PS. Present today's update, by the way, pull a vote for the "starting point" 515 fan festival, everyone has 8 votes, and the vote will also give the starting point coin, kneel and beg everyone to support and appreciate!

"South?" The staff officer looked at Maruyama Masao suspiciously: "It's the Americans who are guarding this side." ”

Maruyama Masao only snorted.

"Information from Kawaguchi......" The staff officer continued: "The Americans are far inferior to the Chinese, and we are going to use the strongest Fourth Wing against the Americans?" ”

"Not against the Americans!" Maruyama Masao replied.

"Your Excellency the Lieutenant General's idea is ......"

"Placing the Fourth Wing in the south to face the Americans can easily compress the American line of defense to the north, understand?"

Saying that, Maruyama Masao drew a line of defense on the map after the retreat of the American army, and the staff officer couldn't help but say "oh" when he looked at the increasingly prominent defense line of the Matanikau River, so that the Japanese army naturally threatened the flank of the Chinese troops stationed on the Matanicau River.

But in reality, Maruyama Masao is thinking more than just flanks.

As soon as the Japanese troops came up, there was a fierce shelling of the Kuah airport...... The U.S. military is accustomed to referring to Kuah Island Airport as Henderson Airfield, which is in honor of the aviation hero Lofton who died in the Battle of Midway a few months ago. Major Henderson, who drove his plane to the Japanese aircraft carrier Flying Dragon after the left flank of his plane caught fire, although he was unsuccessful.

On the surface, Henderson's approach seems to be somewhat similar to the "kamikaze drones" later organized by the Japanese army, but they are fundamentally different.

The reason is that Henderson's actions were entirely voluntary, even personal at a time when the U.S. military has been emphasizing the importance of the pilot's life. The "kamikaze" was organized by the state with a considerable degree of compulsion...... and the "kamikaze" members did fill out an application form for whether or not to voluntarily participate in suicide attacks, but this was just a formality, and if anyone wrote "no" on this form, then they would then be "admonished" by their superiors, and in the Japanese army, "admonishment" means "order". If "persuasion" does not bring them to their knees. Then these soldiers will soon be sent to the battlefield to perform almost impossible tasks.

In this case, the Japanese pilots who received the application form understood one thing: there was no point in filling in "no", it would only make them die faster, and they would not even have a little honor. According to the members of the "kamikaze" who survived the end of the war, they saw those who dared to insist on saying "no" to such attacks as real warriors, because they were the ones who dared to speak their minds and persevere to the end.

As for the propaganda of the Japanese military, as soon as the demand for "kamikaze" was raised, the pilots rushed to submit a petition...... That's just military propaganda, and of course there are such phenomena. But more often than not, there is no other option to petition.

For example, after the disastrous defeat of the Japanese Navy at Midway, the people in Japan thought that the Japanese Navy had once again defeated the US Navy, and even the Japanese Army was within the scope of being deceived, for example, the Second Division, which had been transferred to Kuah Island not long ago, including Maruyama Masao, did not understand why the Japanese Navy could not grasp the sea and air supremacy of Kuah Island, even though it had absolute superiority.

The Japanese Navy also had good reasons to deceive the Japanese Army...... Not just the Japanese Army, to be exact. There were also quite a few officers and men in the Japanese Navy who thought that Midway was a Japanese victory. After the Battle of Midway, all the aviation units that participated in a war were placed under house arrest for a month and a half, after which they were asked not to mention the defeat at Midway, otherwise they would be court-martialed.

Even within the Navy. Not to mention the Army, which has always been at odds with the Navy.

At this time, on Kuah Island, the Japanese Navy and Army were finally unanimous in their dealings...... The Japanese Navy was responsible for providing fire cover and supplies to the 2nd Division, while the 2nd Division of the Japanese Army was responsible for crushing the Sino-American forces and capturing Henderson Field.

At three o'clock in the morning, the Japanese Navy launched an unprecedentedly intensive bombardment of Henderson Field.

The bombing was carried out by four cruisers and two battleships, especially the two battleships "Haruna" and "Kagang". For example, the battleship "Jingang" has 8 twin 356 mm/45 times caliber main guns on it; 16 152 mm/50x secondary guns, plus 12 76 mm guns...... That is, there were 36 guns on one battleship. Most of them were also large-caliber cannons.

As a result, the total number of large-caliber guns on the warships reached hundreds of bombardments at the Kuah Island Airport, and this kind of bombardment was not only aimed at Henderson Airport, but also the jungle next to Henderson Airport where fighter planes might be hidden, plus the seaplanes also flew overhead, dropping a few flares and incendiary bombs from time to time, only to bomb the Kuah Island in the dark and everywhere with gunsmoke, and later even the sky was brightened up by the Sino-US coalition forces did not know.

However, the losses caused by this kind of bombing to the Sino-US coalition forces were very limited, and the main reason was, of course, that the Japanese warships bombed the wrong target.

In fact, they didn't bomb the wrong target, because their goal was to bomb the airfield, making Henderson Airport unusable and posing a threat to their warships, but they didn't know that Henderson Airport didn't actually have many planes anymore.

On the other hand, Zhang Chi and others had already prepared, and they had already built enough anti-artillery holes on the defensive line. These anti-artillery holes are not as simple as the cat's ear holes in Burma, there are trees on Kuah Island, and there are a large number of Japanese engineer prisoners who can use them, so this anti-artillery hole is horizontally covered with a layer of logs and a layer of soil, and then vertically covered with a layer of logs and then a layer of soil, and repeatedly covered several layers, and some even reinforced with iron plates transported by Yankee warships...... Even a direct hit of a cannonball would not easily threaten the fighters hiding inside.

But if it was a 356-mm cannon on a battleship...... The one who was afraid of the earthquake was going to let it die of shock.

Fortunately, the Japanese battleships bombed Henderson Field instead of the Sino-American lines, and from this point of view, the Japanese navy and army fought a joint battle in a somewhat separate battle...... It was enough for small-caliber artillery to block the airfield, and large-caliber artillery was supposed to be used to destroy the fortifications of the Chinese and American forces in order to make the infantry attack easier.

In fact, Maruyama Masao did ask for this, but the Japanese Navy replied to him: "We must ensure that the enemy's airfield is unusable, and this is the key to victory!" ”

This was so angry that Maruyama Masao scolded: "When we lack enough shells to bombard the enemy's positions, the Japanese Navy wastes a large number of large-caliber shells in the open space where no one is stationed!" ”

[It's about to be 515, I hope to continue to hit the 515 red envelope list, and the red envelope rain will be able to give back to readers and promotional works on May 15. A piece is also love, and it must be better! (To be continued.) )