As a result, a problem is bound to arise...... The battle of the US Fourth Division, which had the strongest combat effectiveness, was like a cannon fighting mosquitoes, while the US 27th Infantry Division and the US 77th Infantry Division, which were much weaker in combat effectiveness, encountered stubborn resistance from the Japanese army. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

This was especially the US 77th Infantry Division, which was responsible for attacking Saipan.

Saipan, on the other hand, was the location of the Japanese headquarters...... This meant that there must have been more and stronger Japanese forces on Saipan than on the other two islands.

And so it is.

When attacking the Japanese line after landing on Guam and Tinian Islands, the US 77th Infantry Division was counterattacked by the Japanese army......

This is a bit unbelievable, the Japanese army is still capable of counterattacking despite the lack of ammunition, supplies and reinforcements?! You must know that the U.S. military used destroyers and battleships to shoot at the Japanese islands' coastal fortifications......

This is a major feature of ground operations in the Mariana Islands, and before the Mariana Islands, US Navy warships did not dare to do so...... On the one hand, this was due to the fact that there were still remnants of Japanese fighters, and warships did not dare to approach the coast rashly until they had destroyed the enemy planes and occupied the airfields. On the other hand, in the previous island landing battle, the Japanese army still had some large-caliber coastal defense guns, and these coastal defense guns would also pose a threat to warships, so warships generally bombed the islands where the Japanese troops were stationed outside the range of the coastal defense guns.

But when it comes to fighting the Mariana Islands, it's different.

Although the Mariana Islands also have airfields, at this time, the Japanese army was defeated in the air battle not long ago, and almost all the fighters were withdrawn from the Mariana Islands, plus the US military still has a large number of "Hellcats", so there is no need to worry about the fighters...... In fact, the Japanese fighters were not withdrawn, but basically gone.

For the Japanese shore defense artillery...... There are only a handful of gates on each island.

After the capture of Saipan, there was a joke among the American army that there were more Japanese generals on Saipan than there were shore defense guns...... This not only shows that Saipan is the command center of the Mariana Islands, but also shows the inadequacy of the Japanese army's equipment.

These coastal defense guns could not pose a threat to US warships at all, and even if they did, they would soon be destroyed by US bombers.

This part is due to the US submarines, because it is the blockade of Japanese transport by US submarines that has made the Japanese army in the Mariana Islands seriously underequipped and supplied.

This is also partly due to the Japanese army...... Because the strategic policy of the Japanese army in the Mariana direction was not ground defense, but hoped to defeat the US army in a naval and air battle with the "Operation A", it did not improve it knowing that the ground defense equipment and supplies were seriously insufficient, but instead invested a large amount of manpower and material resources in the construction of the airfield.

After the sea and air battle on Tinian Island, I am afraid that Toyota's vice military will even regret his intestines...... They originally thought that they could defeat the enemy in a sea and air battle, and no matter how bad they were, they would be able to inflict considerable losses on the enemy, but they did not expect to be defeated by the enemy instead. Not only that, but because of the mistake in its strategic direction, it has also affected the defense of the ground forces to a great extent, so that the ground forces can basically only wait for death in combat.

As a result, when the U.S. troops attacked the three major islands of Mariana, they found that the Japanese army had bunkers and fortifications on the shore, and they were not sent tanks, but battleships to bomb them...... You must know that the main guns of the battleships are more than 300 mm caliber (some are equipped with 305mm guns, some are equipped with 356mm guns), and the whole bunker will become a grave after that gun.

Then a large number of US equipment and personnel landed under the cover of artillery fire from battleships and destroyers, including a large number of "Sherman" tanks, Spitfire tanks, amphibious landing vehicles, and other armored vehicles. According to the estimates of US soldiers, on average, there are hundreds of armored vehicles per kilometer as shelter or fire cover units in the front of the confrontation with the Japanese army.

But even so, the Japanese army launched a counteroffensive ?!

Many U.S. troops thought that the Japanese army must be crazy to do this, and would launch a counteroffensive under the multiple defenses of warships, tanks, and infantry (note: the Japanese launched a counteroffensive at night, so the U.S. military could not use fighters to coordinate defense).

But in fact, the Japanese army did not go crazy, on the contrary, the Japanese army's approach was very rational and wise, although this approach did not succeed in the end, not only did it not succeed, but also lost a large number of living forces.

The reason why it is wise to say that the counteroffensive is because the Japanese army has only this one option.

If you consider the problem from the perspective of the Japanese army, you will see ...... All the Japanese forces were trapped on various islands that could not be connected with each other, and the Japanese Combined Fleet was completely defeated in the sea and air battles, so it was impossible to reinforce the Mariana Islands.

Therefore, if the Japanese army, which lacked supplies and reinforcements, wanted to hold the island, they had to take advantage of the fact that the American troops had just landed and had not yet gained a firm foothold, and drove them into the sea.

Otherwise, if the American army is allowed to land on the island and gain a foothold, then the fall of the Japanese army will only be a matter of time.

So the Japanese army braved artillery fire and bullets to charge the American troops, and after suffering thousands of casualties, they finally gave up...... If you don't give up, you can't do it, the U.S. military has already learned from the Chinese army how to defend at night, the big deal is that the flares keep fighting, treat the night as day, and then weave a wall of fire with tanks, artillery and naval guns in the front, and the result is the same no matter how many Japanese soldiers rush up.

But because of this, the 77th Division made very slow progress in the subsequent offensive.

Harper was somewhat frightened by such a Japanese counterattack, so he ignored the advice of the Chinese advisers to launch a strong attack, insisted that the Japanese army was still quite strong, and adopted the tactics of bombing forward and advancing at the same time......

It can also be seen from this that Harper does not understand the Japanese at all, and the Japanese give up, usually when they are seriously injured and have to give up, this is a good time for a counterattack, but Harper gave the Japanese a chance to breathe.

As a result, there was no progress after more than ten days of fighting, and Halsey, who had long seen Harper's displeasure, changed his generals in anger and removed Harper.

When a deputy division commander named Wilson counterattacked, he found that as the Chinese adviser said, there were only a small number of Japanese troops all the way down, and even found that the Japanese army had almost run out of bullets and shells...... This was after the U.S. Army captured a Japanese defense line without the Japanese army's defense, searched the entire Japanese position, and found that there was only a small amount of ammunition, and even some machine gunners only had a dozen bullets.

As a result, the US 77th Division ignored the warnings of the Chinese advisers and had the mentality of underestimating the enemy......

(To be continued.) )