At half past one, Tan Renhao returned to the headquarters, he replaced Lei Shaoqing, and asked the chief of staff to go to the class to rest.

"Sir, the Japanese fleet returned an hour ago, and as you ordered, our fighters did not intercept it." The person who came to report the situation was a major staff officer, "The pilot who parachuted was also rescued, and we are organizing a second round of bombing." ”

"How's the situation with the Japanese army?" Tan Renhao sat down, he still felt a little dizzy.

"The reconnaissance plane sent a message half an hour ago that the Japanese army was rushing to repair the airfield, and at half past eleven, a group of Japanese fighters moved over, but several of them were blown up when they landed, and then these fighters returned to the Japanese mainland and did not dare to land on the airfield again." The major officer paused, "In addition, the Japanese engineers also found those bombs, and now they are trying to find a way to clear the bombs first, and then rush to repair the airfield." ”

Tan Renhao laughed, Hao Dongjue didn't brag, the bullet is indeed a good thing, but will these bombs hinder the Marine Corps from repairing the airport in the future? Tan Renhao smiled bitterly, this is not a problem he should consider, what he wants to do is to suppress the Japanese troops on the island, destroy the Japanese army's defense facilities, and let the marines go ashore safely, as for how the marines will remove these bombs, it is the marines' own business.

"Sir, are we going to launch a second round of bombardment?"

"Of course!" Tan Renhao took the lunch brought to him by a staff officer, "Go find Hao Dongjue and tell him." This time, all the bombers were hung with submunitions, and the 'Kingfisher' also carried out horizontal bombing. First completely paralyze the Japanese airfield, and wait until they are unable to repair the airfield, and then hit other targets. Anyway, we can stay in a place where the Japanese bombers can't bomb and play slowly, and play to the death of those guys! ”

The staff officers all laughed, and "dog day" had become the name of all officers and men for Japan. It's a fitting name, and Japan is a dog. A mad dog.

Half an hour later, the first bombers with bombs set off. Because this was supplementary bombing, and it was impossible for Japanese fighters taking off from mainland to patrol over the islands for a long time (the 'Zero', after flying over Brother Island, was only able to patrol for ten minutes, and its combat radius could not cover Iwo Jima). The bombers were covered by only a squad of fighters. According to Tan Renhao's order, all bombers were hung with sub-bombs.

In the evening, the bomber group "visited" the islands for the third time. The last batch of submunitions were also dropped on airfields, air defense positions, and Japanese barracks. According to Hao Dongjue's statistics, the bombers of the Tang Empire dropped a total of 1,200 submunitions, that is, 96,000 small bombs, and the reliability rate of these small bombs was about eighty percent. If the Japanese army wants to remove these tens of thousands of small bombs, I am afraid that it will not be able to do it at all without dozens of days.

The fleet reached the waters near the Minami Ryukyu Road at night. Subsequently, four heavy cruisers poured thousands of shells on the island, which had already been shelled once, and all the Japanese troops on the island hid in their burrows, not daring to show their heads at all. The officers and men of the fleet's aircraft carriers also got a rest at night and began to prepare for the next day's bombing operation.

As soon as it was dawn, a round of bombardment of the new land began. Because I used up all the sub-munitions. Therefore, bombers can only use high-explosive shells and even aviation armor-piercing shells against ground targets. During the day, the fleet flew only two batches of bombers, and the four carriers were deployed in rotation, so that the pilots could rest and the aviation crew had enough time to maintain the fighters.

On the third day, the fleet again bombarded Japanese military facilities on the four islands, and the shelling formations also shelled military facilities on Iwo Jima during the day. The main bombardment of the day and day was concentrated on Iwo Jima. First, bombers were used to deal with the fixed shore fire defense guns on the island, as well as the permanent fortifications. Then the artillery formation, consisting of four large cruisers, five heavy cruisers, bombarded the Japanese fortifications on the island with heavy artillery. The entire shelling continued into the evening. The main guns on the nine cruisers were half empty before they withdrew.

By the fourth day. With the exception of continued harassing bombing of the Japanese on the other three islands, all the bombers were concentrated over Iwo Jima. Nine cruisers also went into battle again, firing shells (even with 120-mm anti-aircraft guns) at Iwo Jima.

That afternoon, Tan Renhao received a telegram from the Navy Command. The landing fleet carrying the Marines had left the port of Naha two days earlier, and the supply flotilla to replenish the ammunition of Task Force 1 was to depart with the landing fleet. Obviously, the Navy Command had also taken into account that the ground ammunition of the First Task Force was about to run out, and took the initiative to send the ammunition over before Tan Renhao made a request.

In fact, if Task Force 1 had maintained this kind of high-intensity bombing, it would have been able to hold out for five days at most.

The design bomb load of the "Emperor" class aircraft carrier is 750 tons, while the design bomb load of the "Yangtze River" class is 1,000 tons, and this also includes deducting anti-aircraft artillery shells, sea combat torpedoes, aviation armor-piercing shells, etc., and the real ground ammunition that can be carried is only 250 to 300 tons. If a bomber makes two sorties a day and drops 750 kg at a time, then each carrier consumes 54 tons of ammunition per day. According to this amount, it will only last for a maximum of 5 days.

The other ships in the fleet were actually not much better, if not worse. For example, the "Li Jing" class carries a maximum of 1,800 rounds of main gun shells, and in actual combat, it carries a maximum of 1,200 rounds of main gun shells, because it must be loaded with more anti-aircraft shells. And 9 main guns can fire 500 shells in an hour, and according to the normal rate of shelling, it is at least 300 rounds, and if you really want to fight, you will last for 4 hours at most.

Tan Renhao's headache at that time was the problem of ammunition. If it were only a naval operation, the ammunition carried by the First Task Force would be enough to wipe out five combined fleets, but ground bombing would be completely different from naval operations. He was relieved when he received the telegram. At least the command of the Navy was more thoughtful than he was. The supply fleet will arrive in a day's time, and it will be an opportunity to take a breath of relief from the officers and men of the fleet after four busy days.

The next morning, after the last bombardment, the fleet went to the predetermined sea area to rendezvous with the supply flotilla.

When Tan Renhao saw General Yan Guozhong, he knew that the elite of the Marine Corps had come this time, and the Marine Corps would definitely prepare to take down Iwo Jima in one go, and then let the bombers and fighters transfer over. Task Force 1 can go on other missions without being dragged on this battlefield.

"This time the first place to arrive was a Marine Division. The 2nd Marine Division will arrive in 10 days. Yan Guozhong did not waste Tan Renhao's precious time, "Our mission is to first land on Iwo Jima, occupy the open area of the island, and then let the engineers repair the airfield on the island. As for the Japanese troops on the island, we will spend our energy to clean them up! ”

Lei Shaoqing secretly stuck out his tongue, they dropped at least 30,000 small bombs on Iwo Jio, I'm afraid that the marines will have a headache for these bombs at that time.

"So what should we do?" Tan Renhao pulled Lei Shaoqing. Ask Lei Shaoqing not to talk about it.

"Assist us in landing." Yan Guozhong was very refreshing, "At least, provide fire support for three days before we land, and then provide us with direct fire cover for two days after landing." As long as the Marines take control of the beachhead and wait until our own artillery and armored vehicles come ashore, we can act alone. ”

"But there are at least 8,000 Japanese defenders on the island." Tan Renhao frowned slightly, he felt that Yan Guozhong was overconfident in his subordinates.

"Don't worry. We have 18,000 men in one Marine Division, and we are ready to commit two Marine Divisions on Iwo Jima. With the support of the fleet, can't you hit Iwo Jima? ”

Tan Renhao smiled and said no more.

"General Tan, if you can, start bombing Iwo Jima tomorrow. The Marines landed early in the morning of the fourth day, when we needed the heaviest artillery support. ”

"That's not a problem." Tan Renhao didn't know what to say about this somewhat overconfident general, "We will hurry up today to complete the supply and carry out the first round of bombardment of Iwo Jima in the afternoon." Of course, additional supplies had to be scheduled between battles. On the day of landing, I will arrange for an artillery formation to provide close artillery support to the Marines, and during the day, a bomber squadron will patrol the sky over the island at any time, and the Marines will provide bombing guidance. ”

"Good. So. I'll have the coordinator over in the afternoon. ”

"I'll ask the chief of staff to arrange a coordinated place of work!"

Soon, the two commanders discussed the issue of joint operations. And the specific work is entrusted to the respective chiefs of staff. According to the tradition of the Navy, when fighting, the Marine Corps should be under the command of the commander of the fleet. If the Marine Corps and the fleet operate jointly, then the Fleet Commander is the Commander-in-Chief, and the Marine Commander is the Deputy Commander-in-Chief. It's just that Tan Renhao is now a commodore in the navy, and Yan Guozhong is a marine admiral. The disparity in this level makes the relationship between the two delicate. Nominally, Tan Renhao is still the commander who commands operations, but what he can command is the First Task Force. Yan Guozhong also used a very tactful tone of discussion, obviously, he could not interfere with the actions of the First Task Force.

In the afternoon of the same day, the 2nd Carrier Strike Group, which had completed the replenishment first, returned to the battlefield and dispatched a bomber group to bomb Iwo Jima and several other Japanese bases on the islands again. This is just a show to convince the Marines that the fleet is bombing Iwo Jima with all its might, opening the way for the Marines. In the afternoon of that day, more than a dozen liaison officers sent by the Marine Corps were also arranged in the conference room of the flagship, and a temporary contact center was set up to coordinate the ground operations between the Marine Corps and the fleet.

In the evening, the replenishment activities continued. In order to prevent a sneak attack by Japanese submarines, more than 20 destroyers were scattered around the supply area like hounds, and the sonars on all the destroyers were working. I'm afraid that those "Japanese sharks" hiding in the sea will have to think more about their next move after hearing so many sonar echoes.

The fleet that had completed the replenishment left the supply area by the early hours of the morning, and at least half of the supply ships remained. The command of the Navy was thoughtful. After the 1st Task Force completed the mission of supporting the landing of the marines, it would definitely replenish the ammunition again, so the two rapid supply fleets were grouped together.

"Renhao, do you really want to fight according to the will of the Marine Corps?" Lei Shaoqing was a little unconvinced, how to say, the fleet should also command the marines, not the marines command the fleet.

Tan Renhao smiled and called Lei Shaoqing outside. "Then you say, how else can we fight?"

"But ......"

"Hey, you kid just haven't opened his mind." Tan Renhao took out a cigarette, "I don't even pay attention to the army's provocation, should we smoke our own hind legs?" How to say, the marines are one family with us, and if the landing is successful this time, the fleet will be at least half of the credit. Of course, our goal is also to occupy these islands, and the Marines are our iron fist. Admiral Yan Guozhong is a very powerful general, and he is very polite to us, isn't he? Don't think about it so much, fighting this battle is the most important thing, who listens to whom, and what is there? As long as we are fighting for the Empire, then we should let go of these prejudices. ”

Lei Shaoqing laughed awkwardly, he felt that he was too small.

"Is the connection with the Marines established?" Tan Renhao diverted the topic.

"It has been arranged, I have arranged a staff group to be in charge, let them get acquainted with each other in the past two days, and in addition, let the liaison officers sent by the Marine Corps familiarize themselves with the fighting style of the fleet, so that it will be easier to fight."

Tan Renhao nodded slightly. "Well, tomorrow you have decided on the shelling formation. Now we basically do not need to think about the problem of air defense of the fleet. In terms of anti-submarine warfare, we must pay attention to the fact that Japan does not have a surface fleet and bombers cannot pose a threat to us, so Japan's submarines are the biggest threat. You have to keep an eye on Japanese submarines, I don't want to get stuck in the same problem for the third time! ”

"Don't worry, I'll leave all the destroyers behind. Moreover, eight destroyers in the supply fleet have also rowed over, and our anti-submarine forces have increased a lot. ”

Tan Renhao glanced at Lei Shaoqing, and then laughed.

"What are you laughing at?" Lei Shaoqing was very puzzled.

"It's nothing, let's rest early today, maybe we'll have a lot of trouble tomorrow!"