The US Navy's bombing of Beato Island lasted for two hours, and aircraft from the aircraft carriers "Essex" and "Bunker Hill" also participated in the bombing......

However, it is very difficult for carrier-based aircraft to carry out precision bombing on Bito Island.

On the one hand, this is because it is dark at this time, and a considerable number of the US pilots on this mission are inexperienced novices, so even taking off and landing on aircraft carriers is a big problem, let alone finding and bombing Bito Island in the dark night.

On the other hand, because the communication equipment on the battleship "Maryland" was completely out of order, Rear Admiral Hill was unable to contact the aircraft carriers, which made the pilots of the carrier-based aircraft who took off from the two aircraft carriers have no bottom at all.

In their words, it is:

"We all flew over the target in a daze as if we hadn't woken up yet, and then dropped the bomb in fear!"

"The Navy should have told us if we had dropped the bomb in the right place, or if it was far away or close, but they didn't say anything, which makes us mistaken...... Did you drop a bomb that wiped out your own navy! ”

……

Unable to coordinate, the carrier-based aircraft only bombed for seven minutes and then hurried back.

In fact, even if the carrier-based aircraft continued to bomb, it would not have much effect, because by this time there was already thick smoke and fire on the island of Beto...... The US military used explosive shells when firing naval guns, which blew up the island into dust and obscured the sky, and the pilots could not see the ground targets clearly at all; in addition, the naval guns fired quite intensively, and if the carrier-based planes carried out low-altitude precision attacks, it was undoubtedly very dangerous for them to fall into the sea because their vision was not clear, or they would be hit by the dense shells of the US warships very "lucky."

According to post-war statistics, in just two hours of fire preparation, the US warships fired more than 3,000 shells, and the tiny island of Beato suffered almost a ton of shells per square meter, plus the bombardment of the previous few days...... It seems that everything has been blown up.

However, this was clearly not the case, for an hour after the bombardment was carried out, Rear Admiral Hill sent two minesweepers, the Tracker and the Necessity, to the coast of Bito Island to begin minesweeping, and they soon attracted the attention of the Japanese and bombed them. This forced Rear Admiral Hill to send two destroyers, "Ringgold" and "Dahir", to approach and provide fire cover for the minesweepers.

DURING THE MELEE, THE DESTROYER "LINGGOLD" WAS HIT TWICE BY JAPANESE SHELLS, AND IT WAS ALSO A 127MM SHELL, BUT FORTUNATELY, NEITHER SHELL EXPLODED...... Tarawa is a high-temperature, high-salt, and high-humidity area, and if the shells are not properly stored, they are prone to moisture and other conditions.

Just when Major General Hill was frustrated that the Japanese artillery fire could not be effectively suppressed and that there were still Japanese alive and even able to organize resistance on Beato Island, a huge fireball rose into the air on Beato Island, and a black column of smoke pierced the early morning sky.

Then Major General Hill received an exciting piece of information: "General, we have destroyed an ammunition depot for the Japanese!" ”

"Great!" Major General Hill couldn't help but be overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately ordered: "Now! Send our Marines up there and give those Japanese a little color! ”

"Yes!"

So at seven o'clock in the morning, the Marines officially launched an attack on Beato Island. This made the officers and men of the 2nd Marine Division breathe a sigh of relief, because some of them had been in fear on the landing craft for more than three hours, and most of them preferred to rush to Bito Island as soon as possible, because then there would be at least a place to hide, and on the landing craft they could only pray that God would bless them from shells falling on them.

Unbeknownst to them, this was just the beginning of the nightmare.

At this time, it was already dark, and hundreds of landing vehicles and landing craft were carrying a group of pale-faced marines in the direction of Beato Island in the sound of rumbling motors, and I don't know if it was because of nervousness and fear or because of the "breakfast on the expedition", some of them couldn't help but start vomiting, and the commanders were shouting: "Take it easy, do it as you usually train, then you will be fine!" ”

But both officers and soldiers know in their hearts that this is nothing more than a lie, and if you do it as you are trained, it will be fine, and this will not be a battlefield.

The situation of Wu Shimin's new 28th Division was much better, mainly because they were shocked by the luxurious style of play of the US army...... There are warships and fighter planes, and bombs and artillery shells are being fired as if they don't need money, not to mention these, there are hundreds of amphibious landing vehicles and landing craft in front of us......

The first three waves were LVT amphibious landing vehicles, with 42 Type 1 vehicles and 18 people each; Type 2 has 45 vehicles with a crew of 20 people each...... THIS AMPHIBIOUS LANDING CRAFT USES THE TRANSMISSION OF THE M3 STUART TANK, THE W-SHAPED COVERED SPIKE CAN QUICKLY PENETRATE THE GROUND AND CORAL REEFS, AND THE 12.7MM MACHINE GUN IN THE FRONT OF THE VEHICLE CAN SUPPRESS THE ENEMY'S FIRE AFTER RUSHING ASHORE, SO THAT THE FOLLOW-UP TROOPS CAN SUCCESSFULLY LAND AND DEPLOY.

The last three waves were hundreds of Higgins landing craft, each capable of carrying 36 heavily armed fighters or 8,000 pounds of supplies, which were clearly the main landing force behind the amphibious landing vehicles.

Wu Shimin and others looked at so much modern equipment, coupled with the fact that the rear was full of aircraft and artillery as a backing, so they were full of confidence that the defense of small Japan would soon collapse under the impact of the US military.

In fact, it was not only Wu Shimin and others who were shocked by the US military battle, but even the Japanese army was also shocked when they saw that the entire sea was scattered with new US landing vehicles and landing craft.

They thought the Americans were coming in wooden boats, but they were attacked by metal armored personnel carriers that resembled a group of floating tanks, and they were especially surprised...... The reef in front of Beato Island failed to stop the armoured personnel carriers, who effortlessly made their way through the reef, concentrating all their firepower as if no one was there, strafing the shore as if it were driving towards the shore.

This is not surprising to the Japanese army, this amphibious landing vehicle was developed a few years ago and has just been equipped with troops, and many US military drivers are not even proficient in operating this amphibious landing vehicle.

Because the US military was not expected to have amphibious landing vehicles, the Japanese troops on Bito Island were actually ill-prepared.

Under these circumstances, the U.S. military should have taken Beato Island with the same force as most generals such as Major Hill and MacArthur, but the battle was fatally dealt by the U.S. military's neglect of an intelligence.

(To be continued.) )