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Text Chapter 993 Typhoon (2)

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    Kumejima is the fifth largest island in the Ryukyu Islands.  Like all volcanic islands, the island has undulating hills, with a maximum drop of 178 meters.  To the northeast of the island is Mount Gumi, with two natural volcanic lakes on the mountain, to the south is Mount Ala, and the smaller one in the middle is Mount Tin Hou.  There is a long and narrow coral sand dune in the southwest. At the junction of the dunes and the main island, there are two small islands guarding the punishment.  The mouth of the Shirase River in the southeast and the city port are the center of the island.

    It is such a small island of 59 square kilometers with a population of less than 10,000 people, but it lies between the continental shelf and the Ryukyu Islands, becoming the outpost of Japan's "absolute defense line" in the sea.  In order to defend against China, after losing Taiwan in the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese army used Ryukyu as the first line of defense against China.  Not only have more than ten fortresses of various types been built on various Ryukyu islands, but hundreds of small bunkers have also been built with cement and steel bars, and a large number of underground caves have been dug to make full use of the advantages of caves and high altitudes in an attempt to make Ryukyu an "eternal  Sunken Sea Fortress Group".  Kume Island has also continuously strengthened its defenses in the past twenty years. On the top of Mount Kume, the highest island on the island, there is a fortress equipped with a large-caliber shore gun. With the fortress as the center, a defense structure supported by hidden fortifications and caves has been formed.  .

    After the war broke out, Chinese Air Force bombers repeatedly bombed the island's defense facilities and used "Rolling Thunder" radio-guided bombs to destroy the Gumi Mountain Fortress. However, the bombing effect on caves and hidden fortifications was not very good.  Following repeated defeats at sea, Japan realized that China's landing on Ryukyu was inevitable, so it evacuated all island residents within a few months and strengthened the original garrison from 3,000 to more than 15,000.  A large number of caves were also excavated, some of which were more than ten meters deep into the ground. The caves were connected in series to form a complex underground network. The entrances of the caves were covered with plants, making them extremely difficult to discover.  Under this circumstance, the Beijing General Staff and the Navy also thought about bypassing Kume Island and taking Ryukyu directly, but from the mainland to Ryukyu.  The transportation line is long, the logistics pressure is high, and the bombers cannot take off with a full load.  Moreover, the General Staff also believed that the Mariana raid and the subsequent Marshall landing battles were different from Ryukyu, which had a depth and width. There would definitely be a long tug-of-war after the landing, so it was necessary to use this place to test the troops before landing on Ryukyu.  And use it as a forward base for sea and air battles.

    So since half a month ago, the Air Force has continued to bomb Kume Island again, using napalm bombs and burning surface vegetation and buildings.  Try to expose those hidden caves as much as possible.  After more than ten days of aerial reconnaissance and bombing, the Navy also divided the 59-square-kilometer Kume Island into 176 shelling plots.

    This bombardment list is now in the hands of the gunnery commander of the battleship Shandong.

    "The No. 1 turret is ready."

    "Preparations are complete on the 3rd."

    "No. 2"

    "The hydraulic pressure is normal, the port power supply is normal, the pressure relief valve is open normally, and the foremast rangefinder is in place"

    "Attention deck personnel, wear earmuffs and be prepared for secondary earthquake protection"

    ??Beep, beep Every time the phone sounds "ready", an indicator light lights up on the combat readiness instrument panel on the navigation bridge.  Under the spotlight, the 12 406mm main guns slowly raised their thick and terrifying barrels, and the damage tube lights on the deck were also lit.  Zhang Xiaoyu and all the soldiers grasped the nearest handrail.  "Boom" Like spring thunder, like a landslide and a tsunami, there was a loud noise that could not be heard at all levels.  It shook my eardrums to pieces.  Without waiting for high hopes, the recoil force of more than 10,000 tons will affect the hull with a draft of 11 meters and a total weight of more than 70,000 tons.  Pushed out more than ten meters away, everyone could not help but sway and stumble.

    300kg ordinary propellant pack.  While pushing the 860 kilogram high-explosive bomb 18 kilometers away, the overflowing strong wind formed a shock wave at the muzzle, pushing the seawater down the port side to a depth of two meters, forming four huge hemispherical depressions with a diameter of 50 meters.  Twenty-two seconds later, the shell hit the hard volcanic rock, creating craters six meters deep and thirty meters in diameter.  The shrubs within a hundred meters were uprooted, and the dust was swept up by the shock wave, blooming into more than a dozen gray-black mushroom clouds.

    In order to test the training results, the gunnery commander specially adopted naval battle tactics, requiring six salvoes to be fired within five minutes to test the rapid burst shooting ability.  After the last artillery shell landed and the reconnaissance plane sent back data on the 800-meter radius of the scattering point, Zhang Xiaoyu nodded with satisfaction.  Although it is worse than the Beijing, as a new ship that has only been delivered for a few months, this result is already good, which shows that the soldiers have gradually adapted to the new photoelectric fire control operation mode.

    After verifying the training results, normal ground support will begin.  The four Beijing-class battleships that had not opened fire before joined in the bombardment one after another.  "Boom, boom, boom" 12 406mm naval guns and 36 380mm naval guns were fired one by one under the guidance of the school's aircraft.  Among them, the most important islands, Gumi Mountain in the north, Ala Mountain in the south, and Tin Hou Mountain in the middle, were repeatedly bombarded by Shandong and Beijing together.

    The huge roar shook the heart and lungs and shook the skyOn the ground, large pieces of broken mountain rocks flew up with flesh and blood, and there were continuous explosions and swelling clouds of smoke, forming a continuous sheet over the island.  Even the reinforced concrete bunkers built by the Japanese army could not withstand such a violent bombardment.  Various targets exposed on the surface collapsed bit by bit like disintegrating building blocks.  In hidden caves and positions, many Japanese soldiers were shaken by the thunderous roar until their ears and noses bleed. They huddled in corners, not daring to raise their heads, and no one dared to move  The 406mm high-explosive bombs weighed 862 kilograms and the 380mm high-explosive bombs weighed 800 kilograms. They rained artillery shells on Kume Island at a constant rate of one round per minute. In just over an hour, 780 406mm and 2232 380mm grenades were fired.  , was thrown out, with a total throwing volume of 2458 tons.  On average, each square kilometer has to withstand the bombardment of 42 tons of ammunition.  If calculated using a standard 500kg aerial bomb, even the H-7, which currently has the largest bomb load, would require as many as 250 bombs to take off with a full load.

    But this is not over yet. Based on the experience of his predecessors on Iwo Jima, Yang Qiu specifically requested that the firepower preparation time be extended. Therefore, after the battleship formation withdrew, a fire support formation composed of light and heavy cruisers and six modified fire support ships arrived again.  Less than seven kilometers from the coast.  The 60 130mm 32-tube rocket launchers on the latter's deck allowed the Marines preparing to land to see what full firepower output meant.  5,151 white phosphorus incendiary rockets and 6,777 155 and 203 mm grenades were scattered across the island within half an hour.  The sky is filled with gray-white trails left by rockets.  Unlike heavy naval guns, the Navy did not expect light artillery to break through hard volcanic rocks from the beginning, so it simply used incendiary bombs to continue burning surface vegetation and all obstacles that blocked the line of sight.  The scattered white phosphorus powder was ignited, and clusters of rapidly expanding sparks burned whatever they saw.  Shrubs, houses and even rocks, from a distance, look like an extinct volcano on the island is erupting again. There seems to be a layer of flowing dark red "magma" flowing on the surface.

    "This, this" Zhang Shuisheng, who was about to get off the rope ladder, opened his mouth in shock when he saw this scene, and asked Jing Qilun who was filming next to him: "Little Japan deserves to die, right?" Both of them are domestic  A well-known military reporter.  This time, it took a lot of help to convince the Ministry of National Defense to participate in the landing operation.

    "Impossible." An assault squad leader walked by.  Slinging the automatic rifle on his back, holding a cigarette in his mouth, he turned around and grabbed the rope ladder and continued: "Firepower in this kind of terrain cannot be blind, and the Japanese are like mice, very good at digging holes.  We had an encounter at the Khmer Angkor Wat at the beginning of the year. The second battalion raided a squadron. The bombardment from artillery and planes was even fiercer than this. I thought they were dead, but what if they charged up? Even the deputy battalion commander died.  "

    "Oh? Can you tell us".

    "Okay, but you have to hurry up, we're about to leave."

    When preparing for bombardment.  It didn't take a moment for thousands of soldiers to climb from the transport ship along the rope ladder to the landing craft waiting below.  Hundreds of small and medium-sized general-purpose landing craft gathered on the sea.  The tank landing ships further ahead also opened their bow hatches and released more than a hundred "Sea Serpent" amphibious tanks and "Otter" amphibious personnel carriers.  Landed on Kume Island.  There are four divisions in total, of which the Second Marine Division will be responsible for the first round of landings.

    The current commander of the Second Marine Division is Zhang Liansheng, who staged the "Armor Flying Battle" on the Mekong River last year.  That success not only allowed him to be promoted to division commander, but also became the top amphibious armor tactics expert in the Marine Corps. Even when he was transferred to Taiwan for rest at the beginning of the year, he used amphibious armored vehicles as ships all day long to conduct exercises back and forth in the Penghu Islands.  Therefore, after the First Division's expedition to the South Pacific, the General Staff gave him the most severe task of seizing the beach.

    After more than a year of war training and testing, today's five marine divisions have been readjusted.  Taking the Second Division as an example, it consists of 3 amphibious armored battalions and 4 marine regiments. Each amphibious armored battalion has 36 "Sea Snake" amphibious tanks.  This tank resembles the famous PT-76 tank, uses a 70mm rifled gun, and is coupled with the division's armored reconnaissance battalion troops. The division has a total of 122 tanks, 318 "Otter" amphibious armored vehicles (dukw) and 725 other vehicles.  Each marine regiment has four battalions, plus the division's armored reconnaissance battalion, engineer battalion, artillery battalion, air defense battalion, reinforced heavy artillery battery, etc., with a total number of 20,147 people, basically achieving mechanization.

    But on Kume Island, mechanization is of little help, because you can find that most of the coast here are cliffs with a drop of tens of meters. There are many caves in the cliffs, which are easy to defend and difficult to attack.  Only Kanejo Port in the southwest and the two-kilometer-long Ifuku Beach in the west were suitable for landing. However, these two places were the focus of Japanese defense. Many cement triangles and obstacles were deployed, and it was impossible to invest too many troops at one time.  Therefore, Zhang Liansheng divided the troops into four batches. The first batch to land included 2 amphibious armored battalions and 6 infantry battalions, which landed at the mouth of the river and Ifu Beach at the same time.

    As the two H-7 gunships began to hover over Kume Island, three red flares quickly rose.  Zhang Liansheng and Jing Qilun??, standing in a medium-sized general-purpose landing craft, followed by the first batch of 3,700 Marine assault soldiers, rushed towards the west Ifo Beach under the protection of more than a dozen destroyers and "Sea Snake" amphibious tanks

    (To be continued)
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