Chapter 539: The First Battle of Hawaii XII

It is already early morning on January 3, 1942, and the night is as dark as thick ink that cannot be painted. Near Waikiki Beach, more than half of the US Marines who were on guard in the trenches were already fast asleep. Only a few particularly responsible American soldiers tried to keep their eyes open, enduring the constant sleepiness while watching the movement on the sea. But in the darkness before dawn, if it weren't for the Japanese "Cat's Eye Warrior", ordinary people's vision would be at most a few dozen meters away. Only when the searchlights in the back swept across the sea could you see a peaceful water surface.

Of course, the American soldiers were not guarding here to prevent the Japanese army from attacking. Because this is impossible, next to Waikiki Beach is a dead volcano that has been transformed into a fortress - Diamond Mountain. The fortress cleverly used the special terrain of the crater and deployed 305mm and 203mm mortars near the inner wall of the crater. That was a blind spot for the Japanese battleships' guns!

In addition, there are many 155mm and 127mm cannons and howitzers deployed in tunnels on the southern foot of the Kulau Mountains north of Waikiki Beach, and the firepower can completely cover Waikiki Beach.

So this Waikiki Beach is not something that a small number of suicide squads riding kayaks can take.

The main task of the American soldiers guarding here is to catch Japanese spies, because there are many Japanese immigrants and expatriates in Hawaii Island, with a number of more than 100,000, which is the largest ethnic group in the Hawaiian Islands. Many of them have not forgotten their Japanese motherland, so they are easily recruited as spies by Japanese intelligence agencies.

Now that Japan has attacked the Hawaiian Islands, these Japanese expatriates who are concerned about their homeland are all hidden dangers. Now they are afraid that they will cooperate with foreign Japanese invaders, so General Short has deployed many marines in Honolulu to prevent Japanese residents from rebelling; on the other hand, he has sent people to strictly block all beaches that may lead to Japanese settlements in Honolulu to prevent Japanese spies from infiltrating.

At this time, Private First Class Baker of the U.S. Marine Corps was holding his rifle, looking at the sea again and again with his eyes wide open. He is a local white man in Hawaii, and his family lives on Oahu. Although his mother and fiancée are on the list of evacuation, they are not the priority to escape. So he is fighting to protect his family now, and he has to be extra careful.

At this time, a slight sound like the roar of a motor came from the sea. Under the cover of the gunfire from the plains of Oahu where the battle was going on in the north, the sound of these motors was easily ignored. But Private First Class Baker still heard it. He raised his rifle, leaned out of the trench a little, and then squinted his eyes to check carefully. Only then did he vaguely see that there seemed to be a boat-shaped object moving on the sea! Private First Class Baker's reaction was that the Japanese spies were coming, but in a blink of an eye he found that there seemed to be dozens of these moving boats on the sea! And these boats were about to rush to the beach.

He hurriedly shouted at the top of his voice: "Sneak attack! The enemy is coming!" While shouting, he raised his rifle and aimed at one of the boats and shot! The gunshots woke up all the people in the trenches, and they all picked up their weapons and leaned out of the trenches. Another person fired a flare to light up the sea outside the beach. With the help of the flare, Private First Class Baker actually saw a turret on a speedboat!

What is this? When Private First Class Baker was thinking, someone suddenly shouted in his ear: "Bombard! Take cover!"

Before the shouting ended, a 140mm shell fired by a Japanese Type B first-class submarine exploded in front of the trench where Private First Class Baker was.

The Japanese not only used submarines to transport tanks to land, but also used the artillery on the submarines to bombard Waikiki Beach, and then urgently dived before the US artillery counterattacked at the southern foot of Diamond Head and Kulau Mountains.

This seemingly fantastical tactic was actually intended to make the American troops on the shore mistakenly believe that a Japanese destroyer was approaching the beach, so as to temporarily attract the artillery on the shore and buy more time for the surprise attack troops. In fact, it was not a long way from Waikiki Beach to Diamond Head. It would take only a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes to reach the point. Moreover, according to the intelligence obtained by Japanese agents before the war, there were not many troops stationed on Diamond Head. The 900 Japanese Marines’ death squads plus 30 tanks could still succeed if they were caught off guard.

At this time, on the ocean less than 10 nautical miles away from Waikiki Beach, hundreds of Japanese transport ships and dozens of escorting ships had already deployed their formations. Thousands of officers and soldiers of the Japanese Taiwan Mixed Brigade were also ready, waiting for the Shandong Marines to succeed in the surprise attack on the drill head, and then they would launch a new amphibious landing operation!

"Tanks! They're tanks! Japanese tanks!"

"Oh my god! How did they get out of the sea?"

"Quick, stop them!"

"What to stop?"

"I don't know..."

"They're coming up, coming up!"

Waikiki Beach was in chaos at this time. The sudden appearance of 30 tanks made the American soldiers guarding here dumbfounded. Although they knew the concept of amphibious tanks, the ships that could transport amphibious tanks were all large ships. How could they quietly approach Waikiki Beach without being discovered? Although everyone didn't have the cat's eye magic, with searchlights sweeping over the sea again and again, how could they not find anything?

But now the dumbfounded American soldiers have no time to think about these things, because they are all running towards the city of Honolulu. Because they did not expect that tanks could be transported by submarines, the Marines guarding Waikiki Beach did not carry anti-tank guns. Although the Marines' anti-tank guns are also motorized, they can be pulled over by cars in a short time. But looking at the current situation, I am afraid it is a bit hanging!

…

"What? Japanese tanks rushed to Waikiki Beach? How is this possible?" Admiral Short's heart was a little broken when he heard the bad news.

He had high hopes for the counterattack tonight, and the troops dispatched were also very strong. Five infantry regiments alone were dispatched, and more than 150 tanks were provided for support. In addition, the artillery of the 24th and 25th Divisions of the US Army were also concentrated by him to fight back. But they just couldn't bite off the defense line of those short Japanese soldiers who wore ridiculous uniforms and had no good weapons except battleships.

But the result of the attack was extremely disappointing. Not only could they not bite it off (actually, it was not that they could not bite it off at all, the US military still pushed the Japanese army back several kilometers, but they could not hit their second line of defense), but they also broke a mouthful of big teeth. After several waves of attacks, the 24th and 25th Divisions had lost more than 100 M3 tanks! What puzzled General Short was that the anti-tank guns deployed by the Japanese behind the positions were obviously running out, so how could they continue to blow up their tanks?

And just at this time, the bad news of Japanese tanks rushing onto Waikiki Beach came!

"Did the Japanese land on Waikiki Beach in large numbers?"

The staff officer who reported to him replied: "General, it should be a large-scale landing! The Marine Corps reported that dozens of Japanese tanks covered thousands of infantry and rushed to the back of Diamond Mountain, captured several artillery positions on the southern foot of the Kulau Mountains, and are still climbing Diamond Mountain!"

It's over! General Short's eyes went dark and he almost fainted. The artillery positions on the southern foot of the Kulau Mountains were lost, Diamond Mountain was under siege, and the battle on the Oahu Plains could not be won... Now the US troops on Oahu are facing enemies from both sides!

"Admiral, Admiral, look at this!" Colonel Collins rushed to Short carrying something like a big hammer.

Short, with a blank mind, took a look at the thing in Colonel Collins's hand and asked, "What is this?"

"Admiral, this is a Japanese anti-tank weapon. They used it to destroy many of our M3 tanks."

It turned out that some American soldiers fighting on the front line picked up some Japanese "Iron Fist" anti-tank grenade launchers and handed them over to Colonel Collins.

"Admiral, this should be a simple grenade launcher." Colonel Collins said, "The range of this weapon must not be very far, maybe only a few dozen meters and no more than a hundred meters at most."

"So what?" Admiral Short asked.

"We just need to send infantry to clear the way in front of the tanks, and we can defeat those damned little Japanese!" said Colonel Collins, "At least we can beat them hard tonight!"

"No, we lost!" Admiral Short smiled bitterly, "The Japanese just landed on Waikiki Beach... Their tanks have rushed onto the beach, the navy's artillery positions on the southern foot of the Kulau Mountains have been destroyed, and Diamond Mountain is also under siege."

"What!?" Colonel Collins was stunned, and quickly turned his head to the south, only to see bursts of red light flashing in the sky there, obviously artillery shells or something else exploding.

"Admiral, the fighting is still going on, let's immediately send troops to reinforce." Colonel Collins immediately suggested.

Admiral Short just shook his head, raised his hand and pointed weakly at the place where the fierce fighting was going on in front of him, "Do you think the Japanese devils there will allow us to reinforce?"

"But... Admiral, what should we do now? Are we going to watch Diamond Mountain fall?"

"Let's retreat back to Wahiawa Town and Schofield Barracks first," Admiral Short sighed, "Then we will gather our troops... retreat to the Kulau Mountains to defend." He gritted his teeth, "I think the United States will not give up Hawaii! We will definitely wait for reinforcements!"