The first batch of 3,000 trench guns arrived at Rabaul the next day...... This is not a difficult task for the United States, because at this time the Japanese Combined Fleet has been beaten into a "circle of absolute defense" and does not dare to make a move, and the Pacific Ocean can almost be said to be the world of the US military, and the air transport line from the US mainland to Australia is unimpeded. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Rabaul is on this air transport line, and there is an airport on Rabaul...... Under the opening of the United States, Rabaul even had three airfields: one in the southeast for transport planes, one in the north for long-range bombers to support the US Navy's offensive in the Central Pacific, and one in the west to support MacArthur's US-Australian coalition in New Guinea.

This also shows the importance of Rabaul's location...... This was determined by the fact that Rabaul had a large enough area to build an airfield and a good deep-water port, and at this time it was arguably the most important logistical supply base for the two routes of the American attack in the direction of the Japanese army.

Because of this, 3,000 trench guns were distributed to American soldiers in just one day.

At this time, the standard establishment of the U.S. Marine Corps was a regiment of 3,242 men...... There are three infantry battalions of 953 men and a regimental fire company, which is equipped with anti-tank guns, which were originally used to enhance the anti-tank firepower of the Marine Corps, but in fact, these anti-tank firepower are basically not used for anti-tank but for fighting Japanese pillboxes.

Under the battalion there were three infantry companies of 196 men and an equipment company of 288 men...... This equipment company is almost equivalent to the machine gun company in the Chinese army, except that the equipment company of these local tyrants of the US army has four platoons, one platoon is a mortar platoon equipped with four mortars, and the other three platoons are heavy machine platoons equipped with four heavy machine guns per platoon.

There were three infantry platoons and one heavy weapons platoon under the company...... The heavy weapons platoon was also a fire support unit armed with three machine guns and three small-caliber mortars (60mm caliber).

This shows how fierce the firepower of the US Marine Corps is, and the heavy machine guns and mortars are armed to the platoon level, compared to the elite troops in China, which is quite good if there is a machine gun company at the battalion level.

For the configuration of trench guns, of course, those fire cover units will not be allocated...... The fire cover units are equipped with heavy machine guns, mortars and the like, and they are basically long-distance combat, and there are few opportunities to fight in close combat with the Japanese army.

So 27 infantry platoons divided 1,000 trench guns equally, and each squad was divided into about 12 trench guns.

This is obviously more than enough, because there are only 12 people in a squad of the U.S. Army, and these 12 men are equipped with 10 M1 Garand rifles, 1 M1918A1 Browning light machine gun (BAR), and 1 Type 1903 rifle...... The Type 1903 Springfield rifle was a World War I bolt rifle that was used as a sniper rifle by the U.S. military because of its high accuracy.

Later, in order to deal with the Japanese army's tunnel, a flamethrower was added to the squad, that is, there were thirteen people in a squad.

Occasionally, the squad leader will carry a Thomson submachine gun, which is also a melee weapon, but the Yankee squad leader often does not like to carry this thing and prefers to choose the M1 rifle, because the Thomson submachine gun has a range of only 200 meters, which is far from the effective range of the M1 rifle of more than 700 meters.

In the words of a U.S. squad leader, it is: "If I go to the battlefield with a Thomson submachine gun, I can only watch a lot of times because of the range, and even if I shoot at the target, I usually can't know if I hit the target, because even if the target is hit, it can continue to fight (the Thomson submachine gun shoots pistol bullets, and the farther away is not enough). Thomson's role is to be able to stop the enemy when they rush up, but we have a machine gun, don't we? On the other hand, by the time the enemy is close enough, our troops are usually retreating, so it's hard to function! By the time I was able to do it, I was probably about to die (meaning I was left behind and being overtaken by the enemy). ”

This is a very serious problem for the US military...... Since the American GIs did not dare to fight in close combat with the Japanese troops, it was difficult for the Thomson submachine gun to play a role in the hands of the American army.

Of course, these problems do not exist in the Chinese army, so the squad leader of the expeditionary force almost always takes Thomson.

But now the problem of the US army can be solved, and in addition to the squad leader in each squad, there are three soldiers who are equipped with M1 rifles and trench guns.

This time, the firepower of a squad of the US army has basically not been reduced in long-range combat, and three trench guns have been added in close-range combat, so that it will no longer be almost supported by the squad leader alone and Thomson as before.

The extra trench guns, Zhang Chi was stored first. As Major General Jack said, keep it in stock or use it for replacement.

Who knew that these trench guns had no chance to be replaced at all, because the Fourth Division of the U.S. Army used them on the battlefield and found that although this thing was an old thing from World War I, it was really useful to deal with Japanese devils on the battlefield, especially in Japan, which launched a jade crushing charge, which could make them fall several times with a single shot...... It does not mean that all of them hit, the shotgun is indeed scattered and hits several people, but more importantly, when several projectiles hit one or two targets at the same time and do not penetrate, the Japanese will be pushed back, and the thrust will even make the entire Japanese charging team stagnate or even confused.

So soon the trench guns kept in the warehouse were snatched up by other troops, and later Major General Jack regretted it: I would have known that I would have equipped more, anyway, the trench guns are not heavy, and the American GIs have strength, and they are tall, and it is nothing to carry an extra thing with a length of only one meter and a weight of only eight pounds.

That's all for later.

At this time, the U.S. Marine Corps had one more training subject, that is, trench gun training.

It should be said that the Americans are more familiar with this training than the Chinese troops...... It was the first time that the Chinese army had seen this kind of gun, so they couldn't teach the Americans how to use it.

However, this actually does not require much training, firstly, the Americans know how to use it, and secondly, the gun does not need to be aimed at all, and it is almost the same as pointing the muzzle in the direction of the enemy and pulling the trigger.

The only thing to train is that after the 6 rounds of the trench gun, the comrades around him should provide fire cover for it, so that the trench gunner has time to reload the gun.

And this kind of coordination is what the U.S. military is good at, so it didn't take much time for the soldiers of the 4th Marine Division to quickly become familiar with the operation of trench guns.

(To be continued.) )