Chapter 6 Chill

After the landing craft was lowered to the surface, the Marines lined up and scrambled down the rough hemp rope netting like ants.This kind of climbing is not fun, often you step on my fingers, I step on your fingers, almost everyone's fingers are bruised. The end of the hemp rope net was nearly one meter away from the deck of the landing craft. The landing craft did not stop motionless on the sea surface, but swayed left and right with the waves, bumping constantly, approaching the hull for a while, and being caught by the ship for a while. Far away.To get on the landing craft, you must fly and jump in the air, under the premise of carrying 20 kilograms!

A reporter accompanying the army wrote: "Everyone seems to be ready to jump when the gunshots are fired, but there is no excitement." Seriously, who cares about making emojis? Much to Vandergrift's relief, though, the old adage he used to cheer himself up during the voyage actually came true—while the maneuvers were chaotic, the actual landing was orderly.Before 8 o'clock in the morning, the steps to enter the landing craft were basically over. Landing craft full of soldiers left the mothership and joined the fan-shaped attack formation. They circled past like lobsters playing in the water.The officer yelled, "Everybody bow down!" The soldiers responded by crouching, trying to keep their heads from the side of the ship.

The attack begins.Marine Leckie felt the ship under his feet turn slightly, and the moment the bow of the ship rushed towards the shore, the deck vibrated particularly violently due to the drive of the motor.He began to pray silently, and concluded that he would die in battle. The landing craft slammed into the shore, and Lecky, whose body was already tense, stood up as fast as he could, then jumped off the boat, waded through the warm sea water, and rushed towards the beach. What Lecky was about to engage in was a bloody fight, but when he was lying on the beach, there was not a single Japanese soldier around, but the blue sky above his head and the gently shaking palm leaves were particularly eye-catching.

The thing is so strange. During the whole landing process, the injuries encountered by the marines did not come from the Japanese army, but from corals that easily scratched the skin. At 8:15, the "Y-ray troops" landed on the blue beach of Tulagi Island.The commander issued a signal: "The landing was successful, and no counterattack was encountered." An hour later, the "X-ray troops" launched an attack on the Red Beach of Guadalcanal, and no gunshots were heard, as if this was an uninhabited island. Vandergrift has been observing the battle situation from the flagship, and the smooth landing process has greatly exceeded his expectations.He breathed a long sigh of relief, and said to the staff around him: "We succeeded. God bless us, the 1st Marine Division must have encountered good luck."

With the spread of this sentence, the saying "good luck for the first marine division" spread like wildfire.If it's not a war, everyone can't wait for this marine division to help them buy lottery tickets. In fact, the good luck of the First Marine Division was closely related to the slow response of the Japanese army, and the reason for the slowness was that they felt too good about themselves.The fiasco at Midway Island did pour cold water on the Japanese navy, but it did not make them lose confidence in their prospects.In terms of overall strength at the time, Japan’s combined fleet was still twice the size of the US Pacific Fleet. Many people therefore held an optimistic attitude: in this world, who will be free from illness and disaster, and who will not suffer from eight diseases and nine pains? ?As long as they regroup and have another decisive battle, they will definitely be able to make a comeback!

The so-called living in peace and tranquility once, forgetting the time when we were in exile.Senior generals including Nagano Shoshin and Yamamoto Fifty-Six confidently believed that the US Pacific Fleet had also suffered a lot of damage at Midway Island, and it was expected that there would be no more large-scale military operations before 1943. However, the Japanese military intelligence department has improved.For being deaf and dumb during the Battle of Midway, the intelligence community was naturally criticized.After being criticized, the intelligence personnel became extremely vigilant, staring at every corner of the Pacific battlefield like black-eyed chickens all day long, lest they miss any trouble.

Just before the landing on Guadalcanal, Japanese intelligence intercepted more and more Allied signals from the South Pacific.From this, they judged that the Allied forces were about to launch an offensive in the Solomon Islands, so they immediately issued an alarm to the Eighth Fleet Command stationed in Rabaul. After the Battle of Midway, the combined Japanese fleet underwent a major reorganization.In order to strengthen operations on the southern front, the Eighth Fleet was specially organized, and Lieutenant General Yi of the Sanchuan Army served as the commander of the fleet.After receiving the alarm, Mikawa’s attitude was exactly the same as that of Nagano, Yamamoto and others: These intelligence people have such stinky virtues. They didn’t say anything before, but now they talk nonsense. How could the Allied forces launch an attack now?

Until the Japanese radio operator on Tulagi Island sent a warning telegram, informing that "a large group of ships of unknown number and type have entered the strait", Sanchuan still only treated it as an ordinary attack——Lao Mei was idle at home and ran out It's just a bluff, and there's no need for everyone to sound like a brat. Although he didn't take it seriously, Mikawa sent two long-range search planes to reconnaissance.Not long after the search plane flew out, Sanchuan received another urgent telegram from Guadalcanal: "Guadalcanal was attacked by the US landing force, and our troops are now retreating into the jungle!"

Sanchuan woke up like a dream, and only then did he feel the chills, and he hurriedly reported to Tokyo. The Japanese base camp couldn’t calm down any longer. The occupation of Guadalcanal Island was originally a unilateral action by the Japanese navy. Yamamoto hadn’t greeted the army in advance. Lu Xiang Tojo Hideki was very annoyed. At the urgently held joint meeting of the navy and the army, Tojo was emotional, shook his face, and said harsh words, and raged at the navy on the spot: "You only care about taking credit, and you are doing stupid things that don't look forward to the future. Let me ask you, Why didn’t you tell the Army when you occupied Guadalcanal? If the Army sends troops to the island, will the U.S. military take advantage of it?”

There is a reason for Tojo's temper. The words are green and white, and there is nothing wrong with the navy.Yong Ye Xiu who attended the meeting was speechless, so he had to bow his head and admit his mistake. Although the base camp has paid great attention, most people's thinking still does not deviate from the established framework, and only regards the landing of the US military as a small-scale attack launched by the other party.Based on this deduction, the future is nothing more than a battle for islands at best. As long as the Japanese navy and army attack together, it should be effortless to regain the two islands.

Tojo made a summary for this: "The battle of Midway Island has already caused the imperial army to suffer a blow. This time, Guadalcanal Island must not be the beginning of the decline of the imperial army. The enemy's attack must be stopped." At this moment, someone told Tojo that the incident had alarmed the Emperor, who was planning to drive back to the palace.