"I am ordering the 7th, 13th and 21st Infantry Divisions to immediately implement Operation Plan C, and the 6th and 7th Armored Divisions to prepare for combat. As for Brown, I need his air defense units to enter combat immediately. Status..." In order to prepare for today's battle, MacArthur made a lot of preparations and set up four combat plans. But now it seems that these preparations are not redundant.
Half an hour forward, when a fierce air battle took place over the southeastern coast of Singapore, Koizumi Toshiichiro issued a counterattack order, "...I declare that from now on it will be Imperial Army time. Gentlemen, I have prepared wine in the No. 1 War Room Delicious food is waiting for your triumphant return." On the phone, Koizumi Toshiichiro finally said confidently, and the response was a neat and loud "Hai".
Koizumi Toshiichiro's obsession with special attack tactics made him a devil with no humanity in the mouths of the Allied media. After Yamamoto Isoroku's death, he has replaced Yamamoto as the second most hated object by Westerners in Europe and America (first (Hitler, of course). In the words of the well-known American journalist Xiao An, relatively speaking, Yamamoto Isoroku is still a soldier, but Koizumi Toshiichiro, what he did is a blasphemy to the profession of soldiers. Special attack tactics, in fact, A large number of combat examples have been used by the military to prove its limitations and backwardness. However, just like Easterners regard spiny fish as delicacies but Westerners dare not touch them, the flaw in special attack tactics lies there. The Chinese army can easily defeat it, but the US military has nothing to do with it.
On the Wabalao front line, as more and more Japanese soldiers and National Independence Army soldiers launched suicide attacks on U.S. tanks and even soldiers, many U.S. front-line commanders who had become accustomed to this scene became increasingly convinced. They all I thought this was the last desperate struggle of the Japanese army.
"Maybe we can ask the commander to prepare champagne." Arthur Epel, the commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, said when communicating with Simon about the battle situation.
Simon: "My boys should be able to take all the high ground before lunch."
In combat plan A, the 3rd Infantry Division belonged to the second combat sequence. Now, because MacArthur felt the crisis and wanted to speed up the war process, the division was asked to implement plan C, which was responsible for helping the 3rd reinforced armored brigade consolidate its rear positions and To prevent the Japanese counterattack, on the left and right sides of the third reinforced armored brigade, according to Plan C, MacArthur strengthened an infantry division and an armored division respectively. As a result, on the front battlefield of Wabalao, the U.S. military reached seven The size of the division and the 1st brigade has a total strength of more than 50,000. If the two Australian divisions responsible for blocking the Wabao passage to Lake Murray and Wewak are included, the total strength of the US military on the frontal battlefield is now There are nearly 70,000 people.
When the front-line commanders of the U.S. military generally believed that victory was only a matter of time before the war was decided, the black line on MacArthur's face became thicker and thicker within the U.S. military's front finger, and it was already brewing into a storm.
Just now, MacArthur received a call from General Bremen, commander of the Australian Army, who said that an unknown size of Japanese troops had been discovered northeast of Lake Murray: "...I repeatedly asked our scouts, and they reported that it was indeed Japanese Army, Your Excellency, I think you should know what this means."
What does the appearance of Japanese troops in the northeast of Lake Murray mean? As long as this unknown number of Japanese troops is marked on the sand table, anyone with a little military knowledge can clearly see that the Japanese army will never be willing to give up Wabao, and for MacArthur He said that because he had a good understanding of Koizumi Minichiro's command style, he was more worried about whether the latter had prepared more back-ups. The current situation in Wabao was simply an illusion.
"Get me General Jin, dear Jin, let me inform you of the discovery just now. We found an unknown number of Japanese troops northeast of Lake Murray. Jin, you should know what this means to us. So I would like to ask you to dispatch more reconnaissance planes to help us carefully reconnoiter the enemy situation in the surrounding areas. Yes, I suspect that the Japanese have a conspiracy. That would be best. In this case, no matter how many troops Koizumi ambush, it will only They will be cannon fodder, but the Japanese are very cunning, Jin, you have to beware of their sneak attacks on the fleet."
After talking to Jin, MacArthur's face gradually turned red. Just as he said on the phone, no matter how many ground troops Koizumi ambushed, as long as they have battlefield air control, he does not need to worry about the Pacific Fleet. There would be no sneak attack. Although he solemnly reminded Jin, deep down he did not think that the Japanese had this strength. After all, this time Jin brought out as many as nine aircraft carriers and more than a thousand fighter planes, and the Japanese army In Southeast Asia, the total number of fighter planes was only about a thousand. MacArthur never believed that Koizumi had the courage to gather all the fighter planes and use them as special attack tactical aircraft.
Feeling more confident, MacArthur's command became smoother. Under his orders, the U.S. military steadily advanced toward the urban area of Wabao, gradually compressing the Japanese troops to the northwest corner of Wabao.
At around 12:30 noon, MacArthur was preparing to have a meal. A telegram from King made him lose his appetite. What he was most worried about happened. Koizumi Minichiro really concentrated all the special attack fighters to launch a surprise attack on the Pacific Fleet. What's terrible is that among the nine aircraft carriers in the Pacific Fleet, the flight decks of four aircraft carriers are empty, and at least one-third of the other aircraft carriers' fighter planes are not on the decks.
In fact, Jin You considered that the Japanese army might implement special attack tactics against them, so he brought enough frigates. However, because there were too many incoming Japanese planes, even though all the frigates used full firepower, they still could not To prevent the Japanese planes from successfully breaking through the air defense fire network and approaching the aircraft carrier, as for interception with fighter planes, under the command of Jin, the Pacific Fleet took off enough fighters to meet the enemy before the Japanese launched an attack. However, because the U.S. military pilots really lacked the ability to respond to the Japanese Using special attack tactics, the launch of these fighter planes not only failed to stop the Japanese attack, but made the escort fleet below become more timid, for fear of accidentally hitting their own people.
In such an emergency, King had to inform MacArthur: "General, I need more fighter planes to return support, and our aircraft carrier must not be lost."
As a result, the U.S. fighter planes that were originally guarding the U.S. ground forces disappeared from MacArthur's field of vision one after another, which gave MacArthur an unpleasant feeling in his heart.
He had too many dealings with Koizumi, so MacArthur had to worry about his follow-up methods. If Jin transferred the fighter planes back and gave up air supremacy on the battlefield, would the Japanese let go of this opportunity?