Iron Cross

Ps: I struggled to write 4,000 words, readers, please give me some monthly votes...

The first shot fired for the Combined Fleet was the famous Type 3 bomb, which has many burning bullets in the body. Taking the shells used by the Yamato main gun as an example, the shells are 1.6m long and weigh 1,360kg. The shells contain 996 to 1,200 submunitions. After being fired, they will explode in the air into 470 small incendiary bombs and then fall to the ground, causing large-scale damage with a diameter of nearly 500 meters and causing serious fires on the target. It is particularly effective for bombing airports, thin-skinned aircraft carriers and land facilities. Taking aircraft as an example, due to the stickiness of the shell material, it can deform or melt the metal skin after hitting the fuselage of the fighter, and it is also quite destructive to the rubber of the self-sealing fuel tank. Another variation of this shell is the Type 3 anti-aircraft bomb, which uses a delayed fuse. After the explosion, the small fragmentation bombs and small incendiary bombs inside will explode in the air. It may not be able to directly hit the enemy aircraft, but it has a strong destructive power against dense aircraft formations.

Although the Japanese army had bombarded the airport twice and was well aware of its location, Kondo Nobutake was still very cautious and first sent seaplanes to drop large flares, then marked the impact area with tracer bullets, and finally corrected the parameters and conducted calibration through aircraft reports.

"Distance measurement: 24,130 meters!"

The front turret of the Yamato fired first, and three 460mm caliber shells whizzed out, and the remaining two turrets followed suit. The bomb timing personnel held a stopwatch: "Ready - bomb!" As soon as the voice fell, the white-hot flash in the darkness jumped up, and the umbrella-shaped fire quickly spread to the surrounding jungle. According to the impact point data sent by the observation aircraft, the firing station used the firing disc to correct the firing, and the shells began to accurately fall on Henderson Airport. A few minutes after the Yamato opened fire, the Nagato also opened fire, and the airport was immediately engulfed in flames.

When the first batch of shells fell, Vandergrift didn't feel anything special, because although the sound was particularly scary, the power of the explosion seemed ordinary. He mistakenly thought that it was the work of the rats on the "Tokyo Express" again, and immediately called the 127mm shore artillery group located at Cape Longue to fight back.

But the reply from the artillery stunned him: "Sir, that's not the fire of the destroyer, it's at least the firepower of the heavy cruiser. All the shells were fired from 20,000 yards away from the coast. That's almost the limit of the shore artillery. We can't hit them at all."

The artillery fire became more and more intensive, and the direction of the airport was already in a sea of ​​fire. Occasionally, there were muffled explosions of "bang bang bang". Fuel depots, ammunition depots, etc. exploded one after another, and huge columns of fire and explosions came one after another.

"No... We must fight back. Even if we can't hit them, we have to scare them." Vandergrift made up his mind to fight back.

But he soon realized that this order was useless, because the Japanese warships began to fire salvos at other places, and the Long Cape coastal artillery group became the priority target.

"Boom" a loud noise, and then there was a sound like the collapse of the sky and the earth, and a coastal artillery battery was destroyed.

"Earthquake..." This was the subconscious feeling that surged in Vandergrift's heart. Although he immediately reacted that it was the result of the naval gun salvo, could it be the sound of the ammunition depot being hit and exploded? But he soon knew that it was not, because the explosions began to sound one after another. This was definitely the "masterpiece" of large-caliber naval guns. Judging from the sound and impact of the explosion, it was at least 356mm caliber or above.

"Salvo fire..." After firing in turns, the three main guns of the Yamato finally started firing salvos. The 9 main guns pointed to one side and fired at the same time. The people in the command tower could clearly feel that the hull was pushed to the other side by the recoil of up to 8,000 tons at the moment of firing.

Hori Teikichi was also shocked by the power of the Yamato's full-power fire. He said self-deprecatingly: "The power of the naval gun salvo is indeed stronger than those flying racks that look loose and may fall at any time. If I were not the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet and responsible for the overall situation, I would also like to be a giant ship faction..."

Everyone in the command tower laughed.

Kondo Nobutake thought: Fight, fight as much as you can. For this bombardment, each ship has carried an excess of ammunition before departure, and some of them are even risked to pile around the turret. The so-called half of them are used up, but in fact, there is still about 80% left. If these shells are not fired now, it will be dangerous for the next battle.

The Yamato's firing ignited the bombardment fleet's shooting frenzy, and then the main guns of various calibers of each ship began to fire in unison. Every time the shells landed, a fire broke out. After a full ninety minutes of shooting, the bombardment fleet poured nearly 3,000 shells of 203mm or more caliber on the first-line targets such as the airport, beach, and coastal artillery group. There were nearly 1,400 large-caliber shells of 356mm or more. The airport and beach became a sea of ​​fire, and the coastal artillery group was destroyed one after another. At this moment, more than 60 F4F fighters, more than 30 SBD dive bombers, nearly 20 B-17 bombers and more than 10 reconnaissance planes on Henderson Airport had been almost completely destroyed, and the stored aviation gasoline had also been burned out.

Although Van Griffst's 1st Marine Division had an absolute advantage on the island, with a large number of tanks and artillery, and its strength was undoubtedly overwhelming that of Haruyoshi Momotake's army, it was still as fragile as a piece of white paper in the face of the bombardment of nearly 300 huge cannons with a caliber of 203mm or above from the Combined Fleet.

"Where is our fleet?... Let them come to support us!" Van Griffst glared with a pair of bloodshot eyes and roared at the pale-faced staff in the headquarters, "We can't just take a beating without fighting back."

"Commander, telegrams have been sent to all fleets, but they haven't responded yet."

"What, the Japanese fleet bombarded Guadalcanal? Bastard, damn it! The devil's target is indeed Guadalcanal." Kinkaid, who received the telegram, cursed and was furious, "Tell the enemy ships the current specific location, number, and type of ships, and see if TF64 can be used to deal with them."

In order to facilitate the maximum concentration and unified dispatch of troops, according to Halsey's order, Kinkaid commanded the 16th and 17th task forces (TF16\\17), with a total of 2 aircraft carriers (Enterprise, Wasp), 1 battleship (South Dakota), 6 cruisers, and 14 destroyers. The center is in the South Solomon Sea, which is too far away from Guadalcanal and cannot be reached at all. The 64th Task Force (TF64) commanded by Major General Lee has 1 battleship (Washington), 3 cruisers, and 6 destroyers, with its center located about 180 nautical miles southwest of Guadalcanal.

"Sir, General Lee of TF64 also sent a telegram: This fleet has received a request for reinforcement from the Guadalcanal troops and is currently heading to the target sea area. It plans to meet the enemy at dawn and requests air cover..."

Just as Kinkaid was about to nod in agreement, Van Griffst's second telegram came again: "The enemy fleet has at least 4 battleships, 8 heavy cruisers, and more than 30 other ships. The Tulagi Island torpedo boats attacked and were repelled by the enemy's outer destroyer forces, without any results..."

"What?" Kinkaid was shocked, "Is this the main fleet of the Japanese army?"

The staff looked at each other, and then nodded repeatedly.

"Have you spotted the enemy's aircraft carrier?" As soon as he said this, Kinkaid knew he had asked a stupid question: How could he find an aircraft carrier in the dark? An aircraft carrier would not participate in the bombardment!

Judging from the report of the 1st Marine Division, the enemy's fleet was obviously stronger than TF64, but what Major General Li said made sense. He led the fleet to meet the enemy at dawn, and took advantage of the favorable opportunity when the TF64 fleet was entangled with the main fleet of the Japanese army to create an opportunity for the aircraft carrier formation to strike first - even reconnaissance aircraft did not need to be sent.

He thought for 5 minutes, and finally found that everyone's eyes were on him, and everyone's eyes were eagerly expectant - they had waited for so many days without seeing the Japanese fleet, and they could not let it go easily this time.

"Reply to Major General Li, agree to the request. Considering the disparity in strength between the enemy and us, we must wait until dawn to engage in battle. Please find out whether the enemy fleet has an aircraft carrier. Our fleet will provide air cover." "Sir, the fleet has called back. The battleship formation is currently rushing to the main island. It is expected to engage the enemy at dawn. The aircraft carrier formation will provide air strikes as soon as possible." Van Griffst nodded, and his heart was finally put down: "Tell everyone to pay attention to hiding, and let the fleet teach them a lesson after dawn." Just as the US military positions on Guadalcanal were engulfed in flames, the 17th Army of Haruyoshi Momotake and the remaining troops of the Maruyama Division were boarding ships to retreat. Faced with such fierce artillery fire, he unwillingly said to Mikawa Gunichi, the commander of the 8th Fleet who was commanding the retreat: "If we can land and reinforce 1-2 divisions under such fierce artillery fire from the Combined Fleet, we don't have to retreat at all, and we can completely wipe out all the American troops."

"Reinforcements?" Mikawa Gunichi glared at him unhappily, "In order to cover your retreat, Commander Hori Teikichi pulled out all the main forces of the Combined Fleet, even the Yamato was bombarded... How many times can such a large-scale bombardment last? The American planes will come to the door at dawn..."

Hearing that the navy even took out the Yamato, which was regarded as a treasure, Momotake Haruyoshi was speechless, bowed silently and found a place to sit in the command tower. Although nearly 10,000 people boarded the ship, and there were more than 2,000 wounded among them, because of the effective dispatch and the upper hand of the Combined Fleet, everyone did not make a fuss, but boarded the ship silently-under the cover of the shelling, the 1st Marine Division did not know that their opponents were quietly withdrawing.

Of course, even if Van Griffst knew that the Japanese army was going to withdraw, he was in no mood to trouble them, because after the bombardment fleet completed the bombardment of the front-line airports, beaches, and ports, the firepower began to extend to the depth, and more and more types of ammunition were replaced with high-explosive bombs. His face gradually turned pale. He saw with his own eyes that a shell hit the tank stop, and then the turrets of four Sherman tanks were lifted up high and fell heavily, and the remaining parts were directly beaten into parts. This was not the power of the Yamato main gun shells-later I realized that it was the shells fired by the Mutsu.

Many soldiers of the 1st Marine Division hid in the trenches to avoid shells, and the shells did not hit the place where they hid, but when they were covered in mud in the trenches and rescued by soldiers from other companies, they found that none of them survived-not suffocated to death, but were shaken to death by the shock wave.

As the bombardment area continued to expand, Van Griffst received more and more casualty reports, and there were often cases where entire squads and rows of soldiers were reimbursed by shells. He couldn't do better. For the army, 155mm is a large-caliber artillery, and trenches and general fortifications can only defend against this level of bombardment at most. But for the navy, 305mm and above are considered large-caliber naval guns, not to mention the behemoths such as 410mm and 460mm.

"Report, Guadalcanal has become a blood island...the whole island is covered by fire...the number of enemy ships is very large...occasionally there are very large-caliber artillery." Halsey, who was in the rear, also received a report asking for help.

"Did the Japanese pull out the Nagato?" Halsey was anxious but had no choice. He was so blind that he couldn't let the carrier-based aircraft out to fight. Moreover, after seeing Kincaid's response strategy, he also couldn't help it. He said that he couldn't find fault with it - letting the TF64 entangle the enemy first, and then letting the aircraft carrier formation annihilate it is undoubtedly the best choice now.

But as a higher-level commander, he can't just consider the fleet like Kincaid, he also needs to consider the overall situation. He is thinking hard: What is the intention of the Japanese large-scale bombardment? Is there going to be a large-scale login? Thinking of this, he called Kincaid again: "Please pay close attention to whether the enemy has dispatched a large-scale landing fleet, and if so, try to annihilate it; if an aircraft carrier formation is discovered, make it the highest priority target."

His idea is very clear. The first priority is the aircraft carrier; the second priority is the landing fleet. As for the importance of the battleship formation, it can be ranked later - if the aircraft carrier formation is defeated, isn't it easy to deal with the battleships?

At about 1 a.m., Kondo Nobutake reported to Horikichi: "Sir, the enemy positions on the northern line of Guadalcanal have completed full coverage of firing. Our army has poured out a total of more than 20,000 rounds of ammunition in 5 hours... The extra ammunition has been carried It has been completely exhausted, and only 80% of the normal base is left." (Author's note: There are many mountains with sharp ridges in the central part of Guadalcanal. The southern line is dense jungle and overhanging rock cliffs. Only the northern line is a plain area, so it covers the north. Line is almost equal to the whole island coverage)

Kusaka Renichi reported: "The 8th Fleet sent a telegram, and it is expected to complete the boarding and retreat in one hour."

"Very good, let the four Kongang-class ships return to the mobile fleet, send Fuso and Yamashiro to cover the retreat of the 8th Fleet, and the rest of the fleet will bypass the western end of Guadalcanal and advance to the southwest..."

At 3:25 a.m. on November 5, 1942, Horikichi commanded the artillery fleet to leave Guadalcanal and sail toward the southwest. No one knew that the US fleet was coming in that direction. At this time, the two sides were less than 95 nautical miles apart from each other. , this distance was also shortened sharply due to the two fleets traveling in opposite directions...