Chapter 19 Formidable young

MacArthur's feigned attack on Salamoah was the Mingxiu Plank Road, and the Ninth Division of the Australian Army was used to cover Chencang. On September 4, under the cover of dense fog, the 9th Australian Division took a landing craft and landed on the beach 20 miles east of Lae. The Ninth Australian Division is also an elite force brought back from the North African battlefield. It fought against the elite German army in the desert.In the afternoon of the same day, they successfully broke through the Japanese beachhead and reached the Lae Fortress. More beautiful ones are yet to come.Under the command of MacArthur, the first large-scale airborne operation on the Pacific battlefield is about to begin.

The airborne combat mission is the 503rd Airborne Regiment, which has just arrived in Australia from the United States.This force is almost entirely composed of recruits, and it is the first time to participate in actual combat. In order to boost morale, MacArthur inspected them at Port Moor Airport.During the inspection process, he found that the soldiers had the anxiety of being on the battlefield for the first time. On the way back, he made an impromptu decision to fly to the sky with the recruits and command the battle in the air. When he proposed this idea to his staff, almost none of them agreed.Kenny tried his best to stop it. He said to MacArthur: "Japanese pilots who only get a monthly salary of five dollars will wear a hole in your body."

MacArthur ignored it. All he worried about was whether he would get airsick and "lose face in front of the boys."Seeing that his immediate boss insisted on going, Kenny had no choice but to make arrangements immediately and personally escort the plane. At dawn on September 5, when the last cloud and mist gradually dissipated over the airport west of Lae, 302 US military aircraft formed a huge shadow, instantly covering the airstrip. As soon as the attack time came, the leading bombers dived and strafed one after another.Under the cover of a large number of smoke bombs, 96 C-47 transport planes followed.Above the transport plane, MacArthur's special plane hovered high. The four-star general pressed his face tightly against the porthole of the plane, watching the airborne scene below.He saw streams of people pouring out of the transport plane, and umbrella flowers formed various patterns in the air.

On the real battlefield, the 503rd Airborne Regiment did not need MacArthur to embolden them.Immediately after the soldiers landed, they fired flamethrowers into the jungle, and red fire dragons passed through, "eating" all the tall and extremely irregular green plants. Everything went on like clockwork, and the first airborne operation of the US military was a complete success.Excited, MacArthur also forgot whether he was airsick or not, and walked briskly off the plane.An old man in his sixties who looks like a young man. In recognition of MacArthur's bravery in this airborne operation, the Secretary of the Air Force awarded him the Air Force Medal-very few Army generals can get this honor.

After the airborne troops took control of the airport, the Seventh Australian Division then landed at the airport, and joined forces with the Ninth Australian Division to attack the Japanese army in Lae City.It wasn't until this time that Imamura discovered MacArthur's true intentions. He quickly abandoned Salamoah and moved thousands of Japanese troops to Lae. He realized it too late. On September 9, the Allied forces completed the siege of Lae.Three days later, the two armies joined forces in Lai, and the 7,500 remnants had to flee to the mountains. The concept of "Operation Coin" is both meticulous and bold, fully reflecting MacArthur's profound military attainments, and is known as "one of the most beautiful military operations in World War II."The famous American military strategist and veteran of World War I, Pershing, praised in a fearsome tone: "It is not always possible for a commander to achieve the ideal of encircling the enemy and destroying the enemy, but MacArthur did it. With inferior forces, he fought in Milne Bay and Bismarck Sea Three victories in the battles of Lae, Lae and Salamoah."

MacArthur was well aware of the principle of striking while the iron was hot. He did not stop, took advantage of the chaos of the Japanese army's retreat, and launched the follow-up steps of "Operation Coin" in advance, capturing another major fortress in the Japanese defense structure, Finsch Harbor.At this point, most of New Guinea was in the hands of the U.S. Army, and the remnants of the Japanese army were also rendered powerless. The distance to Rabaul is getting closer. On October 12, Kenny dispatched 349 planes from the Fifth Air Force to launch the largest air attack on the Japanese army in Rabaul, shooting down 176 Japanese planes and sinking or damaging 119 Japanese ships.The air power of the Japanese army on this battlefield was completely paralyzed.

MacArthur referred to the air strike as "attacking like a cobra," and he issued an order to reward Kenny and the Southwest Theater Air Command.The next day, as soon as he saw Kenny, he happily patted the shoulder of this competent subordinate and said, "George, yesterday you stabbed the Japanese soldiers in Rabaul in the back and pulled out all their muscles and bones, right?" Facing such a huge victory, Kenny couldn't hide his complacency, and he immediately replied: "General, this may be the turning point of the Southwest Pacific battlefield!"