Chapter 617: Choice (4)

Nimitz weighed the pros and cons again and again, and finally decided to fight the Combined Fleet, because the Japanese harassment of Australia and New Zealand was too serious, which had overwhelmed the impact of the Battle of Tarawa. If the Pacific Fleet had been avoiding fighting, there would be no need to fight in the future.

He understood Admiral King's hint the other way around: if the Battle of the Azores was won, it would not matter whether the Pacific Fleet won or lost; if the Battle of the Azores was lost, the Pacific Fleet would have to fight a battle - if it didn't fight, and the Azores was lost again, I'm afraid the Pacific Fleet would completely become a fleet of existence in the future.

As for the possibility that Australia and New Zealand would fall if they lost the naval battle, he didn't believe it. The hundreds of thousands of Australian and New Zealand officers and soldiers and the US Army had no way to deal with the Japanese Navy, so could they not deal with the Japanese Army?

Although the success or failure of the Azores did not restrict him, he was concerned about the situation. Taking advantage of the opportunity to rest in Pearl Harbor, he took the initiative to summarize the experience of the Battle of Tarawa and send back some officers who participated in the actual combat (including Holland and Devin) to the country without waiting for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Admiral King to speak. They passed on the experience and lessons to the country, which was highly praised by all parties.

On the second day after arriving in Washington, Holland described the experience and lessons of the Battle of Tarawa to senior British and American officers preparing to participate in Operation Overlord:

"Amphibious landings must be carefully planned in advance: reconnaissance must be carried out in detail and efforts must be made to survey the enemy's firepower points; naval gunfire and air strikes must be sufficient, accurate, and well coordinated, and there must be no disconnection between the front and the back; sufficient number and quality of amphibious vehicles and amphibious landing tanks must be equipped; a tide table must be drawn up as accurately as possible, and troops must be dispatched and arranged according to the time of high and low tide as much as possible. The distance of a soldier landing from the beach is one yard, and the possibility of his sacrifice increases by one point.

There must be a complete set of equipment and tactics to deal with semi-underground bunkers; logistics support is very important, the consumption rate of ammunition and supplies will be far beyond imagination, and communications and communication equipment are critical; the troops must be sufficient, and if battlefield conditions are met, there must be a 3:1 or even 5:1 troop advantage; the commander's orders must be decisive and able to adapt to changes, and if they are wrong, they must be corrected. Carry it through to the end - for example, if the landing location is wrong, it is much wiser for two troops to attack together at the same time than to change the direction of landing; soldiers must have courage and high training level... All of the above directly affect the outcome of the battle. "

Holland concluded: "The best way is to choose a place for combat readiness training, simulate the enemy situation detected, the worst situation we can imagine and the terrain on the scene, and then let the troops experience it in actual combat, especially to educate our officers and soldiers to learn to fight without air superiority, fight in the dark, and fight under fire suppression..."

The crowd below whispered, and Holland's last words were almost the three things not to fight in normal times, and everyone couldn't help but feel a little nervous...

"Excuse me, how do you think airborne troops should be used reasonably in the island-grabbing battle? It seems that the German army used it very poorly on Crete." The one who stood up to ask the question was Brigadier General Matthew Bunker Ridgway, commander of the 82nd Infantry Division.

"Frankly speaking, I think the airborne division should not appear in Operation Overlord." Holland pondered for a moment and said slowly, "It's not that I underestimate the combat effectiveness of the 82nd Infantry Division. Generally speaking, the airborne division is more combat-effective than ordinary army units, but the Azores Islands are very small. If the wind blows a little stronger during landing, it may fall into the sea. As for air landing, I think it is difficult for us to control the German airport."

"My 3rd Armored Division has been identified as one of the first landing forces. The key question is how to transport those damn heavy equipment up?" The second questioner was Major General Walton Walker, commander of the 4th Armored Army.

"The Germans used amphibious tanks, mostly Type 4. I heard there were also Tigers, but I haven't seen them." Daven explained, "The tanks and armored vehicles first got off the LST landing craft, then crawled over the shallows and went ashore. This process would be very dangerous because the speed was much slower than usual... As for artillery, especially medium and large caliber howitzers, I don't think you can count on them within three days. At most, you can use some mortars."

"Who will help suppress the enemy with firepower?"

"Rely on the long-range artillery fire of battleships and the nearby suppression of beached warships, and then rely on the artillery cover of small warships such as destroyers and frigates. Maybe if you are lucky, you can get aircraft cover."

"What is better luck? Meaning?"

"When the two sides are in a crisscross situation, air firepower is useless. The slightest deviation will fall on our own people. This time when we went to attack Tarawa, at least two companies of soldiers died under our own bombs and shells." Holland showed a very sad expression, "Bomber pilots, especially dive bomber pilots, lack experience, and close support will be very bad..."

All the participants shook their heads. They were all veterans who had served in the army for many years. The long-range firing of battleship guns was indeed powerful, but it was difficult to use them on a large scale as soon as they landed; and the 5-6 inch tubes on destroyers and frigates were not as fierce as the enemy's firepower-it was said that the German army had built a large number of permanent firepower points on the island using modified naval guns.

Now everyone finally understood the true meaning of "fighting with suppressed firepower" what Holland just said. Major General Alan Aldair, who led the British Guards Armored Division, frowned. As the only remaining member of the British Empire, , an armored force commander with sufficient combat effectiveness, he was under a lot of pressure. Although Prime Minister Churchill was full of expectations and encouragement for him, Marshal Brooke secretly talked to him before departure and asked him to pay attention to preserving his strength and not to waste all his essence. All were buried on the Azores.

Holland described many difficulties, and these people listened, but most of them still held a cautiously optimistic attitude towards the prospects of the battle-couldn't Tarawa be won no matter how difficult it was to win? Azores is such an important place that everyone generally believes that even if the cost is higher, if it can be won, it will be a victory!

While they were commenting on the Battle of Tarawa, some people insisted that the Battle of Tarawa was not actually over.

"Sir, all kinds of supplies have arrived at the warning line." Caolu Renyi said slightly worriedly, "75% of the oil carried by each tanker has been used, and the surplus oil on the merchant ships and oil tankers intercepted midway has also been used. At present, the internal fuel of each ship is basically full. According to the current consumption rate, the destroyer will run out of fuel in about 5 days, and the light cruiser will run out of fuel in about 7 days. Although they can all draw fuel from heavy cruisers and battleships, there is still uncertainty.

In terms of ammunition, the remaining ammunition for the guns of each main ship is about one-third to half. The cumulative loss of aircraft is 127, and 39 pilots have been killed or missing. After the selection and deployment of spare aircraft and reserve pilots, the fleet's full manpower rate is 94%. "

Horikichi nodded: "Where are Tsunoda's troops?"

"It is expected to rendezvous with us within 10 days. According to your request, he brought 2 oil tankers from Borneo with a total of 15,000 tons of heavy oil on board. The addition of these fuels will probably be enough to support us until we return to the mainland." One said, "But there has been no response from Tarawa for nearly 20 days. Should the fleet insist on going there? Or just send a destroyer to take a look?"

"There are still oil reserves at Truk Anchorage, don't worry. I promised them that we must go, and besides, we are already late." Horikichi sighed, "The enemy has powerful characters. The fleet is harassing Australia and New Zealand like this. He Just don’t take the bait.”

Kondo Nobutake laughed: "The enemy was frightened by your sweeping posture and Tsukahara-kun's tactics of suspicion."

The Australian and New Zealand Air Force repeatedly reported that the Japanese fleet had 5-6 aircraft carriers. This was very consistent with the situation Nimitz knew before the war. In addition, Army aircraft were attacked by a large number of carrier-based aircraft. Therefore, he was undoubtedly wrong. In fact, the United There are only three aircraft carriers in the fleet that can really fight: two large and one small. The other three are all supplementary aircraft carriers and auxiliary aircraft carriers. The aircraft on them are all real, but they cannot take off and land for combat. They are just supplements to the combat aircraft carriers—— This is also the secret why the Japanese aviation forces maintain a high dispatch rate and integrity rate.

In order to increase the winning rate and avoid the aggressiveness of the combined fleet, Nimitz decided to wait for the arrival of new reinforcement aircraft carriers.

"Go north to Tarawa and see if there are any survivors..."

On August 19, the main force of the combined fleet passed through the waters between Tonga and the Cook Islands and headed north. On the same day, Nimitz, who had completed his rest and received support from the mainland, also led the fleet to set off again.

At this point, this battle known as the "Australia and New Zealand Harassment War" finally came to an end. In this cold winter (it happened to be winter in the southern hemisphere), Australia and New Zealand actually tasted the bitter consequences: the aviation forces of the two countries, together with the US military, Including the Army Airlines, a total of more than 700 aircraft were lost. Except for those veterans who insisted on flying the damaged aircraft back and a very few lucky ones, the rest of the pilots either froze to death in the sea or became prisoners of the Japanese army.

Except for a few larger capital ships of the Australian and New Zealand navies that participated in the Battle of Tarawa with the Pacific Fleet and escaped unscathed, the rest of the navies that were sheltering in ports or performing escort missions were almost completely destroyed, with a total loss of nearly 150,000 tons. In addition to warships, the merchant fleet also suffered heavy losses. The entire Australia-New Zealand route was cut off by the combined fleet. The Allied forces lost (sinked or captured) more than 300,000 tons of merchant ships at sea and in ports.

What's even more terrible is the damage caused by Japanese bombing and shelling to the coastal areas of Australia and New Zealand. The overall estimated loss is more than 5 billion US dollars. The two countries were forced to relocate and evacuate more than 2 million people. What is even more tragic is New Zealand. Due to its small land area, major cities such as Wellington, Auckland, and Christchurch are all located along the coast, and they were all taken over by the United Fleet. Even if the two governments evacuated and relocated the population in time, they still lost tens of thousands of people outside the army, and there were also production halts and chaos.