There was no sound on the battlefield. That was because there were not many people alive on the entire battlefield.
Even if they were still alive, they were still stunned for a long time, and the sudden and fierce artillery fire knocked them all unconscious.
The entire 17th Division was fully prepared for this battle. The soil in Snowflake Mountain was not dominated by rock formations like the Niangziguan area. Many trenches on the highlands could be dug to a depth of nearly 2 meters.
The extremely necessary fortification of anti-gun holes is a top priority. The primitive forest provides enough wood to basically ensure that an infantry platoon has two anti-gun holes, and there are as many as a dozen anti-gun holes for individual soldiers.
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If replaced by a 75mm mountain gun, these anti-gun holes and trenches would be enough to provide cover for the soldiers.
But facing the terrifying 105-caliber howitzers, the trenches were still too shallow after all. The anti-gun holes also seemed so fragile.
"Save people! Save people! My brother is still inside. Come and help me dig people out!" A soldier with a dark face, wearing a second lieutenant's collar and only one arm covered in blood cried and staggered along.
The trenches, which had collapsed in several places, were running and shouting.
Until he met a soldier who was fully clothed and sitting in the trench with his legs straight out. He stumbled hard on the outstretched leg. Regardless of the blood flowing from his head, the second lieutenant grabbed the soldier who had tripped him.
The soldiers who arrived roared angrily in their local accent: "What are you still doing sitting here, you good people? Come with me to save people!"
However, the soldier ignored him and just stared at the second lieutenant with a strange expression on his face without saying a word.
Then, as the second lieutenant shook wildly, a mouthful of black blood with a few fragments spurted out from his mouth, his head dropped, and he died.
His internal organs had already been shattered by the terrible shock wave caused by the explosion of the shell. If he moved even slightly, the last trace of life was cut off.
The corpses of soldiers who died silently can be seen everywhere in the trenches despite their appearance being intact, but internally damaged.
That's because the terrifying power of the 105 howitzer's explosion doesn't even require the splashing shrapnel and shock waves to kill people. The violent shaking of the ground alone is enough to kill people.
During an artillery attack, lying flat on the ground is also the wrong way to avoid death.
The current composition of officers and soldiers of the 17th Division has less than 3,000 veterans, but as many as 5,000 recruits who have just joined the army less than half a year ago, and the other 4,000 have just been rescued from prisoner of war camps.
The equipment is better than last year, but the quality of the soldiers is actually not as good as before.
"Dead, dead again." As the soldier's head drooped, the second lieutenant's hands suddenly stiffened and he muttered to himself.
Wiping away the tears rolling down his eyes with the back of his dirty hands, the second lieutenant seemed to be cheering himself up: "I don't believe that we can't find anyone alive in this entire company."
However, as he raised his head, wherever he looked, there were either soldiers lying prone or lying in extremely weird postures in the trenches. Without even checking, the second lieutenant knew that they were already dead.
As for the outside of the trenches, there is no need to look. Even if there are any, they will be blown away. No one can survive in the face of the air wave that can destroy the deep trenches dug under the surface.
The tears he had just wiped away from his eyes finally fell hard again. He really couldn't find anyone alive.
He has an entire infantry platoon under his command! On this position with two complete trenches and an area of 20,000 square meters, there are three infantry squads with a total of 49 people.
What is despair? Despair that goes deep into the bone marrow.
This is.
When you need a comrade but find yourself alone.
"Ah~~~" Like a lone wolf, the broken-armed second lieutenant suddenly fell to his knees, beat the ground hard, and let out a heart-rending howl.
The bright and warm autumn sun shines slantingly on the mountains. It was originally the favorite weather for those who have a quiet time, but the rising smoke on the position and the burning forest around it, coupled with the loneliness of the second lieutenant kneeling there,
The figure of despair forms a contrast that strongly impacts human tear glands.
This is war, beauty will only be brutally smashed!
When the commander of the 3rd Company of the 102nd Regiment, 1st Battalion, 300 meters away, led two infantry squads to the high ground in front of his infantry company, he saw his second lieutenant infantry platoon with only one arm left.
Chang, using his only remaining arm, was digging desperately in a piece of rubble.
Half of his body was soaked in blood, and his intact right hand was also dripping with blood.
The place he dug was the largest bombproof hole on Highland 489.
It was at his urging that more than two infantry squads dug overnight, digging a large hole of more than 30 square meters along the mountain wall, and chopped down more than a dozen large trees for support, enough for two infantrymen to hide inside.
Class 30 people.
Covered with a layer of soil more than 1 meter deep, the second lieutenant of the Army was convinced that unless it was hit by a heavy aerial bomb, this shell-proof hole could completely withstand the bombardment of 75mm mountain artillery.
But this Army second lieutenant, who had never experienced the 105-caliber howitzer raging on the battlefield, underestimated the power of heavy artillery.
A cannonball exploded fifteen meters away from the cannon-proof hole. The cannonball crater, which was more than one meter deep and could hold two Eight Immortals tables, proved the power of the cannonball.
At such a close range, although the bombhole was not blown up, it was collapsed.
The two infantry squads who hid inside were all buried inside.
The infantry reinforcements pulled away the already crazy ensign and dug desperately with shovels and hands. However, it was too late. The soil above the collapsed cave filled all the gaps. No one could survive the ten-year-long tunnel.
A few minutes of hypoxia.
As the gray bodies were carried out one after another, the soldiers who stretched out their hands to test their breath and listen carefully to their heartbeats kept shaking their heads. The second lieutenant's face became more and more gray, so gray that even the most stone-hearted people could not bear to look back.
look.
We are all soldiers, and everyone knows how it feels to lose a comrade who has been with you day and night.
In particular, this infantry platoon only survived this horrific bombardment.
"Take him down for treatment and tell the regiment medical team that I must take good care of him." The muscles on the face of the captain and company commander who rushed here twitched violently several times. There were several bodies that had not been completely cleaned in the anti-bomb hole.
Before the body was carried out, the order was issued decisively.
In fact, his subtext was to save the second lieutenant platoon leader under his command who was promoted from the deputy squad leader of the infantry.
Because, although the second lieutenant platoon leader's shocking broken arm wound had been wrapped in military uniform by the soldiers who came over, there was no longer bleeding at this time.
It's not that the bleeding has stopped, but that his blood is almost gone!
"No, no one can touch me. These are my brothers. I want to watch them come out." The second lieutenant suddenly yelled crazily, twisting his body desperately as several soldiers were about to force him away. He had just been forcibly roughed up.
The bandaged severed arm wound was dripping with blood again, and the severe pain made his dark face become horribly distorted.
The captain's face was dark, and he looked up at the sky to hide the tears flashing in his eyes. But after all, he did not want to refuse his subordinate's wish. He waved his hand and said, "Forget it, let him wait first!"
Even though he was used to seeing life and death, his infantry platoon and the entire garrison on a high ground were all wiped out by a single artillery strike before the Japanese army could fire a single shot. For this battle-hardened captain and company commander,
That being said, the blow is big enough.
Especially for the captain who has experienced a similar scene. Last year, he was just a second lieutenant platoon leader. In the end, no more than one infantry platoon in the entire battalion was able to evacuate the battlefield with him!
Unexpectedly, a year later, the cruelty would reappear and the tragedy would happen again!
The pain in his heart was probably no less than half that of the crazy-looking second lieutenant platoon leader in front of him.
Finally, the last soldier inside was dug out. His face was very pale, but his face was unexpectedly clean.
He was also a very young soldier. Looking at his face, he could not be more than seventeen years old. He was firmly protected by at least five soldiers, unlike other soldiers who had gravel in their mouths and noses.
One of the only two medical soldiers in the entire company who rushed here was ecstatic at that moment. He carefully put his hand under his nose. Unable to feel the warm breath he was expecting, he pulled him away again.
He pulled open his military uniform, put his ear on his thin chest and listened for a long time. Under everyone's expectant eyes, he closed his eyes in pain and shook his head silently.
"I don't believe it. If I don't believe it, no one will survive." The second lieutenant broke away from the two soldiers holding him and rushed forward crazily.
"Zinenliang Erdan, you are such a good mother, please come back to life. Your mother is still waiting for you at home! If you don't live, I will be the only one in the whole platoon. How can I hold the position! You are such a good person.
I’m going to live! Come back to life!” The second lieutenant frantically took one hand, which was cut with blood by the sand and gravel, and beat it hard on the thin chest of the young soldier.
This scene made the soldiers around him shed tears.
Yes! He is the only one left in the platoon.
Who else would be willing to accept it?
As the second lieutenant hammered the soldier's chest crazily, a miracle occurred.
The young soldier suddenly coughed violently.
"Erdan, are you really alive? Damn you, please smile like me." The second lieutenant was obviously stunned by the huge surprise in the surprised eyes of the soldiers around him, and he asked in disbelief.
"Ahem, platoon leader, if you hit me again, I might really be beaten to death." The young soldier smiled weakly at his platoon leader.
"Haha, I knew I wouldn't be the only one left, haha!" the second lieutenant laughed crazily.
The soldiers also cheered, but while laughing, many of them cried.
Howling!
Including the captain and company commander who just hid his tears!
Just now, it was the commander who was holding his soldier and crying.
Now, it was his soldiers who were hugging their commander and crying.
The second lieutenant platoon leader, whose left arm was blown off and had lost an unknown amount of blood, had already run out of energy. He had been waiting in high spirits for his soldiers to be rescued. It was purely a hope that supported him.
After seeing that one soldier from his infantry platoon had finally survived, his spirits relaxed, and his body, which was already exhausted, could no longer hold on.
"Erdan, as long as you are alive, our platoon will not be dead. After this battle, burn a paper for the brothers, and you can go home! For the sake of all the brothers in the platoon who died in the battle, the company commander, battalion commander
Commander, the regimental commander and the others will agree." The second lieutenant's dirty face was instantly as pale as paper, and he moved his lips and said weakly to the young soldier who turned over and hugged him.
"Platoon leader!"
Then, amid the wailing of the young soldier, the second lieutenant's head drooped little by little, and there was no more sound.
His blood is drained!
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The tragic situation on Highland 489 is just a microcosm of the entire Snowflake Mountain Highlands.
In this round of shelling, the 102nd Regiment of the 17th Division in the Snowflake Mountain Highlands killed 109 people and injured 208 people on the spot. An infantry regiment with a total strength of more than 2,200 people had not yet officially engaged the Japanese army, and suffered one-tenth of the battle losses.
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The white-haired general who had just returned to the division headquarters received the battle report from the 102nd Regiment Headquarters, and frowned. Although he had made up his mind to die, the power of the Japanese army still exceeded his expectations. I am afraid that this battle will be worse than the battle report.
It was much more difficult than he imagined.
"Can artillery observers calculate the approximate direction and distance of Japanese artillery positions based on ballistic trajectories?" The white-haired general looked solemnly at the mountains not far away that were still emitting a large amount of smoke.
"There is no way. The artillery shelling our division's positions this time are all 105-caliber heavy artillery. According to calculations, the distance is at least 7,000 meters away. Even if our artillery battalion moves forward regardless of life and death, it will not be able to reach them." The major general's chief of staff looked helpless.
"If you can't reach their artillery, then hit their infantry. Tell the artillery battalion that as long as the stubborn Japanese dare to attack, no matter if it is a tentative attack or something else, don't be stingy with artillery shells and fire them back. Kill me."
Bing, I want him to give his life for his life!"
"But our army's artillery shells..." the major general's chief of staff hesitated.
"Use as many artillery shells as you can. Once the shells are gone, the artillerymen will carry rifles to me and go to the front line. The stubborn Japanese will do this to me when they come up. If we give in, then they really think that my 17th Division is a soft persimmon.
Already." The white-haired general waved his hand, his voice low but extremely determined.
This fight is not about face, but about morale!
The officers and soldiers of the 102nd Regiment on the Snowflake Mountain Highlands were struggling under the fierce Japanese artillery fire, and their morale was inevitably low. Naturally, the morale of the Japanese infantry was high. However, when the 20 mountain guns owned by the 17th Division did not hesitate to fire crazy shells, neither did the Japanese infantry.
Even if it is made of iron, there will be heavy casualties!
This is called pointing a finger at the enemy. Not only do you tell your officers and soldiers that you will also have artillery support, but you also use the same fierce attitude to remind the Japanese that I also have artillery.
The 20 75mm mountain guns and the 8,000 rounds of artillery shells carried this time are the greatest confidence that the 17th Division dares to fight this tough battle with the 20th Division!
But the Japanese Major General Yoshito Takagi, commander of the brigade 4,000 meters away, had no idea that his opponent still had such a trump card. He was still preparing for the Snowflake Mountain attack according to his own tactical plan.
However, Yoshito Takagi is extremely cunning!
Unlike the 21st Division, which lost its lieutenant general division commander before the main defense line at Niangzi Pass, and then began to use infantry to attack after preparing artillery fire, Takagi Yoshito did not use infantry for the entire afternoon.
Bombardment! Bombardment! Still bombardment!
The 105 howitzers took a break, and the 36 75mm mountain guns were added. Until the sky darkened, the entire Snowflake Mountain area was still extremely bright.
All kinds of explosive bombs and incendiary bombs wreaked havoc in the positions and mountains and forests.
The entire Snowflake Mountain is like a blazing bonfire, burning from day to night!
The bodies of Chinese soldiers are bleeding, and the hearts of Chinese commanders are bleeding!
But this is an extremely cruel reality. Even though the equipment of the 17th Division has now been replaced by shotguns and cannons, it is still far inferior to the Japanese invaders who had heavy artillery.
Chinese soldiers still have to rely on tenacity to stick to their positions.
Just like after hearing that the 17th Division was hit by heavy artillery on the front line and urgently needed the support of a group of field doctors, Dan immediately arrived at the headquarters of the 17th Division in two hours with 16 nurses, 4 military doctors and a batch of medicines, accompanied by a guard platoon.
Tai Mingyue wrote in the opening chapter of a battlefield diary titled "The Eternal Number."
"The Japanese army's artillery fire was fierce, and the officers and soldiers of our 17th Division suffered numerous casualties, but they still went forward and fought without hesitation!
I saw hordes of stretcher teams at the 17th Division headquarters!
There are seriously injured people who are in urgent need of treatment, but more of them are the remains covered with white cloth!
I have seen such scenes too many times from Songhu to Guangde and then to Taihang, but my heart still trembles!
I dare not look at the pale and young faces under the white cloth, even if his comrades ask me to leave a photo for them. It may be the first and last time those young people take pictures in their lives, leaving some for their families.
Think about it.
But I know that my hands will shake and the lens will be blurred!
Until, I saw that young soldier!
Yes, he was very young, only seventeen or eighteen years old. At this age, if there had been no war, he might have been a student studying in a school in the city, or a young man helping his parents work in the village.
However, the man standing in front of me is now a warrior.
Wearing a dusty dark blue military uniform, he was carrying a rifle that was not much different from his height. He had four grenades in his waist and a bandolier with more than a dozen yellow bullets in his chest.
When I first saw him, he was kneeling on his knees, like a statue, and in front of him was a row of remains! I could feel the deep sadness in the young soldier's thin body, and I could only stop and wait from a distance.
The senior staff officer who accompanied me told me that opposite the area where the young soldier was kneeling was his infantry platoon! He was ordered to die by the battalion commander, who ordered him to accompany his brothers who died in battle back to the division headquarters.
Yes, that was an entire infantry platoon, one soldier was kneeling, and everyone else was lying down!
Really, even though I had long thought that my heart had been hardened by so much cruelty, at that moment my heart was still hurt by the impact of this information, so painful that my breathing stopped at that moment.
Even when I was writing this paragraph, that back figure appeared in front of me again, thin and lonely!
The soldier was finally called out. I didn't know how to interview him, but he was calmer than I thought.
When he learned about my background, without waiting for me to ask, he grinned and told me that his platoon leader ordered him to burn some pieces of paper for all the brothers in the platoon before he died.
However, there was no yellow paper on the battlefield, so he had to borrow a few pieces of white paper from the division headquarters and dirty it in the dirt to turn it into yellow paper.
He has fulfilled the platoon leader's instructions!
When talking about the death of the entire platoon, his platoon leader dug him out of the collapsed artillery hole and died due to excessive blood loss. His brothers in the infantry squad protected him and gave him room to survive.
But they themselves died silently. When he narrated all this very calmly, I couldn't help but tears streaming down my cheeks, but he remained extremely calm.
If I hadn't seen his extremely sad back earlier, I would have labeled him cold-blooded.
I didn't understand it at the time, but I soon understood.
"The platoon leader said that as long as I am not dead, our platoon will not die, and our platoon will continue to fight. Tantai reporter, goodbye!" These were the last words he left for me, and then he walked toward me with a gun on his back.
A position that once belonged to him.
At that moment, I couldn't hold back my tears anymore.
I understand why he is so calm.
I want to hold him, but I know I can't hold him.
Even if there is a major or a lieutenant colonel standing behind him, or even if his division commander is standing two hundred meters away, they can only watch silently, watching this young soldier, carrying a gun on his back, heading towards the building 1,000 meters away.
Still in the scorching burning position!
The Japanese artillery fire has not stopped yet!
Their military orders can make this soldier stop, but how can they stop a soldier's heart?
He will definitely return to Highland 489!
Due to confidentiality reasons, I cannot write down the specific number of this infantry platoon in my diary, but the number will be engraved in my heart and will never be erased!"
This chapter has been completed!