This also seems to illustrate one of the advantages of the US military's operations...... The Yankees were more scientific and experimental.

For example, they will look for problems in a disastrous victory in Tarawa, and even spend a lot of manpower and material resources to rebuild a similar island for bombing experiments. (Note: This small island is Kahurawa Island in Hawaii)

It is conceivable that they will then find out the reasons for their bombing failures from these experiments and find solutions to these problems in the shortest possible time.

In general, the U.S. Navy has made many mistakes in the Pacific theater, such as in the aircraft carrier battle, and then in the battle of Kuah Island, especially in Tarawa...... But the U.S. Navy is well versed in summing up the experience of these battles and trying to avoid mistakes happening again in battle.

It was also after the battle of Tarawa that the United States further strengthened the firepower of the landing force, using amphibious tanks in the landing operation; It was also after the Battle of Tarawa that the U.S. Marine Corps began to use divers (frogmen) to reconnoiter hydrographic and even landing reconnaissance.

It is for this reason that Nimitz said: "Even if you don't get the experience on Tarawa Island, you will have to do it elsewhere at the same or even greater cost." ”

This means that the heavy cost at Tarawa is worth it, and if it weren't for this battle, the U.S. Navy would probably have paid an even heavier price elsewhere.

Therefore, the battle of Tarawa Island has been vividly hailed by US naval war historians as the "cradle of victory".

Of course, the situation is a little different at this point.

Twenty minutes later, the Higgins landing craft arrived at the designated sea area with the second group of expeditionary force fighters.

At this time, the townsfolk could not help but breathe a sigh of relief, and whispered a signal to approach Beato Island, so the second group of warriors also jumped out of the boat to join the first group of soldiers, and then swam in the direction of Beato Island.

The reason why it was necessary to swim in arms instead of taking the Higgins ship to Pito Island was because it was feared that the sound of the Higgins ship's motor would alarm the Japanese army, and for the same reason, so the expeditionary force did not use the LVT landing vehicle, although the landing vehicle had stronger firepower and thicker armor than the Higgins ship, but the transmission of its M3 tank would obviously cause great trouble for the expeditionary force.

Although the island of Beato was completely invisible in the dark, the people of the country and the soldiers of the expeditionary force knew where they were aiming...... There was the rumbling sound of cannons in that direction, and the bright light produced by the explosion of the shells, which was like a beacon light, guiding the soldiers forward.

It didn't take long for the warriors to swim silently to the reef of Beato Island.

It is very difficult to command an army, especially a thousand-strong force, in the dark, because the troops do not know where the friendly forces or even their own men are, and they cannot shout loudly, so they cannot coordinate.

But the expeditionary force had long been prepared for this...... Similar to this kind of night battle, they don't know how many times they have practiced in training.

The first to land were small detachments sent by various units, and the number of them was only one squad.

The purpose of this was to reconnoiter as little as possible without alarming the enemy, and on the other hand, to provide the necessary cover for the landing of large forces.

Then, after the squad gave the signal, the large troops followed the landing reefs in batches, and the first thing they did after landing was to open the tarpaulins and take out the equipment to arm themselves under the cover of the detachment.

At this time, the company-level combat unit will use walkie-talkies to contact Shangfeng and order his subordinates to prepare for battle.

"A company is ready!"

"The second company is ready!"

……

One report after another reached the villagers, and the Japanese had not even noticed that the enemy had landed on the north and northeast shores.

"Up!" The townsman ordered.

Then the townsman turned to one of the signal soldiers beside him and said, "You stay here until you shoot the flare!" ”

"Yes!" The communications soldier responded, with some surprise in his eyes.

Because the plan was not like this, the original plan was that once the Chinese troops successfully landed on the island, they should fire signal flares, which were to inform the US Army Regiment that the Chinese troops had arrived and could launch a two-sided attack on the Japanese troops, and on the other hand, it was also to tell the US warships...... Let them stop firing, otherwise the shells risk injuring their own people by mistake.

But now......

This was again a temporary decision made by the villagers, who believed that the best sneak attack was to get as close as possible without the enemy noticing, especially if the enemy had strong fortifications.

Otherwise, at this time, it is necessary to wait for a dozen flares to stop...... The Americans knew that the Chinese were coming, and the Japanese would be alert because the artillery stopped at once, which meant that the Chinese troops would be discovered by the Japanese.

Of course, this will inevitably cause some soldiers to be accidentally injured by American artillery fire, after all, the shells are not long-sighted, but compared to facing the Japanese strong pillboxes, such casualties may be much smaller.

So the townspeople preferred to charge under artillery fire.

The battle was as expected by the villagers, because the artillery fire of the American army did not stop, so the Japanese soldiers all hid in the tunnels and fortifications, until an expeditionary soldier touched the mouth of a Japanese pit in the dark, and then stuffed the igniting explosives bag into it, and the Japanese soldiers inside exclaimed: "The enemy is coming!" ”

Although the cry was quickly interrupted by the sound of explosions, and although the Japanese did not even know whether the enemy was Chinese or American, or how they had come here, the information was still spreading...... The Japanese laid telephone lines in the tunnels, so that their information could be quickly and easily transmitted to other places.

The Japanese quickly became alert and fired several flares in front of the position.

Originally, they thought that this "enemy came up" was just a few US Marines taking advantage of the chaos and darkness to touch it, but they didn't expect that as soon as the flares hit the air, they saw the figures of Chinese soldiers with guns everywhere in the smoke...... They were stunned by the sight that so many enemies suddenly appeared in the north and northeast where they thought it was impossible to attack, which almost condemned the Japanese army to death.

But the Japanese army is still the Japanese army after all, and they are still the elite of the special marine corps, and after a moment of stunned, they immediately organized a counterattack, so the guns burst into fire.

Three red flares rose into the sky.

The sound of artillery stopped abruptly, and the soldiers of the 2nd Marine Regiment also roared and launched an attack on the Japanese troops in front.

Of course, most of the so-called attacks of the US military were to shoot guns in bunkers, but this was enough for the soldiers of the expeditionary force.

(To be continued.) )