The battle was very fierce, and both the enemy and us were well prepared. It could be said that we met our opponents.
The Japanese used the anti-tank trenches to build a defense. They relied on the terrain behind the anti-tank trenches that was slightly higher than the west... This terrain made it difficult for the Eighth Route Army to forcefully cross the anti-tank trenches. On the other hand, it also put the Eighth Route Army infantry at a disadvantage.
Attack the disadvantageous position.
The Japanese captain Yuta Takemura was a very experienced commander. He used light and heavy machine guns to set up crossfires one after another behind the anti-tank trenches, supplemented by riflemen holding 38 caps, and grenades and mortars in the rear.
They fired artillery and escorted the formation, once suppressing the Eighth Route Army infantry in an open space in front of the anti-tank ditch, unable to move.
Takemura Yuta understood: anti-tank trenches can block enemy tanks, but they cannot block enemy infantry.
Because the enemy infantry can jump into the anti-tank trench and then climb out from the other end to rush towards the imperial army's defense line. Even the enemy's engineers can jump into the anti-tank trench and blast it. As long as part of the side wall of the anti-tank trench is blown down,
Fill the trench and then fill it slightly with sandbags or stones. It is possible for the light tank T26 to pass through the anti-tank trench through this gap.
Therefore, suppressing enemy infantry means blocking enemy tanks from anti-tank trenches.
Yuta Takemura understood this from the beginning, and told his subordinates over and over again before the war: "Don't worry about those tanks. Our mission is to prevent the enemy infantry from approaching the anti-tank trenches. Do you understand?"
The subordinates also resolutely carried out Takemura's orders during the battle. They did not target tanks... In fact, even if the Japanese targeted tanks, there was nothing they could do to them. They simply did not have the equipment to destroy tanks from a long distance. Even if these tanks were at a distance of
They are less than a hundred meters apart.
Under this combat policy, the Japanese machine gun bullets fired condescendingly at the sides and rear of the tank, knocking down the Eighth Route Army soldiers following the tank in pieces.
In this regard, Takemura's many years of combat experience on the battlefield came into play. He did not arrange the machine guns on the front line, but placed the machine guns more than 400 meters to 500 meters away from the anti-tank trenches.
Zhucun's move even puzzled the staff. He asked Zhucun: "Your Excellency, Major, the Eighth Route Army usually attacks at night, and the machine guns are deployed more than 400 meters away... The shooter may not be able to see the target!"
"Shiroki-kun!" Takemura asked without answering: "Can the shooter see the enemy tank? Especially our army also has flares!"
"Of course!" the staff officer responded standing up.
It may be difficult to spot a leaping enemy in the dark, but it is not difficult to spot a tank.
"That's fine!" Takemura said: "What they have to do is to shoot bullets at the tank. Do you understand?"
The staff officer understood immediately, responded "yes", and then followed Takemura's order to set up machine gun positions.
The staff officer really understood.
Because if the machine gun is deployed at the front of the position, that is, too close to the enemy, there will be several problems:
First, the tall body of an enemy tank can easily block machine gun bullets and form a wide shooting blind spot behind it, which means that the machine gun cannot pose a threat to the enemy hiding behind the tank.
Second, the machine gun position is too close to the tank and can easily become a target of the tank.
Now, Major Takemura intentionally extends the distance of the machine gun. Due to the distance and gravity, the machine gun bullets will hit the rear of the tank in an arc in the air... This shooting method is often used when troops charge. When the troops charge, they will block the tank.
According to the shooting angle of the rear machine gun, at this time the muzzle of the machine gun is slightly raised, that is, it is fired into the air, and the bullet will pass over the own troops and hit the enemy's position in a parabola.
This kind of shooting method is not advisable to use on rifles, because rifles shoot at points, and the probability of hitting the target this way is too low, but machine guns shoot at surfaces, so there is no problem with this method.
More importantly, because the machine gun has a long distance, it can also make it less likely to be hit by enemy tanks. It can be said to kill two birds with one stone.
This style of play really worked on the battlefield.
Bullets fell like raindrops to the rear of the tank, and sometimes they would make a crashing sound like exploding beans when hitting the tank armor.
Although these bullets cannot penetrate the tank armor, they will form scattered ricochet, so that the infantrymen hiding behind the tanks fell into a pool of blood. The soldiers did not even know where these bullets came from.
Yes, some people can't understand how the enemy's bullets can turn around and hit the rear of the tank.
The person commanding this attack was Fourth Battalion Commander Sun Ming.
The reason why Sun Ming's fourth battalion was selected as the first batch was because the fourth battalion was better than other battalions in terms of infantry and tank coordination.
This is actually not surprising. Sun Ming was originally the adjutant of the Jinsui Army. He had seen tanks and of course knew some tactics. In addition, most of his four battalions were old subordinates recruited from the Jinsui Army.
There is no Eighth Route Army's consistent style of "not afraid of sacrifice or bloodshed"...
This is not to say that the style of "no fear of sacrifice or bloodshed" is bad, but that it should be changed on the battlefield according to local conditions and circumstances.
For example, when there was insufficient equipment and almost no coordination with other arms, this spirit should be carried forward, otherwise the battle would not be fought.
But if there are other arms cooperating, then blindly carrying forward the spirit of "not afraid of sacrifice and bloodshed" is just a random fight regardless of the casualties of the subordinates.
After Li Yunlong learned from Wang Xuexin, he turned around and asked several battalion commanders of the independent regiment to scold him for a while, and then did a practical drill... He found that the other battalion commanders were damn used to the previous style of play, even though he had given them orders.
, but that deep-rooted concept cannot be changed for a while, and they will not think of calling tanks and artillery fire until they have to.
The only exception was Sun Ming's fourth battalion... Not only Sun Ming, but also the company commander and platoon commander under Sun Ming all had a certain sense of collaboration.
So there was no other way, and the forward battalion was abruptly changed from the first battalion to the fourth battalion.
Li Yunlong also angrily yelled at the other battalion commanders: "You all, stay behind and watch carefully to see how they fight!"
At this time, Sun Ming saw his men being knocked down in pieces by the enemy's machine guns behind the tanks, and his heart was bleeding like a knife.
He used a telescope to observe the position of the Japanese machine guns, then looked at the tanks, and then he understood what tricks the Japanese were playing.
This set of tactics is called "machine gun fire". Sun Ming had heard of it in the army before, but he had never used it. Today was an eye-opener. It seemed that the Japanese in front of him was not someone easy to mess with.
Since the tanks could not hide behind them, the infantry had no cover for their advance. As a result, the tanks were blocked by the anti-tank trenches and were unable to move forward.
Sun Ming didn't think much, and immediately ordered the communication troops: "Receive the artillery!"