The battle for Lae, the New British Isles, the Solomon Islands, and other islands near the Solomon Sea lasted for more than a year, and this was the second large-scale battle between the Tang and American armies in the Pacific Ocean since the Battle of the Mariana Islands, and it was the longest large-scale battle between the two armies since the beginning of the war, and finally ended with the voluntary withdrawal of the American army.

The battle for the stronghold around the islands around the Solomon Sea lasted much longer than the Battle of the Mariana Islands, but it was actually a large battle of many small battles, and in terms of the intensity and scale of the battle, it was actually a little worse than the Battle of the Mariana Islands.

The overall strategy of this campaign reflected that the Tang and the United States had entered a state of exhaustion after the Battle of the Mariana Islands, and the strategic balance between the two sides had not been completely broken, so it dragged on for more than a year, and in the end there was not even a general decisive battle, and it ended in the way that the US troops took the initiative to retreat and shrink the defensive line.

The Battle of the Mariana Islands was the first head-on collision between Tang and the United States, and at that time, the strength of the Tang Imperial Navy was at its peak, especially after defeating Japan with a fierce counterattack, the Tang Imperial Navy not only greatly increased its strength, but also reached its peak in morale and fighting spirit, which can be said to be in full swing. Similarly, the United States has accumulated combat strength through two years of preparation, and the US Navy is a new force, although it is much worse than the Tang Imperial Navy in terms of morale, fighting spirit, quality of officers and men, and war experience, but in terms of strength, it is not worse than the Tang Imperial Navy, otherwise it would not have been possible to sneak attack the Tang Imperial fleet in the early stage of the war, and almost caused the Tang Imperial Navy to switch to strategic defense.

Under these circumstances, the competition between the two sides over the Mariana Islands can be said to be extremely fierce, and the battle was carried out extremely tightly. There are also the toughest Marines, the most elite aviation, and the U.S. Navy has exploded all the accumulated strength. Therefore, in the Battle of the Mariana Islands, the two sides went back and forth, attacked and defended each other, and the battle was extremely fierce, and the battle situation fluctuated several times until the US Navy lost the ability to counterattack. It took more than two months for the Tang Imperial Marines to conquer Guam and win the battle.

After the Battle of the Mariana Islands, the best option for both warring sides is to recuperate for a while and wait for their strength to recover before launching an attack or counterattack. At the same time, however, both sides of the war realized that if they stopped attacking or counterattacking, their opponents would recover, and the result would be another Mariana Battle-style Armageddon, and neither side could be completely sure that they would be the victors. In this case. It is impossible to recuperate.

Resting oneself is also giving the enemy a chance, then, it is necessary to attack. Or a counterattack, never allowing the enemy a respite!

From a strategic point of view, the decisions made by both sides are actually correct.

The Tang Empire was the victor in the battle of the Mariana Islands, so it should take advantage of the victory to pursue it, expand the victory before the enemy can relieve himself, consolidate the victory, and at the same time further damage the enemy's morale, consume the enemy's strength, and advance towards the final victory. The United States, as the loser of the battle for the Mariana Islands, knew better how to stabilize the defensive line. How important it is to block the enemy's attack, and the result of passive defense is definitely failure, so it is naturally the best choice to choose a campaign counterattack, block the enemy's attack through active counterattacks, and drag the enemy's pace.

The Tang Empire's chosen strategic offensive direction was the Southwest Pacific, with the ultimate goal of capturing the Australian continent, cutting off the American wings, and controlling the extremely rich resources and small population. The Australian continent is 10,000 nautical miles away from the mainland of the United States. As for the importance and strategic value of attacking the Australian continent, this point has already been analyzed earlier, so I will not repeat it.

The direction of the United States chose to counterattack was the Central Pacific, and its ultimate goal was to return the Mariana Islands, so as to march on the Tang Empire proper, and even restore Japan's combat effectiveness. The strategic value and importance of this point have been elaborated on earlier, so I won't say much about it.

It is precisely because the strategic offensive and the strategic counterattack of the warring sides are not in the same direction that the battle on the Solomon Sea side has dragged on for a long time.

The Tang Empire's superiority in military strength is the basis for victory in the Southwest Pacific, and another key factor is that the battlefield is closer to the Tang Empire, and the center of the Tang Empire is the southeast coast, so whether it is the warships that replenish the fleet, or the troops and combat materials transported to the theater of operations, can arrive more quickly. On the contrary, the theater of operations is farther away from the continental United States, and to make matters worse, the industrial centers of the United States are the East Coast and the Great Lakes, and both the fleet and the combat forces need to travel halfway around the world, and all of them have to pass through the Panama Canal to enter the Pacific Ocean. As a result, not only was it difficult to replenish the troops and materials for the front-line troops, but also the fleet and fleet were under the surveillance of the Tang Empire's intelligence organization when they passed through the Panama Canal, resulting in the actions of the US military being mastered by the Tang Empire and being extremely passive in terms of strategy. In the end, several counterattacks by the U.S. military became a "refueling" tactic, and each counterattack could not concentrate superior forces, making it even more difficult to win.

Although this did not ultimately change the outcome of the battle in the southwest Pacific, it made the Tang Empire have to divide its forces several times to defend the defense line in the Central Pacific, and as a result, it lost several aircraft carriers, and the fleet was seriously damaged several times, making it difficult to effectively support the strategic offensive in the southwest Pacific theater, and it was difficult for the offensive to win quickly.

In fact, the strategic direction of both warring sides is extremely clear. The Tang Empire mainly attacked the southwest Pacific Ocean, and in the case of insufficient strength, it could only adopt a defensive posture in the direction of the Central Pacific. On the contrary, the U.S. military mainly attacked the Central Pacific direction, relying on the base groups in the southwest Pacific and the strength of the Australian mainland to stabilize the defense and delay the strategic offensive of the Tang Empire.

The war has reached this point, and both sides are extremely clear about the purpose of the opponent. Of course, in the end, war is a country's comprehensive national strength, especially the strength of industry, resources, and science and technology. Of course, this is also a struggle for the ability of the commanders of both sides, the combat effectiveness of the officers and soldiers of the army, etc.

The battle of the Solomon Islands was also intermittent, stopping and stopping, and after grinding for more than a year, a result finally came out. And in this protracted campaign. Both warring sides suffered heavy losses. The victory of the Tang Empire was not easy to come by, and the defeat of the American army was also a defeat after extraordinary efforts. If this is a competition, then although the US military is still glorious, this is a war, and there are only champions on the battlefield, and there is no role model.

Judging by the information published after the war, in this battle, the Tang Imperial Navy lost 49 large warships and ships (displacement of more than 1600 tons). More than 7,200 officers and soldiers were killed and more than 12,000 were disabled.

The Tang Imperial Marines lost 72 ships, killed more than 38,000 officers and men, and wounded more than 49,000.

The air force lost more than 2,100 aircraft, killed or missing more than 1,800 pilots, and injured more than 1,100 people. In addition, during the entire campaign, a total of more than 450,000 tons of ammunition, 32 million liters of fuel, and more than 250,000 tons of other materials were consumed.

The losses and inputs of the US military are not under this. The U.S. Navy lost 73 large warships.

More than 16,000 officers and soldiers were killed in battle. More than 24,000 people were disabled. More than 58,000 officers and soldiers of the US ground forces were killed and more than 127,000 were disabled. The air force lost more than 3,800 planes and more than 3,200 pilots killed or missing. More than 1,800 people were disabled. Old, during the entire campaign, a total of more than 380,000 tons of ammunition and 48 million liters of fuel were consumed, and more than 400,000 tons of other combat materials were consumed.

Among other things, all the war materiel (including ammunition, fuel, food, medicine) consumed by the warring parties in this campaign. Clothing, tents, etc.) If it is transported by ships with a deadweight of 10,000 tons, it will be necessary to mobilize at least nearly 200 merchant ships to fill it, and if you count the fighters, tanks, artillery, vehicles, soldiers, etc. put into operation, the warring sides need to mobilize at least hundreds of merchant ships for transportation! And. And that's not even counting the fuel these merchant ships need, the crews they are equipped with, and the possible losses during transportation!

At that time, I am afraid that only the Tang Empire and the United States could afford such a large-scale war of attrition, and it was impossible for any other country to fight such a combat operation that would easily dispatch hundreds of thousands of troops and last more than a year on the vast maritime battlefield. During the campaign, the front-line combat troops of the Tang Empire sent a total of 21 million letters and received 19 million letters, just collecting these letters, they weighed nearly 1,000 tons!

This was the first large-scale war of attrition in the Pacific theater, and the attrition on both sides was extremely enormous. Unlike the Battle of the Mariana Islands, the last time the two sides fought quickly and decided the winner in a matter of months, and they won quickly and lost quickly, and both sides adjusted quickly. But the Battle of the Solomon Islands is even more of a tug-of-war, a battle that determines victory or defeat by fighting for attrition, losses, and affordability.

This also indicates that the fighting in the Pacific theater will definitely be more intense. In this arena, the warring sides were more balanced in power than in other theaters, and with the exception of the Tang Empire and the United States, other countries had almost no influence on the Pacific theater. This was the battlefield between the Tang Empire and the United States.

On the continental battlefield, the strength of the Tang Empire had an overwhelming advantage, and the defeat of Russia was only a matter of time. In the Western European theater, although France is still holding out, as long as Russia is defeated, it will be impossible for France to block the German ground armored troops on land. In the North Atlantic theater, the efforts of the German Navy were mostly in vain, and since the second half of 24 years, the deadweight tons of new transport ships invested by the United States, Britain and France have exceeded the number of sunk submarines, and the shipping capacity in the North Atlantic has begun to be restored. And in the Eastern Mediterranean theater, the combined fleets of Italy, Spain, and France could hardly pose a mortal threat to the Persian fleet, which was hiding under the protection of shore-based aviation. On the North African battlefield, it was more difficult for the Italo-Spanish coalition forces to break through the Alexander Line, which was organized by the Tang Empire's expeditionary force and the Persian army, and the advance to the Suez Canal was still far away.

In other words, apart from the continental theater, the most likely variable is the Pacific theater.

Moreover, when Russia was defeated directly determined when the Tang Empire would enter the Australian continent.

The Battle of the Solomon Islands was just a foreshadowing of the Tang Empire's march into the Australian mainland, which was equivalent to kicking open the door on the outer fence of the Australian continent and preparing for entering the Australian mainland.

At the level of the campaign, the capture of the Solomon Islands actually laid the groundwork for the next entry into the Coral Sea. The Coral Sea is the gateway to the southeastern core of mainland Australia.

Although the Tang Empire could land in the west, northwest, and even north of the continent, the problem was that the direct consequence of landing in these areas was to have to fight a protracted ground war with the U.S. military on this vast continent, which was a battlefield of large-scale attrition. Relatively speaking, through early efforts, it is more effective and convenient to seize the springboard to the southeast of the Australian continent, or at least the eastern region, and then directly attack the core area of the Australian continent, so that the opponent can be defeated more quickly and win, rather than falling into the quagmire of a protracted war of attrition.

From the large-scale investment of the Tang Empire in the Solomon Islands, the United States can also clearly grasp the strategic intentions of the Tang Empire, so it has made-for-tat deployments. Of course, before attacking the Australian mainland, the Tang Empire had to have two prerequisites, one was to defeat Russia and win the continental war, and the other was to control the Coral Sea, so that the marines could successfully land on the Australian continent. These two conditions are indispensable. The United States can naturally judge these two points, so in order to defend the Australian continent, the United States must make it impossible for the Tang Empire to achieve these two goals.

Strategically, providing more support to Russia and trying to contain the German Army was the most effective way to delay the continental war, and when it was impossible to hold back the Tang Imperial Army, it was the only way to do so.

In the battle, fighting for sea dominance in the Coral Sea and making the Tang Imperial Navy completely defeated in the Coral Sea was the only way to stop the Tang Imperial Navy from going south.

Shortly after the Battle of the Solomon Islands, the United States had already drawn up a plan in these two directions and immediately began to implement it in preparation for their insistence on the Australian mainland.