Turner held a meeting and stated that his fleet would be withdrawn tomorrow.
"General Turner, do you know what you are talking about? Less than a quarter of the supplies for the landing troops have been unloaded. If you leave now, what will happen to the landing troops? How will they survive?" Vandergeg Rift strongly protested.
But Turner said: "Vandergrift, I have no choice. I have lost my air cover. The Japanese planes will sink all my warships. Therefore, I can only unload as much supplies as possible overnight." , I am as strong as I can be.”
"Turner, you can't do this. What will happen to the 20,000 troops on Guadalcanal if you do this?" Vandergrift shouted angrily.
Turner said: "Vandergrift, you have to calm down. I have no choice. The matter has been decided. You can only obey this decision now."
"No, I will never obey this decision!" Vandergrift said angrily.
The three argued for a long time, but eventually broke up. However, none of them thought that the danger had quietly arrived...
The Mikawa Army sent reconnaissance planes to conduct reconnaissance on Guadalcanal several times in a row. Knowing the situation on Guadalcanal, he decided to enter Tiedi Bay from the south of Savo Island to first destroy the US cruisers and then the transport ships. Finally withdrew from the north of Savo Island.
In order to prevent being discovered by the Americans, Mikawa Junichi strictly implemented radio silence, and then ordered to notify all ships of the battle plan through the light signal of the flagship "Chomi" heavy cruiser.
The Japanese ships began to make preparations. At 18:00, the Japanese ships threw all the flammable materials on the deck into the sea and conducted final inspection and preparation of ammunition. The Japanese army has been sharpening its sword.
At 22:30, darkness completely enveloped the sea, the sky was covered with dark clouds, and there was not even a trace of starlight. Mikawa Junichi issued the final combat order.
The Japanese troops formed a single column with the "Chokai" as the leader, with a distance of 1,200 meters, raised the white identification flag on the mast, accelerated to 28 knots at full speed, and broke into the waters of Guadalcanal with murderous intent!
At the same time, the U.S. military was finishing the meeting, and Crutchley took a motorboat halfway back to the flagship.
"boom!"
"Boom!"
Suddenly there was a loud roar of gunfire across the sea, and the motorboat Crutchley was riding almost turned over. Crutchley was shocked and shouted: "What the hell happened..."
"What happened?" On Tulagi Island, the soldiers of the third regiment ran to the beach one after another. They were all extremely shocked when they looked at the flashing muzzle flashes on the sea in the distance.
"It's a night attack by the Japanese!" Xu Rui said with a heavy expression.
"Captain, what should we do?" Ergazi asked.
"We are fighting a naval battle now, and we are an army. We can only wait and see the result." He Shuya said.
"Well, that's all we can do." Xu Rui said...
At one o'clock on August 9, 1942, the Japanese Eighth Fleet arrived northwest of Savo Island.
In the night, the Japanese lookout Takahashi Saichi showed his high quality in night fighting. He was the first to spot two patrolling U.S. destroyers. No one expected that the U.S. destroyers equipped with new radars could not detect the Japanese ships.
Mikawa Junichi immediately ordered the fleet to perform a clever maneuver and entered Tiedi Bay from between the two US ships. Until this time, the US ships were not aware of it.
Kami Shigetoku said: "General, the Americans didn't discover us. This is an underestimation of the Japanese Empire. We will win this battle!"
Mikawa Jun nodded and said: "Kamijuge-kun, our ship formation is more than 8,000 meters long, and the operating sea area here is narrow, and it is night, so formation operations are very inconvenient. We must let each ship fight on its own according to the battle plan."
"Hai!" Shen Zhongde responded excitedly.
The Japanese fleet continued to advance and took aim at the US warships.
At one thirty-three minutes, Sanchuan saw that everything was ready and shouted: "The general attack begins!"
Suddenly, the sound of cannons rumbled on the sea surface, and the sound of landslides and ground cracking was heard. Japanese warships launched a full-scale attack on US warships.
The USS Patterson destroyer discovered the Japanese ship and just issued a radio alarm: "Attention! The unidentified warship is entering the port!" The Japanese seaplane dropped flares, and a storm of artillery shells and torpedoes followed. .
The first one to be hit was the Australian Navy cruiser HMAS Canberra. This warship was hit by two torpedoes and was hit by 24 shells. It lost its combat effectiveness in less than five minutes and was eventually sunk by a Japanese ship.
Subsequently, the "Chicago" became a key target of the Japanese army.
The Chicago received an alarm, and the captain ordered to fire flares, but none of the flares ignited. At this moment, the captain discovered that several torpedoes were coming, and immediately turned the steering wheel to avoid it. It was too late.
"boom!"
There was a huge explosion, the bow of the ship was hit by a torpedo, and the mast was also hit by a 203mm cannon shell. The "Chicago" exited the battle.
The destroyer USS Patterson, which was the first to discover the Japanese ship, launched an artillery battle with the Japanese ship. The captain ordered to fire a torpedo. However, before the order was carried out, the ship was hit by a bomb and two naval guns were destroyed. , slowly sinking to the bottom of the sea. This is the famous naval battle of Savo Island in history!
In this large sea battle, the US military suffered extremely heavy losses. Due to errors in judging the enemy's situation, the US military lost 4 heavy cruisers and 1,700 naval officers and soldiers were killed at sea.
At dawn, the Japanese warships had already taken advantage of their speed and sailed away. Seeing the wreckage of the American warships on the sea, Turner burst into tears. He did not expect that this naval battle would have such an outcome.
After the war, the news of the defeat of the US military spread to the country, and the whole country was shocked. President Roosevelt was also furious, and immediately ordered Nimitz, the main force of the Pacific Fleet, to return to the vicinity of Guadalcanal and must defend Guadalcanal.
Nimitz did not dare to neglect, and immediately ordered the main force of the Pacific Fleet to fully reinforce Guadalcanal. Fletcher, who retreated without permission, was dismissed. The Americans had realized the role of Guadalcanal's status and were determined to defend Guadalcanal.
At this time in Japan, the Battle of Guadalcanal also caused an uproar. The Japanese did not expect that the Americans would occupy Guadalcanal. As a result, the Japanese army was in an extremely passive situation strategically. Therefore, the Japanese base camp decided to let the Army The 17th Army withdrew some of its forces and, with the cooperation of the navy, recaptured Guadalcanal.
However, after the Battle of Savo Island, the Japanese underestimated their enemy. They believed that the Americans could only have 2,000 soldiers on Guadalcanal at most. In fact, the U.S.-China Allied Forces on Guadalcanal and Tulagi Island had a total of There were 20,000 troops, which greatly exceeded the Japanese expectations.
On August 16, Japanese Colonel Ichiki Kiyoshi, who participated in the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, led a 1,000-man commando team to Guadalcanal on six destroyers. On the night of August 18, Ichiki’s command was about 30 kilometers east of Henderson Airport. Landed on Guadalcanal successfully.
Ichiki Kiyoshi had an arrogant look on his face. This old Japanese soldier had been in China for several years and fought countless battles. His experience in China made him feel that the Japanese were invincible. Therefore, after hearing that the guards When there were only about 2,000 US troops on Guadalcanal, he looked indifferent.
In his opinion, his one thousand elite soldiers will be enough to wipe out the entire Guadalcanal, and there will be no follow-up support from large forces. Therefore, Ichiki Kiyoshi looked directly at Guadalcanal and couldn't help laughing, saying: "Warriors of the Empire, let us use the swords and guns in our hands to eliminate the American soldiers on Guadalcanal, and let the imperial battle flag fly over Guadalcanal again! Target, the mouth of the Tenaru River, move forward!”
"Hai!"
All of the straightforward soldiers are proud and capable soldiers. Most of them have experience of being stationed in China. Now they are sent to the Pacific battlefield. They have no scruples at all and do not take the Americans seriously.
These thousand Japanese troops, with arrogance on their faces, swaggered towards the mouth of the Tenaru River.
Not long after traveling, the Japanese army was getting closer and closer to the mouth of the Tenaru River. At this moment, there was a faint roar in the distance.
Ichiki Qingzhi raised his eyebrows, and an officer behind him asked: "Colonel, what is that sound?"
"It seems to be the sound of a machine motor." Ichiki Qingzhi said.
"Oh my god, what is that?"
In the distance, there was a cry of exclamation from soldiers. Yimu Qing looked straight ahead and saw a giant steel beast appearing in the jungle in the distance, roaring forward.
Then, two, three, four... a full six or seventy tanks appeared in the jungle ahead, constantly approaching Ichiki Kiyoshi's troops. "
"That's... a Yankee tank!" Of course Ichiki Kiyoshi knew the power of the tank, and in an instant, drops of cold sweat dripped from his forehead.
"boom!"
"Boom!"
Loud noises were heard, and the muzzles of tanks continued to spit out flames. Then, explosions came from the Japanese formation. Japanese soldiers were constantly blown up, and their complete formation was completely lost. , running around.
"Ta-ta-ta..."
Bursts of dense bullets were fired from the muzzle of the vehicle-mounted machine gun, forming a large net that harvested lives, sweeping the Japanese devils to the ground.
"Deserve to kill!"
Ichiki Kiyoshi raised his sword high and shouted, and then, two Type 92 heavy machine guns roared at the tank.
The Ichiki Kiyoshi detachment was not equipped with heavy weapons. The only two heavy machine gun bullets hit the armor of the Sherman tank, making clanging sounds and sparks, but they did not pose any threat to the tank at all.
"boom!"
"boom!"
Several loud noises were heard, and the two Type 92 heavy machine guns were severely deformed by the explosion, and their parts were scattered. Ichiki Qingzhi was directly blown away. He felt dizzy for a while, and Ichiki Qingzhi got up and walked toward them. Looking around, his subordinates were running around towards the seaside, having completely lost the courage to resist.
"idiot!"
Ichiki Kiyoshi was so angry that he cursed, pulled out his command knife from his waist, and shouted: "Onboard!"
Then, Ichikiyo rushed towards the tank in front.
Not only did the tank not stop, but it accelerated its advance.
"clang!"
The command sword in Ichiki Kiyoshi's hand was broken into two pieces, and his body was crushed by the tracks of the tank, turning into a blur of flesh and blood...
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