From this we can also know the difference between Koga Fengichi and Yamamoto Doichi. Koga Fengichi cares more about the entire battle situation, while Yamamoto Doichi will be satisfied with a partial victory.

Just as the Japanese army was actively planning a decisive battle, the US military still knew nothing about the upcoming Japanese air force. They were still organizing a landing war, a landing war without the threat of Japanese fighter jets.

Like Yamamoto, Johnson was also full of confidence in the battle because he learned some intelligence from the US military in Maloerap, the 7th Infantry Division: the fortifications on Kwajalin Island were not as strong as Tarawa, which was verified by the Japanese captives. Johnson even received many photos of the fortifications that the Japanese army were bombed, which proved that the artillery fire of the US was effective against the fortifications of the Japanese army, which greatly encouraged Johnson and even Halsey.

It was five o'clock the next morning, and it was not dawn yet, but this did not hinder the US military from operating against Kwajalin Atoll.

It seems that the offensive process is surprisingly similar to the US attack on Tarawa. The US military always likes some standardized things in combat. They believe that standardization is efficiency. For example, after standardization, aircraft carriers have been put into service one after another in a short period of time. It is very convenient for production and maintenance, because each aircraft carrier is the same, and even the weapons and equipment are the same. No matter what the number is, as long as it is produced and maintained according to unified standards, it is right.

This is even of great benefit to the training of soldiers. Just get a training ship and a batch of train recruits. Because the aircraft carriers are the same, these recruits do not even need to adapt to the ship after training, and they can quickly form combat effectiveness.

After tasting the sweetness, the US military even had a tendency to "standardize" tactics. For example, now, although the landing operation of Tarawa has proved unsuccessful, the US military still took the step by step to get the Marines to transfer to the landing car and prepare for the landing craft. Then ejected the water reconnaissance plane to guide the artillery to bomb the target, then first board the minesweeper boat, and then carried out a beach landing under the cover of naval guns and fighter bombing.

Doing so seems scientific, because every step is carried out and necessary.

But there is a saying among the Chinese: "There is no constant force in the military, and the water is no constant form." If tactics are "standardized" in this way, it will be easy for the enemy to master the rules and cause danger to themselves.

So some people say that the reason why the United States could defeat the Japanese in World War II was not because the United States could fight wars, but because the United States had too many naval and air power and industrial capabilities than Japan. This was doomed to the destruction of the Japanese navy and even Japan from the very beginning. It was just that the Japanese did not believe in this evil and thought they could use their "Bushido" spirit to fight miracles.

At this time, the US military's offensive, especially the bombardment of Kwajalin Island step by step before the war started. This is actually telling the Japanese what information they were originally uncertain.

1: The US military is indeed going to launch a landing war in the early morning, and the bombing at four o'clock is to prepare for it.

2: The US military indeed wants to land from the sea, because the US military bombs fortifications on the sea side.

3: The US military may launch an attack on Kwajalin Island from the top, middle and lower directions, because the artillery fire in these three directions is particularly fierce, and the figure of US minesweeper boats will also be seen.

In other words, the US military actually exposed the time, location, and even the Dalei army could be estimated.

Based on this information, Yamada Moyuki chose the combat plan he had formulated before. He divided more than 120 fighter jets into three batches:

The first batch of thirty aircraft were mainly Zero fighter jets, and their main tasks were reconnaissance and cover.

The reason why this batch of fighter jets is important is that it is impossible to determine the specific time of the US military landing. If the aircraft group arrives early, it is likely to be intercepted by US fighter jets and shot down. If it arrives late, the US landing troops have already arrived ashore, so a reconnaissance force is needed to support it.

The second batch of sixty sequences, of which twenty were Zero fighters and the rest were bombers, and the bombers were all explosive-mounted and explosive-mounted, that is, they were loaded with aviation bombs rather than torpedoes.

In the past, the Japanese army had a relatively strong fighting mentality. They always hoped to sink several US main warships and even aircraft carriers to achieve impressive results. But this time they were surprisingly conservative. They set their targets on the US landing troops, that is, to sink US landing crafts and landing vehicles.

Because the target is to sink a landing ship and a landing vehicle, it is impossible to carry a torpedo. Although the torpedo is powerful, it is difficult to project and has a small amount of ammunition. If the target is sinking, it is less likely to use a torpedo to sink a landing vehicle with a displacement of only a few tons. The landing craft is obviously extremely unprofitable.

The third batch is thirty, and this batch has twenty zero battles plus ten bombers.

Its mission is to provide reinforcements to the second batch of main aircraft groups when necessary, and to provide cover for the main aircraft groups when they retreat.

Yamada Daoyu's goal is to attack the US tank landing ship. This is Koga Feng's death order, because he is very clear that infantry landing is still so important for Kwajalin Island. The 61st Garrison and the First Maritime Mobile Brigade stationed on Kwajalin Island still have hope of repelling the US troops, but if hundreds of "Sheerman" tanks land, the Japanese defense line will collapse instantly.

In fact, let alone hundreds of "Sheermans", even if more than a dozen "Sheermans" landed, they may pose a fatal threat to Kwajalin Island.

If Kwajalin Island is lost, the entire Marshall Islands defense line will be gone.

Therefore, before the aviation brigade set off, Koga Fengichi sent each pilot a photo of a tank landing ship, and told them: "Acknowledge the appearance of this landing ship, your goal this time is it."

This seems very common, just sending a photo of the tank landing ship.

But in fact, this is not ordinary at all, because this is the first time that the American tank landing ship has been used in actual combat. In other words, no Japanese have known what the tank landing ship looks like before, so of course there will be no photos of the tank landing ship.

The reason why Koga Feng had this photo was that he sent a submarine to approach the US fleet for secretly taking photos of it at the risk of being sunk. In order to make sure that the one he took was a tank landing ship, the submarine also detoured to Maloerap Atoll and secretly took over several soldiers who had seen the landing ship on the battlefield.

However, these efforts of the Japanese are worth it.
Chapter completed!