Chapter 31 smear

On U.S. military maps, the alternate name given to Tarawa Atoll is "Helen". This is a very romantic name, but it means nothing to the marines. During the boring sailing process, they can only pass the time by basking in the sun, playing poker, sharpening bayonets or writing home letters. The commander told the Marines: "Before we land, we're going to give it a hard bang with naval fire and dive bombers. We're going to bombard this place with heavy fire until it's in ruins." This statement is really true.In the three days before the Second Marine Division arrived at Tarawa Atoll, some ships of the 58th Task Force approached Tarawa Atoll in batches and carried out planned bombardment and air strikes on the Japanese positions on the island. .The Navy assured the officers of the Marine Corps: "Our intention is not to suppress the island, nor do we want to destroy it, we are just 'smearing' it off!"

The Second Marine Division had seen the power of naval guns when they were in Guadalcanal, so they were all overjoyed when they heard it.In terms of area, Tarawa Atoll is far less than Guadalcanal Island and Bougainville Island. Some people even exaggerate that Tarawa Atoll may not be as big as Central Park in New York.Think about it, the naval artillery firepower of the navy this time is stronger and more than that of Guadalcanal Island. The Japanese army is crowded in such a small place, how can they bear it? The only concern for the Marine Corps now is not to blow up Tarawa Atoll too much, and then there will be no place to land.One marine expressed a sense of loss: "It's hard to imagine what's left after so many bombs have fallen on this small island." The others were bragging to each other, and this one said, "I want to thank Spit on the face of the corpse of the Japanese devil." The other said: "This is not fun, it's better to open his mouth and let him swallow..."

At 4:00 am on November 20, the transport fleet arrived at the scheduled landing point - Betio Island.This narrow island, only two miles long, is the only fortified island in Tarawa Atoll. As soon as the sky showed signs of dawn, the fleet began to launch the boats.The landing craft carried on the transport ship were put into the sea, and the marines climbed off the net hanging on the side of the ship one after another, and jumped into the landing craft one by one. At this time, many water columns suddenly rose on the sea, and the military reporter of "Time" saw a shell explode next to the landing craft, and he couldn't help shouting: "My God, it's too far, those boys still need to practice. "

He dared to think that the shells were fired by the US military.A Marine Corps officer next to him reminded him: "Do you think it was fired by our artillery?" It turned out that the Japanese army fired on the island.During the Battle of Singapore, the Japanese army seized a batch of eight-inch large-caliber coastal defense guns from the British army and installed them on Betio Island. These giant guns sounded like thunder when they bombarded, although none of them hit the ships directly. , but the fragments of the shells flying horizontally still caused many casualties to the crew on board.

Obviously, the Japanese army on Betio Island was not "smeared". Everyone was dumbfounded and couldn't believe it.Under the threat of artillery fire, the transport ship had to temporarily withdraw out of its shooting range, and the landing craft that had been put on the sea but was still hanging beside the ship were also dragged out together. Same as swimming. The U.S. support fleet immediately responded.Three old battleships and five cruisers sailed to the shore one after another, shooting destructively at Betio Island.According to the different locations, the firing distance of the naval guns is also different. The farthest is 14,000 meters, and the closest is 1,800 meters. All the shells flew towards the Japanese artillery positions and shelters.

Then, the support ships turned to the front of the planned landing area, and fired on the beachhead, driving the Japanese troops out of the beachhead position, and at the same time dealt a mental blow to the enemy. The shelling lasted two and a half hours that day, and nearly 3,000 tons of shells were poured onto Betio Island.Amidst the sound of rumbling guns, the gunpowder smoke completely enveloped the hull, only the fire from the muzzle was shining, and Betio Island became a sea of ​​flames, with huge columns of smoke and billowing dust shooting straight into the sky. Before the war, the U.S. military did more detailed aerial reconnaissance, and determined the location of most of the cannons and some defensive facilities.These prominent targets were not missed in the fire attack: the 16-inch guns of the battleships quickly silenced the "eight-inch" battery on the island, the Japanese wooden barracks were burned, and an arsenal was blown up.

Five minutes before the official landing, the carrier-based aircraft fired violently at the beach again, while the support ships shifted their firepower in depth, paving the way for the marines to advance as much as possible. In order to implement this landing operation, the US military took many aerial reconnaissance photos.From the photos, Betio Island looks like a perched seabird.The "feet" of this "perching bird" is a four-meter-high breakwater, which is an extremely strong barrier built by the Japanese army on the beach with coconut tree logs along the waterline when the sea is at high tide. destroy it.

The main position of the Japanese army was behind the breakwater, which could not only bombard the embankment, but also shoot at the troops entering the beach through the perforations on the embankment. If only based on the photos, it is impossible to see where the defense weakness of Betio Island is. The island has been completely fortified.The well-informed commanders can only find a relatively suitable landing site through comparison. In the end, they found that the important coastal defense equipment and the complex underwater obstacle network of the Japanese army are almost all on the "back" of the "roosting bird". The "lower abdomen" is relatively soft, in other words, it is easier to break through.

The so-called "lower abdomen" is the beach on the side of the lagoon on Betio Island. It is 1,400 meters long and is the only landing site identified by the US military. Of course, the landing craft is the first choice for the means of transportation for landing on the beach. However, the tide fluctuations near Betio Island are unknown. If the sea water is too shallow, the landing craft will not be able to pass.In this case, Holland Smith decided to use a tracked landing vehicle. The crawler landing vehicle is a new type of landing tool, which relies on crawlers and propellers to move forward. Its basic function is not to transport people, but to transport materials.It can directly transport materials from the ship to the inland through rocks, swamps and other dangerous terrains, without unloading at the beach.This is something that landing craft and general trucks cannot do.From a functional point of view, the crawler landing vehicle is more like an amphibious tank that can float on the sea and is easy to reach the shore.

What used to transport materials is now used to transport people, but because it is purely a subsidy means of transport, the troops are not equipped with many.The Second Marine Division had only one crawler landing vehicle battalion, with 75 vehicles. After redeployment, only 125 vehicles were concentrated before the attack began.A car can accommodate up to 20 people. With such a small number of cars, it is absolutely impossible to transport a marine division to the coast. The solution is to use tracked landing vehicles for the first three attack waves, and the follow-up troops will use ordinary landing craft to transport them.