The coalition's determination to attack Tuluru Mountain was huge. Not only did the Chinese Dispatch Corps mobilize almost its entire force, but the 2nd Marine Division alone included the 2nd, 6th, 8th, and 10th infantry regiments, as well as the division headquarters.
The directly affiliated 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Tank Battalion, 2nd Engineer Battalion, 2nd Amphibious Assault Battalion and other units total 17,500 people.
In terms of scale, the 2nd Marine Division far surpassed the Chinese dispatched force in both size and strength. In addition, the attack was on the south side where the terrain was relatively flat, so they encountered the most intense resistance.
Harry's 8th Marine Regiment, as the main offensive force, encountered stubborn Japanese resistance as soon as it arrived at the foot of Tululu Mountain.
Although limited by time and materials, Japan cannot use reinforced concrete to build permanent fortifications here, but the Japanese are not stupid. They used the terrain to dig a large area of large and small caves, and opened up the caves to use
Block the U.S. military from its commanding position.
Faced with the shrinking tactics adopted by the Japanese army, the US military adopted a strategy of first bombarding with artillery and then sending out infantry to compete with the Japanese army one by one.
After a night of fierce fighting, the temporary fortifications and parapets built by the Japanese army at the foot of the mountain had long been reduced to a pile of rubble by artillery fire. Bodies buried under them could be seen everywhere in the ruins. The American soldiers cleaning up the battlefield on the hillside often looked at them.
Replenish the corpse
"Ba, Ba!"
Accompanied by two crisp gunshots, Harry and more than a dozen American soldiers from the 8th Marine Regiment, who were cleaning the battlefield at the foot of the mountain, quickly hid behind the trees and looked towards the place where the gunshots came from, carefully observing the large and small people at the foot of the mountain.
Unequal caves.
During the several hours of fighting, many Japanese soldiers hid in those caves and relied on shooting the attacking American soldiers in the caves. Although the large-scale battle had ended, and in these few hours there had been hundreds of American soldiers
Soldiers were killed and wounded by Japanese gunfire in the cave.
A U.S. Army second lieutenant wearing a steel helmet leaned behind a stone, took out a small monocular telescope from his waist bag, and flashed half of his head to find the cave where the Japanese troops were hiding.
"Bah...whoosh..."
Unexpectedly, as soon as he showed his head, there was a gunshot, and a bullet flew past his shoulder. The second lieutenant holding the telescope was so frightened that he shivered all over.
"Damn, these Japanese monkeys are really accurate with their marksmanship!"
The second lieutenant who was lucky enough to escape the disaster cursed with some lingering fear. If he had moved an inch or two closer, his head would probably have exploded.
Harry, who was leaning behind the tree, saw his lieutenant hiding behind the rocks again and shouted loudly.
"Sir, continuing the search like this is not an option, why not try throwing two grenades!"
The second lieutenant, who was still frightened, thought of a solution, but no one knew how deep those caves were, so using a grenade was not necessarily suitable.
He thought for a while and shouted to the back: "Go two people and throw two tear gas canisters into the hole! Choke these Japanese monkeys out."
"yes!"
After hearing the order, the two US soldiers first ejected all the bullets from the Garand rifles in their hands, then put a firing sleeve on the muzzle of the gun, then took out a green tear gas grenade and inserted it into the mouth of the sleeve, and finally
Load a blank round.
After doing all this, two soldiers poked their heads out of the bunker and pulled the trigger at the largest cave dozens of meters away. With the unique muffled sound of the launcher, the tear gas grenade was immediately fired.
Got out.
Two or three seconds later, the cave was completely shrouded in light gray smoke, with figures flashing from time to time in the smoke.
"ah!"
Accompanied by several miserable howls, Harry and the others saw several figures falling down from the cave one after another, tens of meters away from the cliff. However, when the black figures fell, they could still hear one after another "
"Puff, puff" sound.
When the smoke gradually faded, the American soldiers saw the Japanese soldiers who were lying on the ground struggling to get up. This time, without the command of officers, the American soldiers raised their rifles and fired at the Japanese soldiers.
trigger.
"Two more rounds of tear gas!" Seeing that the tear gas was effective, the second lieutenant was about to order the attack to continue, but as soon as he finished speaking, he heard a dull whistling sound in the air.
Then a deafening explosion sounded in the distance, and a group of US troops more than 200 meters away from him was instantly enveloped in thick smoke.
The power of this shell was so great that Harry and others more than 200 meters away were knocked to the ground.
After the explosion, Harry staggered up from the ground, spit out the dirt in his mouth and cursed: "Shit... This is a heavy artillery with a caliber of at least 150 mm. Where did the Japanese get it?"
?”
Harry is right, the shell that exploded just now was fired by the Japanese Type 99 150mm mountain cannon.
Although the range of this artillery is not very far, it is powerful, highly accurate, and extremely lightweight compared to other artillery of the same caliber, so it quickly became one of the heavy artillery of the Japanese Army as soon as it came out.
While he was talking, several more artillery shells fell into the U.S. military formation with a dull whistling sound, and the ruthless flames and thick smoke swallowed up dozens of U.S. troops in an instant.
"Find that damn cannon quickly and destroy it!"
The US military, which was stunned by the bombing, quickly called for air force support, but the answer they received made the soldiers of the 8th Marine Regiment feel cold.
"Sir... the Air Force informed us that because Henderson Airport was bombed by the Japanese battleship King Kong the day before yesterday, most of our aircraft were lost. The only dozen or so aircraft we have now have to give priority to supporting the 1st Marine Division, so for us
The request cannot be fulfilled at the moment."
Thomas was so angry that he yelled, "It's the 1st Marine Division again. We give priority to the 1st Marine Division in everything. Are we the 2nd Marine Division's stepmother?"
After scolding, he directly contacted the division headquarters, reported the current situation to the new division commander, Major General Julian Smith, and requested air reinforcements.
But Major General Julian's answer disappointed him. In addition to comforting him, Julian also gave him an idea and asked him to ask for help from the Chinese Dispatch Corps.
"Shet!"
Thomas put down the phone and began to curse.
"You asked me to ask for help from the Chinese people. Do you think I'm not embarrassed enough?"
Looking at Thomas who was furious, his adjutant said boldly: "Sir, don't you have a good relationship with Chi Yaohui from the Chinese Dispatch Corps? If you ask him for help now, it might be of some use, right?"
"what do you know?"
Thomas said angrily: "Now that Chi's superior has arrived and taken over the command, even if I shamelessly ask for help from him, it will probably not be of much use except to embarrass him."
"If you don't give it a try, how will you know it doesn't work?"
"I...okay..."
Thomas sighed helplessly, now he could only treat a dead horse as a live doctor.