This situation was beyond Yuta Takemura's expectation. He quickly shouted: "Special shells, special shells..."
Yuta Takemura wanted to fire more gas bombs to fill the gap.
However, it was too late to make amends at this time. Zhang Dabiao had already led the Eighth Route Army soldiers across the anti-tank ditch and rushed to the Japanese defense line to fight with them.
The Japs' firepower has a characteristic, which is that it is more suitable for medium and long-range combat rather than denying enemy charges at close range.
This is determined by the enemy's equipment.
For example, the Japanese's Type 38 rifle emphasizes long range.
There is also a machine gun with a crooked handle and a rate of fire as slow as a horse.
Even the overall tactics require saving ammunition to kill the enemy accurately.
This kind of equipment configuration makes it possible to use machine guns, rifles, and mortars to fight the enemy at long range. With grenade launchers at mid-range, there is almost nothing you can do at close range.
This is also one of the reasons why the Japanese don't like night battles. Night battles cannot take advantage of the long-range advantage. Once the enemy attacks, it's basically a battle of throwing grenades at each other and then fighting hand-to-hand.
This time is no exception.
Yuta Takemura was well aware of the weakness of the imperial army. He originally planned to use poison gas at mid-range to resist the enemy's charge, but unexpectedly, the Eighth Route Army opened a gap with self-sacrifice.
Although the power of the Eighth Route Army's grenades is not very good, the key point is that the throwing distance of the wooden handle grenade is farther than the Japanese egg grenade, so the Eighth Route Army has a clear advantage in throwing grenades at each other.
As soon as the platoon leader blew his whistle, the soldiers pulled the string of the grenade in their hands and threw it out... No matter whether there were enemies on the other side, it would just explode into pieces anyway.
After a "boom boom" sound, I heard the whistle. Once I heard it, I threw another one. After two sounds, I got up and grabbed the rifle with the bayonet and charged.
Whether it is one or two shots depends on the specific situation on the battlefield. If your own troops rush too fast and have entered the dangerous area of explosion, you must not be able to throw it again. Otherwise, it is not a bad idea to fight again.
Zhang Dabiao almost rushed into the Japanese position despite the air wave from the grenade explosion.
He jumped into the Japanese trenches and was delighted to see that all the Japanese soldiers were still wearing gas masks before they had time to take them off.
This is a habitual action for the Japanese to fire poison gas bombs, or it can be said to be a discipline, and it has even become a tactic coordinated with "special shells".
The first reason is that the gas bomb is too close to our own position, and if the wind direction changes accidentally, it will blow into our position. By then, it will be too late to put on the gas mask in a hurry.
This is no joke, the whole army may be wiped out in just one move, so the Japanese do not dare to take it too seriously. This is one of the reasons why the Japanese need to fix several troops to use poison gas bombs.
On the other hand, the enemy usually collapses after the gas bombs are fired, and the Japanese wearing gas masks can take advantage of the situation to pursue or even counterattack to the enemy's defense line.
Who would have thought that this time the Eighth Route Army would not follow the routine. After the gas bombs were fired, the Eighth Route Army not only did not collapse or retreat, but also attacked the position with lightning speed.
The Japs didn't have much time to react.
Because looking at the enemies pouring into the position like a tide, they need to shoot to stop them, use grenades, mount their bayonets to prepare for close combat, and even need to avoid the grenades thrown by the enemy...
All this was done in just a few minutes, so they didn't have time to take off their gas masks.
This greatly helped the Eighth Route Army.
Wearing a gas mask in the dark, and it is also a ghost-face gas mask, you can only see the outside world through two circular lenses. Even if the enemy is in front of you, you can only see a figure, and you cannot distinguish between ourselves and the enemy, and you cannot see the movements.
You can't see the bayonet in the opponent's hand.
How could Zhang Dabiao miss such a good opportunity? He swung the sword in his hand and chopped down the three Japanese who were lying on the ground and didn't understand what was going on.
The soldiers passed Zhang Dabiao one after another, jumping nimbly between the trenches, sometimes charging, sometimes throwing grenades, or scuffling with the Japanese who stood up to fight.
The Japs wearing gas masks will suffer even in hand-to-hand combat. Soldiers who have some knowledge of gas masks know that the two sides of the gas mask are the filter cotton and ventilation holes of the mask. As long as the ventilation holes are blocked, the Japs can be suffocated to death even if they hold their breath.
So some used their hands to press their heads, some pressed their heads into the mud, and some even lied down or rode on the mask. After the war, statistics found that there were at least hundreds of Japanese who were suffocated to death.
Even Li Yunlong didn't expect this scene.
He originally thought that the 1st Battalion would be defeated with heavy casualties by the Japanese gas bombs, so he arranged the 2nd Battalion as the second echelon.
Li Yunlong calculated this: after the first battalion was defeated and the second battalion came forward, the reconnaissance company was almost ready and launched an attack from the flank. At this time, the Japanese would definitely be in chaos, and the gas bombs would not be effective.
Send out the fifth battalion with tanks to fight to determine the outcome.
Who would have thought that the first battalion would rush directly into the Japanese position and kill them, causing chaos in their formation.
Li Yunlong couldn't help but praise: "Well done! This damn battalion deserves to be called a battalion, everyone is a tough guy!"
However, a devil is a devil after all.
Takemura Yuta's troops have considerable experience in regular combat. Of course, the defense line they set up cannot be just one, but several intermittent lines... The distance between them depends on the battlefield conditions and equipment conditions. Most of them are two to three hundred meters. Because of this
The distance is very suitable for precise enemy shooting.
Of course, the Japs cannot be "accurate" at two to three hundred meters at night.
Under the cover of his subordinates, Yuta Takemura fled from the traffic trench to the second line of defense in a panic, and then immediately asked his subordinates to prepare grenades and grenades.
Yuta Takemura's decision was correct. The most effective way to deal with the intensive charge of enemies at close range in the dark is grenades.
Although the grenade throwing distance of the Empire is not as good as that of the Eighth Route Army, the Empire has grenades that can easily hit the grenades two hundred meters away to kill targets in a large area and block the enemy's charge.
As for the gas bombs, Takemura Yuta did not dare to use them because the distance between the two lines of defense was too close and the imperial army would inevitably be affected. Also considering whether wearing a gas mask would affect the close combat and suffer losses... So Takemura Yuta simply chose to give up.
.
Yuta Takemura's judgment was correct. Zhang Dabiao's attack on the second line of defense immediately encountered strong resistance.
The Japanese's grenades exploded barrage after barrage in the open space in front, and then they used rifles and machine guns to snipe the soldiers who passed through the barrage. The soldiers who charged forward were under the fire of the enemy one after another.
Li Yunlong, who was standing at the top of the city watching the battle, also saw this scene. He immediately jumped over the second echelon of the Second Battalion and ordered: "Order the Fifth Battalion to launch a general attack!"
"Yes!" the communications soldier ordered, and soon a loud and long charge horn sounded on the battlefield.