12dz Chapter 133 Battle of Guadalcanal (3)
Chapter 133 Battle of Guadalcanal (3)
That night, both landing sites were extremely quiet. The Japanese did not launch any surprise attacks against the Allied forces. It was as if both sides had suddenly fallen silent. A naval patrol encountered a Japanese transport convoy east of Guadalcanal. The destroyer-based patrol was clearly unable to penetrate the transport convoy, which was escorted by Japanese light cruisers. By the time the US heavy cruisers arrived, the Japanese fleet had vanished into the inky darkness of the sea. Neither side gained anything.
During the day on the second day, China and the United States began to advance from the north and south from areas A and E. The US 2nd Division, led by a large number of engineering machinery, opened the way and advanced. Of course, within a few hundred meters ahead, multiple platoon-level search teams had already opened up a distance and were searching and attacking suspicious targets along the way.
The 113th Division lacked the heavy machinery of the US Army, possessing only a handful of bulldozers and limited M4 Shermans. They primarily relied on German Panzer IIs, Japanese Podlings, and Italian CV2 ultralight tanks as their guides. Some even added a bulldozer to the Panzer II, navigating the dense forests and carving out numerous hidden paths.
After passing through a dense forest, the advance company of the New 4th Regiment came upon a seasonal riverbed. It looked like a small stream, but directly ahead of it was a slope several dozen meters high. Specifically, where the river curved back, there was a small lake over 100 meters deep, surrounded by open land. Judging by the geography, this was likely a gathering place for indigenous people.
The front-line commander, Deputy Battalion Commander Guo Kuisheng, ordered the troops to stop, and he and the search platoon leader Gao Zhen quietly moved over, hid in a patch of weeds, and carefully observed the situation on the opposite side with a telescope.
The opposite side looks very ordinary, but there are many traces of human activity, and now there is no one in sight. There are obviously only two possibilities: first, the indigenous people have migrated, and the migration must be related to the Japanese army; second, the Japanese army has an ambush here, and the terrain is very suitable for defending an ambush.
After the two men retreated and had a brief discussion with the advance company commander, they circled around the left and right sides of the search platoon to understand the situation. The advance company organized defense on the spot and reported the situation to the battalion headquarters and superiors in a timely manner.
Gao Zhen led more than ten soldiers through the brush, following the stream upstream in search of a path to the slope. Deputy Platoon Leader Yang Huaihua led another team to search further back. The seasonal stream had carved a concave channel along both sides of the river. Due to the terrain, the seaward side was low, while the inland side was high. Although the drop was only 10 to 3 meters, the shrubs growing along the cliffs were very dense, making a silent ascent extremely difficult.
Gao Zhen had no choice but to continue along the river. After about three or four miles, he finally came upon a low, collapsed slope. Following Gao's cue, two soldiers, one in front and one behind, staggered forward, slowly approaching the slope. They nervously focused on the situation on and around the slope, unaware of the unusual shallow water below. When the soldier behind him tripped, he realized he had triggered a trip mine. He didn't care about exposing himself, and shouted to his comrades, "Scatter! There's a mine!"
"Boom!" The explosion threw the soldiers aside, and then several gun muzzles stretched out from the collapsed slope and the surrounding bushes and weeds, firing at Gao Zhen and others.
"Da da da—," "Bang—bang—bang—," several soldiers were hit before they could dodge, their blood immediately dyeing the shallow river red. Gao Zhen cleverly dodged the enemy's sneak attack and hid behind a huge rock nearby, his Tommy submachine gun still blazing, firing continuously at the exposed Japanese firepower point!
The lucky soldier who was exploring the way ahead hid under the enemy's firepower point. He calmly pulled out the American grenade from his waist, removed the safety pin, read silently for a few seconds in his mind, raised his hand and threw it at the enemy. "Boom!" The explosion blew two Japanese soldiers out of their hiding place and landed them in the river. The soldier quickly fired again and killed the Japanese soldiers.
There were not many Japanese troops at the ambush point. When the search team's bazooka blew up their machine guns, the ambushing Japanese troops withdrew.
The remaining search team members seized the collapsed slope and did not advance further. About 20 minutes later, Guo Kuisheng arrived with a reinforced platoon. After briefly understanding the situation, he immediately used a walkie-talkie to notify the battalion commander and others who had already arrived, and temporarily suspended the attack!
Deputy Battalion Commander Guo ordered the reinforcement platoon to remain and defend the stronghold, while he returned to the starting point with the fallen and wounded soldiers. Meanwhile, the deputy commander of the New 4th Regiment, having received the notification, arrived, along with two teams of six flamers. Meanwhile, another search team led by Yang Huaihua also returned, revealing that the enemy had indeed established a perimeter around the area.
As the staff drew a simple map of the exploration, several commanders gathered together to discuss the attack plan.
A frontal attack in the open field was clearly unacceptable, as the casualties were too great. A detour upstream to the collapsed slopes occupied by Gao Zhen's search team was a good idea, but the area was overgrown with brush and the Japanese position was unknown, making it highly likely to be a trap. Furthermore, large-scale weapons and equipment would be insufficient, making it easy for the Japanese to counterattack and encircle them. The unknown enemy position posed the greatest danger!
After thinking for a moment, Deputy Regiment Commander Chen asked the US Air Force to bomb the area, preferably using incendiary bombs. After the US bombing, the troops launched a frontal assault, using two M4 tanks and two bulldozers to lead the way. The German Type 2 and Japanese Type 95 were not suitable for such a strong attack.
Soon, four American fighter planes roared in. Two bombers dropped multiple incendiary bombs, and fighter planes also conducted a ground sweep. Deputy Regimental Commander Chen ordered an attack. More than 4 men from the 1nd Company of the 2st Battalion, under the cover of tanks and bulldozers, entered the open area and gradually approached.
Just as the troops were about to cross the open ground and charge towards the river, several rocks suddenly fell from the opposite slope, exposing the Japanese army's hidden position.
"Tututu!" the distinctive roar of the Japanese Type 92 heavy machine gun rang out, followed by shells from the Type 92 infantry gun and the Type 75 mountain gun. A tank was hit, bursting into flames. The bulldozer's raised funnel blocked most of the Japanese firepower. Meanwhile, the 1st Battalion's light and heavy machine guns and mortars, providing support, launched a fierce counterattack against the exposed Japanese firing points. After adjusting their angles, two rocket launchers fired 2 rockets at a near-level angle towards the Japanese firing point in the middle of the slope.
"Boom boom boom boom——", a series of explosions silenced the Japanese firepower points, and the soldiers of the 2nd Company rushed across the river and came to the bottom of the slope.
"Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh", dozens of climbing forks flew to the top of the slope, several of which were firmly fixed on the top of the slope. Some soldiers began to climb, and the various firepower of the 1st Battalion increased the suppression. The soldiers approached the Japanese bunker while climbing. Amidst several huge explosions, the firepower of the Japanese bunker was cleared.
More than 1 soldiers of the 10st Company rushed to the top of the slope like tigers. At this moment, the incendiary bombs had burned all the weeds, shrubs, etc. on the top of the slope. What came into view was a high ground of to meters away from the front of the slope, dozens of meters away. Indistinctly, there were a large number of artificial bunkers and trenches. The incendiary bombs only burned the surface cover, exposing these fortifications built of reinforced concrete, like a huge and ferocious beast, which was creepy.