New World War II Eagle Strikes the Sky

1944 was a year full of hope, and the Allied forces were victorious in this year.On the European battlefield, Italy has already surrendered. Although the US and British allied forces suffered a big loss in the "Operation Market Garden", the wish of many Americans to end the war before the New Year is doomed to be impossible to achieve. By the end of 1944, the invasion of Germany itself had become an elusive goal.However, by the end of the year, the Germans jumped out to die and took the initiative to launch an offensive campaign-the Battle of Ardennes.As a result, by the end of the year, the U.S. forces had successfully repelled the Germans, and in the process of pursuing them approached the German mainland.

On the Eastern Front of Europe, although the Germans continued to win as always, they won and won, and they won at home without knowing it.Moreover, the German army also won less and less, and became weaker and weaker, while the Soviet army lost more and more, and became stronger as it lost.It can be said that although the Germans have survived for 44 years, in any case, even the Germans themselves understand that they will not be able to survive the next year.

In the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. military was also victorious. Although it was hit head-on by Radio Tokyo, almost the entire army was "blown out."But the U.S. military still tore up the absolute defense circle of the Japanese, and in fact destroyed the remaining strength of the Japanese navy.When this year passed, the once glorious Japanese navy, as a strategic force, had little influence on the future war situation.

Only on the battlefield in China did the Allies never show signs of imminent victory.Although Ron's second brother described the victories of his guerrilla zone, but on the frontal battlefield, the Chinese battlefield showed a state of near collapse.The Japanese army launched the "Operation No. 1937" to open up the mainland transportation line. As a result, a large number of KMT troops have been replaced with American-style equipment. The army has been obviously weakened, and a large number of supplementary soldiers are used, especially Japan, which uses underage supplementary soldiers. The army was beaten to pieces, lost thousands of miles, and lost millions of troops. The scene from 1938 to [-] was almost staged again, especially the Grand Druid Commander Tang Enbo who was stationed in Henan (this person is in Henan, and the floods, droughts, The locust plague is also known as the fourth disaster—the Tang disaster), and the troops under him hardly made any decent resistance, so they were defeated and left one after another full of warehouses intact to Little Japan. They took away the all-American equipment that the Americans had just sent them and the food they looted from the fellow villagers in Henan.In order to fill these warehouses with grain, they let countless fellow villagers in Henan starve to death. They also told the foreign reporters who covered this "reason": if the army starved to death, the land and farmers would be destroyed. They all belong to the Japanese. If the peasants starve to death, as long as the army is still there, the land will still belong to China.However, after they starved a large number of farmers to death, when the Japanese came, not only the land, but also the weapons sent by the allies, and the food saved by the starved farmers all became the Japanese.

But now, the situation on the battlefield in China is no longer what Americans are most concerned about.Because this battlefield is no longer decisive.It is now the end of 1944. At this time, even if Chang Kaishen surrendered, can the Japanese still move their foundation from the Japanese archipelago to mainland China?

The Battle of the Philippines is still ongoing, but the outcome has already become a foregone conclusion.It is difficult for an island to persist after losing the support of the navy.In order to deal with the fuel-air bombs of the US military, the Japanese army seldom relies on fortifications to resist stubbornly. They use small units to entangle the US military. It is too inconvenient to use fuel-air bombs to deal with such small targets, or the Japanese will Relying on towns still inhabited by local residents to fight against the U.S. military—it is difficult for the U.S. military, which calls itself the "Filipino Liberator," to drop fuel-air bombs on towns still inhabited by Filipinos, because it would have disastrous political consequences.Therefore, the Japanese can still carry out a certain amount of stubborn resistance in the Philippines.However, under the shadow of fuel-air bombs, the Japanese army could hardly organize large-scale field operations.This means that the US military has more opportunities to fight more with less.In the Philippines, the Japanese army was powerless.

Now the U.S. military has focused on the next target-Iwo Jima.

As early as October 1944, when Ron left the European battlefield and returned to the United States, and the Philippine campaign had just begun, the US Navy had formulated a plan to capture Iwo Jima.The US Navy Pacific Fleet has a very interesting setup.That is, the mobile fleet of the Pacific Fleet has two alternating commanders and fleet numbers.

The main mobile force of the Pacific Fleet was alternately commanded by General Halsey and General Spruance: when General Halsey was the commander of the fleet, this fleet was called the Third Fleet; At the time of this fleet, the number of this fleet became the Fifth Fleet.On the one hand, this is used to confuse the Japanese, but more importantly, after preparing two sets of command systems, when one set of command teams leads the fleet to perform combat missions, the other set of command teams can study in the rear. next action plan.Just like in October 1944, Halsey took the Third Fleet to fight the Philippine naval battle, and General Spruance led the command team of the Fifth Fleet to study the next attack target at Pearl Harbor.After comprehensively considering the needs of various aspects, especially the needs of the Army Air Force for fighter jet airports close to Japan and the backup airports for b-10 bombers, the US Navy determined that Iwo Jima would be the next attack target.

The Japanese have built two airfields on Iwo Jima, and according to reconnaissance, they are building a third.Relying on these airports, the Japanese were even able to launch a sneak attack on the US military airport in Saipan. In other words, the Japanese really launched several seemingly deadly air raids. As a result, the Americans never thought that the Japanese would dare to do this seek death.As a result, several b-29 bombers were really destroyed by the Japanese.

Such behavior will of course be retaliated by the US military. Therefore, the US 21st Bomber Wing went to Iwo Jima to watch several times. After that, Japan had no planes on Iwo Jima.

Because the war in the Philippines was going well, Halsey was able to take the fleet back to the Ulisi base more than a month earlier for rest and reorganization.This is because on the ground, Big Big Wolf captured three more airports, which raised the number of Army Aviation aircraft in the Philippines to nearly a thousand, so the task of ground fire support became smaller and smaller, and Halsey felt that , Since there are no sea targets to fight, it is not worth staying in the Philippines at the risk of being kamikaze.

And Halsey returned to Ulisi in advance, which also gave the opportunity to advance the operation on Iwo Jima.At this time, General Spruance also got new information. The photos taken by the reconnaissance plane showed that the Japanese were building fortifications on Iwo Jima. Judging by the number of personnel and construction machinery on the island, Both General Spruance and General Holland Smith, of the 5th Amphibious Corps, who commanded the landing, agreed that the island was the most heavily defended ever.General Smith estimated that to take the island, the U.S. military would have to suffer at least 2 casualties.This estimate is quite accurate. In the original history, the US military suffered more than 8000 casualties on Iwo Jima.The number of casualties is even more than that of the Japanese.Of course, among the casualties of the US military, the most injured are the big heads, while the casualties of the Japanese can basically be equated with death.If you compare the death ratio, well, the Japanese die a lot more.

Because Ron has experience in Normandy, and, according to the plan, once the airport is captured, his troops will immediately transfer to Iwo Jima, so he was also transferred to participate in the discussion.Joining him in this discussion was General LeMay, who had just been transferred to command the 21st Bomber Wing.

"As far as we know, the Japanese army on Iwo Jima has a very systematic defense system." General Spruance said so clearly at the beginning, "General Smith of the Marine Corps told me that to take this island, it will take a lot of effort. 2 casualties. So, I first need to understand whether this island is really so necessary and irreplaceable. You know, our navy has a kind of island hopping tactic, which is to go over the islands that are heavily fortified by the enemy and capture them behind them Yes, the enemy's insufficiently defended islands, and then make the enemy-controlled islands useless by blocking the sea routes."

"Very important. Without this island, we would not be able to carry out strategic bombing against Japan." General Curtis? LeMay immediately replied decisively.

"The Japanese are very crazy," Ron knew that Li Mei was not good at explaining, so he said, "Just like they will use suicide planes to attack our warships by ramming, the Japanese army will also use ramming to attack our warships." Intercept our bombers. Relying on the mobility of the bombers themselves is very difficult to avoid collisions. Without Iwo Jima, our bombers cannot be protected by fighter jets. This is like the fleet facing the enemy's suicide planes But it is not as dangerous as the protection of carrier-based fighter jets. Fighting under such conditions, we may have to pay tens of thousands, or even nearly [-] aircrew casualties."

"Ah, landing would cost [-] Marines, and not landing would cost aircrews even more. And it would kill so many fewer Japanese." General Spruance turned to General Smith and said, "Smith, I think it's absolutely necessary that we start this campaign."

"General LeMay," said Lieutenant General Smith, the commander of the Marine Corps, "I know that in the fighting in the Philippines, fuel-air bombs played a key role in the course of the battle. But, as far as I know, no matter in Europe , or in the Philippines, such bombs are carried by tactical aircraft. Near Iwo Jima, we don’t have an airport for Army Aviation’s tactical aircraft to take off and land. So, can Army Aviation’s heavy bombers carry such bombs? And ensure enough precision?"

"The b-29 can carry any bomb. As for accuracy, if there are no our military personnel nearby, we can rely on carpet bombing to ensure the strike on important targets. If our military personnel are nearby, our 21st Bomber Wing can also fly within a few minutes." Drop bombs at a height of [-] meters." Li Mei responded immediately.

"Very good, thank you!" Of course, General Smith knew that Li Mei promised to let the b-29 drop bombs at a height of several hundred meters, which would put the b-29 at risk. From this answer, he also clearly felt , Army Aviation attaches great importance to this airport.

"Very well, then, we have these tactical issues to discuss..." General Spruance said.