"The bomb...is a bomb!"

The rumbling explosion shocked the US military on Tarawa and even more shocked the remaining Japanese officers and soldiers hiding underground.

These creatures, whose clothes were unblocked, had no life, were breathless in the cave, and were dying, only because there was a little light in their eyes, and could barely be called "human", were suddenly awakened by the violent explosion.

In order to preserve their physical strength and save food, they all curled up under the ground. Except for Major General Shibasaki who had a slightly spacious place, the rest were almost crowded with sewage and sewage, and they were all free of a hell on earth. Even such a hell on earth was preserved by Major General Shibasaki for all his efforts.

The entire cave was originally a large bunker. When the engineers were digging, they found a larger cave below. There was a cave with a man who could crawl on the upper fortifications. They were originally going to be filled, but they gave up because of the large amount of the project. Shibasaki believed that this was an extremely favorable hidden place, so he dug the above into fortifications and the lower one was a hidden place for personnel.

At the beginning, it was just designed as a hiding place for 8-10 people. Unexpectedly, more than fifty people came in in the last breath. What was even more unexpected was that the entire island fell so quickly. Shibazaki's idea made the US military cry to death when he heard it. Is this called fast?

Seeing that the officers and soldiers in other hiding places either died from attacks or were wiped out by the US military, Shibasaki finally ordered the upper fortification to be swelled halfway, which looked like they were destroyed. In fact, if the US military was willing to dig the ruins, they would find that there was another world inside. However, the US military obviously did not have so much spare time, and repairing the airport was 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 could come out if they could hide for a few days, but they didn't expect that the situation would continue, and in the end it was so bad. However, no one cared about this. Except for Shibasaki who repeatedly emphasized waiting for reinforcements from the joint fleet, everyone else was just waiting to die. But the Japanese army was a very strong obedient force. Even in such a desperate situation, before the commander issued suicide and Yushu orders, they could only wait to die.

Their current experience is very similar to the Japanese army that were hungry in the late Guadalam Battle in history. The only favorable condition is probably only one. They are not exposed to the jungle like Guadalam defenders. They are underground. The temperature, humidity and insect pests are much better. The fog on the island is rich in water vapor in the morning and dusk fog. When they encounter the cold cave walls, they can turn into water beads and slowly flow down, which is considered to have solved some freshwater problems for them.

Every day, only one person struggled to climb to the edge of the cave wall, wrote down the date in charcoal black, and thought that another day had passed. As for whether it was day or night outside, they had no idea.

The bodies of the two American soldiers were quickly eaten. After another 7 days, Shibasaki decided to eat the bodies of the newly-dead soldier Kobayashi Masato. Of course, this was inevitably strongly opposed by everyone. Shibasaki said with tears in his eyes: "This is the last contribution Kobayashi has made to everyone. Each of us can make such a contribution. If I die tomorrow, you can eat mine first!"

"Sir, this is not a solution. All of us will die here sooner or later. Since we are dying, we might as well go together."

"What day is it?"

Someone replied with difficulty: "Day 49..."

"Wait until 60 days! It's twice as long as the joint fleet requires!" Shibasaki gave the order helplessly, "If they don't come at that time, we will be ruined together!"

With the "contribution" of Kobayashi Masato, the group of people has been through several days, but in despair, people die every day. When the bomb fell, there were only 33 people left in the entire cave.

"Sir, the fleet is here, here..." The violent explosion sounded like a collective injection of a heart-wrenching injection. Someone shouted excitedly, and after a moment he swallowed because of excessive excitement.

"Everyone can hold on and you can go out soon, but you may have to wait for the last few days." Although Shibasaki's physical condition was also very bad, his mind was unexpectedly calm and sober. "There are American defenders on the island, which should be the early fire attack of the fleet. It will take a few days to really capture the island. If you keep going, dawn will be in front of you!"

Everyone nodded, and even the few people who were dying suddenly opened their eyes wide open, as if they were looking back.

In the following two days, the possibility of the fleet attacking the island became more and more obvious, because the roar of the island was heard everywhere, and the US military was going crazy and repairing fortifications.

On September 3, the aircraft carrier formations of both sides advanced to Tarawa at full capacity, and both sides divided the offensive forces into two groups. Nimitz pushed the six escort aircraft carriers in front and let the aircraft carrier formations be shrank behind. On one side, Hori Teki's main force pressed over with a dignified attitude, while on the other side, he dispatched heavy bombers from Tuvalu to bomb the island every day, some American bombs were anyway. Now the US defenders of Tarawa saw that four bombers were greeted with anti-aircraft cannons, regardless of whether they were enemies or friends, but their accuracy was too poor and the air defense effect was very poor. The air strike effect of the Japanese heavy bomber formation was actually average, but Hori Teki wanted only to suppress the construction of the airport and disrupt the rhythm of the US military, and then detect the surrounding US fleets, and did not have too high expectations for the results of the air strikes.

The North Carolina, now stranded on Tarawa Island, has become the most obvious landmark building and attracts the attention of the Japanese army every day. Both sides think that the other side is difficult to deal with, but for some reason, a battle must be fought.

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 and the joint fleet was in the south; the US bait fleet was in the east and the main force of the Pacific Fleet was in the northeast. Tarawa looked like a giant typhoon's eye. Although it looked silent, it was getting closer and closer to the day when the storm hit.

Time passed by minute by minute, and Hori Teiki issued various offensive orders in an orderly manner:

1. The Tuvalu land-based aviation force continues to suppress Tarawa Airport and does not allow the US military to make effective use;

2. The shelling fleet advanced at normal speed. At dawn on September 5, the shelling of the island was launched, luring the US aircraft carrier formation to expose it;

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

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

His combat thinking is very clear: using island capture as bait to force the US fleet to appear. If the enemy fleet does not come, the feint attack becomes a force to attack the island; if the enemy fleet arrives, the priority will be adjusted, and the enemy fleet will be attacked first, and then the island will be seized. Unlike the Midway Battle Irosaki Nakayama Moto led the battleship troops to watch the battle behind, this time Horitoki directly pressed the battleship to the front line and forced Nimitz to make a choice: either fight head-on and fight with the joint fleet, or give up Tarava.

Overall, the battle of attacking the island is the application of traditional Japanese thinking: the headquarters of the joint fleet is Hori Teki's Taidao, who is ready to break the big junction, and the guerrilla fleet is the one he is ready to use for a fatal slash.

At the same time, Nimitz is also preparing combat plans in full swing.

"From the invasion of Tarawa for several days, the Japanese attack is imminent. Although the specific scope of the enemy is not known at present, I think the enemy will likely launch a landing battle tomorrow. After the enemy's harassment, our fleet a launched an attack on the nearshore fleet. After the attack is completed, it lands at Tarawa Airport..."

A Fleet is a bait fleet prepared by Nimitz. It consists of 6 escort aircraft carriers and a batch of destroyers, with a total of 178 aircraft.

Nimitz just said something and was interrupted by Major General Giffin: "Sir, Tarawa Airport cannot land, they are subject to a new round of air strikes..."

"Damn it, when will it be repaired?"

“Tomorrow morning.”

Nimitz was amused and laughed: Tarawa's existing air defense force was not enough, and the airport was bombed and repaired every day, and it was useless at all. When he thought of this, he was very angry at the stupid Major Mike: not only did he lose Tuvalu, but he also left so many land aviation bombers, fuel and bombs to the Japanese army, which was simply a reward for the enemy.

Halsey sighed: "It's not enough to start the day of war, then the risk of fleet a will be much greater."

According to his initial idea, Fleet A can leave the field after the carrier-based aircraft is released. These carrier-based aircraft are first released from the island airport to land and replenish supplies, and then deal with the Japanese ship again. No matter what the carrier-based aircraft is, the risk of exposure of the fleet will be much smaller. Even if the escort aircraft carrier is not valuable, the domestic escort aircraft carriers will be almost crazy for the Azores Battle. General Jin is not willing to draw escort aircraft carriers from the Pacific Fleet, but they can no longer cause any trouble to the country.

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

Nimitz raised his head, quite puzzled, not understanding why Giffin suddenly said that.

"With the launch of a carrier-based aircraft from 600 kilometers away, I can certainly avoid the attacks of the Japanese army, but I am afraid that the group of rookies on the fleet A can't find Tarava after 600 kilometers." Jifen's tone was very sad, "I don't know if the two commanders noticed that we had lost 54 aircraft last time. Except for more than 10 shot down by air defense fire, the rest were all the rookies that were poked during landing. This level is still medium in China. You can imagine what the new additions are. Let them take off from 600 kilometers away and then fight, I'm afraid that they will lose at least half of them before they fight."

Halsey was speechless about this, and Giffin said it was not powerful to refute it. After the reinforcements of the Langley in the Pacific, there were 11 escort aircraft carriers in total. Except for 3 used for daily transportation line escort, a total of 8 were drawn to the maximum extent. However, the reason why Fleet A was only concentrated was that after the last battle, a group of pilots were injured and killed, and then the pilots with obviously poor levels were left at Pearl Harbor to continue training. In addition to the three regular aircraft carriers of Fleet B and more than a dozen reserve pilots were left, the escort aircraft carriers could only gather the pilot power of the six aircraft carriers.

Nimitz said gritting his teeth: "Get closer, let's fly for 100 nautical miles, so you won't be able to find North..." (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!