Age of Rebirth

The troops of the Independent Division landed in the southern part of Chichijima, and there were more than [-] people in Chichijima's independent garrison. After receiving the report, Lieutenant General Chun Chuan and Zhi, the commander of the [-]th Division, was stunned. In half a day, nearly one-third of the total defense strength was lost, which he never expected.

What he hadn't thought of yet was why the China Independent Division suddenly attacked Chichijima instead of Iwo Jima?It's unreasonable!

The southern part of Chichijima must not be lost and must be taken back. Lieutenant General Chunchuan was soberly aware of this. Less than two hours after the gunfire on the battlefield subsided, the 1th Division of the Japanese Army dispatched a brigade of [-] soldiers. A large number of troops, under the cover of a heavy artillery brigade, counterattacked to the southern area of ​​Chichijima.

And within more than an hour, Tang Qiusheng, the commander of the South Route Offensive Force Headquarters, sent two brigades of the Marine Corps to the southern landing site of Chichijima. In this way, the Marine Corps of the Independent Division that landed on Chichijima There are four brigades with more than [-] troops, all under the command of Lieutenant General Han Tie, the commander.

Han Tie set up the headquarters in a hidden department that was blown to only a small half. He frowned and looked at the hidden department where most of the collapsed, where there were more than a dozen burnt corpses of Japanese officers. Stretched in the hiding place, the air was filled with an unpleasant smell, "Get these corpses out of me!" He ordered the guards to arrive.

After the guards packed up, Han Tie observed the terrain and couldn't help laughing wryly. The previous rounds of shelling were too ruthless. The original defense system of the Japanese positions was reduced to ashes, and the original appearance could not be seen at all.With one step down, the floating soil can cover the calf.Didn't even have to dig.

Fortunately, Hantie's landing troops.He didn't intend to stick to this place, "Order, the troops will disperse on the spot, look for hidden places, and wait for the Japanese army to counterattack!" He gave the order, and as soon as he finished speaking, several shells hissed and landed nearby.

"Little devil and artillery?" Han Tie frowned, at this moment.The phone on the cannonball box rang, and Han Tie picked up the phone. It was Major General Chen Mengqiao, the commander of the first brigade, who called, "Commander, in front of our position, a large number of Japanese troops rushed over from the central part of Chichijima. Do you want to fight?"

"It's nothing to do with you, just hide the troops!" Han Tie replied forcefully.Said to Chief of Staff Wang Dongshan: "Report to the headquarters immediately, the little devil has dispatched troops to counterattack, and artillery, please ask for artillery support!"

Then Han Tie was happy.He said to Chief of Staff Wang Dongshan: "Chief of Staff, the little devil is so stupid, he sent him to his door to be beaten. Leaving the strong fortifications, he was exposed to the wild. Without air superiority and powerful artillery fire cover, it is almost like sending him to death!"

Tang Qiusheng's fire support to Hantie's landing troops.Not only naval guns, but also carrier-based bombers and fighter jets. The more than 1 Japanese soldiers who counterattacked were hit by fierce double firepower from the sea and the air before they saw the shadow of the soldiers of the independent division.

Large-caliber naval artillery shells and heavy aerial bombs blasted the Japanese army to pieces. The fighter jets passed by at low altitude, and strings of bullets knocked the Japanese soldiers back and forth. The artillery covering the infantry and counterattacking was the key target. Hours later, of the more than 1 Japanese soldiers who counterattacked, only more than 2000 people ran back.

Lieutenant General Chunchuan turned pale with fright. Less than a day after the start of the battle, he lost nearly one-half of his troops. This battle was impossible to fight. After suffering two big losses, he also learned to be smart and no longer expected to fight. Recaptured the southern part of Chichijima, but concentrated its forces in the fortifications in the central part of Chichijima, and did not show up.

After making a plan to stick to the central part of Chichijima, Lieutenant General Chun Chuan quickly reported Chichijima to the General Staff of the base camp and requested reinforcements of the fierce attack by the China Independent Division fleet and landing troops, as well as the heavy casualties of the Imperial Army soldiers. , At the same time, Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the commander of the Iwo Jima garrison, was also notified. He knew too well that Chichijima, which was isolated on the Pacific Ocean, would definitely not be able to defend it without foreign reinforcements!

On Iwo Jima, the commander of Kuribayashi Chumichi commanded his troops, sleeping on Godardan on the beachhead and deep positions. For three days and three nights, from the commander of Kuribayashi division to ordinary soldiers, the nerves were highly tense, and there was a breath of death , covering the entire Iwo Jima, the destruction of the No.80 Fifth Air Force made the Japanese soldiers on the island desperate.

Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi breathed a sigh of relief after receiving the notification from Lieutenant General Chunchuan and Tomomo. At least in a short period of time, Iwo Jima was safe and sound. He also couldn't understand why the Chinese Independent Division gave up attacking Iwo Jima. Island, and turned to attack Chichijima in the Ogasawara Islands?

While the four brigades of the Marine Corps landed in the southern part of Chichijima, Tang Qiusheng was not idle. He allocated part of his troops to occupy other islands in the Ogasawara Islands, including Ogasawara Island and Mother Island. It was deserted and there were no Japanese troops stationed there. What he valued was the geographical location of the two islands. In the future, the Ogasawara Islands could serve as an important maritime logistics supply base for the South Route Attack Force.

At the same time, Tang Qiusheng reported the situation that the troops had landed in the southern part of Chichijima to the commander, and in the telegram, he emphasized that the casualties when the troops landed were extremely slight, and that the Japanese guarding troops on the island were severely injured. Obviously, they want to capture Chichijima as soon as possible and build it into a sea supply base.

Tang Qiuli, who received the telegram, was finally relieved. The history of the US military's bloody battle against Iwo Jima would not repeat itself. He approved Tang Qiusheng's plan, and in his reply, emphasized, "It is necessary to capture Chichijima, and there is no limit to it." Time, but in the course of the battle, the principle should be to avoid heavy casualties of the troops!"

"It is suggested that the south attacking troops should use a lot of artillery fire, especially rocket launchers, and the bombs used by ship-borne bombers should be the 'Buddha Light' napalm bombs in the battle to capture Chichijima!"

In a word, what Tang Qiuli meant was that he could fight leisurely, give full play to his superiority in firepower, and use a large number of shells and bombs to blow up the Japanese defense fortifications, instead of winning the battle of Chichijima with heavy casualties.

After reading Tang Qiuli's call back, Tang Qiusheng smiled and said to Xin Xiguo, Chief of Staff of the Fleet: "Chief of Staff Xin, forward the original text of the teacher's call back to Han Tie!"

Hantie’s landing troops rested for two days at the southern landing site of Chichijima. Within two days, a large number of heavy artillery and rocket artillery, as well as heavy equipment such as tanks, landed on the landing site. Two days later, the troops began to go to the central area of ​​Chichijima Attack forward.

Lieutenant General Chunchuan's purpose of retreating to the central part of Chichijima is to take advantage of the natural terrain conditions and strong fortifications to hide in hidden places, bunkers and caves, massacre the soldiers of the independent division's attacking troops, and support the reinforcements sent from the mainland arrive.

However, Lieutenant General Chunchuan obviously underestimated the ferocity of the Hantie troops' firepower and the fighting style of the independent division troops. Before each pass, tanks cleared the way. First, large-caliber heavy artillery poured out rain-like shells, blowing up the position It was all scattered, and then there were the frightening new weapons, shells with long tail flames flying all over the sky, blasting out seas of flames, and finally, the napalm bombs dropped by the bombers.

With such ferocious firepower overlapping strikes, very few of the Japanese defenders in the attack area survived, even if they hid in solid underground fortifications and caves, they could escape the shelling of heavy artillery shells and rockets, but they couldn't escape " Buddha's Light" the all-pervasive flame of napalm.

After three rounds of firepower strikes, apart from being blown to death and burned to death, the rest of the Japanese soldiers also died of suffocation due to oxygen depletion. In the cave, piles of corpses of Japanese soldiers can be seen everywhere, and there is no one in their bodies. scars.

Hantie's landing troops advanced unhurriedly to the northern part of Chichijima, using countless shells, rockets and napalm bombs to blow up the Japanese defense lines. Wherever they went, all the Japanese troops were killed. .

A week later, the Hantie troops finally forced the remaining [-] Japanese soldiers to the northernmost tip of Chichijima. Then, after a day and night of uninterrupted shelling and bombing, the Japanese army was wiped out, and Chichijima finally fell to the independent division. In his hand, the Chichijima at this time, as if volcanic lava had been poured over, was full of desolation and ruins.

This campaign, which lasted about two weeks, wiped out the 1000th Division of the Chichijima garrison of the Japanese army. An independent garrison had a total strength of more than 2000 people, and captured fewer than [-] prisoners. For this reason, Han The iron army only paid the price of less than [-] casualties, but used more than [-] tons of ammunition. Chichijima was blown up inch by inch by the shells and bombs of the independent division troops, which is definitely not an exaggeration.

After the capture of Chichijima, the first thing Tang Qiusheng did was to order the division to direct the logistics department to build a field airport on Chichijima, build docks and other military facilities, and turn Chichijima into a frontier for attacking the Japanese mainland in the shortest possible time. logistics base.

The news of the fall of Chichijima spread to the mainland of Japan, which immediately caused a great shock. The Ogasawara Islands are the last of the three defensive circles facing the sea in the south. The senior officials of the Japanese army base camp did not expect that China would become independent. The attacking direction of the division troops is not from the north, but from the southern Pacific Ocean direction, and, throwing off the Northern Mariana Islands and the Sulphur Islands, it goes straight to the Ogasawara Islands.

The tens of thousands of troops originally deployed on the Northern Mariana Islands and the Iwo Islands have become useless decorations. In the absence of strong naval forces, the troops on the two islands can only stick to it and cannot attack.

The geographical location of the Ogasawara Islands is too important. Although it is more than a thousand kilometers away from the mainland, Tokyo, in front of the China Independent Division fleet with an aircraft carrier, this distance is not enough for a carrier-based aircraft to fly for an hour. The mainland will fall at any time bomb.

Chichijima fell, and there was no longer a defensive circle to use in the mainland of Japan. It was like a sharp knife of the Chinese, approaching Tokyo, and the cold blade made the Japanese tremble in their hearts.

(to be continued) (to be continued...)