Chapter 30 fish not hooked

The operation plan for the westward advance to the Gilbert Islands was named "Operation Recovery" and was originally scheduled to be implemented on November 19. Due to the return of the Sherman and Montgomery aircraft carrier groups seconded by Halsey, the launch date of the general offensive was postponed. one day. At dawn on November 20, the ocean recovered, and the Fifth Fleet was dispatched. All participating troops headed for the goal of the Gilbert Islands. Operations during the Gilbert phase were otherwise known as Operation Electroshock.As the first target of "Operation Electric Shock", Makin Atoll is no stranger to the US military. During the Battle of Guadalcanal, the "US version of the Eighth Route Army" Carlson Assault Battalion fought a beautiful surprise battle here.The main island of Makin Atoll and the location of the Japanese army headquarters is Butaritari Island. Once taken here, it is tantamount to controlling the entire atoll.

The total number of Japanese troops on Butaritari Island is less than 800, of which there are only 284 marines, and the rest are all ground crews, Japanese engineers and Korean laborers. The defense capability is not strong, which is why Spruance gave priority to it One of the reasons for being an offensive target.At the same time, Butaritari Island is close to the Marshall Islands, the distance between the two is only 190 nautical miles, and it is easy to be attacked by the Marshall Japanese army.Therefore, Spruance demanded that it be captured within a day so that the supporting fleet could withdraw quickly.

Major General Holland Smith, commander of the Fifth Amphibious Corps, personally commanded the Battle of Butaritari.The shape of this small island is like a hammer. The main fortified area of ​​the Japanese army is about one-third of the "hammer handle". "Draw it out.After that, the U.S. military made a second landing at the "hammer handle" to cut off the Japanese army. The hook was well designed, but the fish didn't take the bait.It wasn't that there wasn't enough bait, or that the fish weren't hungry, but that the Japanese army had too few troops, and they basically stayed in their original positions. This made Holland Smith waste a lot of effort.Fortunately, the air and sea support of the escort fleet was very strong, so that the troops did not encounter too much difficulty when they landed.

It is precisely the landing force that is not strong.The 27th Infantry Division, which came from Pearl Harbor, has long served as a security mission for Hawaii and has never officially participated in combat before. This is their first actual combat.Due to being stationed overseas for a long time, many soldiers of the division are very homesick, which is reflected on the battlefield as timidity and lack of proper heroic spirit.After the troops went ashore, they were only blocked by a few snipers or one or two machine guns, and they couldn't move for several hours.Especially at night, it is very easy to get nervous. Occasionally, a group of people will be nervous, shoot randomly, and sometimes even give up the position altogether.Turner, who was in charge of transporting the landing force, later reported to Nimitz: "Frankly speaking, they (27th Infantry Division) were trembling before they started fighting, and they were shaking with fear."

Holland Smith was also very annoyed. He was rich in amphibious combat experience and knew that this style of play would not work, but he couldn't immediately turn a weak soldier into a strong soldier in a short period of time, so he could only bite the bullet and continue to command. According to the original plan, it was absolutely impossible to clear it in one day. It took two days to drive the Japanese army out of the main position, and another two days to push them to the end of the "hammer handle". In the Battle of Butaritari, the ratio of U.S. and Japanese forces was 23:1, but it took the overwhelmingly superior U.S. Army four days to occupy Butaritari Island. The Japanese army, except for one marine, and 104 engineers and laborers, was captured. Except for the prisoners, the rest were all wiped out.The 27th Infantry Division also killed 64 people and injured 152 people. This casualty rate is relatively high.

The time-consuming landing battle prevented the support fleet from retreating in time as originally planned. As a result, a Japanese submarine took the opportunity to sail into the Majin Sea and hit the escort aircraft carrier "Riscombe Bay" with a torpedo.The aircraft carrier exploded, and nearly 650 of the more than 900 crew members were killed, far exceeding the loss of the landing force. The poor performance of the 27th Infantry Division made Holland Smith completely lose confidence in the Army's amphibious combat capability. In fact, what he most wanted to command was the Marine Corps.

We all know that the Marine Corps is stronger, and Spruance will use the Second Marine Division transferred back from New Zealand to chew on the real hard bone-Tarawa Atoll.Tarawa, which is larger than Makin, is the largest of the 16 coral islands in the Gilbert Islands and is also the focus of the Japanese defense. All the troops of the Second Marine Division participated in the Battle of Guadalcanal at different stages. After the Battle of Guadalcanal was over, they rested and trained in New Zealand for 7 months.It was a sweet time. New Zealanders loved this group of warriors who had escaped from the hell of the jungle. Many people got married in New Zealand, and many more were planning to get married. As a result, almost everyone was reluctant to leave New Zealand.

I don't know where I'm going when I set off, everything is in a state of high secrecy, and only a few officers have the secrets of the operation. After 72 hours at sea, the commander announced the target of the attack: "From today, at 8:30 on the sixth day, we will attack Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. We will attack from a small atoll at the end. landed on the island, which the natives called Betio Island." Whether it is Tarawa Atoll or Betio Island, for ordinary marines, they are all illusory place names. They have never heard of them, and they can't even figure out how to pronounce them.At that time, for the sake of confidentiality, the letters generally did not directly mention the military camp.In order to let his lover in the United States know where to go next, a soldier came up with a clever code, such as "my dearest violet" means that he will go to Truk, "my beloved violet" means to go to Rabaul, but he really didn't know how to describe Tarawa Atoll, so he had to use "precious" to describe it, meaning he was still at sea.