Three days later, the Japanese army launched a counterattack and was also the only counterattack in the entire Okinawa Battle.

The reason why it takes three days is that Ushima Manta needs to formulate a detailed combat plan... This is the personality of the Japanese. He always wants to arrange every unit in every detail, the Japanese Navy and the Army.

Niujima Man is no exception. During these three days, he and his staff studied in detail where the infantry were deployed, where the artillery was deployed, and how to coordinate, etc.... These deployments even reached the level of the brigade, that is, which infantry brigade was going to penetrate wherever it was going.

This is understandable, because it can almost be said to be the only chance for the Japanese army to defeat the Americans.

In fact, this cannot be blamed for Niujimama's position being not firm enough, but Niujimama has no way to solve Zhang Chi's dissident and differentiated offensive.

In this case, the Japanese army will not last long if they persist like this. It would be better to take a gamble and launch a counterattack. If the US army is successfully driven into the sea, the Japanese army can gain more time to survive... Japanese people are good at gambling by nature and like to fight big with small things, just like sneak attacking Pearl Harbor.

As for the Sino-US coalition forces, they also felt pressure from the Japanese army at this time.

In fact, from that morning, Buckner and Zhang Chi had a premonition that the Japanese army would launch a counterattack, because the Japanese army's suicide attacks on the US Navy suddenly increased exponentially. Suicide aircraft not only came from the Japanese mainland but also from the Okinawa direction, but also suicide attack boats that were usually dispatched at night also launched an attack during the day.

Moreover, this suicide attack lasted for 20 hours and continued until late at night.

This made the US Navy commanded by Turner exhausted... On average, one and a half warships would have been sunk, but on this day, the US Navy was sunk 17 warships and 53 were injured, which was also the most successful attack by the Japanese army.

Turner couldn't help but call the 10th Army Command.

"Lieutenant General!" Turner shouted to Geiger in the sound of cannons and the howling of fighter planes: "Although I believe in the plans formulated by you and General Zhang,... those Japanese rabbits are crazy. If this continues, you will not be able to see the US Navy in a few days. Do you understand?"

Zhang Chi laughed out loud.

"General!" After a while of laughter, Zhang Chi replied: "This is a good thing, which means that the Japanese have already been trapped and are about to launch a counterattack. They even told us the time for the counterattack!"

"Oh!" Turner then understood a little: "You mean... are they preparing for a counterattack?"

"Of course!" Zhang Chi replied: "The Japanese actually don't have so many suicide attack aircraft. The reason why they put them into use on this day is that they hope to make you tired of dealing with it or even temporarily evacuate. Then when the Japanese army launches an attack in the evening... the navy will not be able to provide more support to the army!"

After a while of silence on the other end of the phone, Turner replied: "You are right, General Zhang! The Japanese are indeed abnormal today. So... we should not only not be scared by them, but we should also maintain contact with the Army and be ready to provide fire support to the Army at any time, right?"

"Yes!"

"Very good!" said Turner. "I will prepare the artillery!"

Geiger was stunned for a while and said, "So, the Japanese really want to attack, right?"

"I think so!" Zhang Chi nodded and said, "And it's very likely to be tonight, otherwise they wouldn't have piled up so many suicide attack aircraft at all costs!"

"It seems... I owe you a bet!"

"Let's talk about it when the Japanese really attack!" Zhang Chi didn't expect Geiger to rest assured that he said.

The facts quickly verified Zhang Chi's idea.

At 8 o'clock in the evening, shortly after the sky became dark, the Japanese army launched an attack on the US defense line...

The first piece of artillery shells came up, which was the fifth group of artillery troops stationed in Shuri area.

Generally speaking, Japanese artillery was a waste of bullets on the Okinawa battlefield. On the one hand, it was because there were not many Japanese artillery shells and were blocked by the US military in Okinawa. One less shell was fired, so it had to be saved. On the other hand, it was because once the Japanese army fired, they would often be suppressed by the US military.

But this time it was different. The Japanese army was firing artillery on the US defense line for half an hour... The Japanese army had to do this because the US was carrying out Zhang Chi's mine offensive at this time, that is, to set up mines in front of the defense line. If the Japanese army wants to attack, especially at night, they must use artillery to clear mines.

Of course, the US artillery was not outdone and soon launched a counterattack.

Not to mention the number of US artillery fire, the rate of fire and ammunition are sufficient than that of the Japanese. The most important point is that the US military is ready to counterattack... As it got dark, the US Navy took off several seaplanes and flew over Okinawa to perform reconnaissance and artillery missions in turn.

As soon as the Japanese artillery group fired, the seaplane immediately saw the location of the artillery group and passed the data to the US artillery unit. A few minutes later, a large number of artillery shells headed straight to the location of the Japanese artillery group... The reason why it took a few minutes was that there were no advanced equipment such as artillery aiming radar at this time, and the artillery's reaction speed was relatively slow, and even needed water reconnaissance aircraft to compare artillery.

This forced the Japanese 5th Artillery Group to change positions after a few shots, then a few shots and then another position, completely in a passive position. Even so, half an hour later, there were not a few artillery left in the Japanese 5th Artillery Group.

After learning that the 5th artillery group had basically been wiped out, Niujima Man's first reaction was that the Sino-US coalition forces were prepared.

In other words... the Sino-US coalition forces may expect the Japanese army to attack this time tonight.

But Niushima Manta felt that this was normal. He guessed that this was probably because the suicide attack was too fierce during the day, so the Sino-US coalition forces were prepared.

In fact, Niujima Manta felt this from the beginning because he believed that the sudden increase in suicide attacks would inevitably attract the enemy's attention and expose his strategic intentions prematurely. Even the Changyong Staff, who always advocated counterattack, opposed this because it completely lost the suddenness of the battle.

But Masashima still insisted on doing this, because Masashima did not pin his hopes on the frontal attack of the infantry, but placed them on two surprise troops.

In other words, the Japanese army's frontal attack, including the 5th artillery group, are all baits that can be sacrificed.
Chapter completed!