PS: Thank you for the monthly ticket voted by the book friend "Shrimp Sea", and ask for a recommendation vote ^_^ again

However, even if officers and men have a relatively high level of education, they must also undergo rigorous training in order to cultivate qualified military technical and tactical qualities. Here I have to mention their division commander Kenzo Kitano, who played late during the war of aggression against China, but had a good performance. This old fellow, who had been in charge of education at the military academy for a long time, not only had an excellent tactical level and command ability, but what was even more rare was that it was probably because he had been teaching for a long time and was well versed in the psychology of officers and soldiers at the grassroots level, that he was able to be deeply supported and supported by the entire Osaka division, and this was the key to his ability to reinvent the former "merchant division." Otherwise, with the skills of those veterans, it would be good if he could not be led bad by his subordinates

And it is worth mentioning that although the 4th Division was not the first to be rebuilt in the sequence of the new Japanese Army, perhaps because the concept was not the same as most of the divisions of the old Japanese Army, they returned to China and had a great advantage in the competition to enter the Marine Corps, so when the 4th Division was rebuilt later, more than eighty percent of the officers and soldiers were directly transferred from the Marine Corps, unlike other divisions, most of the grassroots officers and soldiers had retired for a period of time after the Sino-Japanese armistice. Naturally, military quality will inevitably be abandoned, and this will further widen the gap between the Fourth Division and other divisions.

Although the other divisions were not as impressive as the Osaka Division in the Philippine Campaign, they also completed their respective tasks well with strong naval and air support, while the total number of US-Philippine forces was not less than that of the Japanese army. However, the real US military is only in the early 50,000s, and the combat effectiveness of the 100,000 Philippine troops can basically be ignored. Moreover, the grassroots officers and soldiers of the 50,000 US troops are either defeated soldiers who were frightened by the Chinese army on the battlefield in India and have not fully adjusted at this time, or they are rookies who have never been on the battlefield, how can they be able to defeat the wolf-like devils? In particular, the US military is accustomed to fighting with the help of air supremacy and superior firepower, and the basic tactical style of play is also formulated around it, but in the Philippine campaign, they fell behind on both sides, and it is strange not to lose.

Due to the lack of strength of the Japanese Army at this time, it could only concentrate superior forces to solve the core of the Philippines Luzon Island first, and as a result, it avoided the mistake of premature division of troops in history, and due to the lack of transport ships in the navy. In fact, the number of troops invested in the early days of the war was not comparable to that of this plane. Coupled with the fact that the level of weapons and equipment is not of the same grade at all, the strength of the Japanese troops participating in the early stage of the Philippine Campaign in this time and space is much stronger than in history.

By the end of January 1942, more than 100,000 remnants of the United States and the Philippines had surrendered to the Japanese on Luzon, and their commander MacArthur had already fled to Australia by submarine. Also choosing to withdraw to Australia were dozens of US warships and 20 or 30 planes that were unable to recover. Previously, because of the European theater and the need to promote the armistice between China and Britain. The capital ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet have all withdrawn eastward, and there are quite a few light ships alone. However, with few land-based aircraft available, it was simply impossible to compete with the combined Japanese-German fleet with four capital ships, and it was perhaps wise to choose a temporary retreat, but some submarines remained, and caused a lot of trouble for the Japanese fleet and sea transportation lines

Although he left his subordinates and fled, MacArthur, who has always been good at self-hype, easily portrayed himself as a hero with the phrase "I will come back", and because of his deep background, the US government not only did not hold MacArthur responsible, but issued an order in advance to require MacArthur and his family to evacuate the Philippines, making MacArthur's escape justified, and at the same time further enhancing his authority, and even placing a considerable number of naval ships under his unified command. The reason is simple, perhaps the United States has better generals than MacArthur, but for a general, whether the prestige and qualifications are enough to suppress the generals below has always been a more important criterion

At this time, the main force of the Japanese Combined Fleet led by Yamaguchi Tabun had already returned to Hawaii from Panama and successively captured several other islands in the Hawaiian archipelago with airfields, among which Midway, which had a large airfield and was extremely geographically important, naturally became the focus of the Japanese fleet's attack. Although the U.S. forces on the island put up stubborn resistance, the current Japanese fleet was so strong that Midway eventually fell into Japanese hands. It is worth mentioning, however, that because of the deployment of a lot of antiaircraft guns on the island, and due to the disparity in numbers, the pilots of the US fighter planes did not habitually rush out to fight to the death with the enemy, but rarely chose the strategy of relying on ground anti-aircraft fire to maneuver with the enemy's huge aircraft group, but on the contrary, they achieved good results; although because of the disparity in strength, the number of planes shot down by the US military was still more than that of the Japanese side, but compared with the previous air battles, the exchange was much better

The considerable loss of carrier-based aircraft caused a dull pain in Yamaguchi's heart, but if he wanted to hold the Hawaiian Islands for a long time, thus blocking the US Navy from the periphery, and buying enough time for the Japanese army to sweep through the South Seas and even Australia, Midway had to be occupied, even if it was necessary to lose some experienced carrier-based pilots. In the process of military exchanges, he noticed that although the training method of Chinese pilots is a bit "catching ducks on the shelf", the basic skills of pilots are often not very solid, but because they are well combined with actual combat, so if measured by actual combat requirements, the speed at which they train pilots is surprisingly fast, which is also a lack of amateur pilot reserves for Japan, in fact, long before the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, Yamaguchi had already written to the emperor that he wanted to promote such training methods in the country's aviation schools

After taking control of all the airfields in the Hawaiian Islands, the main force of the Japanese Combined Fleet began to return home, and although it had been some time since they left Japan, Yamaguchi and his men did not "return to their hearts" because they had to fight at least one more battle on the way back.

Although Hawaii has fallen into the hands of Japan, and the massive supplies captured are enough for the fleet and the Marine Corps to use for a long time, but after all, it is a little less to rely on capture, and it is too wasteful to let the fully mechanized ace unit of the 1st Brigade of Xizhu stay to defend the island, so in any case, the sea transportation line between Japan and the Hawaiian Islands must be opened as soon as possible, and at least one island must be taken, that is, Wake Island (to be continued...... which the fleet had bypassed)