New World War II Eagle Strikes the Sky

The next day, on the morning of November 11, the B-18 bomber carried by General Halsey, known as the "Brave Bull", landed on the main runway of Guadalcanal Airport that had just been completely restored.He came to Guadalcanal with a group of reporters, of course the pervasive Hailan was among them.

After landing, he was first accompanied by General Vandergrift to the Blood Ridge where a great battle had just occurred from October 10th to 24th.

Now, the corpses of the Japanese soldiers that once piled up in front of the Blood Ridge have long been cleaned up, and even the weeds that were deliberately burned before the start of the war have grown again.Standing on the top of the mountain, in the wind blowing head-on, I can no longer feel the strong smell of blood as it was then.A group of colorful parrots are landing on the barbed wire fence not far away, either combing their feathers leisurely, or making a fuss by chirping.

General Halsey was standing next to a Vulcan 6-barrel anti-aircraft gun, with his right hand resting on the barrel, and was listening to General Vandergrift explaining the situation of the First Battle of Blood Ridge.Hailan jumped out without losing the opportunity, and took a close-up of Halsey and Vulcan Cannon.

"You mean, when you chased afterward, you found a lot of cannons abandoned by the Japanese army on the road?" Halsey asked.

"Yes, general, many of them are 150-caliber howitzers and 100-caliber cannons." Vandergrift laughed, "Fortunately, the commander of the other party is a complete idiot. High mountains. If he had chosen a more normal route, these cannons might have caused us a lot of trouble."

"Hehe, if only Ri's own commanders were like this..."

Although the tone was joking, the importance of preventing Japanese heavy equipment from landing on the island was conveyed very clearly.

After inspecting the Marine Corps, Halsey visited the station of the Cactus Air Force.Just yesterday, when Ron knew that Halsey was coming, he began to think about how to deal with it.

For the experience of this legendary general, Ron has a general understanding: Halsey was born in a seafaring family whose ancestors lived the wind and waves.His father, Colonel William Halsey, was one of the best captains in the U.S. Navy.Halsey Sr. had a string of honorable service records in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas, and completed a round-the-world voyage of the Great White Fleet aboard the cruiser USS Kansas.

As for Halsey himself, he had worked on torpedo boats, destroyers, and cruisers, from warrant officer to vice admiral, and the admiral's star was only one step away from his current one.His bravery, fearlessness, and aggressive spirit made him popular, and the sailors affectionately called him "Bull Halsey."

And there was one thing Ron felt he and Halsey were most in line with.That is: don't like, even hate ri himself.After Pearl Harbor, Halsey saw the American warship that was blown up by Japanese planes.He swore: After this battle, "you can only hear Japanese words in hell." Ron also knows that in history, it was in Guadalcanal Island that Halsey uttered one of his most famous words : "Kill Little Riben, kill Little Riben, keep killing Little Riben!"

Ron remembers this quote from a later joke:

One day, an American teacher asked in class: "Who said 'give me or give me death'?"

All the American students were silent.In the end, only one Japanese student answered timidly: "Patrick Henry said it in his speech to the Virginia Assembly in [-]."

The teacher nodded in satisfaction, and then said to the other students: "Don't you feel blushed? As an American, you don't even know this, but a classmate from Japan knows this!"

At this time, from a certain corner of the classroom, a murderous sentence suddenly came out: "Kill Little Riben!"

The teacher was furious: "Who! Who said that!"

"Admiral William Frederick Halsey, Jr., five-star admiral of the United States Navy, on Guadalcanal in 1942," replied the voice.

At that time, Ron just laughed it off when he heard this joke, but now, back in this era, Ron not only agrees with Halsey's idea, but even, if possible, he would like to put both feet together. Hold it up to show support.

When it comes to aviation, Halsey definitely knows a thing or two.Vandergrift was very envious when he got airsick and mentioned to Ron that the old guy Halsey even ran to Pasacola, California when he was 52 years old. The Naval Air Base learned first-hand how to fly carrier-based aircraft.

Today, this legend stands in front of Ron.

"General! Welcome to the Cactus Air Force!" Ron raised his hand to salute Halsey.

Halsey returned the salute, came over and reached out to shake Ron's hand. His hand was strong, and Ron could clearly feel the unruly and brave power emanating from Halsey's palm.

"Major Ron, this isn't the first time I've heard you mentioned." General Halsey stared at Ron with those eagle-like eyes in his deeply sunken eye sockets.Ron looked up at him too.

Halsey smiled suddenly: "I've been thinking, such a young guy really has such abilities, so that both Frye and Spruance are full of praise, and even keep thinking about getting you out of the army. Dig here. Come on, let's go inside and talk..." Halsey took Ron's hand and walked towards the meeting room as if familiar. "You know? Fletcher told me that you are definitely a general. Well...you have been in Guadalcanal for a while, what do you think of this battle? Do you think we can win? "Halsey turned his head, and seemed to be testing him.

"General, I think that shouldn't be a question. Shouldn't it? We've actually won the fight now." Ron replied with a slight smile.

"Oh, you think so?" Halsey pulled a chair and sat down himself. "Our opponent doesn't think so."

"Our opponents value the place names on the map too much, and their appetite is too great, which far exceeds their digestion capacity. In fact, they have lost the battle of Guadalcanal Island from the very beginning. The following battles It’s just a matter of deciding how much they’re going to lose, whether they’re losing their pocket money or just losing their pants.”

"Be specific."

"General" Ron knew that this was a test of himself, and it was also a rare opportunity for him. "After all, Japan is a small country. Its industrial capacity cannot be compared with that of the United States in any case. If any battle results in a stalemate and attrition, it will be a failure for Japan. What's more, here in Guadalcanal Island, we have Countless superior conditions will make the combat exchange ratio extremely beneficial to us, allowing us to earn a lot of money. Take the air force as an example. In Guadalcanal Island, we can advance two hours in advance for each air strike by Ri himself We all know the number, type, and height of the enemy after receiving the forecast. Those Japanese will have to fly for 3 hours to get here. By the time they get here, I think they are already so exhausted that if there is a mechanical failure, they may not necessarily We have the strength to climb out of the cabin by ourselves. But we can ambush them in a suitable position. If we fight like this, if we don’t have the upper hand, is there any reason? Anyway, here, our cactus lost a plane, ri I will lose at least ten aircraft, we will lose one pilot, and Ri himself will lose at least 50 to [-]. The consequences of the loss of pilots are much more serious than the loss of planes. Because there is no supplement for experienced pilots In the recent air battles, we have clearly felt the decline in the technical level of Japanese pilots. If Guadalcanal Island can continue to fight like this, and fight for a year, it is estimated that Japan will have to use rookies with no more than [-] hours of flying time. It's dead. I think the exchange ratio on General Vandergrift's side should be about the same. Judging from the current situation, Japan has already lost their shirts to us. I won’t even leave the bottom of my trousers. I really don’t know what those Japanese people think, they are willing to fight with us here for so long. If I were the commander of the Japanese army, I would have given up the bottomless pit of Guadalcanal Island. Although Guadalcanal Island is hard , but it is a rare place that can consume a lot of Japanese bastards. I love it so much."

Halsey nodded slightly while listening.Unlike General Spruance, Halsey was not one to hide his thoughts.The smile on his face directly showed that he was very satisfied with Ron's answer.

Seeing that Ron had finished answering, Halsey smiled and continued to ask questions like this.At this moment an orderly came in and presented the General and several other officers in the room with a cup with a spoon on it.

Halsey took the cup and looked down, it turned out to be a cup of ice cream.

"You guys have a good life," Halsey said with a smile. "There's even ice cream. Is the electricity on the island enough for you?"

"General, we don't have a refrigerator at all." It was Cactus's second ace, Captain Foss, who spoke, "There is a broken refrigerator, which was blown up during the bombardment of the Japanese battleship last time. This ice cream is made with a special method produced."

The so-called special method is actually very simple to put it bluntly. It is to fill the auxiliary fuel tank of the aircraft with prepared ice cream ingredients, and then use the aircraft to take it to an altitude of 10000 meters where the temperature is very low. The ice cream is ready.The fuel was tight a few days ago, and I haven't done this before, but now that the blockade has been broken, ice cream can naturally become popular again in the air force.

After hearing about the practice of ice cream, Halsey couldn't help but smile.The pilots in Guadalcanal Island can invent this, which also shows the high morale of the flying team from the side.As a "soldier's general," Halsey certainly saw this.

Halsey suddenly asked after eating the ice cream with Guadalcanal characteristics: "Ron, if you were the commander of the Japanese army, how would you fight?"

"What's the point? Send destroyers at night to take back all the Japanese who haven't starved to death. The market has fallen like that, how dare you not liquidate? Of course, this has to be agreed by the lunatics in the Japanese base camp."

"What if the base camp orders you to take Guadalcanal?"

"That's it. The only way is to repeatedly use battleships to bombard the airport at night to temporarily paralyze the airport, and then take the opportunity to launch an air strike to cover the transport fleet to land on the island with heavy weapons."

"Do you think Ri himself will send battleships again?"

"If they're still thinking about taking Guadalcanal, they will," Ron said firmly. (He remembered that in the original history, Japanese battleships did not come once or twice, and two of the four King Kong brothers sank near Guadalcanal Island.)

"Then how do you think you can deal with this move?"

"Send warships, preferably cutting-edge battleships, and Ri's own fleet for night battles. Although Ri himself is well-trained, we have radar, and we still have a chance to defeat them. Even if we can't beat them, as long as we hold them back, at dawn, our aviation The team can send them all to the bottom of the sea to feed the fish. Besides, because of the speed limit, there are only four King Kong-class battleships that Japan can use to bombard the airport. But these are old ships from World War I. If we can dispatch new battleships, we can win Their chances should be great. Although it is dangerous to invest in battleships in night battles, I think it is completely worth the risk."

"Crack, clap!" Halsey clapped his hands. Obviously he was very satisfied with Ron's answer: "Very good, young man! You will definitely become a general! It's a pity that General Arnold is not here, otherwise he must be very happy."

After the inspection, General Halsey held a press conference at the airport.At the end of the meeting, Hailan got a chance to ask questions.

"General, without affecting the principle of confidentiality, can you tell us what your next goal is?"

"My next goal?" The general looked at Hailan and let out a hearty laugh. Then, from his wide mouth with protruding masseter muscles, he finally uttered the famous murderous words that Ron had long been familiar with. : "There is no need to keep my plan secret, it is 'Kill the little Riben, kill the little Riben, keep killing the little Riben!'"