The battalion headquarters was depressing. All the staff members were sitting in front of the map, frowning and silent, while the instructor was smoking cigarettes one after another next to them.
As a clerk, Zhang Fan was of course well aware of the situation of the exercise at this time, but because of her relationship with Commander Zhang, she was in a very difficult situation at this time, so she had no choice but to say nothing with a few apologies from time to time.
Look at me with eyes.
"Comrades!" I said easily, "Cheer up, the sky is not falling!"
"Battal Commander!" Zhao Jingping replied: "What's the difference between this and the sky falling..."
"Yes, battalion commander!" Ding Chengdong pointed to the map and said: "This 323 Highland is obviously tailor-made for the Sixth Battalion. Originally, most of the highlands and terrain in Vietnam are not suitable for tank operations, but there is a patch of land on the right side of this 323 Highland."
The open field... is better now. Not only does the Sixth Battalion have more tanks than us, but it also has an additional armored transport company..."
"I can't even guess what Commander Zhang's purpose is!" Zhao Jingping said with a frown: "I worked so hard to build this battalion, and now I want to destroy it with my own hands!"
"It's not that far yet!" I glanced at Zhang Fan, who was feeling even more uncomfortable after hearing this, and said, "Commander Zhang certainly has his reasons and intentions, but we can't guess them. What's more, our Second Company is here
I have never fought any battles on the battlefield. I have faced the Japanese Japs several times and it has been life and death. If you pick any one of them, the situation will be more severe than today!"
This was not only meant for the staff, but also for Zhang Fan.
"Yes, comrades!" The instructor interjected at this time: "We should have confidence in our troops. We should have confidence in Battalion Commander Yang. The most important thing for soldiers in war is to be discouraged before being defeated. If everyone is like you
Then why fight? You should all learn from the battalion commander!"
There was silence in the headquarters for a while. After a while, Zhao Jingping asked: "Batalion Commander, do you mean... do you want the Second Company to join?"
"Let's do this!" I said: "Let's talk about how to fight this battle first!"
"In fact, there are not many choices in this!" Zhao Jingping pointed to the map and said: "First of all, according to the setting of the exercise, Highland 323 is located in the middle between the enemy and our defense lines, so it was bombed by both the enemy and us in turn, and burned to almost no grass. Moreover, all the fortifications were
Bunkers must be built on reverse slopes, otherwise they will be knocked down one by one by the opponent's artillery. This determines that we must build fortifications on reverse slopes..."
"Yes!" I nodded. Zhao Jingping's analysis and judgment of the battlefield were very good.
"But the problem is that we only have one hour to build fortifications!" Zhao Jingping continued: "Under normal circumstances, one hour to build several trenches for defense is enough. But because 323 Highlands was previously controlled by the Red Army,
If this happens, the Red Army will inevitably lay a large number of mines on the reverse slope... This will bring great difficulties to our construction of fortifications and even cause considerable casualties."
I nodded again. Zhao Jingping was indeed from the Military Staff Department, and his ideas coincided with mine.
"What's more serious!" Staff Ding interjected and added: "The Red Army can also take advantage of tanks and armored vehicles to penetrate directly into the rear of our army from the open space on the right wing, posing a direct threat to our anti-slope position from the rear!"
I have encountered this situation before. Just like when we dealt with the Vietnamese art masters at Highland 581, the Vietnamese armored troops bypassed our anti-slope position... Our anti-slope position became a forward slope, and the tanks
Artillery, anti-aircraft machine guns and even the protective power of armor can all play a role.
"Don't we have anti-tank missiles?" I said, "Move up the Red Arrow 73!"
When we were on Highland 581, we used anti-tank missiles to defeat the Vietnamese army's tactics, but we used Yankee Dragon anti-tank missiles at that time.
"Battal Commander!" Zhao Jingping said with some embarrassment: "The Red Arrow 73 is indeed equipped to the platoon. But...not to mention the difficulty of the Red Arrow 73 hitting moving targets, this exercise is also different from actual combat..."
"Oh!" I understood as soon as I heard Zhao Jingping's words. If the armored troops of the Sixth Battalion really penetrated into the rear of our army, then the exercise should be suspended at this time, and then the referee would compare the firepower of the enemy and ours and the attack and defense.
The situation determines who wins and who loses, so there will never be a situation like that on Highland 581...
This may be the reason why the exercise cannot truly reflect the battlefield. For example, the situation on Highland 581 that we fought when we were surrounded by Vietnamese troops was already judged to have been annihilated during the exercise.
"The most irritating thing is..." an artillery staff officer interjected: "This exercise is also designed to make our artillery useless... Most of the open space on the right side of 323 is occupied by the 729 heights on the Blue Army's defense line.
It is blocked and prevents our artillery from shelling the armored troops passing through the open area, so it is useless even if we know that they will pass through this open area!"
This artillery staff officer's name is Li Zhicheng. Because his name has the same pronunciation as Li Zicheng, we all call him King Chuang... King Chuang is from the Fifth Artillery Regiment. It is said that this guy is very good at commanding artillery. He once fought in a counterattack
During the battle, an artillery battery destroyed an infantry company of the Vietnamese army in an instant...
This may not sound like much at first, but you must know that an artillery company only has ten guns, and the Vietnamese army is a veteran who has fought in the war. They all know how to spread out and know how to get down and take cover when they hear the sound of artillery, so use
Ten guns destroyed a company in an instant... This is really unbelievable.
After asking, I found out... the trick he was playing was called the simultaneous cannonball landing technique.
According to his words, "When artillery shells hit infantry, experienced infantry will react within two seconds, and all of them will fall down in eight seconds at most..."
As soon as I heard this, one word came to my mind: "professional"... This takes into account the infantry's reaction time.
"So the cannonballs are meant to fire fast and in large quantities!" King Chuang continued: "The fast and many shells mentioned here do not mean firing for a long time, but to fire as many shells as possible in the first time, and then fire again.
It won’t have any effect!”
I deeply agree with this, because on the battlefield we ourselves lie down to avoid the artillery shells, so if the first batch of artillery shells comes in a large area and hits the ground at the same time... then many people have not yet reacted.
Down!
"But there's no way to hit a company with ten cannons!" I said: "The first batch of ten cannons can only fire ten rounds, right?"
"It's not ten rounds! It's forty rounds!"
"Forty rounds?" I couldn't help but be stunned: "Ten cannons... let forty rounds of shells fall to the ground at the same time? Are you kidding?"
"Of course not!" King Chuang said: "The trajectory of the cannonball is a parabola... As long as the calculation is done well, different parabolas will point to the same coordinates. The only difference is that the time of arrival of the cannonball is different. There is a time difference in between..."
"Oh!" I understood after hearing this: "You fired four batches of shells according to this time difference, and these four batches of shells landed at the same time..."
King Chuang nodded: "Under normal circumstances, I can only shoot three batches, because the preparation time of the rifled cannon takes ten seconds. If the time difference is less than or close to ten seconds, there will be no rush to shoot out... That time too
I just had the mentality of giving it a try, but I didn’t expect it to work!”
Hearing this, I couldn't help but secretly praise. Having seen artillery tactics, I knew very well that it was necessary to calculate several trajectories and times that were likely to land at the same time based on coordinates in such a short period of time, and to command the artillery to change positions within the time.
Shoot out the cannonball at the angle... This is not as easy as King Chuang said.
Chuang Wang did it, so he turned an artillery company's ten artillery pieces into forty pieces... and destroyed an infantry company of the Vietnamese army in an instant.
"Is there any way for the tank troops to prevent the Red Army from penetrating?" I asked.
"Battal Commander!" Ding Chengdong replied: "Our training during this period is indeed very effective. Because of the popularization of communication equipment between tanks and tanks and a series of training, the tanks' response has been much more flexible and faster than before. If there are the same number
Or a similar number of tanks, I believe we will not lose to the Sixth Battalion, but...the Sixth Battalion not only has more tanks than us, but we also don’t have armored transport vehicles!"
After a pause, Ding Chengdong pointed to the open space over there and said: "If we confront the Red Army tank troops here, the Red Army will confront us head-on with twenty tanks, and then use the mobility of armored transport vehicles to quickly outflank and attack us from both wings.
With the infantry... our army will soon lose its coordination advantage and completely collapse!"
I know something about tank tactics, and I know that Ding Chengdong is right... The advantage of an armored transport vehicle is not its armor and firepower. In fact, its armor can only stop infantry bullets, and its firepower is only an anti-aircraft machine gun.
.its strength is mobility
...Simply put, it means it can run faster than a tank. However, the tank fire control system of this era is still quite backward, especially in our army's 59th Army, so it is difficult to hit fast-moving targets... This is what makes the Sixth Battalion's
The armored forces also have an overwhelming advantage over us.
Besides, this is an exercise rather than actual combat... If we send tank troops to fight head-on with the armored troops of the Sixth Battalion, then there may not be a need to fight at all... The referee team directly decides that our tank troops have withdrawn from the exercise.
At this time, I couldn't help but feel a little regretful... I had known that in order to cope with this exercise, I should have dispatched some armored transport vehicles, but now I have taken advantage of the loophole for Chen Jiahao. Now I clearly know that the guy used "frontal breakthrough."
The old tactic of "outflanking two wings" has no solution at all and is waiting to be beaten passively...
However... I think it won't make any difference even if I mobilize an armored transport vehicle, because although this open area is not under our army's artillery fire, it is within the coverage of the Red Army's artillery fire... This is clearly set up by the Chen family and his son.