afterglow

Chapter 673: Detours and Circles; What on Earth Is That? !

1月26日当地时间凌晨5：00，隶属于第4特混大队的三十多艘LCS火力支援艇在莫卡普半岛两侧排列整齐，同时开火。

These fire support boats, converted from large infantry landing craft, were loaded with MK7 twelve-barrel cluster rocket launchers. In an instant, thousands of 4.5-inch rockets flew into the hazy starry sky!

Half the sky was dyed red, as if there was a meteor shower nearby.

According to standard procedure, three rounds of such rocket salvos are to be fired before the assault landing.

American sailors rushed forward to reload the rocket launchers.

【Picture】

By this time, the sky was already slightly bright, and the thunderous sound of airplane engines reached my ears. I saw dense black dots appearing in the blue-black sky in the east.

A formation of nearly 25 B-26 and B-500 bombers bombed the landing targets in depth. In addition to the usual 69-pound bombs, cluster bombs containing a large number of M napalm bombs were also mixed in.

Spectacular fireworks appeared in the Mokap area. A large number of napalm bombs exploded at the same time, causing raging flames. The blazing orange-red fire illuminated the area as bright as day.

A Washington Post photographer on the USS Baltimore exclaimed to his companions: "It's really moving! The huge flames are rolling like a monster!"

The real-time temperature is 18.5℃, the air humidity is 63%, the sky is high and the clouds are wide, the breeze is blowing gently, and the sparse clouds indicate that today will be a sunny day, at least in terms of meteorology it is indeed a good day.

As for the specific landing arrangements, Richmond-Turner's deployment was roughly as follows:

The 1st Marine Division was responsible for Kaneohe Bay in the west, and the landing area was code-named Blue.

The 4th Marine Division was responsible for Kailua Bay in the east, and the landing site was code-named Orange.

The 38th Infantry Division was responsible for the protruding part of the peninsula in the middle, and the landing area was code-named Green.

Because the Ming army's air raids destroyed more landing ships than expected, slightly more than the redundancy of the US fleet, the landing force's deployment capability was reduced, so the first batch of beach landing forces had one less tank battalion.

Before the war, the U.S. Army carefully prepared nearly a hundred special amphibious Sherman DDs to equip the newly formed 786th and 787th Tank Battalions. The original plan was to assign a battalion to each of the two Marine divisions for support during the landing. Now it can only be temporarily reduced, with the 1st Marine Division being equipped with two companies and the 4th Marine Division being equipped with one company.

At 5:30, as several signal flares were launched into the air, the first wave of landing troops consisting of LVT amphibious transport vehicles and LCVP landing craft left their starting points and rushed towards the smoke-filled beach.

At 5:33, the LCS fire support boats fired their last round of rockets. The scene of flames shooting up into the sky was spectacular. Many officers and soldiers heard someone's excited shouting on the walkie-talkie: "That's like hell! We are going there!"

At 5:40, the fleet's firepower was unified and extended to deeper areas. Later, the first wave of landing troops broke into the water at the beach.

"Boom! Crash!"

Suddenly, a loud noise in Kaneohe Bay attracted everyone's attention.

A towering column of water rushed up, and countless fragments scattered all around.

It seems that an unlucky amphibious transport vehicle triggered an uncleared mine? The Marines cursed the Navy for being unreliable!
In fact, this cannot be blamed on our own people, because this time the Ming army not only laid ordinary anchor mines, but also mixed in some bottom mines with magnetic fuses.

As the name suggests, bottom mines sink to the bottom of the sea and explode only when a ship passes over them. Therefore, they are more concealed and difficult to be discovered and cleared.

One after another, amphibious transport vehicles, landing craft, and amphibious tanks rushed to the beach. Some landing craft deviated from the designated position, and the sea water was above their chests. The US soldiers could only wade ashore with carbines and automatic rifles held high.

The terrifying artillery attack did not occur. The main force of the Ming army seemed to have disappeared, and there was no resistance except sporadic cold gunfire.

This gave the recruits a strange illusion - maybe the powerful firepower preparation in the past few days had completely wiped out the enemy?
But it was precisely this situation that made the veterans feel terrified, as if countless pairs of eyes were staring at them in secret.

Lieutenant General Richmond Turner and Major General Alexander Vandergrift, who were behind, were equally nervous. They stared at the depth of the destination, as if some terrible monster would emerge there.

Half of the sun has risen above the sea horizon, and the warm morning light has dispelled the last trace of darkness.

Standing on the main mast observation deck of the Iowa, you can see the amphibious transport vehicles and landing craft on the sea lined up in neat formations. They go back and forth in waves in an orderly manner, leaving only shining trails behind...

The Nuuanu Pali Wind Mouth has always been regarded as an excellent place to take in the overall situation. Ming army engineers and Korean laborers carefully built three small but sturdy observation posts here - they can only accommodate four or five people. Most of the observation posts are buried underground. The roof is three feet thick high-grade reinforced concrete and two layers of thin steel plates, which are enough to withstand direct hits from heavy bombs. Then they are covered with soil and grass, blending seamlessly with the surrounding environment.

Behind a 30x binocular observation scope, Zhou Changfeng carefully examined the scene in the distance.

"Most of the enemy's first wave of troops have landed. They are about to advance. Commander, shall we take action?" A young major staff officer was so excited that his voice trembled slightly.

"Stop the enemy's advancing detachment, and proceed with the rest as planned."

"Order!"

The technical and tactical level of the US military has made great progress. Once landed, the fully organized companies advanced deep into the territory without stopping, so as to avoid being suppressed and unable to move after being bombarded.

For example, at Lansan Beach, an entire battalion of the 1th Regiment of the 7st Marine Division went ashore. While others were still reorganizing, the most well-organized Company E had already begun to assault far away with a squad of combat engineers.

If left alone, these infantry units, armed with large quantities of explosives, could take out many firing points and bunkers.

However, blocked by the US fleet's blocking fire, the Ming army's mobile forces in the second-line positions were unable to move freely. They either could not communicate, were unable to move, or could only grope their way forward in the tortuous and narrow communication trenches.

A high-explosive bomb from the old battleship New York hit the side of a shelter of the 66th Regiment, and an entire squad of infantrymen were buried alive in the collapsed bunker.

At this time, several artillery positions removed their camouflage one after another and launched rapid attacks on Kaneohe Bay and Kailua Bay according to the firing parameters that had been determined long ago.

In the blink of an eye, the Ming army's artillery fire accurately covered the blue and orange beaches. Hundreds of shells fell and explosions continued.

Smoke and dust covered the sky, water columns rose into the sky, and fragments of the destroyed landing craft flew everywhere.

The Marines in the Kaneohe and Kailua areas were completely suppressed on the beaches and suffered heavy casualties, but the Army troops on the middle green beach were safe and sound.

According to the pre-planned plan, several teams of US carrier-based aircraft hovering and on standby over the offshore waters rushed towards the exposed Ming army artillery positions, and the warships also ceased firing one after another to avoid interfering with their own aircraft.

The towed artillery deployed in the preset positions was difficult to move quickly, so it ceased firing after two rounds of effective firing. The artillerymen activated smoke canisters around the positions, and the billowing gray smoke formed thick smoke walls.

While releasing smoke screens to cover themselves, the Ming army's air defense forces did not just sit there and watch.

When the Hellcats and Helldivers flew towards here, the commanders of various positions gave the order and several anti-aircraft guns opened fire.

A Helldiver carrying a heavy bomb was damaged and crashed heavily into the Ko'olau Ridge, causing a terrible explosion. The earth shook and an orange mushroom cloud filled with flames rose up!
"He got beaten down by the bastards!"

"Who did it? Give me credit!"

The 145th Anti-aircraft Artillery Battalion once again achieved multiple victories, and the anti-aircraft artillery soldiers cheered continuously.

The American planes hastily dropped their bombs and fired rockets before turning away from this troubled area, and then summoned the fleet to resume bombardment. "The reaction was quite fast. If they had two more minutes, they could have fired another round." The young staff officer estimated with great regret: "The two rounds of rapid attacks just now probably killed hundreds of enemies."

Zhou Changfeng did not comment on this. He was complaining about why the air force had not yet taken off.

"How many quarters of an hour have you been late? Hurry up!"

"Yes!"

Like him, the ground troops preparing for battle also complained about the non-appearance of their own planes - according to the original plan, they should launch an attack as appropriate after the air strike began.

A Tiger (P) from the 602nd Squadron was hit by the artillery fire, with the gun sight and the commander's observation port damaged. Everyone was repairing it.

The soldiers of the special coastal artillery team were also constantly cursing, sometimes cursing the enemy's endless artillery bombardment, sometimes cursing the delayed air strikes from their own side.

"Oh my god! We agreed to have it at six o'clock, but it's already almost half past six. What the hell are those guys in the Air Force doing?!"

"Don't worry, it should be here soon." Feng Ziyu pushed open the hatch and stared at the sky.

Just as everyone was cursing, the long-awaited thing finally appeared in the blue sky in the northwest.

The fighters and bombers that took off from multiple airports arrived late, and the complex formation arrangements led to many problems and delays.

Due to the heavy losses caused by continuous high-intensity attacks in the past few days, the first attack mission today was undertaken by the Naval Aviation Force, and the Air Force sent fighter jets to provide escort; the second attack was solely undertaken by the Air Force's Type 2 interceptor-bomber.

This time, the Ming Navy used some specially modified aerial torpedoes, which were equipped with control devices that could set routes. They were divided into two types:
One is that the navigation trajectory is U-shaped. The torpedo uses the medium speed mode (36 knots and a range of 2500m). After sailing in a straight line for 1800m, it turns 180 degrees and continues to sail until the fuel is exhausted.

The second is that the navigation trajectory is circular. The torpedo uses a low-speed mode (28 knots and a range of 3500 meters). After entering the water, it sails in a straight line for 100 meters and then starts to circle with a radius of 1000 meters.

This is useless for a fleet underway, but works wonders for a fleet stationed in a static state such as a port or anchorage.

In addition, the Ming Naval Aviation Force, which had long refused to use magnetic fuses, has now finally recognized the reliability of the magnetic fuses that have undergone many improvements and has begun to accept them for use.

For this attack, the Ming army dispatched a total of 51 Type 102D twin-engine torpedo planes, carrying aerial torpedoes, one third of which were ordinary and one third were specially modified.

For the U.S. Marines, today's experience was very different from what they had imagined. Everyone originally thought that this was just an air raid like the past few days, but they did not expect to encounter something so strange.

Those torpedoes were running everywhere, causing chaos in the entire fleet!
The officers and soldiers of the Nevada saw a torpedo coming from the left pass in front of the bow, then inexplicably turned a corner and rushed straight towards the right side of the ship.

"Oh my God! It's coming!"

"Boom!!!"

The old battleship built more than 30 years ago was too outdated and had insufficient underwater protection capabilities. Just this one torpedo caused serious damage to the Nevada.

The Cannon-class escort destroyer USS Amick next to it was even more unlucky. The captain judged that these torpedoes that could turn and circle had acoustic guidance capabilities, so he ordered the engines to be shut down.

As a result, not long after, a panicked tank landing ship rushed over from the side and smashed the small escort destroyer into two pieces before it had time to turn around and avoid.

Due to the interference of the air strike, the shelling of the US fleet stopped, but the thick smoke and flying dust could not dissipate for a while.

Some troops took advantage of the situation to launch tactical counterattacks, or more precisely, to fight back proactively.

Several Marine Corps companies were cooperating with combat engineers to deal with the ubiquitous Ming army bunkers, when suddenly, the sound of sharp whistles and the whistling of rocket-propelled grenades reached their ears almost at the same time!

A large number of Ming army infantrymen armed with submachine guns and automatic rifles swarmed out from communication trenches, trenches, shelters and other places, opening fire with all light and heavy power.

The U.S. military's shallow and deep sweep was immediately hindered, and in several places the two sides even engaged in close combat and became entangled.

On the beach of Kaneohe Bay, Lieutenant Colonel Nelson, commander of the 7th Marine Regiment, hurriedly ordered a tank unit to provide reinforcements and sent out a newly reorganized company.

The Sherman DD is an amphibious tank modified by the US military. It is essentially an M4/M4A1 Sherman with a floating tent and propeller added to make it easier to move from sea to land.

【Picture】

However, after more than a dozen Shermans and over a hundred Marines had traveled only half a kilometer, a crisp metal collision sound and a flash of light appeared at the same time, and the third Sherman slowed down and deviated to the side.

A few seconds later, blazing flames shot out from the turret ring like a blowtorch, forming an orange apron of fire.

The Marines lay down one after another, and the tank commanders looked around with their microphones.

"Brown and his men are finished."

"Damn it! What happened?!"

"Where did the shell come from?"

"Anti-tank gun?!"

"Tanks! Enemy tanks! Two o'clock! About 1,200 yards!"

A Sherman took the lead in firing tracer bullets from its coaxial machine gun to indicate the target, and the other tank commanders immediately identified the incoming firepower - were they three tanks that had never been seen before?
Each war zone issued a corresponding combat situation manual, and the American officers and soldiers who came to the Pacific to participate in the war obviously did not recognize the square-headed Tiger-style turret.

"Armor-piercing bullets, reload!"

"shooting!"

Several M61 75mm armor-piercing shells flew towards the target, some shattered into a ball of sparks, and some ricocheted and flew away.

"We can't penetrate its armor, Sergeant!"

"Use high-speed armor-piercing bullets, quick!"

The only Sherman 76.2 (W) equipped with a 76mm long-barreled gun fired a deadly tungsten carbide hard-core armor-piercing shell, but unfortunately hit the target tank's gun shield.

"Reload! We..."

This high-threat Sherman 76 (W) was immediately targeted by concentrated fire. Two 88mm armor-piercing shells hit it successively, turning it into a blazing steel bonfire.

"Lieutenant! What the hell was that?!"

(End of this chapter)