After the battleships opened fire, the cruisers and destroyers also began to fire. (You can find this site) But unlike the thick-skinned battleships, they have strong defenses and can almost ignore the artillery on Iwo Jima, so they dare not

Stop like a battleship, or even simply drop the anchor chain and fire. Although the shooting accuracy is higher, once the opponent fires back, such a target is easier to hit. Therefore, they still maintain a speed of about twelve knots.

While sailing, it breathed flames towards its intended target.

"General, the enemy warship is within our range, please give the order to fire on the enemy warship!" a major officer said to Kuribayashi Tadamichi.

"No, it's not time yet." Tadamichi Kuribayashi shook his head, as if he was afraid that his men would take their own actions. Tadamichi Kuribayashi added, "Our cannons are not used to hit these warships. For Americans, the impact of warships is

The loss is nothing. They don't care about this purely material loss. Their productivity can quickly make up for this loss. For them, the most unbearable loss is the loss of life. Therefore, our way of fighting

It must be the most efficient way to kill Americans. We don’t have many cannons and limited cannons. These must be reserved for attacking the enemy’s protective infantry after the enemy lands. This is the most efficient way.”

This is not the first time Tadamichi Kuribayashi has talked about these principles with his subordinate officers. However, the "offensive thinking" that the Japanese military academy has instilled in the soldiers for a long time is not something that can be easily overcome. When the Japanese officers were in the military academy

Most of them have received this kind of education:

"You have a squadron, and an enemy division comes in front of you. What are you going to do?" This is a classic question from instructors.

"Defend first, wait for the enemy to reveal their flaws in the attack, and then counterattack and defeat them!" This answer should be very reasonable, but if you really answer like this, you will definitely fail the exam because this answer is too

There is no offensive spirit. The answer that can get high scores is this: "Divide the troops into two groups, attack frontally, and go behind the enemy to prevent the enemy from escaping, and finally surround and annihilate the enemy!"

A squadron (that is, a reinforced company) also wants to divide its troops into two groups to encircle and annihilate a division. In any country except Japan, such an answer would definitely be sent to some kind of hospital to enjoy electric shock treatment, but in this case

In Japan, such an answer is an answer that can get high marks. It is not easy for Japanese officers trained according to such standards to be normal. For example, the man who died on Guadalcanal felt that he could rely on less than a regiment in his own hands.

Light infantry (thousands of men) can kill at least 5,000 U.S. Marines supported by heavy weapons. This is how Ichiki Kiyoshi was trained. This is not only true for low-level officers, but also for senior officers. For example

Mutaguchi Ren, who launched the Imphal Campaign and sent a large number of troops to Savage Mountain to starve to death, was just such a thing.

Among the officers mass-produced under this kind of education, Kuribayashi Tadamichi is one of the few who has sobered up in the face of facts. Facing the current war situation, Kuribayashi Tadamichi has understood that Japan cannot win this confrontation with the Americans.

Victory has been achieved, now the question is only how to defeat and to what extent.

Tadamichi Kuribayashi knew that as early as 1943, the Americans, the British and the Chinese issued a declaration in Cairo, setting out a condition for ending the war that was legally acceptable to the Japanese, that is, conditional surrender. According to this declaration, Japan

It will lose Manchuria, Korea, Taiwan, Penghu and all the territories gained after World War I. This will almost push Japan back to before the Meiji Restoration. Even, this is not as good as before the Meiji Restoration. Look at Germany in World War I

The result after the surrender made Kuribayashi Tadamichi shudder: the king was expelled, the army was disbanded, and he was saddled with debts that could never be repaid. Such a result is actually no different from the country's subjugation. Now, the only way is to use more

Effective resistance will increase the enemy's cost of conquering Japan, and then hope that such high costs will make the Americans feel overwhelmed and have to give Japan a better surrender condition. In fact, he is no longer fighting for

He fought to win. His goal in fighting was just to obtain better surrender conditions. "At least he must be able to keep the emperor." Tadashi Kuribayashi thought this way.[

In order to achieve this goal, Kuribayashi Tadamichi stipulated that no unit was allowed to conduct the so-called "Banzai Charge". Each soldier must kill ten American soldiers before he was qualified to die. Although he made sense and issued the order

, but Tadamichi Kuribayashi really didn't know whether the Japanese soldiers' habit of "offensive" could be restrained.

However, judging from the present, at least for now, Kuribayashi Tadamichi's strategy has been followed by his subordinates. Although the entire island was shaking under the gunfire of the American fleet, the Japanese troops on the island maintained a terrifying silence.

Two seaplanes circled over Iwo Jima. These two seaplanes were the school firing aircraft of the artillery fleet. The weather was good today, and the impact point of the artillery can be seen clearly. With the support of the school firing aircraft, the U.S. fleet's artillery fire accuracy

It was quite satisfactory. So after several rounds of shooting, the calibration aircraft came to the conclusion that all known targets had been destroyed. This judgment also meant that the landing operation was about to begin.

…

On the sea not far from Iwo Jima, soldiers of the 4th Marine Division were transferring. The soldiers descended from the rope net hanging from the tall transport ship to the landing craft. Just like on Guadalcanal, the soldiers

Put a condom on the muzzle of the gun to prevent seawater from entering the muzzle. But the difference from that time is that the guns in the hands of soldiers have changed from the M1903 Springfield rifle to the more advanced M1 semi-automatic rifle.

After getting off the landing craft, Corporal Bill checked his equipment for the last time: the M1 rifle was in good condition, the bridge clip with eight rounds had been pressed into the gun chamber, the safety was in the closed state, and the muzzle had been tied.

There are 4 already pressed bridge clips in my pocket bag, and there are many scattered pockets. My own m1911 pistol is placed in the holster on the right side, and I can easily hold it by just lowering my right hand.

It was pulled out. The other two spare clips were inserted on the outside of the holster. Then the bayonet, water bottle, triangle belt... these things were also ready.

After checking his own equipment for the last time, Corporal Bill raised his head and began to check the equipment of other soldiers in his squad with a critical look. At this time, the landing craft also began to leave the transport ship and lined up farther away.

Queue. However, they were not the first round of landing troops. The first round of landing was 68 lvt tracked armored landing vehicles. For better navigation performance, the armor of this tank was very thin and could only withstand ordinary rifles.

And machine gun fire, it can't even block the fire of large-caliber machine guns like the M2. But in the landing battle, it can at least provide some basic armor strength for the soldiers.

The original lvt2 only has one 762mm machine gun and one 50-caliber m2 machine gun. This firepower is really too weak. What's more, these machine guns don't even have protective shields, so the machine gunner is directly exposed to the enemy's firepower.

The firepower is below. So after the Marine Corps obtained these equipment, the Ma Runs who had always been treated as stepmothers immediately began to transform the firepower systems of these tanks in the spirit of doing it themselves and having enough food and clothing. First, all the machine guns

All were equipped with anti-shields. This modification was both simple and practical. Then the M2 machine guns on some vehicles were removed and replaced with a 37mm cannon or a set of flamethrowers. In this way, when encountering the enemy

When building bunkers and the like, this thing can also add a little armor assault capability to the Ma Runs before the real heavy weapons come ashore.

However, on Iwo Jima, these tanks encountered difficulties that they had not expected at all - the sea on Iwo Jima was not a Saipan-style beach made of coral sand, but a mudflat made of soft volcanic ash.

.68 lvt2 vehicles just hit the beach and got stuck in the mud. They sank in the soft mud flat. The drivers increased their horsepower and tried to drive them out of the volcanic mud, but the tracks turned faster.

, this thing sank faster to the west. It took almost only a minute or two for the chassis of this thing to rest directly on the volcanic mud.

"Hell!" More than one person cursed, and then the soldiers jumped down from lvt2 and began to move forward on foot. It is extremely dangerous to stay where they are. These lvt2s stuck in the mud have become tempting targets.

If the Japanese deployed direct-fire artillery near the beach, these guys would be beaten to pieces. Moreover, the second wave of landing craft was already heading towards the beach. If they still stayed on the beach, after a while, those who were waiting on the landing craft would

Once the gang got ashore, the density of people on the beach would be astonishingly high. Then, if the Japanese used their remaining cannons to fire a volley, no one knew how many people would die.

Fortunately, the Japanese did not fire violently at the beach, and even the Ma Run soldiers who advanced in depth did not encounter much resistance. At most, they only received some light weapons fire. At this time, the second wave of

The landing craft has also approached the coast.

The lvt2s sunk on the beach blocked the path of the landing craft. The soldiers on the boat had no choice but to jump into the sea and then wade ashore in waist-deep or even chest-deep water. When these soldiers landed on land

, most of them were exhausted. At this time, the first batch of soldiers who landed had already advanced to a place about 200 meters away from the beach. This place had exceeded the tide line, and there was no longer a mudflat under their feet but overgrown

The hard ground was covered with various plants. The navy's artillery fire had begun to move farther inland. At this time, many battle-hardened Ma Run soldiers suddenly heard an unknown howling sound in the air.
Chapter completed!