The defenders launched a counterattack in the afternoon, and it was the Newland army.

After several hours of fierce battle, the landing troops stabilized the beachhead with the support of the fire support fleet and began to advance inland.

To be precise, a line of defense was established on the periphery of the landing field.

In fact, there were signs at that time that there were definitely more than 100 Newland soldiers on the island, because in the afternoon, hundreds of enemies appeared.

Unfortunately, no one was alert.

In the evening, Major General Tu Zhangang of the Marine Corps, asked the front line commander and Lieutenant Colonel Tong Mingbo of the Marine Corps whether he needed to send more troops ashore at night and to leave the fire support fleet, postponing the time for replenishing ammunition until the next morning.

This means that the 41st Special Mixed Fleet needs to stay for one more day, that is, on the morning of the 28th, when the fire support fleet is withdrawing to replenish ammunition, it will provide support to the landing troops to ensure that the landing troops can advance to the hinterland of the island within more than ten hours of the day.

In fact, these are all written in the combat plan and are not temporary adjustments.

Lieutenant Colonel Tong Mingbo believed that there was no need to do this and just act according to the original plan.

Shortly after nightfall, the 41st Special Mix Fleet turned north.

It is not a retreat, but a convergence with the fleet oil tanker in the north, and at the same time it adds some ammunition to deal with ground targets.

Because both aircraft carriers need to be replenished and all warships need to be replenished, the 41st Special Mixed Fleet can return as soon as possible on the night of the 28th. If the carrier-based aviation force is still sent to carry out support missions, it will not be possible to re-enter the battle until the morning of the 29th.

In the plan, the support mission on the 28th is undertaken by the fire support fleet.

That's why the fire support fleet also evacuated the landing ground that night and went to join the supply fleet to strive to complete ammunition supply at night.

The main thing is that the main artillery ammunition of several cruisers has been almost used.

Although there are still many anti-aircraft shells, previous battles have proved that 130mm shells are not enough to deal with strong permanent fortifications. At some point, even the 150mm main gun of light cruisers and even the 200mm main gun of heavy cruisers are not enough.

If we say that the power is sufficient, there is only the main gun of the battleship.

This is also the main reason why the Imperial Navy converted all old battleships into fire support ships in the late period of the war.

The fire support fleet left the landing ground at 9:30 in the night.

In other words, from this time until dawn on the 28th, the Marines that boarded the Island of Serbia should not expect to obtain support from the fleet.

It's about 10 hours.

It was in these 10 hours that the landing troops suffered the most severe challenges.

It seemed that we knew that the fire support fleet had retreated, and the enemy's counterattack began after 10 o'clock, and the main force was still the Newland army.

At that time, Tong Mingbo still had the opportunity to correct the mistakes he made.

Just call the 41st Special Mixed Fleet before 10 o'clock at night and send back the heavy cruiser and even the "Yuejiang" fast battleship.

Even if only one heavy cruiser comes back, he can use fierce artillery fire to repel the enemy's counterattack.

Unfortunately, Tong Mingbo did not call the 41st Special Mixed Fleet.

According to the Marine Corps' battle report, because the first counterattack was about a hundred Naoyi soldiers, Tong Mingbo made a wrong judgment.

In other words, Tong Mingbo felt that it was a desperate counterattack from the Nayi defenders.

Before the early morning, the enemy broke through the defense line on the outside of the field.

At this time, Tong Mingbo had already realized the seriousness of the problem. The 41st Special Mixed Fleet had sailed north for several hours, and it was more than 200 kilometers away from Serbia before. Therefore, even if the heavy cruiser and fast battleships were immediately allowed to move south, they would not be able to arrive before dawn.

As for the fire support fleet, those cruisers have already joined the supply ships.

Because ammunition recharge operations have begun and last for several hours, these cruisers all lower the pressure on the boiler to save fuel.

Even if you stop supplying work immediately, you cannot return to the login site immediately.

After the fierce battle until 3 a.m., the outer defense line of the landing field collapsed, and more than a thousand Marine officers and soldiers retreated to the beachhead.

There are far more than a few hundred enemies, but thousands!

The key is that there are heavy weapons such as mortars, and they are sufficient ammunition, bombarding the beachheads guarded by the Marines almost all night.

Obviously, this is definitely not a Naoyi army.

At a critical moment, Major General Tu Zhangang sent more than ten landing crafts to send the land regiment that served as the second echelon and dozens of machine guns to the beach.

In addition, a landing ship equipped with artillery was also allowed to rush to the beach to provide artillery fire support to the landing troops.

The key is the dozens of heavy machine guns sent by the landing craft.

Without these machine guns, the landing Marines may not be able to hold on until dawn.

If the enemy attacked Shanghai before dawn, more than a thousand Marine officers and soldiers trapped on the beachhead would definitely die in battle or be injured and captured.

The key is that after the enemy attacked Shanghai, there was no way to provide firepower support.

When the fierce battle was dawn, the Marines on the beach were either killed or injured, and were compressed to the shore, relying on a defense line composed of more than a dozen machine guns to support it.

Fortunately, the carrier-based aircraft of the 41st Special Mixed Fleet arrived in time.

However, it was not a bomber, but a dozen fighter jets with small bombs.

Only "Xiaotian" can fly over from more than 600 kilometers away and return to the fleet after dropping the bomb.

Although these fighters did not stay on the island for long, they basically returned after dropping bombs, and at most they fired a strafing after dropping bombs, their appearance greatly encouraged the Marine Corps officers and soldiers and had an extremely obvious deterrent effect on the enemy.

The enemy's counterattack ended here.

At this time, Tong Mingbo already knew that the enemy was the Newland army.

There is nothing to doubt. On the periphery of the Marines' defense line, there are the bodies of Newland soldiers, and they are the elite first Marine Division.

The key point is that more than 1,000 enemies were killed that night, almost twice the previous estimate.

There are definitely more than a thousand Newland officers and soldiers on the island of Serbia.

In addition, judging from the strength of the enemy's counterattack, especially the heavy firepower invested in the counterattack, the Newland First Land Force must have made sufficient preparations.

There are enough reasons to believe that the enemy has not been defeated and still has strong combat power.

It is precisely because Tu Zhangang made emergency adjustments to the landing operation.

First of all, the 41st Special Mixed Fleet suspended its evacuation, and left behind the "Yuejiang" and several heavy cruisers to form a second fire support fleet.

In order to complete the supply, Bai Zhizhan also sent two supply ships to follow the Second Fire Fleet south.

In this way, after the first fire support fleet returns, the five warships of the second fire support fleet can be refueled.

If you want to fight on Seyat Island, you must first ensure that the warship has enough fuel.

The result was that this landing operation, which was originally thought to be very easy, turned into a hard battle, causing a lot of trouble.

Fortunately, there was a second firepower support fleet, especially after the "Yuejiang" declared its existence with a 350mm bomb, the enemy became honest.

However, this is just the beginning of the fierce battle in Seyat Island.
Chapter completed!