It is certain that French had never thought of counterattacking the Mariana Islands, and he asked the Pacific Fleet Command to formulate a combat plan around counterattacking the Mariana Islands, just to paralyze the opponent, because French had long known that Chinese intelligence agencies could obtain intelligence from the Pacific Fleet Command.

In fact, even Li Mingyang became a little nervous under the pressure of the war.

You should know that the counterattack of the Mariana Islands should be the matter of the US Pacific Theater Command, and the Pacific Fleet Command has no right to formulate such a combat plan.[..com]

At that time, the US military divided the Pacific battlefield into two theaters, namely the Pacific theater and the Southwest Pacific theater.

This military system is similar to the US military's approach in World War II, that is, the Pacific War Zone is mainly responsible for fleet operations, while the ground combat tasks in the Southwest Pacific War Zone are heavier. By establishing two war zones, combat troops can be mobilized and utilized more reasonably.

In fact, strategically speaking, the U.S. military will not attack the Mariana Islands until it captures the Solomon Islands.

The reason is: Even if the US military captures the Mariana Islands, it cannot pose a threat to China's mainland. It still has to further attack the Ryukyu Islands or Fuso to break through China's local outer defense circle. In addition, attacking the Mariana Islands cannot relieve the threat to Australia, because the Chinese Navy can completely go to the Solomon Islands from Southeast Asia and there is no need to enter the Western Pacific.

On the contrary, if the Solomon Islands are not recovered in time, Australia may be attacked at any time.

You should know that among the Western Alliance groups, except Russia, Australia was the most threatened, and even surpassed Israel at that time.

Among the Western Alliance Group, Australia's strategic importance is second only to Russia.

It can be said that as long as the United States wants to win this war, it must preserve Russia and Australia, and any of them will lead to the United States' defeat.

Because the Pacific Ocean is the main battlefield, Australia is more important.

To put it bluntly, after losing Australia's frontier position, the United States has no way to stop the Chinese army from crossing the Pacific Ocean.

In this way, the US military's strategic offensive must revolve around the Solomon Islands.

Obviously, this is not a strategic offensive, but a strategic counterattack.

In fact, this just shows the importance of Guadalcanal. Only when this island is still in the hands of the US military, will the US counterattack be decisive. If the island falls before the US military counterattack, even if the US fleet can defeat the Chinese fleet in naval battles, it will not be able to capture the Solomon Islands. It will take several months or even longer to retake the archipelago, and in a few months, the Chinese navy will make a comeback.

If this kind of tug-of-war is fought, the United States will undoubtedly lose.

After making this judgment, it will be not difficult to find French's pulse.

Of course, there are always accidents on the battlefield.

Given the situation at that time, if there were no surprises, French would launch a strategic counterattack in the Southwest Pacific by mid-May, or May 25 at the latest.

However, something on May 6 disrupted French's arrangements.

On that day, a US military on Guadalcanal, to be precise, was a captain officer of the Navy Seal. After leaving Guadalcanal with a submarine, he swam hard for more than ten kilometers, and then encountered a US speedboat near Rennell. The captain, who received the Congressional Medal of Honor, brought back a crucial news: the defenders on Guadalcanal can hold on for several months.

In other words, Guadalcanal will not fall quickly.

There is evidence that at this time, French did have other ideas, such as making false acts, firing a shot in the Solomon Islands, and then attacking the Mariana Islands. But this was just an idea, because two days later, four divisions of the Chinese Marine Corps arrived at the Mariana Islands.

More importantly, it is still unknown whether the US military on Guadalcanal can hold on for several months.

Although the captain of the Navy SEAL brought back extremely accurate information, that is, the US military had reserved enough materials, the damage to underground fortifications was not very serious, the morale had not been seriously affected, and the officers and soldiers were relatively healthy, etc., this information was not enough to make French believe that the US military trapped in the underground fortifications could endure for several months. In fact, in the end, tens of thousands of US troops failed to persevere, but surrendered to the Chinese Marines with some ammunition and drug supplies, which had nothing to do with the decisive battle of the fleet, but the spirit of these US troops completely collapsed. Later, these tens of thousands of US soldiers suffered from mental illness, some died in prison camps, and it was difficult for those who survived to take care of themselves after the war.

You should know that in a completely closed environment, life is at risk at any time, and it is difficult for anyone to last for a few months without seeing the sun. In fact, there is an environment very similar to this, namely, a submarine that performs a mission to break the order, and the normal patrol cycle of submarines is generally within three months, rarely exceeding three months. More importantly, submarine soldiers at least know that they can get more than half a month off after returning to the sea, and there is nothing to worry about after returning to the shore. The US military on Guadalcanal Island obviously does not have such hope.

Endless waiting and boundless fear eventually overwhelmed the US military.

It was precisely because of this concern that French did not modify the counterattack plan and still decided to make a big fight in the Solomon Islands.

Of course, Guadalcanal will definitely not fall immediately. Even if you can't hold on for a few months, it shouldn't be a problem to hold on for a few more weeks.

As a result, after entering the Pacific Ocean, the US fleet did not go to Australia or Pearl Harbor, but went to the military port on the west coast of the United States. According to French's arrangement, the Pacific Fleet will also go to San Diego. After the two fleets meet, they will have to concentrate on training for at least one week.

In this way, the battlefield situation returned to the initial predicted state.

On May 10, Mu Haoyang was relieved when he received news that the US fleet had assembled on the west coast of the United States.

At that time, he was concerned not only with the US fleet, but also with the US Marines and landing fleets. The intelligence provided by the Military Intelligence Agency made him believe that the US military had no possibility of attacking the Mariana Islands, because until this time, the United States did not mobilize Marines, nor did it concentrate on landing fleets. Even if France planned to attack the islands after seizing the sea control power, it should be mobilized at this time. The reason is simple. The fleet's continuous combat capability has a limit. After seizing the sea control power, it should be invested in the landing fleet and the Marines in time so that the fleet can leave the war zone as soon as possible and return to the rear port, so that the enemy can return to the battlefield before counterattack.

You should know that at that time, the two fleets of the Chinese Navy had already rested twice in the Battle of the Solomon Islands.

If the fleet is allowed to keep moving at sea, the direct result will be that the fleet's combat capability will be reduced and it will be defeated in the next decisive naval battle.

More importantly, it is impossible for the US military to take over the Mariana Islands in one go.

In other words, if the US military attacks the Mariana Islands, the battle here will be similar to the Solomon Islands.

In short, the situation at that time made Mu Haoyang believe that the US military either did not intend to make a fuss on the island or did not regard the Mariana Islands as its main target.

Obviously, the former is not very likely.

The fleet can seize the power of sea control, but cannot become a strategic line of defense. To consolidate the fruits of victory in seizing the power of sea control, it must seize the islands scattered across the ocean.

In fact, this is also the fundamental reason why both China and the United States have organized independent Marines under the navy.

Only by obtaining the cooperation and support of the Marine Corps can the strategic value of the Navy be fully exerted and naval warfare can be made meaningful.

In history, especially in modern history, naval warfare and island landing warfare have never been separated.

In the Pacific War of World War II, almost every naval battle was related to island battles, and was to capture or guard an island.

Since the target of the US military's attack was not the Mariana Islands, it could only be the Solomon Islands.

This judgment finally made Mu Haoyang breathe a sigh of relief.

You know, the battlefield he chose was the Solomon Islands. Even if this was the battlefield chosen by France, it could at least ensure that the US military had no absolute initiative.

Of course, this also led to the fierce battles on Guadalcanal.

In mid-May, Mu Haoyang used more than 1,000 large electric transport aircraft drawn from the mainland battlefield to dispatch six additional land divisions to the Solomon Islands through air force bases in the Philippines and Indonesia, transporting more than five million tons of combat supplies.

Immediately afterwards, the Navy and Air Force began to send additional air forces to the Solomon Islands.

On May 24, the First Fleet and the Second Fleet left Port Alapu and reorganized on their way south to form a joint fleet. The commander was Gong Jifei, but Tong Shaoyun gained greater authority, that is, the Second Fleet he commanded would act alone in combat operations.

At that time, in order to solve the command problem between Gong Jifei and Tong Shaoyun, Mu Haoyang made special arrangements.

In search and first fighting with the US fleet, Tong Shaoyun has priority command, that is, Gong Jifei must obey Tong Shaoyun's command. Only when the first fleet enters the war zone and first encounters the US fleet, Gong Jihui can command the Second Fleet.

In order to avoid conflict between the two, Mu Haoyang sent two staff members to come over.

Subsequently, he asked Ma Mingtao to send a deputy division-level intelligence officer to each of the two fleets, who were specifically responsible for handling operations-related intelligence.

Later, Mu Haoyang's approach was criticized and affirmed.

At that time, there was only one thing that was certain, that is, Mu Haoyang favored the young and promising Tong Shaoyun more and intentionally improved Tong Shaoyun's status. Although Gong Jifei performed well in the Battle of the Solomon Islands and his performance in the previous Battle of Solomon was also recognized, many of his tactical concepts were obviously not very consistent with Mu Haoyang's appetite, so it was not surprising that Mu Haoyang was put aside.
Chapter completed!