As soon as Zhang ...... saw Zhang Chi walk into the headquarters, Halsey got up and greeted the two warmly: "I'm glad to see you arrive safely!" ”

"Thank you, General!" Zhang Chi replied: "The Japanese have given our New Seventh Army a good opportunity to fight!" ”

"Oh!" Halsey said with a smile: "I should congratulate you on the establishment of the new Seventh Army, and your promotion to division commander, which was forgotten by the Japanese after such a toss!" ”

"Colonel!" MacArthur also greeted him with great grace: "You did a great job, I mean not only today's performance, but also your successful capture of Rabaul, which saved us a lot of trouble!" ”

Zhang Chi just smiled and replied casually.

He actually knew very well what MacArthur meant by this, what he meant by "saving us a lot of trouble", which meant that if the American army was allowed to attack, he would be able to take down Rabaul, and he might even do a better job than Zhang Chi.

Therefore, Zhang Chi's takedown of Rabaul actually only saved the US military some trouble.

This was not surprising to Zhang, because he had heard a lot about MacArthur in modern times, and knew that he was a self-centered man, or it could be said that he had a typical American personal heroism, and this kind of heroism was very popular with American GIs.

After Wang Mazi exchanged a few words with Halsey and MacArthur, he found a place to sit down...... He hadn't recovered from the motion sickness yet.

"Zhang ......" Halsey said: "First of all, I want to explain the purpose of letting you come this time, we are ready to launch a further counteroffensive against the Japanese, you know, these things are not convenient to talk about in the telegram, and we need the cooperation of the New Seventh Army. ”

"I understand, General!" Zhang Chi replied.

MacArthur didn't say anything, just drank his coffee.

Later, Zhang Chi learned that MacArthur did not approve of letting Zhang Chi and other Chinese troops participate in the next counteroffensive, at least the first step he thought was not necessary, because the first step was only Tarawa Atoll, and the main island to be taken was only a small island with an area of only 1.18 square kilometers, and MacArthur believed that the strength of the US military was enough to easily take these islands.

In fact, MacArthur had a kind of psychology of not admitting defeat, and even had a little reluctance to let the Chinese troops take all the credit.

Otherwise, the Chinese military should be involved, both politically and militarily.

Politically speaking, the Chinese troops are not the US army, and to put it mildly, it is not the US GIs who died on the battlefield, and it is only good for the United States to let the Chinese troops participate in the war.

Militarily speaking, the Chinese army has more actual combat experience, and is more able to endure hardships and be more tenacious than the US military, which was confirmed in the Battle of Kuah Island.

Of course, the Chinese military also has shortcomings, such as not being very good at cooperating with the navy and air force, and it is not as well-trained as the US Marine Corps in landing operations, which is also one of the excuses MacArthur used to oppose the participation of Chinese troops in the war.

"Here's the thing!" After a pause, Halsey pointed to the map and said: "According to our intelligence, after our army captured Rabaul, the Japanese realized that they could no longer advance as before, so it was natural that they took a strategic retreat. They form what is called the 'Absolute Circle of Defence,' and this 'Absolute Defence Circle' is largely ......."

As he spoke, Halsey drew a map with a pen and said, "From the Gilbert Islands, the Marshall Islands, Wake Island, the Aleutian Islands, ......."

Halsey counted the islands one by one, and soon formed a defensive circle.

It can be seen that Halsey has carefully studied this defensive circle of the Japanese army for a long time.

"We finally decided to use this as a breakthrough!" Halsey pointed to a point in the defensive circle and said: "The Marshall Islands, there are many islands here, many of which are suitable for building airfields, and we believe that if we take the Marshall Islands, it will give us air superiority to a great extent!" ”

Zhang Chi understands this.

First of all, the Japanese air force at this time had been basically disabled by the United States...... It may be an exaggeration to say that it is disabled, because Japan is also fully operating machines to produce fighters, and when Zhang Chi and others are discussing how to attack, the Japanese may have produced a few fighters.

But the problem is that Japan's industry is obviously not an order of magnitude with the American industry, and if Japan produces one fighter, the United States may produce ten.

What was worse for Japan was that the Japanese army could not replenish the large number of experienced pilots and the fighters could not be replaced...... The engines of Japanese fighters are even produced with American machine tools, which determines that the space for the replacement of Japanese fighters is very limited, while the United States can produce a brand new fighter in 14 months.

(Note: The Hellcat fighter took only 14 months from design to factory, and it set a record for the time it took to develop a fighter.) ）

Therefore, the United States at this time was already quite confident that it would defeat the Japanese air forces in the air...... This is completely contrary to the situation in the "zero war and invincible" period at the beginning of the war, when American pilots were generally in a negative state of flying into the sky and basically unable to return.

It is for this reason that the Marshall Islands is a good point to break through.

There were a lot of islands there, many islands suitable for building airfields, so it was assumed that the Japanese defense of the Marshall Islands would be dominated by the air force...... The Japanese, who do not know about the "Hellcat," will inevitably hold the idea that as long as the air power is strong enough, the Americans' aircraft carriers and warships will not be able to pass, so the Marshall Islands will be solid.

But it is clear that then the American "hellcats" will give them a big "surprise".

"But here's a tricky problem!" Halsey continued: "Rabaul is more than 2,000 kilometers from the Marshall Islands, which is beyond the combat radius of our fighters, and it is dangerous to attack directly with aircraft carriers, so we need a forward base to attack the Marshall Islands, and this forward base is ......"

As he spoke, Halsey marked a location on the map and said, "Tarawa Atoll!" ”

"Tarawa Atoll?!" Hearing this, Zhang Chi couldn't help but gasp.

This is not because the U.S. military defeated this battle in history, in fact, the U.S. military finally took the atoll, but because the U.S. military underestimated the intelligence of this battle and the Japanese army, so that the final victory was only a disastrous victory. (To be continued.) )