As Zhang Chi and others saw, the second phase of the Japanese counteroffensive was launched from the sea. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

This point should be said to be the genius of the Japanese army, on the one hand, because the Japanese army has an advantage in fighting night battles, while the US Navy has a natural phobia in night battles.

On the other hand, the combat equipment used by the Japanese army is submarines, which are easier to conceal in the dark, especially since the Japanese army is also very familiar with the hydrology of the Marshall Islands, and knows where there are reefs and shoals. However, because the Marshall Islands have been a Japanese colony for decades, the US military can be said to know nothing about the hydrology in this area, and it is even more difficult to search for Japanese submarines in the dark...... The U.S. military was not aware of this, but just a few hours earlier, two U.S. destroyers had gone to search for a Japanese submarine that had attempted to get close to the U.S. fleet, but was spotted by sonar and was taken into a reef group, resulting in one sinking and one injury.

As a result, some US generals speculated that the Japanese submarine was very likely to appear in the sight of the US military.

However, Zhang Chi believed that the Japanese army was more clever in using submarines to deal with the US fleet...... If it is a tough confrontation with similar equipment, that is, fighter against fighter plane, warship against warship, then the Japanese army is obviously not an opponent, the Japanese army has only more than 100 Japanese fighters, and the US military also has an advanced "Hellcat", if the Japanese combined warship is dispatched, it will undoubtedly be defeated by the US warships and fighters.

On the contrary, the use of submarines as a ghost lurking underwater can cause great trouble to the US military, especially at night...... Due to the large number of ships in the US Navy, in order to avoid collisions or identification problems, most ships have to turn on their lights, and destroyers even have to turn on their searchlights to search at sea. These lights undoubtedly gave a good indication of the target for the Japanese submarine, which had a periscope that was difficult to spot in the dark.

What's even more powerful is that Japan's submarine-cruising Type B submarines can also carry small water reconnaissance planes...... This kind of water reconnaissance plane can play a great role at night, and the US Navy is overwhelmed, because it can assemble and take off from any place on the sea, and then, after the submarine is ready, it will fire flares in the air at the US warship group, so that the US warship group will be completely exposed to the fire of the Japanese submarine group.

As a result, the Japanese Navy, which was originally weak, took the initiative, and this forced the powerful US Navy to temporarily stay away from the "Wolf's Horn" area to avoid a possible sneak attack by Japanese submarines.

In fact, this is the theory of "asymmetric warfare" that was later advocated by the US military, but the "asymmetric warfare" mentioned by the US military is more launched on the basis of air supremacy.

Of course, this tactic was not actually conceived by Koga Mine's genius or ingenuity, and a large part of it was an act of last resort because the Japanese Combined Fleet had returned to its homeland and was unable to fight the U.S. Navy.

But Koga Mine is not the only one that is remarkable in this battle.

When the Sino-American coalition forces were busy organizing defenses and counteroffensives at the "Wolf's Horns", Koga Mine urgently summoned Michiyuki Yamada to his headquarters.

"Yamada-kun!" Koga Feng patted Michiyuki Yamada on the shoulder and said, "Whether you can hold Kwajalein Island or even win the entire battle may be in sight!" ”

"Yes!" Michiyuki Yamada stepped forward in response.

In the next second, Michiyuki Yamada promised: "Please rest assured, Your Excellency, even if we do our best, we will sink the aircraft carrier of the American ghost beast, so that they will not have the ability to attack us again!" ”

"Aircraft carriers?" Koga Feng couldn't help but be stunned when he heard this, and then he shook his head with a smile and said, "No, no...... Yamada-kun, you're mistaken! The focus of our attack is not on the aircraft carriers of the Americans! ”

"Not an aircraft carrier?" Michiyuki Yamada's face was full of doubts: "That's ......"

"It's the tanks deployed by the Chinese and Americans in the 'Wolf's Horn'!" Koga replied.

"Tanks?"

"Hmm!" Koga Feng nodded: "Sinking the Americans' aircraft carrier may be a great result, but it will not have much impact on the entire campaign." In fact...... The aircraft carriers of the Americans have not played much role at this time! ”

Hearing this, Michiyuki Yamada couldn't help but nodded, there are too many aircraft carriers of the US military, and the effect of these aircraft carriers on the bombing of the islands is actually not ideal, so sinking them will indeed not be of much help to the battle of the Marshall Islands.

"Instead, those tanks ......," said Koga Mineichi, "our troops lacked anti-tank weapons, but Chinese built a steel defense line with these tanks, and if it weren't for this defense, it is very likely that Nakatani-kun's troops would have driven the Sino-American forces into the sea!" What we want is this, to kill and injure a large number of the living forces of the Sino-US coalition forces, so that they will not have troops to continue the landing operation, understand? The Americans have no shortage of planes, no shortage of aircraft carriers, but they lack people! ”

"I see!" Michiyuki Yamada couldn't help but nodded.

"So!" Koga Mineichi continued: "Tomorrow morning...... After our submarine force forced out the American fleet, you divided into two teams, one to attract the attention of the American fighters, and the other to launch a full-scale bombardment of the 'Wolf Horn' garrisoned by the Chinese and American coalition forces, especially to blow up their tanks, and cover Nakatani's troops to launch a general attack on the 'Wolf Horn', understand? ”

"Yes!" Michiyuki Yamada responded, and at the same time secretly admired Koga Mineichi's strategy.

Koga Mineichi is really not easy at this point, because the Japanese generals basically have the common problem of rejoicing in great achievements, and this is particularly prominent in the Japanese Navy, which is mainly manifested in the fact that the Japanese Navy is more willing to attack warships and aircraft carriers than to attack transport ships. For example, in the Battle of Iron Bottom Bay, after the fleet of the Mikawa Gunichi fought in the first round of Iron Bottom Bay and caused heavy losses and chaos to the US fleet, it was already discovered that there were a large number of unprotected transport ships in Iron Bottom Bay, and these transport ships were loaded with a large number of strategic materials needed by the Sino-US coalition forces that were too late to unload.

However, Mikawa did not attack these merchant ships.

The same is true for the Japanese Navy's use of submarines, which generally only attack warships and aircraft carriers, and for transport ships, the upper echelons of the Navy even make a hard rule: only one torpedo can be used on a transport ship.

When this order was carried out on each specific submarine, the Japanese sailors were not willing to waste even a torpedo, so the Japanese submarines turned a blind eye to the incoming and outgoing transport ships many times. (To be continued.) )