Therefore, the intelligence work of the US military was carried out based on Guam.

The US military used the officers and soldiers stationed on Guam to grasp Guam as comprehensively as possible and thus speculate that the Japanese army might have any changes in Guam’s defense. More importantly, since 1936, the Marine Corps School has conducted a tactical exercise on the "Guam Issue" of school-level officers. The exercise requires officers to study how to defend against imaginary hostile attacks against Guam and how to retake Guam from the enemy. Many of these officers are in the active US Marine Corps, and they have a clear understanding of the island’s terrain and natural barriers.

In fact, the US military's combat plan code-named "surprise attack" was carried out with Guam as the focus. This is not only because the US military has a lot of intelligence on Guam, but also because Guam is the largest island in the Mariana Islands, with two large Japanese airports... More importantly, once Guam is occupied, the US military's strategic purpose has actually been achieved, that is, the B29 bomber taken off from Guam can bomb the entire territory of Japan, and it also makes the shame of Guam being occupied by the Japanese.

However, Halsey was not satisfied with this, because Guam is located at the southernmost end of the Mariana Islands. If Guam was just captured, it was only 100 nautical miles away from Saipan, the main defense center of the Japanese army... The Japanese knew from the very beginning that the US military was familiar with the terrain of Guam, so although Guam was the largest island, there were not many airports on it. The Japanese army's airports were mainly distributed on Saipan (three airports) and the third largest island Tinian (four airports).

Therefore, if other islands are not occupied, it will make Guam like a thorn on its back, and bombers will also have to detour to bomb Japan, and there will be a crisis of being intercepted by the Japanese army.

However, the reconnaissance of other islands was not so smooth. The situation of other islands that the US military could obtain was only the hydrology of some coastlines detected by divers. As for aerial photography in the air... valuable information was never obtained due to cloud cover.

But this is not the most troublesome thing for Halsey. After all, it is sometimes harmless to not get accurate information. Halsey's idea is... After seizing the air and sea control rights of the Mariana Islands, he can safely let the reconnaissance aircraft conduct low-altitude reconnaissance or aerial photography. If it really doesn't work, take Guam first and then use Guam's airport to bomb Saipan and Tinian Islands. In this case, it is not difficult to obtain further information.

What really gave Halsey a headache was that the offensive troops were not prepared enough.

The Marine Corps only has one division of the Fourth Marine Division. This division, Halsey, is intended to be used to capture Guam. Guam is the top priority of the Marine Corps, so of course it must be handed over to the Marine Corps, who are most familiar with landing operations.

But the remaining two main islands, Saipan and Tinian Island... can only be handed over to the transferred 27th Infantry Division and the 77th Infantry Division.

Needless to mention the 27th Infantry Division, this division fought a battle when attacking Makin Island. One division had its troops attacked Makin Island, which was only a few hundred Japanese troops stationed for three days... Not only that, it also lost its troops and generals, and was finally surrounded by the Japanese army and needed squadrons to rescue it.

Because the Makin Island Battle participated in by this infantry division is relatively intense and has less casualties, it is now quickly transferred to the battlefield again. However, its previous performance really cannot reassure Halsey.

However, the 27th Division has been on the battlefield and has fought landing wars. Another division, the 77th Division Infantry Division, participated in the battle for the first time. Although this division had received intensive amphibious combat training in Hawaii before, the amphibious combat training in the United States was actually a bit out of date at this time... This is not actually the US military, mainly amphibious combat is still fresh at this time, with tactics every day, and new equipment on the battlefield, such as "tank landing ships", "Donald Duck", "fire-breathing tanks", etc., spring up like mushrooms after a rain.

Even the Chinese Expeditionary Force, which had been fighting on the battlefield, were a little uncomfortable with these new equipment, let alone those infantry divisions that were only "intensively trained" in the rear.

This is not... When preparing to fight the Mariana Naval Battle, the US military put two new equipment into its equipment: one is an amphibious armored vehicle nicknamed "Duck", and the other is solidification.

Compared with the amphibious landing vehicle LVT, the difference is that the amphibious landing vehicle is tracked, while the "duck" is a car tire... Simply put, the "duck" is more like a car driving in the water, specially used for freight transportation equipment.

This is designed for the insufficient load capacity of amphibious landing vehicles. As we all know, in landing operations, a large amount of equipment is often required to be quickly transported in a short period of time, such as artillery, ammunition, and even jeep. The amphibious landing vehicles cannot do this because they are heavy and the space is not large enough, so the "duck" amphibious armored vehicles came into being... It can almost be said to be a ship loaded with car wheels, thinner armor piercings and larger hulls make it easy to load a cannon or jeep, and even tow a pontoon bridge full of equipment... This pontoon bridge can sometimes be replaced by empty oil barrels tied together.

This is obviously of great help for landing troops to consolidate their equipment after they get ashore.

Needless to say, another napalm bomb is the same as this thing is blown into pieces, and it burns for a long time and has great lethality.

Especially the napalm used in this bomb... The US is currently studying the filling of the napalm into the flamethrower, and it is not difficult. It is not surprising that doing so will definitely increase the lethality of the flamethrower exponentially.

What made Halsey feel a little relieved was that although the combat effectiveness of these two infantry divisions could not satisfy him, at least the Chinese troops were still there...

"How much time do we have?" Halsey asked the staff officer.

"What?" The staff officer was a little puzzled.

"Our preparation time!"

"Oh!" The staff officer thought about it and replied: "Da Lum still has one month left. We need time to replenish ammunition and fuel for aircraft carriers, warships and fighter jets!"

"Yeah!" Halsey nodded, and then ordered: "Immediately transfer the 77th Infantry Division and the 27th Infantry Division to Rabaul to allow them to receive training from the Chinese troops!"

"Yes! Sir!" the staff officer responded.

Halsey's eyes were always staring at the map of the Mariana Islands on the table and did not leave. He was still worried that the landing troops would not be able to successfully capture the target island, or that the war would still require the help of the squadron in the end.

What Halsey didn't know was that the focus of this battle was actually not on landing operations.

...
Chapter completed!