Chapter 435: Interspersed

The battle was almost as hot as it began, and both sides knew that this was a crucial moment in the battle, so they all resorted to attacking and defending. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

For the Japanese army, if they can suppress the Chinese army in one fell swoop and take back control of the No. 1 airfield, then they can gain a huge advantage to defeat the Chinese army, so they can not only kill a large number of Chinese troops, but also consolidate the defense of Iwo Jima and return everything to square one.

For the Chinese army, the 382 Heights and the Oribo Mountain are actually their footholds, if they cannot hold these two heights, then even if the Chinese Navy enters the battle in time, the new 1st Division will face the fate of being completely annihilated by the Japanese army.

Therefore, the attacking and defending sides did not give in to each other, the attacking ones attacked the high ground regardless of casualties, and the defending ones preferred to die with the enemy with the explosives bag than take a step back, and suddenly Iwo Jima was shrouded in a rain of bullets, and because it was dark at this time and there was smoke everywhere, it was inevitable that there would be confusion and mutual penetration between the enemy and us, so the whole battlefield was unfolded in chaos.

According to the memories of the surviving expeditionary force fighters, no one thought that this battle would be so difficult, and originally thought that it would be just a matter of holding on for a while and waiting for the reinforcements of the navy to come at dawn, plus they had geographical advantages, so they didn't think it was too dangerous. But I didn't expect to let the enemy break through the defense line several times, and even interspersed with the hilltop position.

Speaking of which, these surviving warriors were full of joy, and everyone knew what would happen if the enemy had occupied the hilltop position at that time.

Summing up the experience after the war, Zhang Chi believed that there were two reasons for this situation.

First, the expeditionary force fought too smoothly after arriving in the Pacific theater, and in its coordination and cooperation with the US military, it was somewhat tainted with the atmosphere that the US military was accustomed to fighting non-contact wars and relied too much on equipment and firepower.

On the other hand, the Japanese army took advantage of darkness and smoke to boldly implement interspersed encirclement tactics against the Chinese army.

This is something that Zhang Chi didn't expect...... Although Zhang Chi knew that the Japanese army was always accustomed to using interspersed encirclement tactics, for example, in Burma, the Japanese army implemented a large depth of intersperse, which directly cut off the retreat of the Chinese expeditionary force back home.

However, this kind of interspersed encirclement tactic is generally used on a battlefield with defensive depth, and the Chinese garrison on Iwo Jima only occupies one beach and two high grounds, and the distance between these positions is very close, and it is very likely that they will be directly blocked by crossfire from several positions...... For example, if the Japanese army penetrates between the 382 heights and the Oriba Mountain, it will be suppressed by the fire of the two heights, and even if the penetration is successful, it may fall into the encirclement of the enemy's three positions and be unable to deploy its forces.

So it's quite dangerous to do that.

But after thinking about it, Zhang Chi felt that the Japanese army's approach was correct.

The reason is that there is a cover of darkness and smoke, and the possibility of being suppressed by the enemy's highland fire is very small, and as for the problem of the inability to deploy troops...... The troops that interspersed didn't need space at all, and they quickly broke up and attacked in all directions, their mission was not to occupy a certain place, but to create as much chaos as possible.

This is the main reason why this battle will be so chaotic and at the same time so difficult to fight.

If it were the U.S. military on such a battlefield, I was afraid that it would soon collapse at this moment. However, the Chinese Expeditionary Force has encountered such a situation many times on the battlefield. The three regiment commanders almost unanimously ordered the line of defense to be retracted, and then ordered any figure that appeared in front of them...... It doesn't matter if it's an enemy or your own people, you will be killed.

This may seem cruel to say, but there is no place for mercy in war, and the protagonists involved in the war are more often than not willing to choose between fewer casualties and more casualties.

At this time, of course, fewer casualties should be chosen, even if some of the comrades are their own men.

As soon as the soldiers' defensive lines shrank, the connection between several positions was cut off by the Japanese.

Tadamichi Kuribayashi couldn't help but be overjoyed when he heard the news, because coming this far was almost half the battle...... The three positions that the enemy could connect with each other and reinforce each other to form the Iron Triangle were divided into three positions, which in itself weakened the enemy's defenses to a considerable extent.

More importantly, as soon as the connection between these three positions was severed, the No. 1 airfield located between the three positions would naturally fall under the control of the Japanese army.

To be on the safe side, Tadamichi Kuribayashi ordered Yoshitaka Horie to personally lead a squadron of Japanese troops to occupy Airfield No. 1.

Yoshitaka Horie lived up to the trust of Tadamichi Kuribayashi and seized control of the airport in ten minutes.

However, this made Kuribayashi Tadamichi frown.

Kuribayashi Tadamichi felt that victory had come too easily, and he vaguely felt that something was wrong with it. On the other hand, judging by Yoshitaka Horie's report, they did not find many enemy fighters in Airfield No. 1, not not many, to be exact, but almost none.

"Where did all those planes go?" Kuribayashi Tadamichi said to himself, "Perhaps, they have been blown to pieces by the navy's naval guns!" ”

Although this explanation is a bit self-defeating, because the Japanese bombing lasted only 20 minutes, and it was impossible for the 20-minute bombing to make it impossible to find even a single structure of dozens of planes. But this barely makes sense, not to mention that at this time, the Japanese army had no way back but to go all the way to the dark.

Then Kuribayashi Tadamichi put aside his suspicions, he propped up his right hand with his left hand across his chest, touched his chin triumphantly, and said, "Now, just wait until dawn to see the difference!" ”

Kuribayashi Tadamichi means that the reason why the Chinese army can still withstand the Japanese attack is entirely because of the superiority of the Chinese army in equipment. However, once it was daybreak, with the reinforcements of the Japanese fighters from Hachijojima and the reinforcement of more than 20 seaplanes of the "Ise", coupled with the targeted bombardment of the Japanese naval guns...... The situation would soon change, and the balance of war would soon tip in favor of the Japanese.

Kuribayashi Tadamichi could not wait for that moment to come, and it seemed that he had seen the heroic Japanese soldiers rush up to Heights 382 and Mt. Oriba, and then replant the sun flag on both heights against the backdrop of the rising sun.

Kuribayashi Tadamichi was even thinking about it......

What to do with those Chinese?

Kill them all?

No! Iwo Jima is short of labor, I should capture them and let them build tunnels, and I will open up the tunnels between Wonsan and Oriba Mountain before the next attack of the Sino-American coalition forces!

What Kuribayashi Tadamichi didn't expect was that dawn was indeed the time to see the victory or defeat, but it was not the Japanese army who won. (To be continued.) )