Chapter 57: The combined fleet attacks! (Part 1)
Japan, southern Shikoku Island, Tosa Bay
Thick smoke of gunpowder enveloped the sky and the sea, and the continuous explosions shook the air and made the earth tremble... Tens of thousands of officers and soldiers of the First Division of the U.S. Marine Corps huddled in their bunkers tremblingly, terrified. Listening to the explosions one after another outside.
First, there were thousands of indiscriminate bombings by aircraft, causing the entire position of the 1st Marine Division to be covered with poison gas for a day and night. On the Japanese battlefield today, both sides have used sarin and other nerve gases as common supplies. Then there was the continuous bombardment of large-caliber naval guns. Countless shells were fired from late at night to dawn, and from dawn to dusk. The explosions caused the earth to shake continuously, and even the top of the mountain was shaved off a layer, but it still did not stop at all.
At the same time, the four newly formed divisions of the Japanese Army, also under the fire cover of a large number of gunships converted from transport aircraft, pressed over from the Matsuyama and Uwajima areas in the northwest of Shikoku Island. The small number of Japanese servants recruited by the Americans from the surrendered troops quickly dispersed - you can't expect a group of newly reorganized and surrendered puppet troops to have such tenacious fighting spirit in the face of desperate situations. The Americans were left to continue fighting alone.
Faced with a massive counterattack by the Japanese navy and army, the U.S. military entrenched in Kochi Prefecture on Shikoku Island did put up a desperate resistance. But they were originally a diversionary division with very limited strength. Except for the Second Marine Division as the backbone, the rest were all scattered and miscellaneous troops, and even if they were all added together, they would only be worth two. More than ten thousand people. Moreover, the combat location at this time was the Japanese home court.
The people at the Kochi Prefectural Government who once thought they understood the general situation and voluntarily surrendered to the US military are now either hiding their names, abandoning their posts and absconding, or decisively defecting, abandoning the dark side, and leading the counterattack of the Japanese army, or they are regarded as "national traitors" by the fanatical rioting citizens. "Death to God. A very small number of hardcore "Japanese traitors" who could no longer turn back were divided and surrounded by the US military on several small seaside positions, and continued to resist stubbornly.
——Trapped on an isolated island, the sea is blocked, reinforcements cannot come up at all, and there is no way to retreat. All the aircraft were destroyed, and the remaining field guns could not reach the enemy ships on the sea. They said they were resisting stubbornly, but in fact they were just huddled in holes or trenches, crossing themselves and taking shells.
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"...Boom-Boom-Boom-Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Amidst the falling earth and rocks, Colonel O'Brien, his arm wrapped in bandages, huddled unkempt in an air-raid shelter full of earthy smell, helplessly watching the kerosene lamp hanging above his head tap dancing in the rain of bullets—— He really never thought that one day he would be hiding underground like a mole, shivering and peeing, waiting for the ruthless fate's verdict.
Around thirty American soldiers were crowded around him. One of them, a noncommissioned officer with a broken leg, was groaning slightly. The other two guys who had a mental breakdown were howling like ghosts, and the rest were silent with their heads lowered. He may have even fainted.
——Amidst the earth-shattering shelling, this small air-raid shelter was like a small boat in a storm, shaking and shaking so much that it made people dizzy.
In fact, there should have been a regiment of men under Colonel O'Brien. However, because he did not expect to encounter a counterattack of this scale, his regiment was scattered yesterday by the bombing of Japanese planes, and was then driven away by the main force of the Japanese army that raided from the northwest, like sheep. Finally, they fled all the way to Tosa City at the mouth of the Niyodo River, and finally reunited with the large army and temporarily gained a foothold.
But soon, the Japanese combined fleet came menacingly from the sea in the south. The US fleet stationed in Tosa Bay only had a few cruisers and destroyers. They were knocked out by a wave almost in the blink of an eye, and they didn't even have time to escape! More than a hundred fighter planes of various types at the U.S. military's frontline field airport on Shikoku Island were quickly suppressed and destroyed by the overwhelmingly superior Japanese naval aviation. Most of the planes did not even have time to take off.
Next, the giant artillery shells of the Japanese battleship formation began to fall on the heads of Colonel O'Brien and the soldiers of his regiment...
——Previously, when the Kochi County Office voluntarily surrendered to the US military, it did completely hand over the entire county's military bases and coastal defense fortresses. However, as a relatively safe hinterland, Kochi Prefecture is also a remote rural area with few industrial facilities. It is not a pass that guards important waterways, and there is no permanent fleet. Therefore, the Japanese Empire is very lax in the coastal defense of Kochi Prefecture. The coastal defenses were better than nothing, and the few remaining shore guns were antiques from the Russo-Japanese War and even the Bakumatsu War, and I didn’t even know where to find shells of the correct caliber.
After the First Marine Division landed, they only added some anti-aircraft artillery positions at the port, but did not spend much manpower and material resources to build coastal defense forts. Even with the generosity of the American emperor, it was impossible to spend so much financial resources. Material resources were used to fortify every advance base.
Therefore, after confirming that the U.S. military airport had been completely destroyed and sending minesweepers to clear the waterways, the artillery fleet of the Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet confidently and boldly approached the U.S. military's coastal positions and started firing from a position 25,000 meters away from the coast. , then saw that the counterattack was weak, and kept approaching to a distance of about 10,000 meters. He simply dropped the anchor and concentrated on firing the cannon at the fixed target, turning more than ten kilometers along the coast of Tosa Bay into a sea of fire!
Under the guidance of seaplanes and ground reconnaissance sentries, the port facilities, barracks, anti-aircraft gun positions and all locations with military value controlled by the US military were baptized by the large-caliber shells of the battleships. For a time, there were fires and smoke. Like a volcano erupting.
Under such overwhelming artillery fire, the US ground troops, who were already frightened, were even more bombarded. In front of the 18-inch caliber battleship main gun grenade, each shell can blast a hole in the ground equivalent to half a football field, even if it is a Sherman tank weighing more than 30 tons. , can be directly returned to the part state. The jeep and truck were lifted high into the air, and then fell heavily, and the people sitting in the car were also smashed into pieces. As for the flesh and blood infantry, let alone mention it...
——Due to the haste of the incident, the US military did not have many artillery defense fortifications at this temporary gathering place. Many troops lived directly in private houses requisitioned by the seaside. There were also some broken troops who retreated from the inland front line, and they could only Pitch a tent or sleep outdoors. As a result, under the indiscriminate bombing by Japanese aircraft carrier aircraft and battleship main guns, these poor American soldiers had no place to hide. They were like beetles on a hot iron plate, being blown up everywhere and completely The basic order was lost, and there were immediately numerous casualties. The ground was full of broken limbs and broken arms, smoke and flames scorched the sky, and waves of fire danced wildly...
Even for U.S. soldiers staying in field fortifications, their trench bunkers can at most cope with army howitzers with a caliber of more than 100 millimeters. How can they withstand battleship main guns with calibers of two to three hundred to three to four hundred millimeters? ? As a result, before the Japanese Marines from the south landed, and before the Japanese armies from the north and west came over, Commander O'Brien's men were killed and scattered to pieces, and Colonel O'Brien himself He also lost contact with the division headquarters - the last radio station around him was also damaged...
However, compared to his subordinates who had been blown into pieces of bone and flesh and burned into coke and ashes, Captain O'Brien was relatively lucky. Because before the Japanese battleships started bombarding the shore, he luckily took a group of people to hide in an underground air raid shelter left by the Japanese. Moreover, this air raid shelter was located on the hillside of a seaside hill, with the exit facing away from the sea where the enemy ships were parked. , in theory, it should not be threatened by naval guns.
However, despite the thick soil layer of the mountain rock wall serving as a natural protective wall, in the face of such a massive bombardment, O'Brien felt a thunderous roar and heart-stopping vibrations coming from all directions. The regiment leader and all the people hiding inside were pale, and their hearts were in their throats, fearing that in the next second a cannonball would drill out of the ceiling, land on their heads and explode.
After finally waiting for the shelling to stop temporarily, and waiting patiently for a while, Captain O'Brien and his two subordinates carefully got out of the air raid shelter and slowly climbed to the top of the small mound, preparing to reconnoiter the enemy's situation. Everywhere along the way there were blackened craters with lingering smoke. Countless pieces of cloth, gun parts, and human limbs were scattered around the edge of the crater where soil and vegetation had been rolled over. A half-dead American soldier, covered in blood, sat blankly on the scorched earth next to the bomb crater, staring blankly at the sea in the distance. He seemed to have lost his mind and turned into a zombie.
Captain O'Brien ignored him and just climbed up a rock, took out his telescope and looked south. He saw a long line of giant battleships of tens of thousands of tons on the smoke-filled sea, close to Tosa. The coastline of the bay is lined up, and the black muzzles are flashing with fire...
"...No! The enemy fired again! Escape quickly!"
Captain O'Brien screamed at the top of his lungs and rolled down the rock with astonishing agility. Unfortunately, he was still a step too late - along with a scream that ripped through the air, a huge flame suddenly exploded in front of him. Open, the scorching storm swept across the land in an instant...
After a while, the dull sound of cannons rumbled from the distant sea. Immediately afterwards, one round after another, artillery shells fell one after another on the beach and trees around Captain O'Brien, forcing him to run for his life... When Captain O'Brien returned to the air raid shelter again, he was already He was left alone, and the two soldiers who had followed him out disappeared amid the explosions of enemy ship shelling...
The explosions of giant artillery shells were still shaking this small shelter. The shock brought by each explosion was like a sledgehammer hitting Captain O'Brien's heart - the entire army was wiped out. The bleak future seemed to be right in front of him, making him feel even more desperate.
At this moment, he recalled the humiliation of being defeated by the Japanese combined fleet time and time again, and the horror of being about to be killed on the battlefield...
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PS: Two Taiwanese soldiers tortured a little white dog to death. The people were shocked, sad and angry, and the little animal rights activists paraded through the streets to see Xiaobai off! Brother Bing is inhumane! Brother Bing repays his blood debt with blood!
It is said that under the strong pressure of the small animal protection, the Taiwan military also wanted to let the little white dog enter the Martyrs' Shrine...
The Taiwanese warship's missiles killed a Taiwanese fishing boat, killing one fisherman and injuring three others. Taiwanese people cheered: Wow, that’s great! What a good shot! Mainlanders are scared! Taiwanese military officers are infinitely proud: The performance of the Xiongsan missile shocked the world. Taiwan can actually make such a good missile!
——The results of the incident where Taiwan’s Jinjiang ship mistakenly fired a missile and killed the captain of a Penghu fishing boat are out. One person on the fishing boat was killed and three were injured, resulting in demerits for seven people in the military. Comparing the previous dog abuse cases, nine people were punished for one dog's life, it can be seen that people in Taiwan today are really inferior to dogs. Hey, this ghost island really deserves to be a ghost island. If things continue to develop like this, Taiwan will soon become a nation-wide mentally ill!
In addition, the tour guide of the last Hong Kong tour group who beat to death a mainland tourist was also sentenced. He was sentenced to only five months for manslaughter. It is better not to go to Hong Kong to seek torture in the future. Your life is only worth five months of imprisonment!