The 39th Infantry Brigade in front of Chen Bing's Snow Flower Mountain seemed to have no intention of breaking through the 17th Division's defense line in a short period of time.
From the afternoon to eight o'clock in the evening, the 105 heavy artillery and the 75 mountain artillery took turns firing, during which 18 Japanese planes were summoned to drop bombs and wreak havoc!
According to post-war statistics, in just this wave of shelling and bombing for more than five hours, the artillery wing of the 20th Division consumed 3,000 artillery shells of various types and 100 aerial bombs of various types!
This amount of ammunition consumption alone has exceeded the consumption of the entire battlefield last year during the five-day and five-night fierce battle between the 40th Infantry Brigade and the 17th Division.
This shows Yoshito Takagi’s persistence in artillery doctrine.
But this does not mean that Yoshito Takagi does not want to earn merit. On the contrary, he needs the merit of this Jindong battle too much. However, this Japanese Army Major General with extremely rich battlefield experience understands the principle of haste but not speed.
The personnel transfer of the 20th Division has long been noisy. Saburo Kawagishi has reached the age and is about to be transferred. He is the only one qualified to become the commander of the 20th Division unless he is airborne. Looking at the 20th Division, he is the only one of the 39th Infantry Brigade.
There are only two Major Generals, the brigade commander and Major General Yoshio Uezuki of the 40th Infantry Brigade.
In this kind of war, it has always been a taboo in the military to parachute a top commander who is unfamiliar with the battlefield. The possibility of the new division commander being promoted from within is as high as 80%.
Especially when I think about the fact that before the expedition, His Excellency Saburo Kawagishi, who was stationed at Shimen, saw him off with a smile on his face, and in addition to leaving less than two thousand troops to guard Shimen, he also insisted that most of the troops directly under the division be placed under his command. Yoshito Takagi
My heart was on fire.
As long as the current defense line is broken, the triangular defense of China's Jindong Army is completely destroyed, and the Chinese army with tens of thousands of troops is finally annihilated, the position of Lieutenant General Division Commander seems to be within easy reach!
As for Yoshio Uezuki, Yoshito Takagi was secretly happy.
The division has received intelligence. The main force of the Chinese army on this line of defense is the 921st Division, which belongs to the Chinese Eightyth Army. That unit is recognized as the backbone of the front army. Even arrogant Shiro Itagaki mentioned that he wants to fight this unit.
At that time, I was still helpless.
It's such a hard nut, if you try to bite them, your teeth will definitely break. Moreover, it is not the 20th Division that dominates the battlefield over there, but the 18th Division.
After all, the 18th Division was not only commanded by the Front Army Headquarters to conduct a large-scale detour, but also the entire division attacked. Among them, the commander of the general division served as the highest commander of the attack line. He had military exploits. Last month, Liangfu was able to divide the slag capital.
Not bad.
Under such good news, Takagi Yoshito must be even more cautious and never allow himself to make any mistakes.
There are plenty of artillery shells. For this battle, the front army headquarters, which has always been searching hard, is bleeding heavily this time. Only the 20th Division has prepared a reserve of 20,000 artillery shells and 4 million machine rifle bullets. Arms are constantly flowing from Pingjin.
The two cities were transported to Shimen, and then put on special trains to be transported to Jingxing and HD. Moreover, all the baggage troops were provided by the front army, just so that the frontline divisions could fight the enemy with all their strength!
With such strong support, can Yoshito Takagi, who has always believed in the "artillery doctrine", not be able to pour all his firepower on the high ground where the Chinese are entrenched?
If possible, he even planned to bombard the Snowflake Mountain positions for two days before launching an infantry attack. However, the news that the 21st Division suffered a heavy setback on the Niangziguan front reached Takagi Yoshito in the evening, and he knew that his wish would be difficult.
Achieved.
The pressure from the front army headquarters will soon be passed on to him. His Excellency General Shanshan Yuan, who has been planning this plan for so long, originally expected this battle to regain the face he suffered in the previous battle of Southeast Shanxi. He would never
If he allowed this battle to be lost again, he would not consider the casualties at all.
The 21st Division said it was going to attack the main defense line in front of Niangziguan with all its strength in the afternoon, but it only used two infantry brigades. Compared with the three infantry regiments under its command, with a scale of tens of thousands of infantry, it was actually just a trial.
The attack involved the use of a fleet of chariots, which looked spectacular from a scene perspective.
Faced with the roar of these steel behemoths, the First Battalion of the Four Elements Regiment was finally forced to reveal its trump card, and the 7mm heavy machine gun appeared in full force.
The MG34 heavy machine gun was not placed in the machine gun bunker at all, because the overall firearm was much lighter than the Maxim machine gun, so the four heavy machine gunners basically emptied 100 rounds of ammunition and immediately changed positions with the gun.
To prevent being attacked by infantry artillery and grenade launchers, you can also take this opportunity to cool down the barrel of your gun!
The faster the machine gun fires, the easier it is for the barrel to heat up and affect the rate of fire and accuracy. Although each MG34 machine gun is equipped with 3 spare barrels, in order to ensure continuous fire output, it is not a last resort. Machine gun shooters are
The barrel will not be replaced voluntarily.
The machine gun bunker is stationed with 7mm heavy machine guns and 20mm machine guns, both of which have sufficient armor-piercing capabilities.
Especially when the Japanese tanks appeared, all 7mm heavy machine guns were replaced with steel-core bullets. The armor-piercing capability of 300 meters can completely penetrate 13mm armor steel plates. Perhaps the thickness of the front armor of the Japanese Type 89 medium tank is 17mm.
A steel-core bullet cannot effectively penetrate the steel plate on its front, but when this kind of heavy machine gun bullet with a rate of fire of up to 400 rounds per minute continues to hit the steel plate with bullets, making that creepy "dongdong" sound, even if
Even the toughest tanker can't bear it!
Because you don’t know when you might be pierced by such a large bullet. The feeling is even more terrifying than being pierced by a cannonball through a steel plate!
If the continuous firing of the 7mm machine gun posed a huge threat to the Type 89 tank, causing it to stop advancing after reaching 400 meters of the first trench, and only provide support to the infantry with the 57mm short-barreled gun, the Japanese infantry would be angry.
He scolded and turned pale. When the 20mm machine gun started to join the battle with the sound of "Winter! Winter!" that resounded throughout the battlefield, it was the Japanese infantry and tank soldiers who simultaneously
The wrinkles shrink and the little face turns pale!
The target of the 20mm machine gun will not be anything other than the Type 89 tank, but at a distance of 400 meters, if it hits, it will no longer leave deep bullet marks and frightening metal impact sounds like the 7mm machine gun.
, that will really penetrate the armor!
Regardless of the fact that Yin Tangxiuer, center left, ordered four infantry artillery pieces to enter the dangerous distance of 1,000 meters, which can continuously fire directly at the targets with heavy firepower. However, the machine gun bunker at the second line of defense was first exposed to the surface by less than one meter, leaving
The maneuverable space for the gunner is extremely small, and it is extremely sturdy.
Four 70mm infantry guns and the 57mm short-barreled gun of the 89 tank all bombarded this machine gun bunker that emitted deadly flames, but they did not hit it and blast it away as they imagined!
In addition to blowing up some sandbags piled on the outer edge, the bunker is still spewing deadly bullets!
The most powerful offensive equipment under Yin Tangxiuer's left hand was ineffective, which caused the two 7mm machine guns and a Suluotong 20mm machine gun located on the second company position to chase four 89 tanks and 12 94 tanks on the position.
tank.
What's even more terrible is that after the infantry artillery opened fire, the Chinese mortars hidden behind the mountain began to fire. It was a small artillery group consisting of 6 82-caliber mortars and 3 80mm howitzers.
The distance of 1,000 meters was too close. Even if the infantry artillery was hidden in the dense forest, the thick smoke rising from the shelling could easily be seen by the lurking artillery observers of the battalion.
The nine mortars did not engage in any precise burst fire, but concentrated fire barrages. A salvo of nine shells covered a certain area, and then another round of coverage, with a continuous salvo of 15 rounds. More than 120 shells were extremely scattered.
The area with the four infantry guns opened was plowed back and forth twice, allowing the 21st Division to fully appreciate what unlimited artillery fire means!
"Baga! Didn't you say that the Chinese artillery is very limited and the ammunition reserve is extremely low?" Yin Tangxiuer looked at the artillery position less than a mile away from him being pressed to the ground by the roaring Chinese artillery fire, feeling painful
's roar.
He must have fought a fake Chinese army. Compared with the Chinese army on the opposite side, his infantry brigade seemed more like the Chinese army.
That is what the stunned Japanese Army center left doesn’t know. This is only the artillery firepower of the Four Lines Regiment Artillery Battalion. The 12 Bofors Mountain Cannons and 12 150-caliber heavy guns of the Four Lines Regiment Artillery Battalion have been used until now.
Still hiding under the camouflage net and waiting.
In fact, the two infantry brigades participating in the attack now only have 2,000 troops, so it is not worth using them!
Tang Tuanzuo's philosophy has always been that once he wields a big stick, he will hit the opponent so hard that he can no longer relax!
I wonder if Yoon Tang Sooul would have had the courage to continue the attack if he could see the muzzles of cannons that were raised but not fired 1,000 meters away behind the mountain.
But at least we haven't completely lost confidence yet. Even in the first round of attacks, three 94 tanks were beaten into sieves. They were all masterpieces of Browning's 7mm machine guns!
After trying to shoot through the Type 89 tank parked hundreds of meters away, the two 7mm heavy machine guns set their targets on those tiny little beetles that were running extremely fast.
8 Little Dougins were ordered to use machine guns to provide fire support to the advancing infantry. Due to their small size, powerful diesel engines and tracks, they showed their mobility and flexibility on the hillside, just like a small motor.
Jumping back and forth more than 300 meters away, 16 machine guns opened fire so fiercely that the Chinese officers and soldiers in the front line trenches could not even raise their heads.
If it weren't for the fierce firepower of two heavy machine gun-type MG34s, nearly 400 Japanese troops would have crawled to the most dangerous 100 meters!
But as the saying goes: if you often walk by the river, your shoes will not get wet! As you climb the mountains, you will eventually encounter a tiger. When a small car drove into a bomb crater in a hurry, it was a crater more than half a meter deep caused by a 105 grenade.
The crater, the engine at the rear was spewing black smoke, and while the entire vehicle was still struggling to escape, the 7mm machine gun that was chasing him and shooting finally found an opportunity.
Shooting 40 rounds of bullets in one breath, the steel plate with only 5 millimeters on the side of the little bean sprout was completely unable to withstand the steel core bullet with a muzzle velocity of 940 meters at a distance of 330 meters!
Big holes visible to the naked eye continue to appear on the body of this poor little kid!
There was no explosion, but this Type 94 armored vehicle did not get out of trouble until this round of offensive and defensive battles came to an end. It just stayed quietly in this small crater with its head down and its butt up, just like a car burying its head in the sand.
ostrich.
Both China and Japan included it in the battle results (battle damage) at the same time, because in the small space of the Type 94 tank, as long as a bullet can break through its armor, the three members inside will be dead, not to mention that at least the side will be shot out.
Fifteen or six big holes.
This is also true. In the evening, when the Japanese army raised the white flag and sent out the corpse collection team to collect the corpses on the battlefield, the three corpses pulled out of the Little Doudin tank were almost three lumps of minced meat, and more than a dozen thick warheads shot into the tank were impacting
When it hits the inner wall of the tank steel, fragments similar to those of artillery shells will be sputtered. Even fragments the size of mung beans are enough to penetrate the human body, and such fragments may be as high as hundreds. The Japanese tank crew can still maintain the human shape, which is considered very lucky.
.
The four 89 tanks were quite smart. After firing several shots during the movement and finding out that the effect was not good, they immediately reversed until they were 600 meters away, finally dodging the 20mm machine gun fire.
The Japanese tankers, who have always been full of arrogance, know very well that so far it is not a full-scale attack, but is still in the testing stage.
Even though the Chinese machine gun bunkers are very strong and powerful, I don’t know how many artillery observers are constantly calculating their coordinates. Four 105 howitzers and 36 75 mountain guns will be the focus of the subsequent artillery strikes.
If one shot doesn't work, then use a few more! Only when the fortifications that the Chinese have worked so hard to build are completely destroyed will the infantry commanders issue orders for a general attack.
In this case, why do they have to risk their lives with the Chinese? Why not hurry up and escape!
It can only be said that this group of Japanese soldiers who belong to the technical arms have very clear minds, but they did not expect that they escaped. However, the 20mm machine gun shooters who fired two bullets in a row and found nothing vented their anger until they ran away.
Huan's Type 94 tank, the other two Type 94 tanks that were damaged in the battle were basically destroyed by machine gun shells as thick as cigars.
Is this a base fight? The tank crews of the Type 94 tank saw that they had a total of 8 tanks, but they lost three in less than 10 minutes. Does that mean another 20 minutes, big guy?
Are you going to be beaten into a pile of minced meat?
Even though the Japanese tank pilots usually have armor protection, they are just a few people, but their family members know their own affairs, and the tank design level of the empire is not considered at all! There is no escape design at all, and the internal space is extremely small, and the protection of the magazine is also very fragile.
As long as the armor is not broken through by the enemy, once it is broken through, it will basically be the end of the calf's life.
Whether it is Type 89 or Type 94, a large number of them were destroyed by the 37mm anti-tank artillery equipped by the Chinese army in last year's Songhu Battle, especially the Battle of Taierzhuang that broke out at the end of March, known as the Empire's First Mechanical Corps.
Isoya Ren's division is a "super strong man" equipped with 60 tanks of various types!
But what was the result? The steel behemoths that were frantically besieged by the Chinese’s 37mm anti-aircraft guns and 20mm Sulotong machine guns were also beaten up!
Even the desperate Chinese used infantrymen to carry six clustered long-handled grenades into the bottom of the tank and blast them. The fragile tank chassis and tracks could not block such explosive energy. Once they lay down, waiting for the tank soldiers
The ending is either burned to black coal or blown into a pile of minced meat!
Even if the infantrymen are killed in battle, most of them can still retain their whole bodies, but when it comes to tank soldiers, there is no such thing.
Therefore, those who don’t run are idiots!
As for the military orders, they were those of Xiu Er, Zhongzuo. No matter what happened to their chariot regiment, they only listened to the commander of the regiment, Xi Kang, Zhongzuo.
Seeing the Japanese tanks running away, Wei Donglai smiled: "The tanks can run, but the infantry must die! Since they are here, let me stay here!"
Order each platoon to fire 60 guns for me. There is no limit to the target. Each gun has a base number and it will be fired for me!
Heavy machine guns and machine guns are also available to me. If you are hiding behind a rock, shoot the rock for me to explode!"
brutal!
Apart from brutality, there are no other words to describe the firepower on the Chinese side at this time.
The Chinese not only used mortars to carpet-bomb the Japanese infantry hiding on the hillside, they even used the 7mm heavy machine guns and machine guns they just used to attack tanks!
In the memoirs of Private Kurahashi, who was lucky enough to be withdrawn again: It was the most tragic battle I have ever experienced. Asada-kun, who was less than 10 meters away from me, was originally hiding behind a rock that was at least half a meter high and tens of centimeters thick.
, unless the mortar shells rained down by the Chinese hit within three meters, he would have a chance to withdraw to our formation with me.
But because he bravely fired a grenade at the Chinese, the Chinese machine gunners targeted him.
The ferocious machine cannon actually began to bombard his rock bunker with warheads, like a giant hammer, constantly hitting the rocks. The flying stone fragments even left a wound of several centimeters on my face.
The Chinese must be crazy. Those precious shells that can penetrate tank armor were used to attack a grenade launcher.
I still remember the frightened and helpless look Asada-kun gave me, but who can blame him? No matter how brave the Imperial infantry is, they will panic under the attack of a 20mm machine gun!
I know that he hopes that I can save him, but how can I save him?
I could only look at him sadly, looking at the cruel Chinese, who spent dozens of 20 mm caliber artillery shells to tear apart the rock where Mr. Asada was hiding and Mr. Asada himself!
Asada-kun's blood fell on my face from a distance of nearly ten meters, and I can still feel the warmth to this day!"
Kurahashi was fortunate that the words written by the first class soldier made the islanders deeply feel the cruelty of war, but obviously, the first class soldier did not write a completely true picture of the battlefield situation that day.
For example, he held his rifle in front of him, and the muzzle of the gun was intentionally or unintentionally pointed at the grenadier soldier who was looking at him with great sadness.
If someone tries to rush to the temporary bunker where he is hiding deep, perhaps attracting the brutal Chinese machine guns, what do you think he will do?
The superior soldier didn't know what choice he would make in the end, but his hand was extremely firm on the trigger. Maybe a misfire was possible!
Human nature, roasted in the blazing flames of war, is destined to be like the sky, where there is light there is darkness!
This chapter has been completed!