Chapter 47 Soldiers never tire of cheating

MacArthur is basically such a person, with a perverse personality, moody, and sometimes his intelligence may drop to the level of an idiot. Once his mind is calm, he has extraordinary wisdom and acumen that ordinary people do not possess. The final plan of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was determined, and MacArthur's hot head turned into a glass of ice water: "The Presbyterian Church" was a good person behind the scenes, and put me in the bottom of the tank. Now the Fifth Fleet is out of the question, even to get its support, it depends on Nimitz's face, and judging from the reality in the future, it is necessary for the Fifth Fleet to give a helping hand-no one With the cooperation of a powerful navy, MacArthur's troops could not cross the strait between New Guinea and the Philippines.

The world looks warm and cold, and people face each other.When he was in an awkward situation, MacArthur showed another set of skills that had been in the political arena for a long time. He sent an invitation to Nimitz by telegram, asking Nimitz to go to Brisbane as a guest. In the Pacific Fleet, except for Halsey and MacArthur, almost all naval officers did not like MacArthur, including Nimitz, but Nimitz placed a photo of MacArthur on his desk.The friend was puzzled, and Nimitz explained that he was just reminding himself not to scream when dealing with people. In public, Nimitz never said a bad word about MacArthur, and strictly prohibited his subordinates from criticizing MacArthur and his strategy. As long as MacArthur did not go too far, Nimitz would never take the initiative to launch any form of counterattack.

Seeing that MacArthur had lowered his posture since ancient times, Nimitz also put aside his old grievances and calmly accepted the other party's invitation.At any time, he maintained such a clear and rational mind. He knew that although he and MacArthur were very different in character and style, the common goal of defeating Japan was the same, and cooperation was the general direction. On March 25, Nimitz taxied to the pier in Brisbane by seaplane, and MacArthur and his staff waited to greet him in person.Such a high standard of reception is rarely seen in MacArthur, who has always been arrogant, and Nimitz was somewhat surprised.

It was the first contact between the two top commanders in the theater since the beginning of the Pacific War.Through this happy couple meeting, MacArthur got the candy as he wished—Nimitz promised that the 58th Task Force would provide active support in MacArthur's upcoming next combat operation. As soon as the passionate old Mai returned to his forward headquarters in New Guinea, he announced to his subordinates that he would also perform a long-distance jump: Isn’t Nimitz going to jump 1,000 nautical miles? In the sea, 40,000 Japanese soldiers were captured alive! The sea is different from the land, and the leap forward depends on the ships. MacArthur's army and air force are all controlled by top-ranking generals, but the navy has always been weak and weak.Admiral Carpender, the former naval commander of the Southwest Theater Command, was nicknamed "the carpenter on board".

Despite the rapid development of the situation, the timid Capender still did not dare to send the Seventh Fleet to the east coast of New Guinea, so that the amphibious assault there could not be fully supported.MacArthur was naturally very dissatisfied with this, and by October 1943, he finally found an opportunity to fire the incompetent. At this time, the Admiralty was full of talents, and many famous generals were eager to make contributions, but had nowhere to start, such as Kincaid who stayed in the North Pacific.There was no battle to fight in the North Pacific, and the Central Pacific couldn't get in, so Kincaid was sent to the Southwest Pacific.

The Southwest Theater finally ushered in an ideal admiral.Kincaid's arrival made MacArthur very happy, and the entire Seventh Fleet cheered up accordingly. The crew members said: "Today is a happy day for the Seventh Fleet! A fresh, friendly and gentle attitude appeared among all the personnel." On April 18, 1944, MacArthur took the special plane "Bataan" and flew from Port Moore to Port Finsch. Then he boarded Kincaid's flagship cruiser "Nashville", and the Seventh Fleet sailed west together. The Seventh Fleet under the command of Kincaid has expanded from a small fleet with a small force to a powerful large fleet, which can send 113 ships for combat at one time.In addition, Nimitz also promised to temporarily allocate 8 small aircraft carriers to help out to provide close air support.

MacArthur looked around and saw densely packed American ships on the sea, like countless branches extending to the distant sky.This situation made Lao Mai, who was acting with the sea formation for the first time, very excited. MacArthur's "leap forward 400 nautical miles" was to advance westward along the east coast of New Guinea, bypass the Japanese 18th Army's defensive stronghold at Wewak, land on the northern coast of New Guinea, and directly capture the Japanese army's important strategic fortress in central New Guinea— - Jayapura (then called Hollandia). Since ancient times, soldiers have never tired of deceit and did not attack Wewak, but you must convince the Japanese army that your attack target is Wewak.MacArthur used various deception methods, including leaking false offensive plans, dropping fake parachutes to Wewak, and abandoning rubber boats on the beach through submarines.

After cheating, you still have to check. The telegrams intercepted by the "Caster" code-breaking team showed that the deception was carried out very successfully.Before the war, Wewak was very nervous, but Jayapura was very calm. Regarding amphibious operations, whether it is sea transportation or landing, they are afraid of being attacked by enemy planes.Jayapura had built several Japanese airfields, with a considerable number of Japanese planes stationed there. MacArthur had to be afraid, and he handed over the work of removing obstacles to Kenny. Kenny will never let down a boss who trusts him.This talented Air Force commander is as good at false and real tactics as MacArthur. He hoped that the Japanese army could put planes next to each other on the airport to blow him up in broad daylight.

How can this be done?In addition to putting false bombing pressure on Wewak, it is to convince the other party that he does not have the ability to bomb Jayapura during the day. From the point of view of the range, the P-38 "Lightning" fighter jet can fly to Jayapura to escort the bombing operation, but Kenny forbids the P-38 to fly far away, and only sends bombers to the vicinity of Jayapura Throwing bombs indiscriminately. The Japanese commander in Jayapura saw that the P-38 could not fly to Jayapura, and the US bombers could only come to make trouble at night, so he naturally relaxed his vigilance.

Finding that the Japanese plane was parked at the airport in broad daylight as he wished, Kenny dispatched a powerful fleet of 311 planes every day to attack Jayapura Airport within three days.The scale of this attack was close to that of Yamamoto's "Operation Idai". A total of 300 to 400 Japanese planes were destroyed on the ground, and the Japanese air force in Jayapura suffered a devastating blow. During the several days of the Seventh Fleet's journey from Finsch Harbor to Jayapura, the Japanese army failed to find this huge fleet, and the eight small aircraft carriers sent by Nimitz to support them basically did not move during the landing operation. The reason is that all but a few Japanese aircraft deployed on the coast of New Guinea have been wiped out by Kenny.