Chapter 263 Each has his own new trouble
By the time Major General Vandergrift arrived with his men, the attack was over.
There were no casualties. The Japanese army seemed to be trying to attack the aircraft near the airport, but the hastily fired light mortars were not very accurate. Several rounds landed near the hangar and only made a few small craters.
But this is not a good sign.
“They were all small arms, grenade launchers and small-caliber mortars. They even took off their shoes to avoid making any noise.” He Chi said, pointing to an overturned plant and messy footprints on the ground. .
"They are learning from us, and they also want to cause us trouble with guerrilla warfare with small units, but they are not mature enough yet, otherwise they would not target aircraft but larger water towers." After getting along with each other for a while, Ai Dessen is also considered a semi-expert in guerrilla warfare.
"Hyakutake Haruyoshi is able to relax, and the mighty Imperial Japanese Army has also started to play cold shots." He Chi said sarcastically, "But we can't let them get away with it, otherwise we will be in big trouble. "
The Oriental looked at the surrounding environment and turned around and said to Colonel Edson, "Give me a company of people and I will think of a solution."
——
Ah! ! !
A shrill scream rang out in the woods, and a hand-cranked siren sounded loudly in a corner of the camp. Within about ten seconds, several small black dots flew out of the mortar position on duty and fell into the jungle nearby.
Boom boom boom! ! ! !
The sound of explosion was heard, and the black shadow in the jungle left several corpses and fled in haste.
"What's going on?! You're actually shouting in front of the formation. Are the imperial army so weak now? I've seen what that guy did. Let him run to see me." Major General Kawaguchi saw The report handed over by the staff officer was furious, and he was ready to scold the officer leading the team.
"Sir, Captain Zongjian is no longer able to report. He was the one who made the sound before. He has been loyal to the empire a few hours ago."
"Nani?" Major General Kawaguchi was stunned after hearing this. He had seen that the captain was his old subordinate. Although he was sometimes a little reckless, he was definitely not a guy who would yell when something happened. Maybe the target was exposed this time. There may be some hidden secret.
His guess was quickly confirmed. The three special operations teams sent out by Momotake Haruyoshi personally selected all suffered heavy losses, with only half of them returning, and the patterns of attacks were all the same. When approaching the target, someone suddenly shouted and made a sound, and then the US military's on-duty firepower responded within a few seconds and attacked the location where the sound came from.
The culprits are small traps hidden in the woods. These traps are just big enough to accommodate a person's legs. They are filled with sharp barbs and sharp iron pieces. Once a person steps in, they will bleed. Dripping, this kind of thing that caused American soldiers to suffer a lot in the Vietnam War was brought out by He Chi.
A company of soldiers dug thousands of these small, hard-to-find traps near the base. As long as one person stepped into them, the instant pain would be impossible to endure with willpower.
The 1st Marine Division of the US Army, which has sufficient firepower, does not care about ammunition consumption at all. As long as there is abnormal noise around, it will be followed by heavy machine gun and mortar attacks like raindrops. In the past few days, the Japanese penetration team has suffered a large number of personnel Kill.
But war is the best training ground. After only a few days, the Japanese army thought of a way to deal with it.
The principle is also very simple. Thin pieces of iron are tied to the calves and feet of the leading soldiers. Although it looks simple and affects the movement, it does greatly reduce the damage caused by the Allied traps. harm.
Besides the camps of both sides became lively again, and the attack and defense of infiltration and counter-infiltration never stopped. Within half a month, the two sides conducted several hundred-man-level small unit battles in the jungle. Hyakutake Haruyoshi and Major General Vandergrift were like two cautious fencers, constantly testing each other with light firepower and urging each other at the same time. Own air force puts more pressure on the enemy.
Both sides have their own concerns, and no one dares to take the lead in launching a large-scale attack. This pull seems to continue forever.
Until one day this balance was broken.
First, the Japanese Navy in the west of Guadalcanal discovered the USS Wasp aircraft carrier formation that was recovering a reconnaissance aircraft.
After that, the I-19 submarine successfully approached the Wasp and launched six torpedoes at an almost face-to-face distance of 900 meters.
Three of the torpedoes hit the Wasp's side, causing great damage and igniting the aircraft carrier's oil depot, directly causing the large ship to sink.
And this is not the only achievement of the Yi-19. The Type 95 torpedo it carries has a full range of 9 kilometers, and the other three of the six torpedoes have sailed a distance of 8 kilometers. They also hit the destroyer USS O'Brien and the battleship USS North Carolina in the Hornet aircraft carrier formation behind them, and achieved the result of one sinking and one seriously injured.
Six torpedoes were fired in one salvo, five hit, one shot three times, two were sunk and one was seriously injured, and then the I-19 actually ran away in full view of the public. Such an impressive record is simply unique among the Japanese submarine forces.
If you are playing games, some people will definitely say that the captain of the I-19 turned on the self-aim, but in fact that is what happened.
The problem became serious after that. The heavy losses frightened Commander Noyce on the Hornet. He thought his whereabouts were exposed and suffered a premeditated large-scale ambush. In order to preserve the safety of the aircraft carrier, this guy actually chose to retreat alone, leaving General Turner, who was in charge of the Guadalcanal material transport fleet, in the Pacific.
However, General Turner, who had always been inconspicuous before, showed the bloody spirit of a soldier. He ordered his fleet to speed up and sent the transport ship to Guadalcanal with only a small number of destroyers as escort.
Turner made the right bet. The Japanese I-19 submarine encountered the US military by chance. The Japanese army did not have time to arrange a follow-up attack. This also allowed him to finally fulfill his promise and send the last large-scale material supply to Arrive at Guadalcanal.
But this was indeed the last time. Since then, due to the deterioration of the sea situation, the sea transportation supplies available to the Guadalcanal defenders have been sharply reduced, and they only rely on air transportation. It is a drop in the bucket to support the consumption of more than 10,000 people.
What is dramatic is that the Japanese army also encountered trouble at almost the same time. The Cactus Squadron performed exceptionally that day, not only sinking two Japanese transport destroyers, but also damaging the Japanese lightly modified aircraft carrier Rishin, which was responsible for transporting large equipment. Number.
At this time, Hyakutake Haruyoshi's money began to become tight, and because the previous material transportation was not smooth enough, his situation was even worse than that of the Americans.
So the commanders of both sides made the same judgment: the food in their hands could not last anymore, and they would easily starve to death if they were dragged away.
What to do?
In a fight, just knock the opponent down first!
(End of this chapter)