ps: I wrote a little wrong in the previous article. The Iowa is still in the Atlantic Fleet and has been changed to the Indiana. Sorry!

When everyone noticed something was wrong with the North Carolina, the giant ship had swallowed more than 10,000 tons of sea water, and tilted 13 degrees to the right as a whole. Although the team members of the damaging management tried their best to block it, it was obviously difficult, with more and more water inlets and the sinking speed became faster and faster.

"Get close to the landing field and prepare to rush to the beach!" Captain Navy Captain HearstVidett suddenly issued a surprising order.

"Sir?" The surrounding staff were in an uproar: the damage control was not reported to be unable to be saved. If you rush to the beach, the battleship would be completely finished.

"Idiot, execute the order immediately and report to General Halsey!" the captain shouted, "Attacking Bettio obviously requires fire support. Without the death of the battleship, how to exchange for the strongest firepower? Don't you know that the enemy used the Luo to block the Panama Canal?"

"The North Carolina sent a telegram, and the ship was attacked by an enemy suicide rocket and was severely damaged. It was planned to be stranded on the beach and act as a fixed turret."

Halci's chewed, his face gloomy, and he handed the telegram to Nimitz without saying a word. Although Nimitz did not interfere with his specific combat command, it was absolutely correct to ask for instructions on such a major decision.

Nimitz didn't even look at it, and calmly issued an order: "Agree with the captain's request, be sure to maintain the firepower of the entire ship, your sacrifice will be valuable!"

The staff around him looked sad. The Battle of Tarawa had just begun. Unexpectedly, a battleship had been lost. The situation seemed to be bad. From the decision of the commander, it can be seen that he was under a lot of pressure: it is certainly distressing to lose a new battleship, but if the Gilbert Islands cannot be taken down, the Pacific Fleet will not be able to explain to Washington and the Joint Conference that the United Fleet could not defeat an island even if it was not there. What if it was there?

"The Indiana reported that they were also faced with enemy suicide rockets, one turret was destroyed, and the rest were safe."

"I inform all ships and be careful, but I cannot give up firepower support to the landing troops." Halsey thought for a while, "I guess the enemy's suicide rockets should be almost the same."

"It's going to the beach! It's going to the beach!" Under the gaze of many warships, the North Carolina rushed violently towards the beachhead of Tarava like a king heading towards the end. The coral reefs that he encountered were all shattered by the powerful impact force of the warship, but then the ship was like a beachhead like a beachhead like a beachhead. Due to the increased draft after water inlet, the beached North Carolina waterline position rose by 2.4 meters.

"Keep the power supply of the entire ship and one-third of the engines running, ensure that all turrets are available, and the damage department finds ways to block the gap and discharge seawater." Although there has been a major change, Captain Hirstveidt is still calm and issued an order in an orderly manner, "The main gun aims at the enemy's turrets to attack, and do not let a Japanese devil go."

"Onboard!Onboard!" Seeing the enemy battleships stranded, all the Japanese guarding the island were screaming in a carnival, and they were deeply proud of the heavy damage to an enemy ship. This was almost at the Nagamon level.

Only Major General Shibasaki and several major officers changed their faces: Although this stranded giant ship is done, the fortifications on the island are also under direct deterrence of battleship firepower. Now the enemy has thick turrets and main armor belts for defense, and can withstand close attacks, and are not afraid of being sunk. The firepower advantage is too obvious. The enemy commander is also a ruthless person!

Speaking of which, the account must be counted on Hori Teiki. If he hadn't let the Muro and Hiei advance, and the armed forces were stranded, and eventually paralyzed the Panama Canal, the US military would not have been willing to use battleships to do such a thing. The only difference is that the Panama position is crucial, and Tarawa seems to have not reached that point, but for the Pacific Fleet that cannot afford to lose, Tarawa is their Panama.

In addition to the hidden firepower and fierce suicide rockets on the island, other situations also made Nimitz frown: the troops reported that the charts they used were old goods painted by the British a hundred years ago. Not only were the directions wrong, but the shallow water on the map became a deep sea. Several places were booked to carry out the landing mission. As a result, the water depth directly flooded the first landing vehicle, and everyone had to find another way out.

Now Nimitz, Halsey and Holland are both suspicious of quickly taking Tarawa, but the battle will continue to be fought, otherwise the North Carolina will be in vain.

US soldiers generally thought that Bettio had turned into powder under such fierce artillery fire, but the actual effect was far beyond their expectations. The island was flat and covered with a large amount of coral sand and coconut wood with strong absorption, which greatly weakened the destructive power of aviation bombs and shells. The result of the pouring of tens of thousands of tons of ammunition was extremely pitiful, and it only destroyed the targeted airports and ancillary facilities. At the fire point, only two 8-inch naval guns and 3 tanks were removed, and some Japanese fortifications and communication systems exposed on the surface were wiped out. However, for most of the defense facilities hidden below the surface, the damage was extremely minor.

However, the Japanese defenders quickly felt the power of the North Carolina, and the close-range pouring of caliber shells formed a powerful suppression effect on the Japanese artillery fire. Many Japanese artillery soldiers did not die of shrapnel, but were shocked to death by the huge impact. As time went by, the Japanese counterattack artillery fire fell silent again.

"The enemy must be put up and attacked." After hearing reports from all parties, Shibasaki said, "Otherwise we will always face the threat of heavy artillery from the enemy's battleships, which is too much trouble."

The other people also nodded repeatedly, and they woke up from the initial craze for severely damaging enemy ships. One stranded battleship was more difficult to deal with than the other battleships that could move.

At 14:21, the US military landed again, and the charge was much more cautious. While casting smoke screens, the minesweeper swept out a waterway leading from the landing craft group to the lagoon. The water reconnaissance aircraft on the Indiana guided them to lay beacons, and at the same time threw smoke buoys to mark the location of the shallows. Under the guidance of the minesweeper, the destroyers Lingoth and Dashir broke into the atoll gap channel, preparing to provide close-range fire suppression.

The Japanese artillery on the west coast of the island fired again with a lucky mentality, but without firing two guns, the North Carolina counterattack shells roared, and the remaining artillery was lifted into the sky. Taking advantage of the opportunity of the Japanese firepower being completely suppressed, a large number of landing crafts took the opportunity to rush into the lagoon. Subsequently, in order to avoid accidental injuries, the battleship gun group stopped the artillery.

The development of the war proved that Shibasaki's decision was correct: only when close forces were connected, the enemy battleships would cease fire, and the turret defenders who had taken the initiative to fire the artillery just now had already seen Amaterasu.

Hundreds of amphibious landing vehicles and a group of tank landing craft formed three attack waves. Under the command of Colonel Connery, the commander of the 3rd Land Warfare Regiment of the 3rd Land Warfare Division, drove onto the reef and rushed straight toward the North Shore of Bettyou.

The first wave of amphibious vehicles successfully boarded the Hongsantan. Under the command of the loud voice Curt, the trembling soldiers continued to fire with the m1 rifle in their hands to enhance their courage, while wading forward with less standard tactical actions, but the Japanese army did not respond. Connery, who was overjoyed, immediately called the second wave to prepare for landing, and the second wave also got off the amphibious vehicles and started landing. Now there are two companies for each beachhead that is scheduled to land. After the US military immediately launched the third wave of landing, basically each beachhead can reach one battalion.

But just when the first two waves had not yet fully landed and the third wave had just approached the reef, Shibasaki, who had been patiently waiting for a long time, issued the firing order.

With the lesson of being taken off the West Coast Fort, the Japanese army learned their lesson this time and never took the risk of firing again. Instead, they waited until the US infantry approached the frontier position and only opened fire fiercely. This time, they used small-caliber infantry artillery fire. 57mm and 37mm shells hit the head and poured into the landing crowd. Most of the slow-moving amphibious vehicles were beaten to flames, and the ammunition exploded, and the screams of broken limbs and broken arms and crowds were everywhere.

Seeing that the artillery was not good, Sherman tanks began to advance bravely, trying to use armor and artillery fire to tear a bloody path for the infantry. They used machine gun firepower and tank shells to try to suppress the firepower of the infantry, but the good times did not last long. The Japanese army quickly pushed out the iron fist from the bunker. Captain Curt could see clearly. More than a dozen Shermans who were rushing in front were shrouded in rockets that came out of nowhere. "Boom" sounds endless. Then they saw the tank soldiers running out of the tank in a mess, and in a blink of an eye, they were knocked down in a pool of blood by dense machine guns and artillery firepower.

The other tanks broke into panic. Some drove into the reef pit on the reef plate and couldn't climb out for a long time, so they simply turned off the fire. Some rushed to the beach, but were not hit by the oncoming anti-tank artillery fire. Only 6 of the more than 20 tanks escaped back to the near-lago. As it turned out, tanks without infantry cover were fixed targets on the islands and reefs.

Seeing that there was no way back, the wreckage of his own tanks was blocked in front of him. The soldiers on the amphibious car jumped into the sea under the command of the officers, trying to use infantry to detour to surround the enemy's firepower points. The soldiers who abandoned the carriage held weapons in their hands and slowly advanced on the reef. If they were not careful, they would have an accident: they would either tripped into the sea by the reef or the corpse of their companions, or they were knocked down on the reef by the Japanese Type 92 heavy machine gun. There were very few soldiers who had climbed through the wading area and rushed to the beach. They were then crushed to the beach by the Japanese machine guns, and sometimes there were grenade launchers or grenades exploded in the crowd, constantly reaping their lives.

Holland, Devin and others were watching the battle on the battleship in the distance and were angry and anxious, but they did not dare to let the naval guns fire directly. If the shells were fired directly, it would be a massacre covering hundreds of meters regardless of the enemy. They could only hope for the firepower on the destroyer that was supported at close range. They had increased their firing rate to the maximum, but even so, they could not suppress the fire in the face of Betty Island, where firepower was emerging everywhere. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!