Iron Cross

"Bomb...it's a bomb!"

The rumbling explosions shook the U.S. troops on Tarawa and even woke up the remaining Japanese officers and soldiers hiding underground.

These half-clothed, unkempt, and lifeless creatures lingering in the cave, dying, and barely able to be called "human" because there was still a little light in their eyes, were suddenly awakened by the violent explosion.

In order to preserve their strength and save food, they all huddled underground. Except for Major General Shibasaki, who had a slightly more spacious place, the rest were almost crowded, with sewage flowing across the ground and urine and feces everywhere. It was like a hell on earth. Even this hell on earth was preserved by Major General Shibasaki with all his efforts.

The entire cave was originally a large bunker. When the engineers were digging, they discovered that there was a larger cave underneath. There was a cave for one person to crawl between it and the upper fortifications. It was originally planned to be filled, but due to the workload, Shibazaki thought this was an extremely advantageous hiding place, so he excavated the upper part as a fortification and the lower part as a hiding place for personnel.

It was originally designed as a hiding place for 8-10 people. Unexpectedly, more than 50 people came in at the last breath, and what was even more unexpected was that the entire island fell so quickly. Shibazaki probably cried when hearing this idea from the US military. Death, is this quick?

Seeing that the officers and soldiers in other hiding places either died in the attack or were cleared by the US military, Shibazaki finally cruelly ordered to blow up half of the upper fortifications. It looked like they were destroyed. In fact, if the US military was willing to dig up the ruins, they could I discovered that there is another world inside. However, the US military obviously does not have so much free time, and repairing the airport is their top priority.

In this way, the last Japanese officers and soldiers in Tuvalu remained in this dark cave.

At first, everyone thought that they would be able to escape as long as they hid for a few days. Unexpectedly, the situation continued and turned out to be so bad in the end. However, no one cared about it. Except for Shibasaki who repeatedly emphasized that he was waiting for reinforcements from the combined fleet, everyone else People are just waiting to die. But the Japanese army is a force with a strong sense of obedience. Even in such a desperate situation, they can only wait for death before the commander gives the order to commit suicide and break the jade into pieces.

Their current experience is very similar to the starving Japanese army in the later stages of the Guadalcanal Campaign in history. The only advantage is probably one thing - they are not exposed in the jungle like the Guadalcanal defenders. They are underground, where the temperature and The humidity and insect pests are relatively better. The morning and evening fog on the island is rich in water vapor. When it hits the cold cave wall, it turns into water droplets and slowly flows down, which solves some of their fresh water problems.

Every day, only one person trudged up to the cave wall, wrote the date with black charcoal, and calculated how to survive another day. As for whether it was day or night outside, they had no idea.

The corpses of the two American soldiers were quickly eaten. After another seven days, Shibazaki decided to eat the corpse of the newly deceased soldier Masamichi Kobayashi. Of course, this was strongly opposed by everyone. Shibazaki said with tears in his eyes: "This This is Mr. Xiaolin’s last contribution to everyone. Each of us can make such a contribution. If I die tomorrow, you can eat me first!”

"Sir, this is not the way to go. All of us will die here sooner or later. Since it is death, why don't we all leave together in a grand manner."

"How many days is it?"

Someone struggled to answer: "On the 49th day..."

"Wait until 60 days! Twice as long as the combined fleet requires!" Shibasaki reluctantly gave the order, "If they don't come by then, we will be crushed together!"

Relying on the "contribution" of Masamichi Kobayashi, this group of people survived for several more days, but in despair, people died every day. When the bombs fell, there were only 33 people left in the entire cave.

"Sir, the fleet is coming, coming..." The violent explosion was like a shot in the arm for them all. Some people shouted excitedly, and died of excessive excitement a moment later.

"Everyone, hold on, we will be able to go out soon, but we may have to wait for the last few days." Although Shibazaki's physical condition is also very bad, his mind is unexpectedly calm and clear, "There are American defenders on the island. , this should be an early stage fire attack by the fleet, it will take a few more days to truly seize the island, gentlemen, hold on, dawn is just around the corner!"

Everyone nodded one after another, and even the eyes of a few people who were on their deathbed suddenly opened wide, as if they were looking back at the light.

In the next two days, the possibility of the fleet attacking the island became more and more obvious, because the island was filled with roaring sounds and the U.S. military was everywhere frantically repairing fortifications.

On September 3, the Japanese and American aircraft carrier formations marched towards Tarawa at full strength, and both sides divided their offensive forces into two groups. Nimitz put six escort aircraft carriers in front, leaving the aircraft carrier formation to shrink back. Behind them, Horikichi's main force of the fleet pressed forward in an upright manner, while on the other side, heavy bombers were dispatched from Tuvalu to bomb the island every day - anyway, there were plenty of American bombs. Now the U.S. defenders in Tarawa use anti-aircraft guns to greet four bombers, regardless of whether they are friends or foes. However, their accuracy is too poor and their air defense effect is very poor. The effect of the Japanese heavy bomber formation's air strikes was actually average, but what Horikichi wanted was to suppress the construction of the airport, disrupt the rhythm of the U.S. military, and by the way spy on the surrounding U.S. fleets, and did not have high expectations for the results of the air strikes.

The North Carolina, now stranded on Tarawa Island, has become the most obvious landmark, attracting the attention of the Japanese military every day. Both sides think that the other side is difficult to deal with, but for some reason they have to fight.

On the afternoon of September 4, each fleet entered the 500-kilometer air defense circle of Tarawa. The Japanese guerrilla fleet was in the west, the combined fleet headquarters was in the south; the US decoy fleet was in the east, and the main force of the Pacific Fleet was in the northeast. Tarawa is like the eye of a giant typhoon. Although it looks silent, the day when the storm will hit is getting closer and closer.

Time passed by minute by second, and Horikichi issued various attack orders in an orderly manner:

1. The Tuvalu land-based aviation force continues to suppress Tarawa Airport and prevents the US military from effectively using it;

2. The artillery fleet advanced at a normal speed and launched an artillery bombardment on the island at dawn on September 5, luring the US aircraft carrier formation to be exposed;

3. The guerrilla fleet advances at normal speed and prepares for a surprise attack;

4. The Marine Corps is preparing to approach the landing site on the afternoon of September 5. If the enemy aircraft carrier is not exposed, the carrier-based aircraft will be temporarily concealed...

His operational thinking is very clear: use seizing the island as a bait to force the U.S. fleet to appear. If the enemy fleet does not come, the feint attack will turn into a forceful attack to seize the island; if the enemy fleet arrives, then adjust the priority, first attack the enemy fleet by force, and then seize the island after winning. island. Unlike the Battle of Midway where Yamamoto Isoroku led the battleship force to watch the battle from behind, this time Horikichi directly pushed the battleships to the front line. Nimitz was forced to make a choice: either fight head-on with the United Fleet, or surrender Tarawa.

On the whole, the attack on the island is the application of traditional Japanese thinking: the combined fleet headquarters is Horikichi's sword, which he prepares to use in a big way, and the guerrilla fleet is his sword that he prepares to use for a fatal blow.

At the same time, Nimitz was also busy preparing a battle plan.

"Judging from the attacks on Tarawa in recent days, the Japanese attack is imminent. Although the specific range of the enemy's forces is not known at present, I think the enemy is likely to launch a landing campaign tomorrow. After the enemy's harassment, our A fleet Launch an attack on the coastal fleet and land at Tarawa Airport after the attack is completed..."

Fleet A was the decoy fleet prepared by Nimitz, consisting of 6 escort carriers and a group of destroyers, with a total of 178 aircraft.

Nimitz was interrupted by Major General Giffin just after he said something: "Sir, Tarawa Airport cannot land, they were hit by a new round of air strikes..."

"Damn it, when will it be fixed?"

"Tomorrow morning."

Nimitz couldn't laugh or cry: Tarawa's existing air defense force is completely insufficient. The airport is bombed and repaired every day, but it is completely useless. When he thought of this, he was filled with resentment towards that stupid Major Mike: Not only did he lose Tuvalu, he also left so many Army bombers, fuel and bombs for the Japanese army. This was simply slandering the enemy.

Halsey sighed: "If it really doesn't work on the day of war, then Fleet A will be much more risky."

According to his original idea, Fleet A could leave the scene after the carrier-based aircraft were released. These long-distance carrier-based aircraft would first land at the island airport for supplies, and then deal with the Japanese ships again. That way, no matter what the carrier-based aircraft could achieve, In this way, the risk of fleet exposure will be much smaller. Even if the escort aircraft carriers are not valuable, the domestic accumulation of escort aircraft carriers for the Azores campaign is going crazy. Admiral Kim is too embarrassed to deploy the escort aircraft carriers of the Pacific Fleet, but they can't cause any more trouble in the country.

Giffen said something that made everyone helpless: "Actually, today I suddenly felt that there is a big problem with your shuttle bombing method..."

Nimitz raised his head, somewhat puzzled, wondering why Giffen suddenly said this.

"Flying carrier-based aircraft from a distance of 600 kilometers can certainly avoid the Japanese attack, but I'm afraid that the rookies on Fleet A will not be able to find Tarawa after 600 kilometers." Giffin's tone was very sad, "I don't know. Sir, have you noticed that last time we reported a total of 54 aircraft damaged? Except for more than 10 aircraft that were shot down by anti-aircraft fire, the rest were all caused by these rookies when they landed - at this level, what can be done in China? It’s considered average. You can imagine what the new ones are. If we let them take off and land from 600 kilometers away, I’m afraid they will lose at least half of them before they fight.”

Halsey was speechless, and Giffen's words left no motivation to refute. After the reinforcement of the Langley, the Pacific direction has a total of 11 escort aircraft carriers. In addition to 3 used for daily transportation line escort, a total of 8 ships can be mobilized to the maximum extent. However, the reason why Fleet A only concentrated 6 ships is that Because there were a number of pilot casualties after the last battle, and then the pilots who were obviously not good enough were left at Pearl Harbor to continue training. In addition to having enough aircraft on the three regular aircraft carriers of Fleet B and leaving more than ten reserve pilots, the escort aircraft carrier only Can gather the pilot strength of 6 aircraft carriers.

Nimitz gritted his teeth and said: "Get closer and fly 100 nautical miles - it's not like you can't find the north..."