Of course, Zhang Chi would not think that this was used by Halsey as cannon fodder.

If Halsey had used the Chinese army as cannon fodder, it would not have been, but would have given orders directly.

Zhang Chi casually flipped through the photo in front of him and replied, "General, I'm worried that we don't have enough troops!" ”

Halsey nodded and said, "That's right! Our preliminary estimate is that the Japanese have nearly 30,000 troops on Marshall Island......"

"General!" Turner asked with some confusion: "I remember you just said that we don't know anything about the Japanese army in the Marshall Islands!" ”

"So to speak!" Halsey replied.

"And how did you judge the strength of the Japanese?" Turner asked.

"See the hut in the photo?" Halsey took a photograph and pointed to it: "That's the Japanese toilet, and the Japanese built one of these toilets from each squadron that was always stubborn, so we can get the strength of the Japanese!" You can even roughly deduce the distribution of Japanese troops! ”

"This ...... Is it accurate? Turner asked.

"Of course!" Halsey replied: "It has been verified from the Battle of Tarawa, quite accurately!" ”

"Well done, General!" Turner said.

The admirals in the conference room also expressed their admiration.

But Halsey smiled wryly and shook his head, "Although I agree with your praise, these words should not be said to me......"

Halsey waved his hand at Zhang Chi and said, "This method was thought of by the colonel!" I'm just paraphrasing his point! ”

"Wow!" The conference room soon burst into applause.

Then several more American generals leaned over and shook hands with Zhang Chi and said:

"Amazing discovery, Colonel!"

"This discovery has helped us a lot!"

……

"Let's get down to business!" When the room was quiet, Halsey continued: "So we can even determine the strength of the Japanese troops on the atolls, for example, there are about 5,000 Japanese troops on Kwajalein Atoll, about 3,000 Japanese troops on Roy-Namur Island, and other islands, I will not list them all here, we will give you a table later, or you can count the toilets yourself, I am sure the Japanese will never know that they will expose their strength because of their toilets!" ”

A burst of laughter rang out in the conference room.

"Of course!" "The Japanese have nearly 30,000 men, and we can't afford to have a division of Chinese troops attack them," Halsey said. Therefore, we plan to invest two more divisions, which are the 3rd Marine Division and the 7th Infantry Division, so that our total strength is nearly 60,000! ”

"But ......" Halsey then changed his words, and said to Zhang Chi: "Let me introduce these two divisions first, the Third Marine Division is a Marine Corps that we formed first, with a total of 24,902 people, and it is ...... up to now They conducted a total of 4 months of training, including amphibious combat training in Colorado. The 7th Infantry Division, with 21,768 men, is a unit that participated in World War I, and it requires considerable combat experience, and at the same time, in order to adapt them to amphibious operations, we have given them additional amphibious combat training when they are stationed in Hawaii, and I believe they can be your powerful assistants, what do you think? Captain? ”

Hearing this, Zhang Chi couldn't help but be silent.

In terms of troops, it is indeed sufficient, 60,000 against 30,000 Japanese troops, and the 60,000 US troops are only combat units used for landing, and if we add the navy and land-based aviation, the total strength is more than 100,000.

But the question is, do the 3rd Marine Division and the 7th Infantry Division of the US Navy have the strength to fight a battle? This was especially the 7th Infantry Division...... In fact, it is just that the U.S. Navy has pulled up an infantry division with a little combat experience for amphibious combat training in order to fill up the shortage of the Marine Corps.

Zhang Chi is still deeply skeptical about this, because the 27th Division of the US Army has also experienced World War I and has combat experience, but sometimes combat experience is not always good...... Because the combat experience of World War I was outdated, just like the performance of the 27th Infantry Division at Makin Island, it was blocked and unable to move when encountering a few Japanese snipers, and it was necessary to rely on artillery or tanks to blow up the enemy's hiding place in order to advance.

This is not only because the US military is a small flower that grew up in a greenhouse, but also because a considerable number of US military officers have experience in trench warfare, and they think that war should be fought like this, otherwise it will ...... Launching a group charge forward can easily be heavily damaged by enemy machine gun or artillery fire.

Seeing that Zhang Chi was silent, Halsey continued: "Of course, these two armies, like other American troops, are not good at fighting at night, so our plan is...... The Chinese army was the main force to attack the island and occupy a place on the island, and the US troops followed after dawn with landing vehicles and fire support. What did the colonel think? ”

To some extent, Halsey's tactics are still viable.

In fact, he wanted to combine the advantages of the Chinese and US armed forces, or the advantages of daytime landing operations and night landing operations, so that he could avoid the running of the Xijin ship and use the powerful naval and air forces of the US Navy.

But Zhang Chi did not think this tactic was feasible.

"General!" Zhang Chi said: "You know, we have proved in the Battle of Tarawa that the bombardment of warships and aviation cannot effectively destroy the Japanese fortifications...... I think it's inevitable that there will be a lot of casualties! ”

"Casualties are inevitable!" MacArthur, who hadn't spoken for a long time, interjected: "All we can do is to find a way to minimize the casualties as much as possible!" ”

"Minimize casualties?" Zhang Chi replied: "At least not for our Chinese troops, because we must clear the obstacles and fortifications of the Japanese troops landing on the beachhead in the dark night, so that the American troops can land smoothly at dawn the next day!" ”

"I'm sorry, Colonel!" Halsey said: "You're right, I didn't mean to put the Chinese army in this position, but it's a pity ......."

Zhang Chi nodded to show his understanding, the U.S. military did not have troops capable of fighting the Japanese army at night, so this work could only be completed by the Chinese army.

"Colonel!" Halsey said, "I hope you don't misunderstand me because of this! ”

"Of course!" Zhang Chi replied: "As General MacArthur said, we all want to keep the casualties as low as possible, and I don't think this can be done with this method!" ”

"Do you have a better way?" MacArthur understood the meaning of Zhang's words.

(To be continued.) )