Iron Cross

"Boys, we've landed! We've landed! Get ready to charge forward bravely!"

Captain Curt, the commander of Company B, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, who was responsible for the first landing on the Red Second Beach, saw the target in sight and immediately shouted at the top of his lungs. Strangely enough, his voice, known as "Big Voice Curt", was extremely penetrating. Even in a deafening environment, the officers and soldiers of Company B on several nearby troop transport ships could hear it clearly.

The Marines who received encouragement from the company commander were eager to try and were ready to set off. As ordinary infantrymen, they usually carried an M1 Garand rifle and a basic amount of ammunition, as well as three rations and two fresh water tanks. The weight was not light, but it was still a drizzle for American soldiers.

Soldiers gradually descended into amphibious vehicles through rope nets, and the landing crafts drove to the Red Second Beach. Looking out, they found that friendly troops were repeating similar things not far away, and the atmosphere suddenly became tense. However, when they thought that they were not fighting alone, there were a large number of friendly troops around them, and there was a powerful task force behind them, the morale of the B Company became very high.

At 13:17, when the US landing craft was rapidly advancing to the designated position, a red flare rose from the island, and the Japanese firepower, which had been silent for a long time, was fully revived, and roared back. Kurt saw it clearly, only to see the flashing of fire, the emptying of shells, the splashing of water around the landing boats, and the flying of shrapnel. One after another, the amphibious landing vehicles were overturned by the impact of the shells, and the soldiers fell into the water in a mess.

This was still relatively lucky. Several unlucky armored vehicles were directly hit by artillery shells, which were at least 105mm in caliber. The entire armored vehicle was torn into pieces with one shell. The broken limbs flew up with screams, and then the surroundings turned into a deep red, and then were washed away by the waves... This scene only happened in a short moment, but it undoubtedly made people's scalps numb and their hearts tremble.

Faced with the fierce firepower of the beachhead, the amphibious vehicles were helpless. Their weak machine gun firepower could not fight back at all, so they had to hide behind the warships. The soldiers got back into the cabin in shock.

"Retreat! Retreat!" Kurt shouted again, and at the same time looked at Betio with hatred - this low coral island looked like there were no living people, but terrible artillery fire came from there! He didn't know how the Japanese army survived such a fierce artillery coverage. He unconsciously raised the severity and difficulty of the offensive mission to a higher level.

The landing craft and amphibious vehicles were ordered to withdraw to the safe zone. The aircraft of the task force flew over Betio again to bomb, and the naval guns began a new round of bombardment. Cruisers, destroyers and even huge battleships ventured to a close distance of more than 2,000 meters to suppress the artillery positions on the east and west ends of the island.

The Japanese army was not to be outdone and fought back bravely. They did not dare to use 8-inch artillery to deal with battleships, but they were still eager to try to bombard cruisers or destroyers - compared with the army, they came from the navy and knew the weaknesses of these warships better.

"Damn it, the enemy has 8-inch guns?" 15 minutes later, Nimitz and Halsey received a telegram from the front line in the flagship Essex aircraft carrier, notifying that a destroyer had been destroyed and had sunk, with only the mast still exposed above the water, and two other cruisers had been hit and had to retreat temporarily.

"Let the battleships stay at the forefront and continue to attack, and the cruisers and destroyers should stay back. The carrier-based aircraft must suppress the enemy's firepower, and the 8-inch guns must be fired upon as soon as they are exposed!" Although the 8-inch gun is not large among naval guns, it is a heavy blow to the destroyer as long as it hits. The cruiser can't resist the 8-inch gun. The only one that can ignore this caliber of firepower is the battleship.

"Sir, the enemy's light warships have retreated..." The Japanese observer on the front line called the headquarters and excitedly reported to Shibasaki Keiji.

"Okay, we can use the secret weapon!" Shibasaki Keiji showed a happy expression and said to Matsuo Keikuni and Sukai Takeo, "Let's go and see these warriors off together!"

The secret weapon Shibasaki mentioned was the Kamikaze rocket special attack team that frightened the US military. In the battles for many islands such as Bougainville, Munda, and Lae, the Japanese army sank many US warships with the heavy power and suddenness of the Kamikaze. The biggest victim was the Colorado class, which was known as one of the seven major warships in the world in the 1920s. That time, a total of 7 Kamikazes rushed towards the Colorado, and 5 of them accurately hit the part below the waterline, which was equivalent to the giant ship being hit by 5 heavy torpedoes at the same time. No matter how powerful the US military's damage control capabilities were, they were powerless to save the situation.

After more contact, the US military also summed up the experience of dealing with Kamikaze. The fleet, especially the main battleships with obvious targets, should not be too close to the enemy islands. Sufficient aircraft should be deployed over the fleet for surveillance. Once a Kamikaze rocket is found, do not try to attack or intercept it, but use the side attack method to find a way to hit the operator. Once the operator is killed, the rocket will soon lose control and fall into the sea.

If the suicide rocket has broken through the aircraft interception network, it should be intercepted with anti-aircraft guns as much as possible, especially if the rear half of the rocket is attacked, where the engine and fuel tank are located. If it is hit, it will explode and fall into the sea. Only when there is no other way can it be allowed to attack the front half, which is full of explosives. Once it hits, it will cause an air explosion over the sea near the warship, and you may accidentally hurt yourself. But one point is particularly emphasized: it is better to shoot down than not to shoot down. It is better to let the kamikaze hit the upper part and deck of the ship than to let it hit below the waterline of the warship.

When the landing campaign was launched, Halsey had commanded the fleet to show up on Tarawa, trying to lure the kamikaze out to attack first - the US military knew that this powerful suicide weapon was limited in number. Just think about it, not everyone has the courage to face death and has superb rocket control technology - these special attack team members deployed on the island were all trained by Onishi Takijiro with great effort. However, Shibasaki has always suppressed the special attack team's desire to fight, and he wants to use this powerful weapon at the last minute.

In the underground bunker, 10 special attack team members with white cloth wrapped around their heads and the words "Seven Lives to Serve the Country" written on them are ready to go. They stepped forward and respectfully took the cup filled with rice wine, bowed in the direction of Tokyo, and then drank it all.

"Please, gentlemen!" Led by Shibasaki, all the officers who came to see him off bowed their heads in salute.

"Sir, let's go first. See you at Kudanzaka!"

"See you at Kudanzaka!"

During the artillery battle, the Japanese artillery gradually became silent. Just as the commander of the Indiana, Holland and Devin, were preparing to launch the second landing, someone suddenly exclaimed: "Look, what is that?"

Holland rushed forward, picked up the telescope and saw that a UFO suddenly flew out of the smoke in the distance.

"God, that's a suicide rocket, intercept! Intercept!" He yelled in shock as if he was electrocuted.

"Damn, didn't you say there are no suicide rockets? Where did it come from?" The surroundings were in chaos.

But it was too late to say this. 10 Kamikazes had already emerged from the underground bunkers and swooped down on the battleship according to the pre-assigned targets. Devin saw clearly that 3 of them were heading directly for the Indiana where he was.

The patrolling planes also saw something strange and immediately swooped down to attack. However, the US military was obviously careless this time. They actually drove to a place only 2,000 meters away from the island, and only 6,000 meters away from the bunker where the kamikaze was launched - this distance is quite short for the V1 rocket. Even if these battleships increased their speed to the maximum like crazy, the distance they moved was negligible.

What's more terrible is that in order to prevent the attack of 8-inch artillery, the fleet also transferred light and small ships to a distance. Now there are no warships that can block the gun holes for the battleships, and they can only rely on their own heavy defense to resist.

With a "bang", Davin saw an F6F explode a rocket, which exploded violently in the air, and the fragments were scattered everywhere. Before he could cheer, the second rocket had swooped down from the air and hit the midship of the ship fiercely.

After a loud bang, all the people in the command tower were knocked to the ground by the powerful impact. Some unlucky staff officers even hit the steel wall and fainted. When Holland and Daven got up in a mess and wanted to observe what happened to the giant ship under their feet, they heard another loud bang. The officers who had just stood up and were unstable fell to the ground again.

The captain exclaimed on the radio: "We were hit, oh my god, they hit the North Carolina again!"

"What happened just now? Weren't we hit? How come the captain still has time to care about the North Carolina?" Daven asked in shock a few minutes later.

"It seems that the hull of the Indiana is strong enough to block the impact, and the damage is not serious." Holland, who was trying to observe through the command tower, said to himself, "I hope North Carolina is lucky enough."

The Indiana was indeed lucky. A total of 3 cherry blossoms came towards the warship, 1 was blown up in mid-air, and 1 successfully hit the midship, but it was not below the waterline, but the thick main armor belt on the waterline. The armor belt with an angle of 1 withstood the test and blocked the kamikaze special attack. The damage control subsequently controlled the situation; the third one exploded at the bow turret position, killing more than 200 people and destroying a triple 406mm naval gun. Although this loss was not small, it was just that.

Because the North Carolina was closer to the front and more prominent, it attracted 7 cherry blossoms to pounce on it. In addition to one shot down by an airplane and one shot down by an anti-aircraft gun, the remaining 5 hit the hull. One missile exploded at the No. 2 turret, directly disabling three main guns; one missile exploded near the conning tower, destroying half of the bridge, killing and injuring many officers inside; another three missiles directly hit the hull below the waterline, each of which blew out a large hole with a diameter of nearly 4 meters, and seawater was pouring in.