afterglow

Chapter 508: Set up defense! Step up your defense! Counterattack on Kauai?
It is objectively reasonable for the Navy to accept the situation when it is good. After all, it cannot expect two aircraft carriers and one light carrier to fight against the shore-based aviation force and the Saratoga that are twice the number of its own.

However, this meant that the ground troops who had landed on Kauai were isolated.

"Don't place all your hopes on others. The Navy said it will come in half a month, but really it will come in half a month?"

"Zhou Daizhao's instructions are right! Try to rely on yourself in everything!"

"Disband, everyone goes about his or her own business."

"Follow the order."

Of course, Zhou Changfeng could not naively believe in the Navy's so-called "'evade' for the time being, take a short rest and then fight back."

No one knows if something will go wrong. Even if the navy subjectively wants to arrive in time, it may be delayed due to various unexpected circumstances.

Therefore, Zhou immediately held a meeting of officers to clarify the cause and effect, dispel some people's illusions, and remind everyone to prepare for the worst.

In ancient times, due to the need to fight against Japanese pirates, the Ming Dynasty had rich experience in anti-landing operations, but this was classical and primitive after all.

The strategy he identified was defense in depth, which was passive in operations and active in tactics.

In the past few days, the US troops on the front line of Kaweikini Mountain have been defeated by the steadily advancing Ming army, and more than 500 people have been captured. However, there are still about 100 stragglers who have withdrawn into the mountains to continue resisting.

"When the enemy launches an operation, we must focus on attacking the landing tools, resolutely resist the enemy's attempts to land on the beach, and strive to kill a large number of enemy troops at this stage, and defeat them on the beach as much as possible..."

But this is not the case for islands. Not only are they limited in depth, but they are also isolated by the vast sea, making it difficult to rest and receive supplies and reinforcements.

At any time, everything must be done to help the artillery use its firepower advantage to kill the enemy's effective forces and disrupt the enemy's offensive.

In Zhou Changfeng's view, such dogmas from later generations do not perfectly fit the current environment. He could only write based on his own personal experience and historical battle cases.

In terms of tactics, in addition to holding the position step by step, a certain number of squad and platoon-level infantry units should also be organized to proactively conduct ambushes, night attacks, and reverse infiltration.

Large-scale proactive attacks should be avoided in battles, and even counterattacks must be limited to small-scale to prevent the enemy from being killed by land, sea and air firepower and losing too many manpower.

In addition to various insignificant firearms, the Marine infantry also seized one M1 75mm and M2 105mm howitzer, as well as hundreds of rounds of both types of artillery shells.

Most of these doctrines are based on continental terrain, with sufficient or at least tens of kilometers of depth, and backed by a vast territory, they can receive a steady stream of supplies and reinforcements.

With this as a guiding ideology, the Ming army on Kauai began to build fortifications day and night.

However, as naval construction has been booming in recent decades, and the Ming Dynasty's strategic goal is Nanyang, anti-landing operations have not received much attention. They only account for a very small space in the teaching contents of the four major armament academies. The Ming army mainly focuses on Think about how to log in instead of resisting login.

During this period, several heavily armed gunships played a huge role and effectively covered the advancement of ground troops.

If our own navy loses the ability to take the initiative, the island cannot be defended and will fall sooner or later. Zhou has already come to this conclusion.

Because of this, Zhou Changfeng had to start writing an anti-landing operational outline at the beginning of this year to fill the gap in this area.

"Typical anti-landing operations should concentrate superior forces, establish a deep defense system with solid support points in the main defense direction, and carefully organize coordinated operations among various arms and units..."

Zhou Changfeng was not idle either. He traveled around by car from morning to night for two days in a row, personally selecting positions and then allocating troops and firepower to several major support points.

"If the enemy succeeds in occupying the landing site and continues to develop in depth, our troops must actively prevent the enemy from expanding, while at the same time looking for and seizing favorable opportunities, deploying reserves to carry out a resolute counterattack, and strive to annihilate it..."

Precisely because the offensive and defensive battles in the Pacific islands are relatively unique, defensive methods should be formulated according to local conditions.

However, due to the ongoing war, only a draft has been completed so far, and such rough and unpolished things cannot be put on the table for the time being.

Therefore, it is reasonable to prefer a one-shot deal of "annihilating the enemy on the beachhead". Anyway, even if it fails, there will be endless friendly forces coming to reinforce it.

Although the mount of the 105mm howitzer was broken, the repair shop of the rd Marine Brigade was not idle, and successfully used parts removed from other damaged artillery to piece it together and repair it.

In Hawaii in May, it is already a little hot at noon, but at other times it is just right warm and pleasant.

In the afternoon, Zhou Changfeng and a group of military officers came to the coastline on the east side of Kauai Island to inspect the defense situation here.

The soft golden sandy beach and the vast blue sea make this environment seem like it was born to be a tourist destination. Unfortunately, it has been stained by the flames of war and gunpowder smoke.

"Don't stop, keep stirring."

"Go and bring those barrels over."

"Are you tied up? Be smart with your hands and feet!"

"The superior officer is here!"

"See you, sirs. I expect to be able to complete the 200 meters here tomorrow."

There are more than a dozen stalls of cement piled into a hill next to the woods on the edge of the beach. Soldiers in twos and threes are stirring with shovels; a little further away, some people are tying bamboo.

In anti-landing operations, various obstacles are unknown, but they can play a considerable role. They can not only delay the enemy's offensive preparation time, but also more or less hinder the deployment of the enemy's landing troops.

What we are making now is a cube cement block, which is a pile-like obstacle. They nail the wooden boards into a cube mold with one side, place it on the beach, and then fill it with cement.

The Ming army seized many materials left behind by the US military, including a large amount of high-grade military cement, but only a small amount of steel bars.

Zhou Changfeng requested that steel bars be used to construct bunkers and other solid support points. As for these obstacles... let's use bamboo instead.

Soldiers cut down local Hawaiian bamboo, tied it into bamboo cages, put them into cube molds, and then poured mixed cement.

These cube-shaped obstacles are arranged on the waterfront of the beach. There are also some rectangular obstacles that are driven deep into the seabed in shallow water like piles, with only the upper end exposed to the sea.

Unlike the scenes in movies and TV shows, the enemy is seeking death by using these obstacles as bunkers.

Leaving aside the landmines and sea mines placed near cement blocks and cement piles, even if they are detonated by heavy artillery fire preparations, if you dare to hide behind obstacles, you will be hit by mortar shells in a few minutes. .

Farther away, several staff officers and soldiers from the mountain artillery regiment of the brigade were carrying levels and rangefinders to inspect the beachhead.

Surveying, calibration, recording... Each area has a separate number, and then its respective shooting elements will be calculated, and the artillery unit can fire directly based on the recorded data.

"One thousand one hundred and twenty meters...that's almost it. We should put a combat artillery here."

"I think it would be better to go a few dozen steps north." Before this beach became a battlefield, it was more like a construction site.

Battlefield? Construction site!
Zhou Changfeng stared into the distance and became distracted unknowingly. A picture of US military landing craft rushing onto the beach appeared in front of his eyes.

Suddenly, someone interrupted his thoughts with a question.

"Zhou Taizhao, do you think the US military will really fight back?"

"It's possible." Zhou Changfeng raised his head and squinted at the sun, and said thoughtfully: "But they actually don't have many troops in Hawaii. If they really want to counterattack here... it will most likely be tentative."

"If you only send one regiment, it will be no different than an egg hitting a stone." Yu Daixin, commander of the 4th Marine Brigade, said.

At this moment, urgent shouts came from behind everyone.

"The enemy plane is coming!"

A few seconds later, someone rang a small hand-held siren, and the shrill sound of "wuwuwu" instantly broke the peaceful atmosphere here.

A communications staff officer said calmly and casually: "I just made a bet that I might not come today, but in the end I still have to bomb it."

Afterwards, the generals quickly rushed to several nearby off-road vehicles. The driver had already started the vehicle, and everyone in the vehicle rushed into the dense jungle in the distance.

The soldiers who were building barriers on the beach also dropped what they were doing and ran west, or jumped directly into the nearest improvised foxhole.

Three minutes later, there was loud gunfire in the direction of Weiyuan Airport, and the downed aerial bombs exploded one after another, making a thunderous roar.

16 F4F Wildcats, 11 TBD Devastators, and 6 B-17 Flying Fortresses, US military aircraft bombed the Kauai Airport as a routine, maintaining uninterrupted suppression to prevent the Ming army from rushing to complete repairs and put them back into use.

"Woo——"

The Wildcat fighter jet that was hit and caught fire made a weird roar, dragging black smoke and falling to the northwest.

The pilot luckily escaped by parachuting, and a dandelion floated in the sky.

The eyes of the officers and soldiers shone brightly - didn't this credit come to their doorsteps themselves? Participating in the capture of enemy flying officers, a "secondary achievement" cannot escape.

Some people are still looking up at the sky, but some people have already jumped onto the sidecar motorcycle with quick eyesight and quick hands, and are rushing towards the direction of the parachute...

Similar to what Zhou had guessed, the US military was indeed considering a counterattack on Kauai.

When it was confirmed that the Ming fleet had withdrawn, the Pacific Fleet headquarters immediately cheered. Many people described that moment in letters and diaries as "the happiest time in months."

This good news was immediately sent back to Washington, immediately detonating the long-simmering emotions of the people.

Previously, people, especially those in San Francisco and Los Angeles, were still worried about whether the US military could hold Hawaii.

If it fails, will the West Coast become a target for those Chinese?
Now, it seems like everyone’s worries can be put behind them?
On Monday, many stocks on the New York Stock Exchange jumped to open higher. The Dow Jones index began to counterattack after several months of decline. It opened to 89.1 points from 92.4 points last week, and then opened higher.

It is said that times make heroes. In today's relatively depressed atmosphere, the United States really needs a hero who can give confidence to all military and civilians.

Whether or not Chester Nimitz actually had a mastermind, he must have now.

While the American people were celebrating, President Franklin also called Chester to express his approval and asked if it was possible to organize the retaking of Kauai as soon as possible.

Chester's answer was that it could be done, but it should not be done because it was uncertain whether the Ming fleet would come back in the short term.

The core force defending Oahu is the fully equipped 7th Infantry Division. Only by throwing them all into the counterattack can we have any hope of victory, but the risk of doing so is too great.

Unlike the president's inquiry, Army Chief of Staff George Marshall believed that a counterattack should be carried out immediately and that the enemy should not be allowed to have any strongholds in Hawaii.

Marshal Mai, who was far away in Melbourne, Australia, also held the same view. He sent three telegrams in one day, strongly recommending to pursue the victory and deploy the 7th Infantry Division to retake Kauai - "Any enemy staying on U.S. territory will be Quite shameful.”

On May 5, under pressure, Chester reluctantly agreed to begin preparations, but he also made an additional request, that is, at least one regiment must be reinforced on Oahu within two weeks.

This request couldn't be more reasonable and no one objected.

As a result, George Marshall sent an order to send the 501st Airborne Regiment, which was still training at Fort Benning, to Hawaii.

The construction of the US airborne force started late. Until the eve of the declaration of war between China and the United States last year, it had not even decided which unit the paratroopers should be assigned to.

The engineering force believed that paratroopers needed to undergo systematic professional demolition training (at that time, the U.S. military believed that paratroopers were used to cause destruction behind enemy lines); the army aviation force believed that since paratroopers had to fly by plane, they should of course belong to the aviation force; the infantry force believed that paratroopers were ultimately infantry. If not, who else could they belong to?

After that, the US military successively established several airborne battalions for training, and expanded them into regiments in March this year. So far, there are five airborne regiments.

The 501st Airborne Regiment has a long history. It is an important part of the 101st Airborne Division. However, the airborne regiment has only been established for two months, and the airborne division is naturally still missing.

The paratroopers took a train from Ohio, traveled across most of the United States to Los Angeles, and boarded a B-17 bomber to Oahu.

During this period, the Pacific Fleet, which was ordered to withdraw to Johnston Atoll at the beginning of the month, also began to return to Pearl Harbor.

June 6st will be a holiday for children all over the world in later generations, but it has not yet appeared today.

Weiyuan Airport is unusable, and emergency air supply operations have been partially suspended. Now only large seaplanes can still transport supplies to the Ming Army on Kauai, and the frequency is very low, with an average daily airlift volume of only more than two tons.

In the evening of this day, the Ming Army on Kauai took off a hidden Type 37 single-engine seaplane to reconnoiter Pearl Harbor.

A vigilant situation came into view. A large number of warships appeared in Pearl Harbor that had previously been missing - destroyers, cruisers, battleships...

The Pacific Fleet is back!

"Enemy plane! It's coming from the right! Take advantage of it!" the pilot shouted eagerly.

"I'm sending a message." The rear seat gunner replied calmly.

After a while, a telegram was sent out.

"Special situation. The enemy's main fleet is visible in Pearl Harbor, with visual inspection of five battleships, four heavy cruisers, and seven or more light cruisers."

(End of this chapter)