On June 27, 1943, the United States assembled more than one million troops on the front line and launched the most ferocious offensive since the war began against the Japanese troops entrenched in the central part of the North American continent.
In the early morning of the 27th, more than 500 B17 bombers and an equal number of B25 bombers took off from various airports in the eastern United States. Under the protection of more than 1,000 P38 and P51 fighter jets, they attacked the areas where the United States and Japan were confronting each other in the central United States.
A large-scale air raid was carried out deep inside the airport.
High-explosive bombs and incendiary bombs destroyed a large number of military airports set up by the Japanese army in the central part of the country. Although some Japanese fighter planes took off in time to escape the disaster, the large-scale bombing of the US military fleet prevented the Japanese Army Aviation from supporting frontline operations on a large scale in a short period of time.
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After receiving the warning of the air raid, the Japanese troops on the front line immediately went on alert, but five or six hours passed and until dawn, there was no movement from the U.S. troops on the opposite side.
At seven o'clock in the morning, when it was already dark, the U.S. military once again dispatched more than a thousand P47 fighter jets carrying aerial bombs, and conducted a violent bombing of the Japanese troops on the front line for nearly an hour. The entire Japanese front was shrouded in explosions and gunpowder smoke.
The Japanese soldiers' newly relaxed nerves became tense again, and those troops who had entered the camp to rest had to enter the front-line positions again to cope with the possible attack by the US military at any time.
At the same time, about two hundred B29 bombers, under the cover of more than six hundred P51 fighter jets, carried out violent bombings on the Japanese oil production areas and refineries in Louisiana and Texas.
Among them, the most severely damaged was the oil industry area in New Orleans. This area was originally very close to the confrontation line and had weak air defense. In the past, the Americans always wanted to take it back intact and organize production, but they were never willing to bomb it.
.However, this time the U.S. Army Joint Chiefs of Staff has made a unanimous decision. It is absolutely unacceptable for the Japanese army to use these facilities to provide fuel for frontline troops. They simply completely destroyed it and will rebuild it after the liberation in the future.
The US military's bombing came very suddenly. More than ten large oil refineries in New Orleans were damaged, and a large number of oil refining equipment and oil storage tanks were destroyed.
A large amount of crude oil and refined oil products burned and caused fires. Because too much crude oil was imported from the Marchand and Cayu Islands areas. A large amount of oil flowed into the Mississippi River and flowed along the river into the Gulf of Mexico, causing huge ecological disasters. In some rivers
In this section, the fuel floated on the water. It was ignited by the high temperature, and a large number of flowing flames appeared, which was spectacular.
Starting at ten o'clock in the morning, a strike group taking off from the eastern United States launched its third sortie. This time, the bombing targets were important industrial cities in the central United States. In half a day, more than three hundred B17 bombers flew over Chicago and Oklahoma.
Thousands of tons of bombs were dropped on the city, and most industrial facilities and a large number of urban buildings were destroyed.
In the following time, the Japanese army's cities in the central region were always shrouded in large black smoke, and the industry was severely damaged. The white people who were forcibly captured by the Japanese and engaged in production in the factories, as well as the blacks and Latinos who defected to the Japanese
The overseer died tragically.
Although this move triggered fierce debate after the war, for now, the Japanese army's intention to organize production on the spot to supply the front lines has been very difficult from the beginning.
Of course, it was precisely because of the continuous bombings by the US military that the top Japanese military leaders in North America, who organized factories and companies to go to South America and Australia for production, fully realized that the United States was no longer a permanent place, and immediately stepped up the demolition of factories and companies in the central and western regions.
.When the US military regained control of the central region a few months later, what was left to them were deserted cities, dilapidated streets and bare factories.
The Japanese worked so thoroughly that not even a single machine tool was left for the Americans!
Although the Japanese army has been highly vigilant and always prepared to meet the US attack, the Americans have remained silent. By noon, the Japanese army was tired and hungry, and was preparing to rest and eat when the US air raid came again.
The target of the fourth wave of air strikes was the Japanese troops on the front line!
More than a thousand P47 fighter jets carried bombs and carried out intensive targeted bombing of the Japanese forward positions, focusing on clearing out bunkers, fortifications and fortifications.
More than 500 P51 Mustang fighter jets also carried rockets and went deep behind the Japanese defense lines, focusing on taking care of railways and highways, as well as bridges and river crossings. The P51 fighter jets made full use of their own aviation machine guns and mounted rockets to attack
The Japanese trains supporting the front line were destroyed one after another, and those Japanese transport vehicles that dared to drive on the highway in broad daylight were also destroyed. For a time, the Japanese army was in mourning all over the country.
The frequent air raids by the US military changed from quantitative to qualitative. In just one day, traffic in the Midwestern United States was completely paralyzed, and it also caused some troubles in the dispatch and assembly of Japanese troops.
After three o'clock in the afternoon, when the Japanese army had endured the pressure from top to bottom for a day and night and was preparing for a late lunch, the US military's general offensive finally began!
On the southern battlefield, with the strong support of more than 500 P47 fighter jets, the US-Chinese Army's twelve infantry divisions and six armored divisions began to set out from Vicksburg, Mississippi to Baton Rouge in the south, and forcibly crossed the Mississippi River.
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Although many bridges on the Mississippi River had been blown up by the United States and Japan in the continuous battles, due to the introduction of advanced river crossing tools imported from South China into the battle, the American and Chinese troops built a bridge on the Mississippi River in just two hours.
Hundreds of floating bridges.
Under the cover of air fighters and ground artillery, the Japanese resistance at the beachhead was quickly crushed. Without air superiority, traffic was severely damaged, and it was difficult to form effective cooperation among the Japanese troops defending the Mississippi River defense line. By the evening of that day
At that time, the Japanese defense line on the Mississippi River in Louisiana was completely broken through by American and Chinese soldiers.
The Northern Front battlefield consists of two fronts.
The U.S. Third Army, commanded by Lieutenant General George Patton, launched a fierce attack on the confronting Japanese front-line positions from Grand Rapids, Michigan, Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Cincinnati, Ohio. Its first stage goal was to capture
Indianapolis and Chicago. Take back this industrial area, even if it cannot be completely taken over. It cannot allow the Japanese army to organize production on the spot to supply the needs of its combat troops.
Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges led the First Army. From Vincennes, Indiana, Marion and Paducah, Kentucky, and Jackson and Jonesboro, Arkansas, they attacked the Japanese army across the board.
The first stage goal is to capture St. Louis City, and the second stage goal is to capture Kansas City, thereby threatening the Japanese supply line in the north.
The center battlefield is under the responsibility of the Seventh Army led by Lieutenant General Bradley. This army is mainly responsible for the front-line battle in Arkansas. The main direction of the attack is Oklahoma. Together with the Ninth Army as a reserve force, it can respond to the North and South at any time.
Line of warfare.
The battle in the central United States from north to south was extremely fierce. As night fell, the U.S. Air Force's ground support was greatly reduced, which gave the Japanese army, which still had sufficient troops, the best opportunity to counterattack.
On the northern, central and southern battlefields, more than 600,000 Japanese troops launched a fierce counterattack at night against the millions of American troops who launched the attack. Unexpectedly, they ushered in an unprecedented defeat that was called a "nightmare" by senior Japanese military officials.
The U.S. military finally took advantage of its extremely powerful industrial production capacity. More than 50,000 cannons with a caliber of 105 mm or more equipped by front-line troops were used in this battle. Its firepower density far exceeded the Japanese army's understanding of the war. In addition,
The United States spent huge sums of money to import F2F missiles from South China. F2F missiles launched from high-altitude airships were also used in this battle. With the guidance of radar in the night sky, they carried out precise bursts of fire at the Japanese artillery positions. As a result, the Japanese army could only be passively beaten for a long time.
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In the battle that lasted for more than ten hours, the Japanese army, which used individual equipment such as rifles, grenade launchers, mortars, rocket launchers, anti-tank grenades and machine guns as its main attack weapons, was ruthlessly massacred by the powerful firepower of the US military.
In the face of the terrifying American artillery fire, the Japanese armored troops did not dare to move at all. They could only retreat to the second line and wait for the order to attack.
In the Tallulah area of northern Louisiana, a Japanese division voluntarily left its position and attacked an advance force of the U.S. and Chinese troops that was outflanking it from behind. What they did not want to encounter was a tank group of the U.S. and Chinese First Tank Division.
A quick reaction force mixed with armored forces. Although the U.S. and Chinese troops only had less than 3,000 troops, their 108 Leopard II tanks made all the Japanese anti-tank weapons helpless. Eighty of them followed the tank attack.
Eight armored fighting vehicles equipped with twin 20mm cannons used crazy firepower to kill Japanese soldiers exposed in the wilderness.
In addition, there were more than a hundred half-track armored vehicles. The Chinese officers and soldiers on them used 60mm and 81mm mortars and I-type general-purpose machine guns to contain the group charge launched by the Japanese army. At the same time, the armored infantry who dismounted to fight were equipped with
Type I automatic rifles weaved into a terrifying firepower network, and the Japanese army could not even get closer to the temporary positions of the American and Chinese troops.
In this area with a dense water network, the Japanese army originally planned to use mechanized troops to launch a rapid assault and prepare to give the U.S. troops on the opposite side a showdown. Who would have thought that they would hit the iron plate instead. Throughout the night, the wilderness was filled with gunfire from the U.S. and Chinese troops.
At dawn, the Chinese soldiers were surprised to see the vast fields in front of them filled with Japanese corpses everywhere.
Due to the tough attitude of the Japanese commander, more than 50% of the soldiers of this division were killed in the fearless charge. The blood of more than 6,000 Japanese soldiers stained this foreign land red, and their lives seemed to be insignificant.
worthless.
In the Ferriday area of central Louisiana, the battle was also very fierce. With the support of the powerful armored forces of the US and Chinese forces, among the five infantry divisions that were counterattacked by the Japanese army, only the 7th Division suffered excessive casualties.
It was forced to withdraw from the position it occupied, but soon regained the lost ground under the assault of an armored division.
In the area between Addis and Plaquemine in the south, four US-Chinese infantry divisions and five Japanese divisions launched a fierce battle. Soldiers from both sides kept shooting and repeatedly fighting for position throughout the night.
Some Leopard II tanks ran out of ammunition at one point.
The fierce battle continued until dawn. The Japanese commander had to withdraw from the battle due to excessive casualties and concerns about the horrific bombing by the U.S. Air Force. The exhausted American and Chinese soldiers also temporarily stopped the pursuit.
After the battle, many Chinese soldiers who fought continuously for more than ten hours experienced such an intense war for the first time. They were wandering between life and death. After relaxing, they fell down on the battlefield and fell asleep. The medical staff also had little experience.
The soldiers actually sent these sleeping soldiers to the field hospital in the rear as sick and wounded, which made a lot of jokes.
After dawn, the sky once again became dominated by American fighter planes.
A large number of US military aircraft appeared overwhelmingly over the battlefield. P47 fighter jets were equipped with bombs and kept circling at low altitudes, strafing all suspicious targets they saw. If they encountered Japanese troops gathered together, they would rush over and throw bombs.
A strike group composed of P51 fighter jets and B17 bombers roared over the U.S. military position. On the vast land ahead, elite U.S. armored forces were interspersed back and forth. More than twenty-five armored divisions were cooperating with various group armies.
The infantry continued to advance in depth, striving to expand the results of the battle.
But at this time, the Japanese army also reacted from the initial panic, mobilized troops in time, and used tactics of evading reality and attacking fictitiousness to deal with the Americans in the direction of the US military's attack. At the same time, the Japanese army mobilized fighter planes from the western region and began to
Use the field airport repaired by the Japanese army to compete with the U.S. Air Force for air supremacy.
The war is spreading rapidly in the central United States!
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