For artillery, discovery means destruction. Although this sentence is too absolute, it is an indisputable fact that once artillery is discovered, there is a risk of being destroyed.
It is estimated that Ota Ryūji also heard that the Liantai Militia also had artillery, so he specifically ordered the artillery to hide well, so the artillery bombardment started for several minutes. The artillery observation post at Qixia Gate was stunned but could not find the Japanese artillery position, but Ohta Ryūji may have dreamed.
I didn't expect that the other party actually had such a thing as a hot air balloon.
When Ryūji Ohta, who was watching the battle, saw the huge hot air balloon rising in the sky, he immediately screamed in his heart that something was wrong, and immediately yelled at the communications personnel: "Immediately order the artillery squadron to stop firing and move their positions immediately."
It’s just that Ryūji Ohta’s order was too late. With a piercing whistling sound, an artillery shell roared and landed less than thirty meters away from the Japanese artillery position and exploded. Ryūji Ohta knew it when he saw the smoke raised by the explosion.
, this is a 105mm caliber artillery shell.
Although the target was not hit, Ota Ryuji did not feel lucky because he understood that this was just a test launch by the opponent. With the guidance of the tide watch on the hot air balloon, they would soon correct the target.
Sure enough, just over ten seconds later, another whistling sound came from the sky, but this time the whistling sound came in waves.
"boom..."
"Boom boom boom..."
With a huge roar, more than a dozen artillery shells accurately landed on the artillery squadron's position. The huge explosion accompanied by thick smoke swallowed up the entire position.
Ohta Ryūji closed his eyes in pain. He knew that his artillery squadron was finished. The information he had received earlier was not wrong. The Chinese did have heavy artillery. It was ridiculous that he had been lucky just now and thought that as long as the artillery squadron position was hidden, it would be enough.
It seems so stupid to avoid the Chinese observation posts now.
However, if Ryūji Ohta can become the captain of the team, he is certainly not an ordinary person. In terms of mental perseverance, he was the last choice.
The failure of the artillery squadron did not shake his confidence, and he soon gave the order to the First Battalion to attack.
"Tuanzuo, the little devils are attacking!"
"I saw."
Standing in the lookout hole of the observation post, Gao Hongming could clearly see with a telescope that a Japanese squadron began to rush toward the Fourth Battalion's position in a skirmish formation at a distance of seven or eight hundred meters.
The 41st Division is indeed a mobile force highly regarded by Yoshio Shinozuka, and it is very methodical when attacking.
Judging from the number of people, this is a squadron-level attack.
Their offensive formation is extremely loose, usually with a detachment (15 per detachment) as a small unit. The 8 riflemen will be divided into two 4-man groups to attack frontally, crawling forward with tactical movements, and then use light machine guns (
11-year-old machine gun) on the sides and rear for cover.
Then their heavy machine guns were used to suppress the fourth battalion's position further back, and behind the heavy machine guns were mortars.
In the impression of many people, the Japanese army only pays attention to grenades and almost dismisses mortars. In fact, this perception is wrong. Japan is actually equipped with mortars, and the number is not small, at least now
Gao Hongming saw that behind a slope more than a thousand meters ahead, the Japanese army was bombarding the Fourth Battalion's position with mortars.
Seeing this, Gao Hongming couldn't help but frowned.
"The little devil is quite cunning. He actually hid the mortar behind the slope. Now our artillery is very difficult to reach." Wu Chengfeng murmured on the side.
"Don't worry about them."
Gao Hongming smiled coldly and said, "Order the Second Artillery Battalion to bombard the infantry in front. I want to see the quality of this unit that Shinozuka Yi values the most."
"clear!"
"Boom! Boom!"
Following a shout from an officer in gray military uniform, the position of the Second Artillery Battalion was immediately enveloped by a dull sound of artillery. The shells of eighteen M2 105mm howitzers pierced the air and roared, breaking the silence between heaven and earth, becoming
The only sound between heaven and earth.
One by one, M546 high-explosive shells weighing 17.3 kilograms left the barrel of the gun, and after a short slide, they fell into the Japanese offensive formation.
As a specialized anti-personnel bomb, the M546 high-explosive bomb contains 8,000 small steel arrows. After the shell explodes, it will fly in all directions. It is very lethal to unprotected personnel. Although the Japanese army has tried to disperse their formations,
But many Japanese soldiers still suffered.
"boom!"
A machine gun position set up on a slope was directly hit by a shell, and the remains of the Type 92 heavy machine gun and machine gunner weighing more than 100 kilograms were thrown several meters into the air.
Then the machine gun fell from the air and hit a Japanese soldier who was avoiding the shelling. The soldier let out a shrill scream, struggled twice and vomited blood, and then could no longer move.
Originally, Ota Ryūji had a good plan, which was to disperse the attacking formations as much as possible to reduce the lethality of the opponent's artillery fire. In his impression, the Chinese government was not very wealthy.
Take the Wuhan War Epidemic as an example. This battle lasted for four months and involved more than one million people. The Nationalist Government only fired a few hundred artillery shells. This shows the lack of artillery shells for the Guo army.
This is because artillery shells are not cheap these days. Take 105mm artillery shells as an example. The price of one artillery shell is 40 to 50 US dollars. Judging from the shelling just now, the Chinese should have eighteen artillery pieces.
In this way, a salvo immediately costs nine hundred dollars, and this level of bombardment will not last long before it stops.
It's a pity that Ota Ryūji's idea was destined to fail. The Chinese's artillery shells seemed to be endless, and it lasted for about 10 minutes with no sign of ending.
Suddenly, an artillery shell exploded not far from Ota Takaji. The temporary fortification was blown to pieces in the explosion. A small tree was directly hit by the artillery shell. Sawdust and branches and leaves flew everywhere. Ota Ryuji was hit by the nearby artillery shell.
The shock made me dizzy.
Before he could react, the staff officer on the side threw him to the ground.
Then the second and third shells also fell.
The bunker made of wood and soil trembled in the shock wave generated by the explosion of the artillery shell. From time to time, soil particles fell along the gaps. The empty lunch box on the ammunition box in the headquarters was shaken from time to time and the spoon made a crisp sound.
The sound of metal hitting.
Dazed by the shelling, Ota Ryuji, who had just regained consciousness, struggled to get up, shook the dust from his collar, and looked out from the observation hole. The shells were falling near him like rain, and the smoke was rising.
Dust and the blown soldier's limbs were scattered in all directions.
"Your Excellency, Wing Commander, the Chinese artillery fire has begun to spread. Let's leave here immediately." The staff officer who just knocked down Ryūji Ohta shouted loudly...