"The Chinese have not yet acted. Is there really something wrong with them internally? Roosevelt was a little confused.

In his heart, he didn't want to fall out with Huaxia, but the hidden Huaxia made him feel even more uneasy.

"Maybe they're really busy securing the security of the Australian continent!" Leahy also said helplessly, "However, we have taken Fiji and controlled New Zealand, cutting off the passage to the east of China." The rest of us only need to capture Irian Island again, and we can completely trap Huaxia in Australia! ”

The Americans cannot attack China now, but they can follow the example of the Japanese and block the sea lanes of China and make plans for the future.

"And what will be the cost of taking Irian Island?" Roosevelt couldn't help but ask with a heavy expression.

News has come from the front line on Kuah Island.

Although they were successfully attacked by the Japanese, in the end, the Americans' air power overwhelmed the Japanese in all aspects. After two months of fighting, it was difficult to see Japanese fighters in the sky over Kuah Island.

The Americans have taken away most of the air supremacy around Kuah Island, except for the Japanese fleet overhead.

Although Yamamoto Isoroku used the airfield on Kuah Island to cover the air, he also remembered that the best battlefield for the fleet should be the vast ocean.

Without a vast sea area, a warship that lacks maneuverability can only be a target.

So the Japanese fleet was constantly swimming around the periphery, looking for opportunities to bite the American fleet from time to time.

Within two months, five more large-scale naval battles broke out between the two sides in millions of square kilometers of the Pacific Ocean, stretching from the Coral Sea to the east of the Solomons. Coupled with the previous first encounter in the Coral Sea, the losses of both sides were not small.

The Japanese had lost 3 battleships, 3 aircraft carriers before, and then again, with the air superiority of the Americans, 2 aircraft carriers. Now only the Xianghe-class aircraft carrier is left with the lead ship Xianghe, which returned to Singapore for maintenance. The Nagatsuru, which rushed to help, was still sunk by the torpedoes of the Americans. Along with it on the sunken list was a simple repair in Rabaul. The Zuihe, who was slightly injured and did not get out of the line of fire and held out until the beginning of December.

Different from the historical Dafeng aircraft carrier, the Dafeng-class aircraft carrier has been built with a perfect base, and its ability to resist attacks is much stronger than that of the Xianghe-class aircraft carrier, but it is only injured but not disabled.

The Japanese also sank a Nagato-class battleship, the Boqi. From then on, only the Nagato-class battleships of the Japanese were left, which was still in charge of the homeland.

In the face of the Americans' fierce torpedoes and bombs, although the Nagato-class was armed with 420 mm fierce naval guns, its air defense strength and its own armored defense were still slightly inferior.

The other 3 Yamato-class battleships in the Japanese fleet survived by relying on their armor to be damaged but not disabled.

In addition to these. The Japanese again lost 2 cruisers, and the total losses reached 5 ships. The destroyers again lost 8 units, for a total of 13 units. After the loss of 2 submarines in the First Battle of the Coral Sea, the losses of the Japanese in the vicinity of Kuah Island increased significantly, reaching 7 submarines.

However, in terms of numbers, the Japanese did not suffer much.

The Americans, during the air counterattack of the Japanese, also sank 1 Essex-class aircraft carrier and 2 escort aircraft carriers.

Those Borg-class Jeep aircraft carriers themselves were converted from merchant ships, and the thin skin of the C3-S-A1 cargo ship could not help but fight at all, under the sudden sneak attack of the Japanese. If you're not careful, you're prone to burping.

Originally, the main role of these escort aircraft carriers was to protect those supply ships, but the tight protection of the American warships made the Japanese have to fight the idea of these supply ships. The crooked blow gave the Americans a lot of losses.

The cruisers of the Americans were again sunk 4 units. The destroyer was strangled and attacked by 2 Yamato-class destroyers. The losses were not small, plus the previous Battle of the Coral Sea, a total of 17 ships were lost.

Apparently. The anti-submarine capabilities of the Japanese were somewhat inferior, and the Americans' submarines had the merit of sinking 2 cruisers and half a battleship, but only 2 of them were sunk in total, which is remarkable.

The only thing to the regret of the Japanese was not to sink a single battleship of the Americans.

The air defense system of the American fleet and the interception of American naval aircraft played a great role, so that the most powerful torpedo captain of the Japanese returned in vain.

The American battleships, which had always attached great importance to defensive survivability, also laughed at the Japanese bombers. The Japanese bombshells were okay against aircraft carriers, but it was obviously unrealistic to sink battleships, especially Montana and Iowa.

Only in the naval battle of the East Solomon, the Montana class and the Yamato-class again went head-to-head one-on-one, and they were not badly injured under the naval guns of Yamato. But in the preponderance of the Americans, they slowly retreated.

Although the air power of the Americans cooperated with the destroyers to completely suppress the Japanese submarines, making most of them in vain, the two Japanese sneak attack submarines still dealt a heavy blow to the reborn Iowa, and although it was disabled after receiving two torpedoes, it was not to the point of sinking.

Thanks to the Americans' emphasis on protection, the Japanese still had 2 Essex-class aircraft carriers and 2 cruisers on the credit sheet, but they also dragged their crippled bodies to New Zealand.

At least judging from the scene, this time the Japanese were not inferior to the Americans in the big battle around Kuah Island commanded by Isoroku Yamamoto. Far from carelessly ignoring the fact that the crushing defeat in the Battle of the Coral Sea under air power is comparable.

However, after all, Japan cannot be compared with the strength of the United States, and the Americans can afford the same losses, but the Japanese can hardly bear them.

After Meng Xiang cut off the sale of warships for the Japanese, the number of warships of the Japanese was one loss, and there was one less, and it was difficult to replenish them. The Americans, on the other hand, built 15 Essex-class aircraft carriers in 43, 3 Montana-class battleships, and 3 Iowa-class battleships. A large number of cruisers, destroyers, and submarines were sent directly to the sea from the assembly line.

And every time they fight, they are basically within the control of the American fighters. The timely sortie of the US Navy formation made it difficult for the Japanese to expand the results of the attack, which allowed the American personnel to receive timely medical treatment, and the loss of personnel was far less than that of the Japanese, who often ended up with men and ships.

However, the loss of naval talent of the Japanese was far less than the loss of their pilots.

Although the Japanese Army and Navy relied on the attack on Kuah Island to contend with the Americans for two months, the price was extremely high.

Not to mention the loss of fighters, even the fighters in China and Southeast Asia were nervously unable to replenish them, and the 600 pilots alone had already greatly damaged the vitality of the Japanese.

In the 30s, the Japanese pilots were all meritocracy, and they trained only about 100 pilots a year. Even during World War II, the amount of training was increased, but the cost of training limited the number of Japanese pilots.

After being planted in the hands of China many times on various battlefields, the Japanese had less than 2,000 qualified pilots, and this time they were knocked out by the Americans by 600, and the Japanese may need to rely more on those rookies in the future.

For the Americans, who suffered more than 200 casualties and more than 100 prisoners, these losses were just a drizzle compared to the more than 100,000 pilot base of the United States.

The Japanese pilots were not inferior to the American pilots in terms of individual strength, but the number of them under the elite strategy was relatively small, and the performance of their landlines was slightly worse, so they finally fell under the group of Americans.

As the Japanese weakened their air power on Kuah, the surrounding fleets also had to increase their range of maneuver to avoid being contained by the Americans.

At this time, the coastline of Kuah Island was exposed to the void of defense.

Influenced by the news of MacArthur's reconquest of Fiji, the navy intensified its offensive on Kuah Island and began a large-scale landing operation.

If we say that the Japanese were suppressed in the air, the navy and the Americans were on an equal footing, but in land battles, the Japanese tortured the Americans very ruthlessly.

Because of the fleet's containment of the Americans, the naval artillery support was greatly weakened.

Moreover, MacArthur's profligacy made the logistics and ammunition strain for a while, but it happened to be encountered by the 1st Marine Division attacking Kuah Island.

The Japanese were not inferior in other respects, except that their firepower was weaker than that of the Americans.

As a result, the 1st Marine Division, which was the first to attack, was unlucky.

It is not denied that the Americans' 1st Marine Division is elite, nor does it deny that the American officers headed by the commander of the 1st Marine Division, Vandergrivet, have a good tactical level, but what they encountered were elite Japanese troops transferred from Southeast Asia.

These Japanese troops did not learn anything else, and they learned a lot of things when they fought against the Chinese National Defense Forces. In particular, they are familiar with jungle warfare, and they are far more accustomed to the environment of Kuah Island than the Americans.

The Japanese did not fight much on the outer coastline, and after blocking the attack layer by layer, they pushed into the jungle.

The American GIs, who had always liked to advance with artillery fire, faced 40,000 Japanese elite troops that were different from those on Fiji Island, and experienced the hardships of jungle warfare in advance.

As a result, it took a month, and seeing that Christmas was coming, even the Americans, who had sent the army, still occupied only half of Kuah Island. After paying the price of 30,000 casualties, there were still many Japanese troops resisting in the corner.

"With such losses, what will it cost us to occupy Irian Island?" Roosevelt couldn't help but worry.