.

Zhu Lingjing is never stingy in this regard. She always follows the principle of "giving priority to protecting the rights of soldiers in wartime, followed by officials and civilians."

Learning from history, the historical lessons our country learned more than 300 years ago are still vivid in our minds.

In addition, this can't help but remind people of the admonition of the Roman Emperor Severus to his son before his death: "Let the soldiers get rich and don't worry about others."

The next day.

A drizzle started falling at midnight and did not stop until the morning.

A special meeting was held in the No. 2 Conference Room of the Grand Marshal's Office to review and summarize the surprise attack on the Tianshi Zuoyuan by the US submarine.

Zhou Changfeng and a dozen officers gathered around a huge sand table, on which were many red and blue wooden blocks.

Zou Yongxia, who has been promoted to brigadier general, held a wooden push rod and pushed the wooden blocks one by one while narrating:

"According to the current information, there were five to six enemy submarines involved in the battle. At 3:24, the Tianshi Zuoyuan exploded without any warning. Then, at 3:29, the Beiliu destroyer discovered the torpedo track on the sea surface, and the Ji landing ship was hit by a torpedo four minutes later."

"Taking into account the performance of the American torpedoes, we can infer that the enemy submarines were three to six kilometers away from our fleet and attacked one after another without unified command. Therefore, except for the first round of attacks, the remaining submarines fired at least twenty torpedoes, but only two hit, indicating improper tactical coordination."

"But the enemy submarine that launched the first round of attacks was quite cunning, and the captain was very experienced. At that time, the moon was already in the western half of the sky, and the submarine was launched from the west, using the light of the sea surface to cover the torpedo track."

Zhou Changfeng was silent for a while before he asked, "How did the enemy submarine stay hidden and undetected?"

"The stupid way is to sit back and wait, and move slowly underwater, just like the Lixia No. 12 ambushed the Hornet, with deliberate planning and lying in wait in advance." On December 9, the Lixia No. 770, a submarine commanded by Zhou's old buddy Ling Su, ambushed the Hornet km west of San Francisco and scored two hits.

"Is it impossible to discover it in advance? I remember that the new acoustic detectors and hydrophones were mass-produced last year."

"Uh..." Zou Yongxia shook his head. "In a situation like this where we have to wait and see, the advantages of our equipment cannot be fully realized. The acoustic detectors and hydrophones have very short ranges and will be affected by various external noises."

"Besides, the fleet was conducting minesweeping operations at the time, and the detection equipment of the screen ship must have been affected." He simply described: "Generally speaking, the approximate location of the enemy submarine is discovered first, and then a search area is established to conduct a dragnet investigation. Looking for submarines aimlessly is like looking for a needle in a haystack. The detection range of the screen ship is only a few kilometers, while the submarine's perception range is farther, so it can avoid it in advance."

"Find out the approximate location first? Usually we have to wait until it floats up, right?" Zhou Changfeng asked.

"That's right. Whether it's our army or the British and American armies, they all search for enemy submarines in the ocean in this way. Aircraft discover enemy submarines through visual or radio detection, and after confirming the coordinates, they call in anti-submarine ships to conduct searches."

"Well, so when fighting, you still have to avoid the real situation and attack the fake one."

"Alas!" Zou Yongxia sighed and said with a wry smile, "That's why it's best to bring a few submarines with you when a fleet duel occurs. The chances of taking advantage of the situation are very high. Submarines are naturally highly concealed, but fortunately they also have obvious weaknesses. They can only stay underwater for two or three days... and now we are developing submarines with longer endurance. In a few years, future generations will probably have even more headaches."

This is true. Anti-submarine is also one of the most difficult topics in future generations.

The latest active sonar equipped by the Ming Navy is the Yuannian type. Under ideal conditions, the maximum detection distance can reach 6 km. However, in actual combat environments, there will definitely be various noises around, so the effective distance is generally only 3.5~4 km. The performance of this type of sonar is roughly equivalent to the US military's QC sonar.

Zhou Changfeng nodded and asked, "We still need to speed up the equipment of airborne radar. Are there any difficulties in this regard?"

"The production is a bit slow. Yongchang can only deliver 100 sets per month. The Ministry of War has commissioned Tianning to produce some of them." A lieutenant colonel replied.

"By the way, Mr. Zhou, there is another good news." Zou Yongxia suddenly remembered something, "The magnetic anomaly detector has been tested almost to the point that there are no major defects. Trial production will begin next month."

"Okay, hard work."

Although somewhat inferior to that of Britain and the United States, the Ming army is now equipped with some pretty good airborne radars.

One is the Yuannian type sea search radar, with a maximum power of 9kW. The detection range for large warships can reach 70km, and for submarines it is 25km. It is installed on the Type seaplane for searching the enemy.

The other is the Type 1.6 interceptor radar, with a maximum power of 6kW. The detection range for bombers is 4km and for fighters is km. It is installed on the Type heavy fighter to assist in intercepting enemy bombers.

【Picture】

For more than ten days in mid-to-late March, dozens of newspapers across the country were flooded with publicity about the surviving officers and soldiers of the Battle of Tarawa.

Wu Guguang, Kang Yun and Hou Shu were given many nicknames, such as "Three Brave Men on the Isolated Island" and "Model of Loyal and Dedicated Soldiers in Ancient and Modern Times". The local officials in their hometowns made a big fuss about it. The prefect personally brought a large group of followers to commend them, and erected memorial arches and statues.

The appearance of these three people made the director and screenwriter in charge of shooting the film ecstatic. The screenwriter got so drunk that he tripped over the threshold and broke his right hand.

Fortunately, the screenwriter is left-handed, so having his right hand in a cast did not affect his writing.

Originally, I had to rack my brains and use my imagination to fabricate various scenes of the Battle of Tarawa, but now that I have an eyewitness, everything is easy.

Just listening to the three of them describe the situation at that time, the director and screenwriter felt horrified, and recalling the painful experience made the three of them collapse from time to time, crying...

Of the 7,000 coffins brought by the 216th Squadron of Type A, only half were actually used in the end, as most of the remains were severely damaged and incomplete, which shows how brutal the bloody battle was at that time.

In addition, many officers and soldiers’ official discs, military discs, and identity cards were taken away by American soldiers as trophies, and most of the remains could not be identified at all.

Even so, it still needs to be shipped back.

Yu Fengchang assigned a merchant ship to carry out this mission, painted it all white, and flew a red cross flag to indicate that it was a neutral, non-military target.

The Pacific battlefield was in a white-hot stage, with fierce battles continuing one after another.

On the European battlefield, the boring and dull "see-saw" battle between the two sides relying on trenches was about to come to an end.

The main force of the British and American Expeditionary Force quickly moved south, while the engineering corps tried its best to strengthen the traffic from Murmansk and Arkhangelsk to St. Petersburg and Moscow.

远征军司令官为马克-克拉克上将，美军第9集团军和英军第30军以3个装甲师和6个步兵师组成的矛头直指圣彼得堡，总兵力约17万。

They may not seem like many, but the entire northern front already has nearly one million National Republican Army troops deployed to maintain the front line. The more than 100,000 people of the British and American Expeditionary Force can be regarded as an elite mechanized heavy force group that can form an absolute advantage locally and smash the enemy's position like a cone.

If we fail to successfully repel them as they advance deep into the enemy's territory, the entire front line will be in danger of collapse and we will have no choice but to retreat.

However, the ▇▇▇ troops (Red) alone would have no chance of fighting against the aggressive British and American Expeditionary Forces.

Therefore, the General Staff of the German Socialist People's Army quickly implemented the plan - to form Army Group R to enter Russia to participate in the war.

Army Group R was commanded by General Georg Lindemann and had 6 infantry divisions, 5 motorized infantry divisions, 4 armored divisions, and 2 independent heavy armored battalions (Tiger I). Each infantry division and motorized infantry division was equipped with an independent heavy armored company (Tiger I).

这支精锐的重兵集团拥有大约1000辆坦克、300辆装甲车、1200辆半履带车、3600门身管火炮或自行火炮、720门高射炮、14万辆各种汽车。

In addition, although the manpower was stretched, the DSS Air Force still sent an aviation force consisting of about 500 fighters, 300 bombers, and 120 transport planes to assist.

Soon, a large-scale armored cluster battle that has never appeared in the history of mankind in this world will take place. It will be a collision between two colors of steel torrents!
At the same time, in the heart of the Pacific Ocean - the Hawaiian Islands, the Ming Air Force officially launched the long-prepared large-scale offensive minelaying operation.

3月25日，仅当天就有247架轰炸机执行了布雷任务，布置500㎏轻型航空水雷725颗、1000㎏重型航空水雷138颗。

U.S. military aircraft took off from multiple airports including Molokai, Maui, and the Big Island to intercept the aircraft with all their might. The air battle was unusually fierce, and more than a hundred crew members shed their blood in the sky.

On the first day of the offensive, 35 Ming bombers and 38 fighters were shot down, and the US army also lost 41 fighters and 2 bombers.

According to the plan, such operations will continue for another four or five days until the goal of laying 5,000 mines is achieved.

[Today's illustration - The Essex class, acting as a transport ship, is full of planes and trucks.]

(End of this chapter)