This is the first order of the Japanese army to carry out the first order of Kenri Sato...... In the bombardment of naval artillery and aircraft before the enemy's landing, we minimized our losses and took advantage of the enemy's bombing gap and terrain. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Especially at this time, the US troops had just landed in an unstable position, and they were thrown into confusion by an unexpected artillery bombardment by the Japanese army, although they had a large number of amphibious landing vehicles and "Sherman" tanks, they could not resist the sudden charge of the Japanese army at all.

This was partly because the American military had not yet had time to organize an effective defense, and partly because the Japanese had dug tunnels all the way to the beach...... This situation has never happened before, because most of the beaches are fine sand, and it is almost impossible to dig any tunnels, and even if they are dug up, they will soon collapse under the heavy bombardment of the US military, so it is basically useless to do it.

But the Japanese troops on the island of Peleliuu creatively accomplished this seemingly impossible task...... They removed the top and bottom caps of the oil drums, and buried them one by one in the sand, so they easily built one dark passage after another with gasoline drums.

These tunnels are not intended for Tibet, because they are so fragile that tanks and even amphibious landing vehicles can easily squash them.

The Japanese army used these secret tunnels to shorten the distance between them and the American army......

As mentioned before, the U.S. firepower was very ferocious, and the only chance for the Japanese army to defeat the U.S. army was to rush into the U.S. military and engage them in close combat, but the U.S. military also knew this, so they always tried to avoid close combat with the Japanese by using bullets and shells to form a wall of fire on the front of the defense to keep the Japanese out of the defensive line.

Under normal circumstances, the Japanese army would not be able to break through the firepower network organized by the US military, and even if it could occasionally break through it, it would be weak and soon wiped out by the US military and disappeared without a trace.

However, it would be different if there were tunnels built by these oil drums.

The Japanese army laid dozens of such secret passages on the entire front, and it didn't matter if a few of them were flattened by US tanks, there was a saying called "cast a wide net and fish more", there were always a few hidden passages that could be used, so the Japanese army did not need to rush through the defensive front of the US army at all, but directly reached the bottom of the US army through the dark passage, and then dug up a layer of sand covering the secret passage and quickly rushed out.

This caught the U.S. troops off guard, and the U.S. troops in tanks and amphibious vehicles didn't even realize that the enemy was close to them when the grenades were thrown in, and they didn't know how the enemy approached them until they died.

Even if it's the U.S. infantry...... I couldn't help but be shocked when I saw the Japanese soldiers coming out of the sand one by one.

An American GI named Mays described the scene after the war as follows: "The battlefield is a different place, you know...... We were nervous, crazy, and even nervous, all of which kept our heads from thinking as we normally would. So...... When I saw the Japanese coming out of the beach, I didn't realize that it was a tunnel, because usually a tunnel cannot be built in the sand, and I thought of it as Japanese ninjutsu, and then I couldn't control my exclaim: 'God, the Japanese have finally sent ninjas into battle!' My words caused panic among my comrades-in-arms around me, and now I think about it...... We were all scared. I heard Brown asking me aloud, 'Can a bullet kill them?' We don't have silver bullets! ’。 Thinking about it now, it's all ridiculous, isn't it? But that's what we thought at the time! ”

As a result, the U.S. military, which had not yet gained a foothold on the shore, fell into chaos in an instant. There are also some U.S. troops who want to control the situation, after all, they are also the 1st Marine Division, they have fought with the Japanese army before and are well trained.

Even the US military almost succeeded...... They bravely rushed forward to fight with the Japanese troops who came out of the secret tunnel, and once pressed several Japanese troops in the secret tunnel and couldn't get out.

However, at this time, the Japanese army launched another frontal charge, so it formed an "internal and external attack" on the American army, and the American defense line collapsed at the moment when the Japanese frontal troops rushed into the ranks, and they turned around and fled.

It is a pity that behind the US troops is the ocean, and the US landing forces of the second and third echelons do not know what is happening on the shore and still squeeze ashore......

This crowding eventually led to a tragedy, and the 1st Marine Division suffered more than 3,000 casualties in just over an hour, a considerable number of whom were wounded and killed by their own amphibious landing vehicles.

Rupertus discussed with the generals of the 1st Marine Division for a long time, and felt that there was only one possibility that such a situation would occur, and that was that there were Japanese tunnels on the beach...... Although they did not yet know how the Japanese had managed to dig out a usable tunnel in the beach, they did not care about the fact that 321 used the heavy guns of the warship to carry out a meticulous carpet bombardment of the beach before launching an attack.

The second attack was a smooth landing on the beach...... At this time, through excavation, they discovered that the Japanese had built tunnels out of oil drums.

However, the good times did not last long, and when the Marines stormed the airfield under the cover of tanks and armored vehicles, they found that the airfield was not as flat and empty as they had previously thought...... In fact, the entire airfield is crisscrossed with anti-tank trenches everywhere, like a labyrinth. This made it difficult for US tanks and armored vehicles to move an inch, and what was even more terrifying was that from time to time in this labyrinth, a small group of Japanese soldiers would emerge to shoot a shuttle of bullets at them, and a piece of artillery shells would be smashed on the top of their heads.

As a result, MacArthur and Rupertus had planned to take the island within a week, but after five days of fighting, they did not even have full control of the airfield after paying heavy casualties.

In fact, the battle ended up being fought for two and a half months, and two and a half months later, it was only the US military that "declared" the occupation of the island of Peleliu.

The reason why "declared occupation" is used is because it is what the US military considers to be occupation...... At this time, the American forces did have control of the surface positions on the island of Peleliu, but there were still many Japanese troops who insisted on fighting in the underground castles.

For these Japanese troops hiding underground, the US military used explosives to blow up the mouth of the tunnel, thinking that this would suffocate the Japanese troops inside, but these Japanese soldiers dug new passages everywhere like rats, and attacked everywhere at night to harass the American troops, making the American troops stationed on Peleliuu Island miserable.

The Japanese army, which held out to the end, could even be extended until three years later...... In 1947, a Japanese lieutenant led 26 unkempt Japanese soldiers and 8 sailors out of the cave, becoming the last unit to officially surrender in World War II.

(To be continued.) )