blood feud

The little devil who built the airport did not expect the coastal defense force to collapse so quickly.Seeing the helicopter rushing in under the cover of thousands of U.S. troops, he hurriedly dropped the breakfast he had just made and fled into the jungle.

The U.S. military easily captured the airport. The runway has been basically completed, the tower and the power plant have been completed, and a large amount of food, construction equipment, and building materials have also been seized.The most popular trophies are hundreds of cases of Japanese beer and a complete frozen processing plant.

The First Marine Division finally captured Guadalcanal at the cost of sacrificing more than 1600 people.

Commander Vandergrift's first campaign goal has been achieved, and naturally there is no reason to continue to "seize" the helicopter.Under the reluctant eyes of American soldiers, six Nulong helicopters flew to Darwin.

The mode of helicopters cooperating with infantry has since become the most basic method of warfare.However, the Americans have not yet produced such a behemoth of an armed helicopter.

After MacArthur received the front-line battle report, as the commander of the front army, he quickly discovered the huge combat potential of the armed helicopter.Therefore, he ordered his chief of staff, Suthers, to find a way to communicate with the Lanfang Republic to see if he could "assist a group".

The little devil's headquarters learned that the Ichiki detachment and the Aoki detachment had been annihilated one after another, and the news that Guadalcanal Island had fallen was already at noon on August 1942, 8, half a month later than in history.

Yamamoto 56 and Hyakutake Haruki were very shocked, and only then realized that the US troops attacking Guadalcanal were not a small force.It was decided to send reinforcements the next day to try to retake Guadalcanal before the end of August.

In order to ensure the success of the First World War, Yamamoto 56 used the 8th Fleet to fully guarantee the safety of the reinforcements, and took the opportunity to lure the US aircraft carrier formation to destroy it with the main force of the United Fleet.

To achieve this goal, he divided almost all combat ships in the South Pacific into five parts:

The first part is the advance group, which consists of 1 capital ship, 1 seaplane carrier (Chitose), carrying 22 seaplanes, 6 cruisers, and 8 destroyers. In the direction of the main force, actively provide support and cover when the main force engages the enemy.

The second part is the containment group, which consists of 1 light aircraft carrier (Ryujo), carrying 16 fighter jets and 21 torpedo planes, 1 cruiser, and 2 destroyers. They are responsible for trying to attract the carrier-based aircraft of the US aircraft carrier as the main force. The attack creates conditions.

The third part is the main group, under the command of Lieutenant General Ozawa Jisaburo, there are 2 aircraft carriers (Xianghe and Zuihe), carrying 53 fighter jets, 41 bombers, 36 torpedo planes, 2 battleships and cruisers There are 4 destroyers and 12 destroyers, which are responsible for the main attack mission. When the US carrier-based aircraft is attracted by the diversion group, they will take the opportunity to attack the US aircraft carrier.

The fourth part is the shore shooting group, which consists of 4 cruisers, and bombards the US military airport and positions in Guadalcanal with naval gunfire, providing fire preparation and support for the reinforcement group's operations.

The fifth part is the reinforcement group, which is commanded by Major General Tanaka Raizo to transport 1 ground troops with a fast transport ship converted from an auxiliary cruiser and 4 old destroyers, escorted by 1500 cruiser and 1 destroyers, and is responsible for sending the ground troops to the Guadalcanal.

Yamamoto personally took the battleship "Yamato", covered by an escort aircraft carrier and three destroyers, located in the waters north of the Solomon Islands, and exercised overall command.And deployed more than a dozen submarines in the Solomon Islands to closely monitor the movements of the US military.

Occupying Guadalcanal is just cutting off one of the tentacles protruding from the Japanese monkeys, and the crisis in Australia has not been completely resolved.

Whether it is Admiral Nimitz or Admiral MacArthur, he knows very well in his heart: If there is no air and sea control, Guadalcanal will not be able to defend in the end.

After the Japanese army on Tulagi Island was attacked by the US military, it sent an emergency telegram to the Malaita Island Command, which made the Japanese army aware of the US military's actions.

However, the self-righteous Lieutenant General Hyakutake Haruyoshi believed that this would not be a formal counterattack by the US military, but at most an attack of the nature of reconnaissance and harassment, and it would not be difficult to repel it.However, the airport in Guadalcanal cannot be used by the US military, and it is necessary to quickly organize forces to retake Guadalcanal.

He was unwilling to use the troops to attack Port Moresby, so the First Lieutenant General of the Sanchuan Army had to draw 519 marines from the Marine Corps stationed on Malaita Island, and divided them into the transport ship "Mingyang" and the supply ship "Soya". Escorted by a cruiser, a minesweeper, and a submarine hunter to Guadalcanal.

On August 8, according to the report of the reconnaissance plane, the first lieutenant general of the Sanchuan Army knew that the US military was strong in the waters of Guadalcanal Island, so he ordered it to return. On the way back, the "Mingyang" was sunk by the US submarine S-22. Carrying 38 marines died on the seabed with the ship.

On the day the U.S. troops landed, Lieutenant General No. 25 of the Mikawa Army dispatched the 51th Air Force of the Japanese Army from Malaita Island to attack Guadalcanal with 62 planes. However, they were effectively intercepted by 19 carrier-based fighter jets of the U.S. Army and [-] of them were shot down. , without any success.

The next day, the 23rd, the 25th Air Force dispatched another 41 planes to attack Guadalcanal. At the cost of losing 16 planes, it finally broke through the interception of the US planes, sank the transport ship "Eliott", and injured the "Jia Destroyer USS Weiss.

However, the Chinese and Japanese planes in the air strikes only focused on attacking the US ships, but did not attack the weak defense but extremely important materials piled up on the beach. This was the biggest mistake of the Japanese army.

Lieutenant General No. 8 of the Mikawa Army, commander of the Japanese [-]th Fleet, felt that the situation was serious and immediately decided to launch a counterattack.

尽管此时他的军舰因执行各种任务而很分散，但他迅速集中附近的军舰，共5艘重巡洋舰、2艘轻巡洋舰、1艘驱逐舰于8月25日晚驶离马莱塔岛南下。

In fact, the base camp of the little devil did not agree with the dispatch decision of the Eighth Fleet at all, and the base camp had very good reasons:

First of all, the Eighth Fleet has been established for less than three weeks and has never conducted cooperative training. Can it fight?

Furthermore, the Eighth Fleet does not have an aircraft carrier. Facts have proved that the land-based aviation on Malaita Island cannot effectively support such a long distance. If the Eighth Fleet encounters an attack by an American aircraft carrier, it will be very dangerous.

In the end, the US's combat intentions are still unclear. Whether it is launching a full-scale offensive or merely interfering with Japan's airport construction, it is not too late to think about countermeasures after the US's intentions are clarified.

But Yamamoto 56 gave Lieutenant General Yi of the Sanchuan Army a combat permit, and everything was left to the discretion of the Sanchuan Army.

The heavy cruisers of the Eighth Fleet of the Japanese Army were all old ships launched around 1925, and the light cruisers were ships from World War I.In the absence of air cover, there is only one possibility to challenge the US aircraft carrier formation.

But Sanchuan Junyi was the party involved, and he had no choice but to retreat.

The British Royal Navy's creed of "seeing the enemy must fight" is also the creed of the Japanese Navy.

The Sanchuan Army must fight, and Yamamoto 56 can only pretend to be deaf and dumb.

The current Chief of Staff of the Eighth Fleet, Shigetoku, who just took office, was stationed in Germany in the early years and is a pro-German faction in the navy.

Because Germany separated its aviation arm to form an air force, and Japan has no corresponding military branch, so the German-friendly factions in Japan, whether they are army or navy, are all aviation blind.

Shen Zhongde is not only aviation blind, but also fundamentally looks down on those cowards who talk about airplanes.

The tactics adopted by Shen Shigetoku are as follows: line up the most basic one-word column of the Japanese Navy, the flagship rushes first, and the rest of the ships just follow the flagship.

It doesn't matter if there is no air cover. The Japanese navy is best at "night battles". After the raid, they will withdraw from the battlefield.

At around 8:25 on the afternoon of August 14, the Eighth Fleet, led by Mikawa Junichi, sailed out of the Kono base, and swooped towards the waters of Guadalcanal at full speed with a jaded attitude.

If the Japanese army wanted to go south in broad daylight, it would be impossible to avoid the US aerial reconnaissance.

In fact, as early as the daytime on August 8, a reconnaissance plane converted from a Nulong bomber assisted by Bai Shujie saw four Japanese ships gathering towards Malaita Island.Because it was too far away from the theater, the U.S. military didn't take it seriously.

As soon as Mikawa's fleet was dispatched that night, the U.S. submarine S-28 discovered it and reported it to its superiors. At this time, the Japanese fleet was still more than [-] nautical miles away from Guadalcanal Island, which also did not attract the attention of the U.S. military.

At 8 o'clock on August 26, an Australian reconnaissance plane spotted the Mikawa Fleet for the third time, but the pilot did not report it in time due to radio silence.

After returning to the base in the afternoon, he didn't take it seriously, and reported to his superiors after eating snacks, which was a full delay of six hours, making it too late for the US military to send another plane to reconnaissance and verification.

The most important source of intelligence for the U.S. military—the code-breaking team, on the one hand, because the Japanese army had just started using new codes, it would take some time to decipher them.

Turner knew that his landing formation was the primary target of the Japanese army, and the only way from Konos to Guadalcanal was the narrow waterway between the two island chains of the Solomon Islands, which is commonly known as the "slot sea".

He sent an extra reconnaissance plane to reconnaissance along the trough sea on August 8, but due to bad weather, the plane failed to complete the flight as ordered and returned, and the pilot did not report the situation.As a result, Turner was in the dark about the upcoming naval battle.

Sanchuan is a warrior with both wisdom and courage. In order to know himself and the enemy, as early as August 8, he ordered five heavy cruisers to eject and take off a carrier-based reconnaissance plane to conduct a comprehensive reconnaissance of Guadalcanal Island. location.

When he knew that the U.S. military had multiple aircraft carriers in the waters of Guadalcanal Island, had air supremacy, and had superior military strength, he decided to use his own strengths to attack its weaknesses and carry out night battles.

At about [-]:[-], Sanchuan entered the waters between Guadalcanal Island and Tulagi Island, and sent two reconnaissance planes for the third time to verify the night berthing position of the US ship, and dropped flares during the night battle.

It is precisely because of repeated reconnaissance by Sanchuan that he has a complete grasp of the situation of the US military. He decided to enter Iron Bottom Bay from the south of Savo Island, destroy the US cruisers first, then destroy the transport ships, and finally withdraw from the north of Savo Island. out.

Immediately, through the light signal of the flagship "Chokai" heavy cruiser, the battle plan was notified to all ships.

At [-] o'clock, the Japanese ship threw all the inflammables on the deck into the sea, and carried out final inspection and preparation of the ammunition.

At 22:1200, it was completely dark.The Japanese army, headed by the "Chokai", lined up in a single column with a distance of 28 meters, raised a white identification flag on the mast, accelerated to [-] knots, and broke into the waters of Guadalcanal with murderous intent!

The American devils tried their best to cultivate an opponent for themselves, and finally when it came time to reap the consequences, it was also the result that Bai Shujie liked to see the most.

After all, what happens next, let's see the breakdown in the next chapter.