afterglow

Chapter 621: Return with Failure; Don’t rush me! Can she be as anxious as I am?
In the pale light, seven or eight narrow boats were approaching at high speed from the southeast. They were the US military's PT torpedo boats.

The white waves broken by the torpedo boat at high speed reflected the white light and sparkled!
Although the 1st Torpedo Boat Squadron performed poorly during the Battle of Lanai, it did not shake the Pacific Fleet's view of torpedo boats - at least in the coastal areas of the islands, these flexible little gadgets were very useful.

Chester Nimitz has no plans to send out a fleet to launch an active attack. Tonight, only 1 torpedo boats from the 2st and 15nd Torpedo Boat Squadrons will attack.

The officers and soldiers of the torpedo boat unit carefully reviewed past battle examples, learned lessons, and also used their brains to come up with some local solutions.

In terms of pre-war preparations, they replaced their torpedo boats with night camouflage paint, with a dark blue base color that was almost black, with some light blue and white stripes in between.

"Ah?" Zhou Changfeng mistook it for Type 022 camouflage at first glance, but when he looked more closely he realized that there was actually a big difference.

The Ming fleet was well aware of the risks of a night attack and was well prepared. The Yushan destroyer and the Honeysuckle frigate opened fire on the invading enemy without distinction.

Just two minutes after the battle started, a 128mm high-explosive bomb from the Yushan, the 160th Wenchang-class ship, miraculously hit the bow of the PT-.

The fragile torpedo boat broke into pieces in the blink of an eye, hundreds of fragments flew in all directions with flames, and the wreckage quickly capsized and sank.

The other seven torpedo boats showed no fear and used machine cannons and machine guns to fire fiercely at the Ming army's guard ships. Countless streaks of light shuttled back and forth on the sea!
Such firepower was quite impressive. The Honeysuckle frigate was dizzy from the dense artillery shells and bullets, and the captain's hat was blown off by the shrapnel.

However, the US torpedo boats knew that they would not end well if they attacked the destroyers and frigates head-on, so these PT boats immediately began to turn and release smoke screens, seemingly trying to escape?

This was exactly the strategy that had been planned in advance - half attract and half attack.

The sixth skill of "The Art of War" is to make a feint to the east and attack in the west!
The 2nd Torpedo Boat Squadron rushed out from the south, and six PT boats rushed through the waves!

Six kilometers, five kilometers, four kilometers...

"Boom boom boom——"

The Jialingjiang light cruiser sailed steadily from the west, and its four triple-mounted 4mm naval guns fired half-salvos in sequence.

In an instant, more than a dozen water columns appeared around the group of torpedo boats, and each water column was enough to cover the small torpedo boats.

Following Jialingjiang was the first ship of the Jieyang-class destroyer, the Jieyang. She also opened fire at full power and destroyed a torpedo boat in one encounter.

"Hit! Hit!"

"Happy!"

Everyone saw the bright explosion that was different from the sound of a shell falling into the water, and they cheered loudly.

It’s just that the Jialing River just launched a second half-salvo, so it becomes a question as to who should be credited with the victory.

Realizing that the operation had failed, the American torpedo boat did not dare to continue to bang its head against the wall and get bloodied. It decisively chose to randomly fire torpedoes in the general direction, and then released a smoke screen to speed away.

None of these hastily fired torpedoes hit their targets, and more than $200,000 worth of four Sherman tanks was wasted.

There was only time to catch their breath before two flares, one red and one yellow, rushed into the night sky from the platform outside the bridge of the Jialing River. Their warnings could also be heard over the radio.

"Wide Area Call, Wide Area Call! From the fifty-fifth direction, a small group of aircraft is approaching quickly! Repeat, from the fifty-fifth direction, there is..."

Inside the command cabin of the Fa Zheng, the intelligence officer on duty said calmly, "Enemy planes are coming. Prepare for air defense."

In fact, the US torpedo boat unit reached a consensus with the night fighter unit before the attack, and the latter would also participate in the night attack and cooperate with each other in order to achieve the greatest results.

However, the 6th Night Fighter Squadron was very unlucky. A collision occurred during takeoff, and both P-70 Havocs were destroyed and all the people on board were killed. So now only nine Havocs arrived at the battlefield, and they were more than twenty minutes late.

The Ming army's screen ships raised their elevation angles and fired flares into the dark night sky. More than a dozen searchlight beams were also swaying up and down and left and right to search.

Soon, the 128mm, 38.4mm, and 20.8mm anti-aircraft guns of each ship outlined an abstract painting of black and mixed lines!

Even with the help of a large amount of lighting equipment, it is still quite difficult to identify these pitch-black night fighters at night, and it is easy to miss them if you are not careful.

Fortunately, the threat they posed was not great. The dozen or so light bombs dropped could only be described as much ado about nothing, and the dive and strafing attacks were just a bluff.

“Hu——dong——”

The damaged catastrophe turned into a fireball and fell into the sea, and several floating bonfires of varying sizes appeared on the sea in the distance.

The American planes retreated in disappointment, and the Ming warships opened fire to send them off. The officers on the Fa Zheng began to comment.

"This cooperation is not good enough."

"There is a serious disconnect between heaven and earth. This night attack failed miserably."

"If the coordination is proper, we can use planes to attack first to attract our attention, and then the torpedo boats can launch a surprise attack. With one attack coming from the light and the other from the dark, it might work." Zhao Hanfengqing analyzed.

"There will definitely be more night raids like this in the future." Zhou Changfeng felt sleepy and glanced at his watch. "I'll sleep for another two hours."

At the end of the second half of the night, another 11 landing ships, 4 cargo ships, and 2 frigates arrived from Oahu, loaded with army officers and soldiers.

At 4:3 on April 5, most of the Army's 15st Light Infantry Division landed.

The light infantry division is a new organization created by the Military Organization Bureau of the Ministry of War in the first year of the Jinghe period. The original intention was to build some division-level troops that are more suitable for fighting in complex terrain.

Compared with the 80-year infantry division, the first-year light division reduced one infantry regiment, and the artillery regiment was changed into two light mountain artillery battalions (160mm howitzers) and one super heavy mortar battalion (mm mortars), all with twelve guns.

In addition, the infantry regiment also removed the two heavy old 144-type 112mm howitzers and replaced them with two -type mm infantry guns. The general division of labor is that the wheeled assault guns are responsible for ordinary direct fire support, while the infantry guns are used to deal with more solid targets.

After the reorganization, the light infantry division must undergo certain mountain warfare training, but it is relatively short and basic and cannot be compared with the mountain division. It is essentially a more flexible infantry division.

The 31st Division was organized in Jinhua Prefecture. Zhejiang is full of mountains and most of its soldiers came from nearby counties and villages, so it was selected as one of the eight reorganized light divisions.

The task assigned to them by Zhou Changfeng was to maintain the stability of the front line in southern Maui and advance towards the Haleakala volcano in the east.

At 10:30, the th Heavy Armored Division began to be deployed from sea to land, but because of the large number of armored vehicles, the speed was very slow.

At 11:15, the US military sent a large number of aircraft to launch an air strike, attempting to destroy the Ming army's technical equipment and supplies to the greatest extent possible.

来袭机群的规模空前庞大，足足有35架B-25米切尔、14架A-20波士顿、37架P-40小鹰、22架P-51野马、12架F4U海盗。这已接近夏威夷大岛的单一波次出击架次上限，因为至少还要预留30~40架战斗机不间断巡逻保卫机场。明军舰艇部队、地面部队、航空兵部队奋力抗击，战斗前所未有的激烈。

Zhou Changfeng saw that the entire blue sky was almost blocked by the dark fleet of planes. Countless tracer bullets pierced the sky, and the sky was filled with black and gray smoke from the explosion.

Some of the damaged American bombers barely turned around and flew away, trailing black smoke; others were gradually engulfed by the spreading flames and fell uncontrollably into the sea like meteors.

The Ming warships were doing their best to maneuver and evade, twisting left and right, sometimes making sharp turns and sometimes suddenly accelerating. Aerial bombs were whistling down like hail, and water columns were everywhere on the sea. Before one fell, three more rose.

On the beachhead, more than 20 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns of the Anti-aircraft Artillery Battalion of the 1st Marine Brigade also fired crazily at the overwhelming number of American planes!
Smoking bullet shells piled up in the car. This was the first time the officers and soldiers opened fire at full power after changing their uniforms.

The first and second teams of the anti-aircraft artillery battalion of the 20.8st Marine Brigade were equipped with twin-mounted 38mm self-propelled anti-aircraft guns (based on the Type light tank chassis), and the third team was equipped with a single-mounted .mm self-propelled anti-aircraft gun (based on the Type medium tank chassis).

Each team uses an eight-vehicle system, with two platoons each having four self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, and another maintenance platoon equipped with trucks, towed vehicles, and tracked general-purpose vehicles.

In the continuous explosions, a large number of weapons and equipment were destroyed on the beach, several landing ships caught fire, and the sailors who abandoned the ships swam towards the beach.

The Liao landing ship was severely damaged and tilted to the right. The captain immediately ordered the ship to run aground. The landing ship crashed onto the beach full of craters. During this time, the few remaining anti-aircraft guns on the ship kept firing...

"Tsk!" Deng Siquan, commander of the 38th Division, clenched his fists and said angrily, "Just wait. Once we have assembled on shore, we will repay you double."

At 11:41, Zhou Changfeng ordered the st Division to prepare for battle and advance to the northeast in the afternoon to capture a series of low hills three kilometers away.

12：05，战斗结果初步统计完成，上午击落来袭美军战斗机12架、轰炸机18架；己方损失战斗机11架、登陆舰2艘、5辆坦克、47辆汽车、8门榴弹炮，另外人员伤亡四百余，一千多吨军需物资灰飞烟灭。

From the afternoon to the evening, ground fighting was sporadic and no large-scale engagements occurred.

The 93rd Regiment of the 31st Division sent a reinforced team with orders to infiltrate deep into the enemy territory and establish a stronghold. As a result, the US military dispatched three companies and some tanks in an attempt to encircle and annihilate them.

In the initial plan, the main force of the 426rd Regiment was supposed to launch an attack from the front, but the artillery attack from the 7th Armored Artillery Battalion of the US Army caused great trouble. These M105 Priest mm self-propelled howitzers had good survivability, were both armored and mobile, and anti-aircraft guns were deployed nearby to help cover them. The suppression effect of the Ming army's aircraft on them was not obvious.

Several consecutive rounds of artillery fire resulted in nearly a hundred shells being fired, which disintegrated the assembling battalion and forced them to reorganize their attack.

Later, the 1st Battalion discovered that the enemy in front of it was reinforced by a group of Sherman tanks, so it postponed the attack and requested support.

However, due to scheduling delays and traffic jams, the four tanks ordered to come to support did not arrive until sundown.

It was not until the early morning of the next day that the 93rd Regiment launched the offensive which had been delayed for more than ten hours. The Taihangshan heavy cruiser provided two rounds of artillery support, the second battalion made a detour to the east, and the first battalion maintained a frontal attack.

After spending two hours and eliminating fourteen bunkers and firing points, the first battalion captured a village with only ruins left, killing and capturing nearly a hundred enemies.

The Second Battalion, which was detouring to the east, encountered an ambush and the US military's resistance was extremely fierce, making it difficult to advance.

After that, they received air support. Three Type 2 fighter-bombers made a low-altitude raid and dropped bombs. More than a dozen heavy oil incendiary bombs seemed to turn the US military positions into purgatory, with flames rising into the sky.

Regardless of the actual effect, at least the visual effect is quite good.

At this time, four wheeled assault guns happened to pass by from the rear of the Second Battalion, and they went to support the Second Battalion of the 91st Regiment according to instructions.

The commander of the assault gun unit opened the hatch and came out to ask, "Where is the Second Battalion? We need to go over there to help!"

The communications sergeant on a light motorcycle actually noticed something was wrong, but pretended not to know and replied: "This is the Second Battalion, turn right to the front line to help."

Can this be considered a lie? Isn't the 2nd Battalion of the 93rd Regiment also the 2nd Battalion?
The Ming army infantry entered the starting position one after another, and then launched the attack in a sparse formation with the sound of sharp whistles!

Heavy machine guns and mortars were firing non-stop. Four Type 40 wheeled assault guns were parked one hundred meters behind the attack starting position, providing precise and direct line-of-sight support, eliminating the exposed US heavy machine gun fire points one by one.

At noon, the 93rd Regiment captured the series of low hills required by the mission and seized two half-track vehicles and a number of various guns and artillery.

The reinforced team had been trapped in the siege for more than twenty hours and was once dispersed, but now they have finally been rescued.

More than 200 officers and soldiers fought fiercely, but only about 80 remained, and a second lieutenant took over the command. The soldiers, covered in blood and exhausted, withdrew from the front line and returned to the rear to rest.

【Picture】

On April 4, all the members of the clumsy and bloated 4th Division were finally able to land. The entire landing process caused them to lose 5% of their combatants and 12% of their technical equipment.

On April 4, the First Landing Army attempted to continue expanding its victory and advance northward. According to Zhou Changfeng's request, the offensive action was relatively conservative.

There is an airport in the central and northern parts of Maui. The central airport is named Gordon Airport, named after the deceased pilot Lieutenant Gordon.

The 1st Marine Regiment cautiously advanced to the south of the airport, then completed a larger-scale tactical deployment, and slowly advanced with the cooperation of the brigade's tank convoy.

The battle was extremely difficult. This was the US military's key fortified area. Every time the Ming army attacked, they would be bombarded by at least fifty mortars and howitzers, making it difficult to move forward.

East of Gordon Field, the woods were half blown off and half bare.

The 165th Squadron of the rd Battalion of the st Marine Regiment launched the attack when it was very close to the US military position. It engaged in a fierce hand-to-hand combat with Company F of the th Infantry Regiment of the US Army, defeated Company F defending the area, and established a stronghold southeast of the airport.

On that day, after capturing Gordon Airport, Zhou Changfeng ordered a temporary halt to the attack to the north.

On April 4, the 6st Division's series of offensive operations to the east were quite successful, and it controlled a considerable area. It then switched to defense on the spot, confirmed the connections between the various units, and reorganized the situation.

"It's really hard to fight if we hide like this." A lieutenant colonel staff officer complained.

"At the moment, it is the best strategy to transfer the 38th Division to the north. They can first launch an attack with a depth of four to five kilometers. Our 1st Marine Brigade will follow closely behind to cover their rear and guard against possible enemy counterattacks." Zhao Hanfeng gestured while pointing at the sand table.

Such a protracted war was disadvantageous to the Ming army. Since the Battle of Maui began, the army, navy and air force had consumed thousands of tons of supplies every day, not including the fuel burned by the fleet.

"In fact, if we only look at Maui Island, it won't be difficult for the US military to deal with it even if they want to double-team us. It would be great if they can send a regiment to counterattack from the Iao Valley." Zhou Changfeng, who was in a bad mood, put his hands on his waist and pointed to the lower right corner of the sand table and said, "The 2nd Marine Division is ready for landing. What if they want to launch a counter-landing? This is a big hidden danger."

At this time, a communications staff officer came over and said cautiously: "Report, there's a call from the palace asking about Jin..."

"It's so annoying! She asks me every day!" Zhou Changfeng waved his hand and said angrily, "Call her back and tell her not to rush. Can she be as anxious as me?"

[Illustration: The Officers' Equipment Guide was actually drawn quite a while ago, but it has never been posted before.]

(End of this chapter)