Therefore, if the naval gun is used to cover firepower on the ground forces, there will be a problem... The targeting is obviously the enemy, but because the sea water fluctuates or the recoil of the fire, the shells will fall on their heads in pieces.

Therefore, in this era, the more important thing that naval guns can play in the battlefield is fire preparation... The US military often does this on the Pacific battlefield. Before attacking an island, the US military has not landed yet, so the naval gun can be safely bombed. Even if the naval gun has a large error, it doesn't matter. As long as it can hit the island, it will hit the enemy. Kill him for a few days and nights and turn the fortifications on the island into the sky. At this time, the US military began to land.

Once the army arrives ashore, the more fire cover is air force with much higher hits than naval guns.

The current situation of the US military is in such an embarrassing state.

It was darkness at this time. Fighters and bombers could not implement effective fire cover. All they could do was use naval guns... The unreliable hit rate of naval guns put the US military on the beach itself in danger. Even once the enemy broke into the range one kilometer before the beachhead position, the naval gun would basically fail, because it was confirmed that it would accidentally hurt its own people.

This is also the reason why General Patton is "uncertain".

It is also the basis for the implementation of Qin Chuan's plan to lure the enemy... Because there are large errors in naval guns, the US military will inevitably push the cordon out a few kilometers from the perspective of its own safety, because only in this way can it ensure that it has sufficient reaction time and can ensure that the naval guns will not accidentally hurt friendly forces.

Qin Chuan guessed correctly. General Patton drew the range of the first five kilometers of the beachhead position as a cordon. Whenever there was any movement, it was when the naval guns came into play.

From Patton's perspective, this is correct. Why not use shells to block the enemy outside when there is sufficient ammunition to ensure the safety of the US military and the beachhead positions?!

So, a cracking sound came from the palm woods, like a tree being knocked down by a tank. Then a faint "rumbling" sound of a tank motor came from the sea breeze, and occasionally the "cracking" sound made when the tracks rubbed against the transmission wheel.

"They are here!" A US military lookout hand standing on the sentry tower, observing the distance with a telescope, poked his head out and shouted loudly downwards.

Because the beach is low and has no high ground, in order to observe the distance, the US military could only use local materials to build more than a dozen sentry towers with palm trees, which are artillery observers of ship guns.

"How far?" asked General Patton.

"Da Luan Four Kilometers!" The lookout hand replied: "I'm not sure!"

It is indeed not easy to determine the distance of the target in the dark, but the artillery observers certainly have their own way... The method is to calculate the distance between the two towers in advance, and then based on the angle at which the two towers see the target, the distance of the target can be calculated from the triangle theorem.

Not long after, the observer shouted: "4.6 kilometers!"

"4.6 kilometers!" The correspondent immediately reported the data to the warship.

General Patton gave the order: "Let it go!"

"Boom boom" loudly, dozens of warships spewed out large pieces of artillery shells 4.6 kilometers in front of the beachhead position. The shells crossed from far to near with a roar. The light flashed across the nervous and terrified American soldiers' faces, and then smashed them hard into the palm forest four kilometers away.

With a violent vibration, a wall of fire rose outside the beachhead position, and the heat waves of fire rose rushed to the shore one after another.

General Patton ordered in the flames: "Fire!"

In an instant, all the US military fired up the weapons, howitzers, mortars, rifles, and machine guns in their hands, roaring and pouring bullets and shells into the palm forest.

After a while, everyone stopped at Patton's order, and the surroundings suddenly became quiet. There were only a few palm trees in the jungle falling down in the fire, and some screams and wails could be heard faintly.

"We blocked them!" The lookout hand shouted: "I didn't see anyone attacking us, they should have retreated!"

"Hao!" The US soldiers couldn't help but cheer.

However, suddenly, several shells hit their positions and brought out a piece of sand nearby.

"Quiet! Don't Weizi!" General Patton shouted in anger: "They are staring at us in the dark!"

At this time, the US military was like a frightened bird. As long as there was a little movement, they would make an extreme self-protection action... and fired a large number of shells into the jungle, and sometimes they would dispatch B17 to throw a bomb in the depths of the jungle to destroy suspected enemy artillery positions.

What they didn't know was that the Germans in the jungle had only one company. They dug up individual bunkers in advance and divided them into several parts to hide in the jungle. Then they used their horns to play the sound of the pre-recorded armored troops as they advanced, simulating attacks again and again.

This directly led to almost being blown into scorched earth around the US beachhead... At dawn the next day, the US military saw that there were layers of overlapping craters in the first few kilometers of the beachhead. The palm forest had long disappeared, leaving only broken wood and tree roots that were blown into jagged shapes. But strangely, the body was almost impossible to find.

Montgomery was a little relieved when she heard that the US military was attacked by the German army "violently" because this meant that his guess was wrong, and the German army's target was not Syracuse... At this time, Montgomery would rather guess wrongly.

Because Montgomery knew what it meant if Syracuse was attacked, Syracuse stored all the tens of thousands of tons of ammunition and supplies needed by the British army. If these supplies and port equipment were destroyed, it was not a problem of the transportation being cut off, but a problem of the British army not having enough supplies to continue fighting on the island.

"The location of the 6th Australian Infantry Division?" asked Montgomery.

"It's still two kilometers away from Catania!" De Gangan replied: "The enemy blew up the bridge, destroyed the road, and buried a large number of mines. We couldn't move forward!"

"Transfer the 7th Armored Division back!" Montgomery ordered: "From Bronte to Catania to cooperate with the attack of the 6th Infantry Division!"

"Yes, sir!"

At this time, Montgomery no longer dared to attack the port of Messina. He only hoped to retreat step by step to save Syracuse.

After looking at the watch, it was two hours before dawn, Montgomery couldn't help but relax a little. As soon as the sky was dawn, the British army could suppress the German armored forces with air superiority.
Chapter completed!