Chapter 87 worst day ever

When the caterpillar was riding on a crest, a terrifying picture appeared in front of Sledge's eyes. He saw continuous flames along the coast, and the smoke was as thick as a city wall. It looked like a huge volcano had erupted from the bottom of the sea. Peleliu is no longer a small island, but a burning hell.The soldiers crammed shoulder to shoulder in the crawler became tense, some frowning intently, others trying to ease the tension in other ways.The second lieutenant officer who led the team took out a wine bottle: "Come on, boys!" Sledge didn't drink, not because he wasn't nervous, but because he didn't smoke or drink normally, and just smelling the cork of the wine bottle was enough.

Aside from a couple of sips of wine, joking around is one way to dilute your fears.However, when the crawler hit the top of the underwater coral reef or made unusual noises for other reasons, all these methods failed, and the expressions of the soldiers all looked like they were about to split. As the tracked vehicle gradually approached the coast, the real danger finally came as promised.The Japanese artillery shells flew by whining, smashing like a storm in the middle of the formation of tracked vehicles sailing bumpily. During this process, tracked vehicles were continuously hit directly by shells.The caterpillar that Sledge was on was lucky. It passed through the water column blasted by the shells, jumped out of the water, and then drove onto the slightly sloping beach.

The instant Sledge jumped out of the caterpillar, a hot hail of machine-gun bullets nearly grazed his face.He suddenly lost his balance and fell on the sand, the gun and equipment on his back rattling. "Get off the beach!" Sledge quickly crawled off the sand to find cover.He looked back and saw that the original landing site was completely covered in black smoke. A "duck" was directly hit by a Japanese artillery shell, and countless fragments flew into the air—no one escaped... The tragic death of his comrades made recruit Sledge realize the cruelty and pain of war, and the initial panic and panic began to be replaced by anger.

More and more Marines came ashore, and the Fifth Marine Regiment began to cross the beach and move towards the airfield. Not long after Company K had gone far, it was blocked by Japanese machine guns and mortars like a storm. Everyone in the company lay on the ground and did not dare to move.This is true of recruits, and even more so of veterans, because everyone understands that standing up under such heavy artillery fire means suicide. The only way to eliminate the threat is the support of naval guns and dive bombers, or the flanking of friendly forces, otherwise nothing can be done.Half an hour later, the Japanese firepower stopped. Although it was only half an hour, Sledge felt that it lasted for several hours.

K Company, which received the order, set off again.At 4:45 p.m., Sledge saw an anomaly and asked a veteran beside him, "Hey, why are those dual-purpose vehicles running across the airfield toward the Japanese defenses?" After all, the veteran was well-informed and shouted: "That's not a dual-purpose vehicle, it's a Japanese tank!" The "Spider" watching from above issued a hasty warning to the command ship: "The enemy's tank, supported by infantry, is passing the airfield and attacking the 'jackal'." "Jackal" is the code name of the Fifth Marine Regiment, and Nakagawa launched the first wave of counterattacks against them with tanks.These tanks first assembled in formation on the defile behind the ridge, and then rushed across the airfield.

The tank formations came fiercely, specially trained infantry rode on top of the tanks, and more infantry followed behind.These Japanese soldiers are not lined up in a tight row like before, and there are no fanatical supervisors wielding sabers in the team. They all keep a proper distance from each other, and they also know how to use the bomb craters and other obstacles on the ground for concealment. Leap forward.During the leap forward, if you don't enter the effective distance of the weapon in your hand, you will never fire easily. On the other side, 30 "Sherman" tanks had crossed the reef before noon and were speeding up to support the "Jackal".

If Nakagawa can take advantage of the fact that the "Sherman" has not yet fully assembled, first sweep up the US infantry with all his strength, break through the defense line and then attack its artillery positions, then the loss of the Fifth Marine Regiment will be great, but at the critical moment, he is in command. A mistake was made: instead of heading towards the infantry, the tank formation went straight to its own counterparts and took the assault approach. Assault requires speed. The Japanese tank driver opened the throttle at full throttle. It felt like his butt was on fire. The infantry still lying on the tank desperately grasped the fixed object so as not to fall off, and the trailing infantry could no longer catch up. , being left far behind by the tank.

Once the formation falls apart, the advantages of infantry and vehicle coordination will have nowhere to play. At the same time, the Japanese tanks are not the opponents of the "Sherman" at all. This is a fact that has been proven on the battlefield.They took the initiative to "throw themselves into their arms and give them hugs", which was in line with the wishes of the US military. The first "Sherman" to arrive at the scene single-handedly disrupted the Japanese tank group. The Japanese tanks couldn't hurt the "Sherman", but an anti-tank shell flying from the ridge broke the control mechanism of the "Sherman".For a while, the "Sherman" could no longer circle left and right, and could only go straight forward or back. Seeing this, the commander of the "Sherman" ordered to retreat, while rotating the muzzle, and continued to bombard the Japanese tanks.

Some "Shermans" also appeared to the left of Company K.Sledge and his teammate Snaf set up a mortar and were about to shoot at the Japanese tanks, but because they charged too far forward, a "Sherman" actually fired at them. In the counterattack of the retreating Japanese army, Sledge's mortars failed to play a role. The other infantry were not so unlucky, and rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns all joined the firing group.Under the attack of various weapons, 17 Japanese tanks were destroyed, and only one broke through the US defense line, but it was also destroyed soon.

The Japanese infantry riding on the top of the tank were dumbfounded. Once the tank was paralyzed, they could only let the American shooters "roll".After a while, the hitchhikers disappeared like foam.The infantry who had been following the tank were also scattered by fallen trees, where they came from, and where they went, they retreated in despair. After the first counterattack failed, Nakagawa launched two more counterattacks in succession.Not only were these two counterattacks fruitless, but they also cost him all his tanks. As time went on, the other two regiments of the 1st Marine Division gradually followed: on White Beach, a regiment of K Company (not the company to which Sledge belonged) made a detour, finally rushed to the "point" and wiped out the The enemy in the defensive position was wiped out at the cost of only one-third of the soldiers left, and this company K could no longer be called a "company"; at the orange beach, the Seventh Marine Regiment also reached a position parallel to the brother troops.

By 6 p.m., the U.S. military completely occupied the beach of Peleliu Island and began to dig trenches for the night.After this day of fierce fighting, about 1,100 soldiers were killed, missing or injured in the five battalions that the First Marine Division landed in advance, and the loss rate exceeded 50%.In addition, a large amount of equipment was destroyed, among which as many as 60 "Buffalo" tracked vehicles were lost. The entire Peleliu Island is the front line, except for the dead, no one can stand alone under fire.The battalion commander of Sledge's battalion was killed shortly after landing, and the new commander was also shot before dark, and his wounded evacuated to the hospital ship.One veteran Sledge knew said it was the worst day they had ever seen. When night fell, the vehicles and equipment stuck in the shallow water and sand and mud, as well as the corpses floating in disorder on the surface of the shoal water, made people feel chills on their backs.Unfortunately, Halsey's worries became a reality. On the first day of landing, the tragedy of Tarawa was reproduced on Peleliu Island.