.The Mariana Islands, located east of Ryukyu, Taiwan and the Philippines, south of the Sulphur Islands, and north of the Caroline Islands, are just stuck at the throat of the Central Pacific Ocean channel. They are the main rush of the maritime transportation line between Asia and the Americas, and are also the only way for the US military to attack the Japanese mainland and the Far East in the future. This also means that once the Allied troops occupy the Mariana Islands, not only will the maritime lifeline between Japan and Southeast Asia be completely cut off, but Taiwan and the Philippines will also be directly exposed to the iron fist of the Allied troops, and even the Japanese mainland will be included in the bombing radius of the b-29 bomber.

It is precisely because the geographical location of the Mariana Islands is so crucial that the Tokyo Base Camp regards this volcanic archipelago, which runs north and south, stretches for 425 nautical miles, consisting of nearly 100 islands of all sizes, as the "breakwater in the Pacific" and "the heart of Japan's absolute defense circle", so it is willing to take out the key capital of the Japanese Joint Fleet and Naval Air Force to protect the Mariana Islands. Put aside the light ships such as torpedo boats, submarine hunting boats, minesweeping boats and patrol boats as the main body, and is equipped with 500 shore-based aircraft on the garage of garage.

The Japanese Central Pacific Fleet in the Mariana Islands is not mentioned. The first mobile fleet of the Japanese joint fleet commanded by Lieutenant General Ozawa Shisaburo, who served as the main battle fleet of this battle, had nine air carriers, five battleships, fourteen cruisers, thirty-one destroyers, and more than 400 carrier-based aircraft. Not to mention, the Tokyo Base Camp also transferred the Navy's Fifth-Strait-Based Air Force, which had been operating for a whole year, which had been under its jurisdiction for more than 1,000 new fighter jets, to the Central Pacific region for cooperation.

In short, the Japanese Navy was able to win the defensive battle of the Mariana Islands, which was internally designated "Africa Operation", and the strong lineup was actually the only one seen after the Midway War.

Unfortunately, although the Japanese have already produced all the magic weapons. Compared with the US Navy participating troops with twenty-nine ships in various aircraft carriers alone, the mobile station is still too thin. Before the start, the result of the battle is clear at a glance, perhaps too much. However, all the Japanese naval officers who are still rational have admitted privately that Japan wants to achieve the established goal of winning the victory and protecting the ground in this battle, if they don’t buy a lottery ticket, they will be extremely lucky to win the first prize!

However, Cheng Jiaji was worried about not the coming battle that was about to come, which was defeated by the Japanese Navy First Fleet, which lost three aircraft carriers in battle and 92% of the carrier-based aircraft, ended with the largest naval battle between aircraft carriers in history, but the "Biography of Doug" he read when he was a teenager. Part of the description of the land operations of this battle. Although it has strong firepower and can invest in ground operations, the 120,000 US troops, in order to reimburse the Mariana Islands, to reimburse the land Japanese in the Mariana Islands.

The 31st Army of the Army had more than 60,000 Japanese troops. They even concentrated their absolute superior forces and annihilated the conservative tactics one by one. But they still paid a heavy price of 22,000 casualties. American local war history critics also agreed that if the senior commanders of the US military had not been severely hit by the Japanese in the first battle of Saipan, they had significantly slowed down the pace of island-to-issue attacks. They greatly strengthened the attacks on the island's defenders with sea and air firepower, the losses would have been far from this.

What made Cheng Jiaji even more nervous was that most of the US troops who fought hard on the Mariana Islands were US Marines with rich amphibious combat experience. If the Forty-Eighth Army, which was only in the crash course, would only God know what would be like?! But one thing Cheng Jiaji could be sure of, that is, General Ren Doug's style of acting is unique and he likes to take risks and tricks, he would not dare to let a Chinese army that he did not fully understand take the lead in such a critical battle.

"According to the draft plan to break the embankment, after controlling air and sea power, the landing forces that implement ground occupation on the Mariana Islands will be divided into two assault formations and one reserve cluster. The specific combat deployment is as follows: The northern assault formation composed of the Second and Fourth Marine Divisions of the Marine Division first landed on Saipan Island, captured the island, and then attacked Tinian Island. Finally, multiple troops were sent at the same time to clear out the sporadic Japanese troops stationed on several island reefs around the above two islands; the Third Marine Division is under its jurisdiction, and the First Marine Division is temporarily organized as the First Marine Land.

The southern assault formation of the war brigade was responsible for attacking Guam (has been under Spanish war, and was owned by the United States since 1898. It was captured by the Japanese in the early Pacific War.) and its nearby areas. The reserve cluster includes the 27th Army Division and the 77th Division." As expected, as soon as Colonel Momuluo introduced the basic situation, General Doug said to Cheng Jiaji: "I personally recommend that your troops send two regiments of task forces to participate in this landing war? As for which one of the three combat formations, it is up to you to decide!"

Cheng Jiaji, who knew that this was the first test that General Doug gave to the Forty-Eighth Group Army, replied after a brief thought: "General, I chose the North Road assault formation! In addition, can the scale of the task force sent by our headquarters be larger?"

To be honest, General Doug was not surprised that Cheng Jiaji would choose the most difficult northern road, which was the most difficult task. After all, if a young general who could enjoy an undefeated reputation on the battlefield did not even have the desire to advance in this difficult situation, he would have doubted the authenticity of Cheng Jiaji's past glorious achievements. However, Cheng Jiaji would be despised the size of the task force, so General Doug, who thought he had thought he had been very considerate of "ritual", was unexpected. The old general, who was 64 years old, asked with interest: "General Cheng! Then how many troops are you going to send?"

"With one infantry division as the main body, two infantry battalions were drawn from the other divisions of our unit, plus artillery, armored soldiers and various auxiliary units, it should be about 25,000." Cheng Jiaji's answer this time shocked Doug, far from being comparable to the little surprise before. This bold Chinese general actually regarded the Mariana Islands, which even the Americans dared to underestimate him as a place for him to test his training results!

"General Cheng! As a soldier, I sincerely admire your courage, but as the highest commander of the Allied Southwest Pacific Theater, I still have to ask, are you sure of your decision?" After a long silence, Doug Fangchang, who was afraid that the Forty-Eighth Group Army would be too bad in this battle, which made it more difficult for him to achieve the idea of ​​Asian-Asia to be more difficult to achieve.

"Confirm!" Cheng Jiaji replied without thinking. In fact, Cheng Jiaji would make this decision and insist on this, which was a last resort. He also knew that the more troops the 48th Army, which had just been experiencing amphibious landing war, the greater the price it would pay for the unfamiliar with amphibious combat methods. However, if you want to be independent in the tactical direction and even have a place in the grand strategy of the United States, you must mature in the battle as soon as possible. For this purpose, even if you shed more blood, Cheng Jiaji and his 48th Army had no choice. Otherwise, the 48th Army would only become a vassal and a security army that always followed the US military's butt, and the value of their sacrifice would be greatly reduced.

"Okay!" Judging from General Doug's attitude of suddenly becoming extremely refreshed, he might have understood the reason why Cheng Jiaji did this!

Due to the time when the Allied forces launched an attack on the Mariana Islands, it was determined that in June of that year. Cheng Jiaji stayed in Moresby for only two days and hurried back to Yanbei Island, Myanmar, with several boxes of military, geography, and astronomical intelligence about the Mariana Islands. At that time, the first amphibious synthesis exercise of the 170th Division had just opened the curtain.

The middle and lower-level officers who are usually majestic in the army may never be able to hear it in their entire lives, although such high-level negotiations often reverse their life trajectory without their own knowledge.

As soon as the third amphibious drill of the entire division was over, Han Dongsheng, who was so excited, said something terrible to Xu Jingren: "The division has already reported your camp!"

"Why is our battalion?" Although, in recent days, some of the group armies have been hearing that they have to send some powerful troops from each division to go to an archipelago to cooperate with the US military's combat, Xu Jingren, who has a mediocre combat power, is unable to get into the starting lineup. He is really not prepared for this pie to fall on himself.

"The meaning of Junzu is that, except for the New 100th Division, which is the entire division, two medium-level battalions were selected from the remaining four divisions!" He was very happy to start with Cheng Jiaji, who was not elite and was able to boost his army's prestige and talked about the abnormal practice of testing the average value of the troops. Han Dongsheng, who did not fully recognize it, explained in a muffled voice.

"Second post, when will we set off?" Maybe it was due to his personal temperament. Although he was as confused as Han Dongsheng in his heart, Xu Jingren quickly adjusted his emotions.

"Let's leave tomorrow morning, take a plane to Taichung, Yanbang, for three weeks of jungle war training, and then stand by in the battle assembly area." Han Dongsheng added: "By the way, more than a dozen people will report to you tonight, don't make a fuss!"

Before Xu Jingren could find out what was going on, Han Dongsheng, who was as fierce as a fire, turned around and left.
Chapter completed!