Time passed little by little, and Gao Hongming on the other end of the phone remained silent. The officers in the 115th Division headquarters held their breaths and all pricked up their ears.
After a long time, Gao Hongming's voice came out from the microphone in Mr. Lin's hand.
"Commander Lin, our artillery group needs to provide artillery support for the entire army of more than 100,000 people. Now there are requests for artillery support almost every moment.
If I hand over the command of the artillery group to you, it will undoubtedly be irresponsible to other troops and extremely unfair, so we cannot agree to your request."
Hearing this, the faces of the two brigade commanders, more than a dozen regiment commanders and officers at all levels in the headquarters darkened. Although their rationality told them that their division commander's request was unlikely to be approved, when they heard Gao Hongming's refusal in person
At this time, I still felt a little unwilling.
On the contrary, as the person involved, Mr. Lin's expression remained unchanged, and the hand holding the microphone still held the microphone steadily against his ear.
As if sensing the desire of Commander Lin and the officers of the 115th Division, Gao Hongming's voice continued:
"But in view of the arduous task of attacking the east gate of the 115th Division, I will allocate a 155-caliber artillery battalion and a 105-caliber artillery battalion from the artillery group to your division.
In addition, a squadron of Stuka dive bombers and a squadron of P47 fighters have been dispatched from the aviation corps to rush to your airspace to provide you with air support.
But please remember that their flight time is only expected to be two hours, so I hope you can make good use of this time.
Finally, on behalf of Lianzhi, I wish you success in completing your mission!
goodbye!"
It wasn't until the phone buzzed that Mr. Lin put down the phone.
His expression remained calm. No one knew what was going through Mr. Lin's mind at this moment. He turned his head and looked around at everyone:
"You have all heard that the Joint Command gave our division the support of two heavy artillery battalions and two flying squadrons, especially since the latter only had two hours of airtime.
Chen Guang, are you confident in taking the east gate?"
Brigadier Chen stood up and solemnly saluted Division Commander Lin: "Commander, please rest assured that the 343rd Brigade will launch an attack in one hour to ensure the completion of the mission!"
"Okay, then Political Commissar Luo and I will wait here for your good news!"
Brigadier Chen didn't waste any time, turned around and walked out. Soon there was a sound of war horses neighing outside, and the sound of horse hooves getting farther and farther.
After the meeting ended, Political Commissar Luo walked up to Mr. Lin and handed him a large teapot and asked with a smile: "Old Lin, did you do it on purpose just now?"
"What's intentional?" Mr. Lin took the teapot and said calmly.
"You're still pretending to be with me!"
Political Commissar Luo laughed and scolded: "We have been partners for so many years, and I still don't understand you?
You clearly know that it is impossible for the Joint Chiefs of Staff to allocate all the artillery to our division, so you made a big request to the Joint Chiefs. You are sure that our senior officer is soft-hearted, and he will act accordingly even if he does not agree to your request.
compensate.
Look, isn’t the compensation coming now? If the two squadrons are used properly, they can play a big role!"
"More than that!"
Commander Lin smiled softly, walked slowly to the entrance of the cave, looked at the blue sky and said leisurely: "I have calculated that each Stuka dive bomber can carry 250 kilograms of bombs.
The 48 dive bombers have 12 tons of bombs, and the P47 Thunder fighters of that squadron are also very capable of ground attack. Each aircraft can carry ten rockets or one ton of bombs.
Think about it, with the assistance of so many aircraft and the all-weather support of two heavy artillery battalions, if Chen Guang can't take the East Gate, then he, the brigade commander, should stop doing it and get out as soon as possible and let others do it.
Someone come on top."
"Hahaha……"
Political Commissar Luo laughed loudly and pointed at Mr. Lin: "You, you, you all say that you, Mr. Lin, are usually serious, reserved and unkind, but in fact you are the most cunning person!"
A rare smile appeared on Commander Lin's serious face, "I can't help it, there are more wolves and less meat. We only have so many artillery pieces and aircraft. If I didn't make a scene, how could the Joint Chiefs be so generous with two artillery battalions and two
The squadron is left to us.
After all, our ancestors also said that children who cry must be fed milk!"
"You are really cunning, but I am curious, how do you know the flight and bomb-loading data of those aircraft?"
"What you are saying is that as the commander of a division, how could he not know the performance of his own weapons? I specifically asked the staff of the Liantai Militia to inquire about this."
Adhering to the principle that the right does not expire and be invalidated, after obtaining the command of the two artillery battalions, the 343 Brigade immediately ordered the two artillery battalions to immediately launch artillery bombardments on the Japanese positions at the east gate.
After the order was issued, two artillery battalions with a total of 54 M101 105mm howitzers and M1A1 155mm howitzers launched non-stop shelling on the east gate, pouring nearly more than 100 tons of artillery fire on the Japanese position within an hour.
ammunition.
From this point of view, artillery is much stronger than aircraft in terms of sustained firepower.
There is a small hill called Xiaoguling outside the east gate of Taiyuan, with a height of only more than 100 meters and an area of less than 2,000 square meters. Although the place is not large, it is the commanding height of several square kilometers in radius.
The Japanese army originally built a group of reinforced concrete bunkers here and stationed a brigade of troops.
According to the original estimate of the Japanese army, this group of bunkers could withstand the Chinese army for at least half a month, causing no less than 5,000 casualties to the opponent.
But the fact is that before this group of bunkers had time to function, it was smashed into pieces by the 203mm siege heavy artillery of the Liantai Militia.
But Xiaoguling was so important that even though the bunker group was blown up by heavy artillery, the remaining Japanese troops still used the remaining fortifications to resist desperately.
Feinting an attack is inherently difficult, so after 45 minutes of fighting, Xiaoguling was still in the hands of the Japanese.
Brigadier Chen, who was watching the battle from behind, was furious. Just as he was preparing to call Li Dali, the commander of the 686th Regiment in charge of the attack, a staff officer came to report that an officer from the Liantai Militia was looking for him.
Soon, a captain wearing an iron-gray German military uniform came to him.
"Reporting to the commander, Ren Dasheng, commander of the second company of the Liantai Militia Firepower Battalion, has been ordered to provide support. Please give us your instructions!"
"Who are you?" Brigadier Chen looked at the second lieutenant in confusion, "Company Commander Ren, what's going on?"
"That's right, sir. Our commander heard that your unit's attack on Xiaoguling was blocked, and he specially asked us to come over and ask if we can help?"
"help?"
Brigadier Chen's face looked a little ugly. Logically speaking, if you really wanted to help, you would have to at least send a regiment or an armored unit, right?
I have sent a company here now. Who are you looking down on? I have more than 10,000 people under my command. Do I need a hundred people like you?