Chapter 94 bloodiest battle

O'Dell's team needed to clear two Japanese beachhead outposts.Without knowing the exact location of the outpost, rashly launching an attack across the open beach is tantamount to committing suicide. If you want to lure the Japanese army to reveal its location, the other party will not be fooled.No way, O'Dell had to take a risk. Holding a bayonet in one hand and a grenade in the other, he half-runned and half-crawled to get close to the first Japanese outpost. To O'Dell's luck and surprise, no one shot at him on the way.Could it be God's magical blessing that turned him into an invisible person that would not be discovered by the enemy?

Looking into the outpost, O'Dell understood: the Japanese soldiers inside were either dead or injured, unable to move, but the U.S. military didn't know that. O'Dell couldn't help but heaved a sigh of relief. At this moment, a wounded Japanese soldier who was lying on the ground suddenly struggled to get up and smashed at him with a shovel. O'Dell was carrying an M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle, which was the mainstream standard weapon of the U.S. infantry at that time. It didn't need to be bolted and reloaded like the Springfield rifle, and it could be directly buckled and fired.O'Dell didn't expect that the wounded Japanese soldiers would attack him again, and hastily pulled the trigger continuously, killing the frenzied guy to death.

The gunfire alerted another Japanese outpost nearby, and the squad could no longer launch a surprise attack on it.Fortunately, they had completed their mission-reached the beach and could prevent the Japanese army from Buna village from reinforcing the beachhead post. Two soldiers of the 32nd Infantry Division were searching the hiding place of the Japanese army. The weapons they held in their hands were M1 Garand semi-automatic rifles.The Garand rifle is a standard rifle equipped by the U.S. Army during World War II. It can automatically load bullets and has a capacity of eight rounds. It can effectively suppress rifles that are manually loaded with bullets on the battlefield.In addition, it also has the advantages of high shooting accuracy and easy maintenance, so it quickly replaced the Springfield rifle.

In order to pull out the nails wedged into the defense line, at night, the Japanese army launched a surprise attack on O'Dell's unit, and about 50 Japanese troops rushed forward.There were only 10 people in the squad. Seeing so many ferocious Japanese soldiers, including O'Dell, they couldn't help but tremble. It was too late to block with rifles, so they fought back desperately with machine guns and grenades.While fighting, the Japanese army threw a grenade over and silenced the unit's machine guns, and three Japanese soldiers took advantage of the situation to rush into the outpost.

In a state of fear and excitement, the American soldiers picked up their bayonets and stabbed them. The Japanese soldiers who were so hungry that they had no strength were all stabbed to the ground.That night, the Japanese were never able to launch any sort of attack on O'Dell's detachment. The Botsk breakthrough was the key to the entire Buna battle. After the war, the beach where the Botsk unit was defended was called "Botsk Point".Taking "Botsk Point" as a breakthrough, the US military surrounded the village of Buna. The Japanese army in Buna Village was cut off from retreat, and there was a serious shortage of food. During the remaining time, an average of about 20 people died of illness and starvation every day. Even many junior officers suffered from malaria and other jungle diseases.Despite this, the Japanese army still defended Buna, and the U.S. military still couldn't take Buna no matter how much it paid. Among them, Company F was directly filled to the second battalion's defense line because there were too few soldiers left.

Breme said to MacArthur that the Australian army "knows how to fight", he has confidence, because he has witnessed how his soldiers are fighting.After the Australian 22 Brigade replaced the Australian 25 Brigade, it encountered desperate resistance from the Japanese army. In the foul-smelling swamp around Gona, the two sides fought hand-to-hand.An Australian soldier who experienced hand-to-hand combat said it was "the most brutal, craziest and bloodiest battle" he had ever seen. The Australian army threw the grenade first, and the grenade exploded in the middle of the Japanese army.Taking advantage of the chaos, the soldiers brandished their bayonets and stabbed them violently. Those who were stabbed fell to the ground screaming and splashing blood.During the hand-to-hand combat, many people lost their guns, so they hugged each other and fought unarmed on the sand dunes.

Knife fights are different from gun fights and tend to end within minutes.Just now, there were screams of killing, and in a blink of an eye, there were only corpses left in disorder. Here, killing a person is like picking a louse, and it is more convenient and quicker than killing chickens and pigs. In the brutal hand-to-hand combat, the Australian army commanded by Wach captured foxholes and bunkers one after another from the Japanese.The encirclement became smaller and smaller. In order to strengthen the bunker, the Japanese soldiers also used the corpses of their companions as building materials and piled them outside the fortifications.In the high-humidity environment, it didn't take long for the corpse to emit an unpleasant odor. Many Japanese soldiers wore gas masks to resist the stench.An Australian army reporter wrote: "The long-decomposed corpses form part of the fortifications, and the smell of rotting flesh is everywhere."

After five days, the Australian 21st Brigade lost 430 people, and the Japanese army only had more than 100 people left, but there was still no sign of surrender.Almost every Australian soldier knows that the opponent in front of him cannot use common sense to judge, "those bastards fight until their last breath, they fight until your bayonet penetrates their chest". On December 8, the Australian army still failed to attack Gona, and even Wachi lost confidence. He was going to shift the focus of his attack to Sanananda between Gona and Buna.Just this morning, the artillery reinforcements arrived, and Wach regained his courage and commanded the artillery to bombard the Japanese positions.

Mortar shells were loaded with timed detonators, and after several rounds of bombardment, the underground bunker of the Gona Church was blown open.For the Australian army, this is a breakthrough like "Botsk Point". Along this breakthrough, there have been countless hand-to-hand battles. Sporadic fighting continued until the evening of the 9th, and the Australian army finally occupied Gona. The Japanese army in Gona was wiped out, 16 Japanese soldiers were captured, and the Australian army also lost 750 people.Vach sent a telegram to MacArthur: "Gona has been occupied!"