The Eighth Route Army was able to hold the line of defense mainly by relying on two pieces of equipment: one was directional mines, and the other was rocket launchers.
This was also thanks to Wang Xuexin's foresight before the war. When preparing for the war, he specially transferred a large number of directional mines and rocket launchers to the 208th Regiment of the Defense Force from the Sanjiadian Arsenal, and asked Tang Liangjun to organize the troops to learn how to use directional mines and rocket launchers immediately.
Tang Liangjun was still puzzled by this.
"Captain Wang!" Tang Liangjun said: "Our regiment is also equipped with these two things, and we know how to use them!"
The 208th Regiment was the main force, and they would be indispensable whenever there was any new equipment. Therefore, Tang Liangjun thought that Wang Xuexin was overly worried or regarded the 208th Regiment as an independent regiment.
"Do you really know?" Wang Xuexin asked.
"What do you mean?" Tang Liangjun asked.
"Let's put it this way!" Wang Xuexin threw away the document in his hand and said sternly to Tang Liangjun: "I think you use directional mines mainly to deal with enemy infantry, and rocket launchers to deal with enemy tanks, right?"
"Isn't it like this?" Tang Liangjun looked confused.
If it weren't for knowing that Wang Xuexin was the inventor of these equipment, Tang Liangjun would have thought that Wang Xuexin was being alarmist!
"That's true!" Wang Xuexin said, "But this time it's different!"
As he spoke, Wang Xuexin used the chalk tip on the corner of the table to set up a formation, and as he did so, he said: "The Japanese are fighting a 'blitzkrieg' this time. I estimate that they will fight a coordinated infantry-tank battle under the cover of aviation firepower.
In this case, can directional mines hit the infantry hiding behind the tanks? The enemy tanks are covered by infantry, and our rockets only have a range of tens of meters, can they threaten the enemy tanks?"
Upon hearing this, Tang Liangjun's expression became cautious, but then he asked doubtfully: "Battle Commander Wang, if that's the case, why do you need to transfer so many directional mines and rocket launchers from three stores?"
Wang Xuexin transferred a total of 20,000 directional mines from three stores, and each member of the 208th Group received an average of more than a dozen mines.
There are more than a hundred rocket launchers, each with thirty rounds of ammunition. In addition, the 208th Regiment was originally equipped with fifty rocket launchers. These rocket launchers are three times that of other troops.
Wang Xuexin said: "I think we should reverse this response and use rocket launchers to hit infantry and directional mines to blast tanks!"
"This..." Tang Liangjun just couldn't understand it. It's understandable to use a rocket launcher to hit infantry, but to use directional mines to blow up tanks... Although it was a Japanese tank tank, it was famous for its thin armor, but it was also 12mm thick on the front.
Wang Xuexin saw through Tang Liangjun's thoughts and explained before he asked: "Although the rocket launcher has a range of only a few dozen meters, that is when accuracy is emphasized. If accuracy is not emphasized and steel ball anti-infantry rockets are used to hit tanks,
The infantry...can have a range of more than a hundred meters?"
In fact, the word "range" cannot be used here, because the range itself is the flight distance under the premise of ensuring accuracy.
Wang Xuexin was just not that particular in his discussions with Tang Liangjun.
Tang Liangjun nodded and replied: "This is no problem, but using directional mines to blow up tanks..."
"The Japs are using the Type 95 tank!" Wang Xuexin said: "The bottom armor is very weak, only 6mm at most. Can directional mines penetrate it?"
Tang Liangjun's eyes couldn't help but light up.
The 6mm steel plate is just a layer of iron, and even machine gun bullets can penetrate it. If the steel balls of the directional mine are fired at close range under the force of explosives, they might actually be able to penetrate it!
Wang Xuexin added: "In addition, another advantage of directional mines is that they are not easily crushed when being run over by a tank. If it detonates when a tank runs over it, can it break the enemy's tracks?"
Tang Liangjun couldn't help but nod his head when he heard this.
Directional mines do have this advantage, because the side facing the enemy is covered with densely packed steel balls, and the explosives and fuses are behind the curved steel plate. When the tank tracks press it... it will probably not be crushed due to its own strength, but will be trapped.
Into the loess.
This is different from other explosives. Once other explosives are crushed by the track, it is likely to be difficult to detonate successfully.
Finally, Wang Xuexin came to a conclusion: "If this is how we fight, you should take advantage of the time before the enemy arrives to practice, right?"
"Yes!" Tang Liangjun responded without thinking: "I will organize troop training immediately!"
Therefore, the 208th Regiment conducted an improvised drill.
The training is to let these two pieces of equipment change their roles, use the rocket launcher originally used to hit tanks to hit infantry, and use the directional mines used to hit infantry to blow up tanks.
But of course, this is because Wang Xuexin knew that the Japs' tanks were 95 light combat tanks and could only use this tactic. If it were other tanks, as long as the bottom steel plate was slightly thicker, it would not be used.
The actual situation turned out to be much better than imagined.
Because the Japanese attack was not just about tanks covering the infantry charge, they were attacking with tanks plus three rounds plus infantry.
This method of attack is also what Hans' troops like to use.
It is mainly used when it is required to quickly tear apart the enemy's defense line and catch the enemy by surprise.
Because of the tank's three-round attack method, the tank does not need to slow down to wait for the infantry to follow up. It can advance towards the enemy's defense line at full speed.
At the same time, the tank is not without infantry cover...the infantry on the three side wheels can provide cover for the tank, and the firepower is not weak, because the infantry on the sidecar can set up a machine gun.
If necessary, the three-wheeled infantrymen can also dismount and walk to provide cover for the tanks.
The infantry behind this followed closely and became the main force of the attack.
Hans has repeatedly used this tactic on the battlefield. Often, tanks and tricycles have already rushed to the defense line before the enemy has even reacted to the bombing.
To be precise, there are half-tracks loaded with infantry...
I have to say that this tactic is very advanced, because modern armored forces actually use armored infantry fighting vehicles to carry infantry to follow up, and the infantry is ready to dismount at any time to provide cover for the tanks.
Hans's tactics are quite close to modern infantry-tank synergy.
Shinta Kono used this tactic.
But this time the Japanese were defeated because the Eighth Route Army happened to use directional mines to blast the tanks...
Tanks can indeed be blasted through, because the penetrating power of directional radar steel balls at close range is quite amazing (the shape of the steel balls causes them to consume a lot of kinetic energy when flying in the air, which is greatly affected by distance).
But the Japanese used the tactic of adding three rounds of tanks and three rounds to the sides. The bombing of the tanks became secondary, and the more important thing was to explode the three rounds of the sides.
Compared with the tank, the three wheels there were just like paper. When the directional mine exploded below, the steel balls "swish" spread out in a radial pattern from bottom to top, forming a large area in one hit.
Especially from the bottom up, the steel balls will drill into the enemy's weak points, such as the crotch, armpits, chin...