Yes, from about six o'clock in the morning, the Japanese artillery fire began to wreak havoc. In just four hours, the main defense position of Niangziguan had already suffered three rounds of bombardment.
The Japanese infantry had not yet launched an attack.
An entire infantry regiment, just like industrious little bees, began to build field fortifications 1,200 meters away from the front of the main position at Niangziguan.
Takagi Yoshito is also a very clear-headed army general in the Japanese army. Although he is extremely eager to capture Niangzi Pass, he knows that the Chinese troops on the opposite line of defense have as many as one or two infantry divisions. Rushing for quick success will only lead to
He suffered heavy casualties.
He now has 12 105-caliber howitzers and 12 75-caliber field guns in his hands. He can completely rely on the power of artillery to chip away at the strength of the Chinese, and then wait for them to weaken before finishing the battle.
Moreover, since he knew that the enemy on the other battlefield was Liu Lang and the Independent Regiment, Takagi Yoshito would not make the same mistake that the stupid Eighth Division had made. Not to mention the heavy losses he suffered if he could not attack for a long time, he was also beaten by Liu.
Lang sent elite soldiers to sneak attack, and eventually lost all the heavy equipment, and Liu Lang even used it to beat him on the butt.
Therefore, while the artillery was constantly killing and injuring the Chinese troops on the ground, the Japanese army was sweating profusely as they dug fortifications under the autumn sun.
Although the Third Army accepted the lessons of the first artillery attack and placed only one infantry platoon on the forward position as a security force, and all the other infantry companies were reduced to the second line of defense several hundred meters behind, the losses were still considerable.
Not only was the 105mm howitzer of the Japanese invaders too powerful, but the 75mm field gun that later participated in the shelling was equally powerful.
If the 75 mountain gun is a small-caliber howitzer, then the 75 field gun is a small-caliber cannon. Compared with the howitzer, the cannon is a direct-aiming gun. The muzzle velocity of the shell is fast, the trajectory is relatively low and straight, the kinetic energy is high, the shell charge is high, and the impact is
The damage radius is relatively larger. Compared with howitzers, cannons are more suitable for straight-line point-to-point attacks. Especially for important fortifications exposed in the field of vision, field artillery is more effective.
Originally, the battlefield was located in a mountainous area, and mountain artillery as a direct-fire artillery was obviously more suitable for fighting in such a battlefield. However, due to the terrain of Niangzi Pass, except for the most frontal pass, all positions were built against the mountains. Especially the first line of defense.
It is even in an open area halfway up the mountain.
The Japanese, who had moved their artillery positions forward to a position no more than 8 miles and 4,000 meters away from the Niangziguan front line, carefully observed the artillery observers and used 75mm field guns to aim at the location with a large number of traces of fortifications and blast them wildly.
However, those field artillery defense fortifications that are paved with logs and use nearly one meter of soil as a defense layer often have officers and soldiers hiding inside. Even if one cannon cannot explode, if more than a dozen cannons are aimed at them, then the
Strong fortifications will one day be blasted away.
After two consecutive rounds of such shelling, the two infantry platoons on guard at the front line were almost completely killed and wounded. But even so, the commanders at the second line of defense could only grit their teeth and continue to attack the infantry.
If the Japanese army successfully entered the first line of defense without any obstruction, then the Japanese attack with a foothold would make the second line of defense even more dangerous. If the forward position of the Niangziguan defense line is lost, the Niangziguan originally formed an integrated whole.
There will be gaps in the regional defense line, and by breaking through the surface, the Japanese can eat up all the troops in the defensive position in one bite.
And if Niangziguan is lost and the Japanese advance straight in, the blow to the entire Niangziguan war zone will be fatal. Even the battlefield on both wings will be divided and surrounded, and there will be no chance of retreat.
No one dares to shoulder this responsibility.
We can only continue to send people to the battlefield, even if we know that they will die.
Although it was clear from the telescope that many Japanese soldiers were naked and digging trenches and fortifications without any defense, one shot would kill at least several of them. However, our own artillery fire never fired a single shot.
.
"Asshole, where are our artillery? I remember, didn't the theater headquarters equip our division with four mountain cannons? Order them to fire at me, my soldiers can't die in vain." A middle-aged soldier wearing a colonel's collar said,
Lying down in the bunker of the second line of defense, he looked at the Japanese position on the opposite side with a telescope, and finally couldn't help but roared angrily.
"Commander, I've already asked. It's not possible." A hint of bitterness flashed across the face of a lieutenant colonel on the side.
"Why not? Ask me for the division headquarters. I will personally ask for orders from the division headquarters."
"The reply given to me by the division headquarters is that the only four mountain guns cannot be fired easily. If the position is exposed and the Japanese artillery retaliates, our army will have no counter-suppression capabilities when the Japanese infantry aggressively attacks the position." The bitter look on the lieutenant colonel's face.
More and more intense.
"Damn it, this battle was fought in a useless way." The colonel of the national army slammed his helmet on the ground, "I was asked to guard Niangzi Pass, so I was sent away with a few mountain-breaking cannons, and I was so scared.
I don’t even dare to shoot a single shot from my mother-in-law. This battle can’t be fought.”
"Commander, please be careful, this is war time." The lieutenant colonel of the National Army raised his eyes and looked around, and reminded him in a low voice.
"Hey! It hurts my heart to see that our brothers have no choice but to take their lives!" The colonel of the National Army angrily turned his gaze back to the front-line position after the third round of shelling, and looked at the infantry platoon that had just been sent up.
The bodies were carried out one by one from the trenches and handed over to the stretcher team, with a gloomy look in their eyes.
As a commander of an army, the most heartbreaking thing is not that his soldiers are shrouded in horse leather, but that they are about to die before even seeing the enemy's face. They have not even had a chance to fire a shot at the enemy.
This is the sorrow of most soldiers in that era. Don't laugh at them. A division or a brigade was chased and beaten by Japanese invaders who were far outnumbered by them. Only those who have experienced the battlefield understand that even if they are also trying to survive, they are still fighting.
Forced to do it.
Everyone wants to live. Under the bombardment, how many people have the iron will of a hero? Many of them were just farmers with hoes a year or six months ago. They just want to live.
Perhaps, only when there is no way to retreat and no way to escape, they will fight to the death to survive, even if there is a sky full of artillery fire above their heads that can melt steel.
Now, these soldiers in front of Niangzi Pass have no choice but to retreat. Once they retreat, they will reach Taiyuan. To the north of Taiyuan, there are still 80,000 extremely vicious Japanese invaders. If they are attacked from two sides, the 100,000 troops here will also
It will disappear.
All we can do is defend, defend to the end.
No one dared to retreat, whether it was the Third Army, the 7th Army, which was responsible for the entire south of Niangziguan, or the 22nd Group Army of the 26th Route Army, which was striding forward.
The main defense line at Niangzi Pass was bombarded by howitzers and field artillery for three consecutive rounds, and the situation at Jiuguan was not much better either.
The artillery position of the 105 howitzer with a range of more than 10,000 meters is between Jiuguan and Niangziguan. It can effortlessly adjust the muzzle to attack two positions 7,000 meters apart.
Through the telescope, Cai Dadao's special team informed Liu Lang of the location of the Japanese artillery positions through the walkie-talkie. But Liu Lang could only look at the situation and sigh.
The shooting distance of the Bofors Mountain Cannon was as high as 9,000 meters, far exceeding the Japanese Type 41 Mountain Cannon. However, Zhao Ergou used three bunkers to transport the six Bofors Mountain Cannons to the position closest to the Japanese artillery position and fired immediately.
, the six-gun Bofors fired a total of 30 shells at the fastest speed before being counterattacked by its howitzer.
If it weren’t for the dozen or so guns in front of them, the Japanese artillery had not figured out the location of the artillery battalion of the Independent Regiment. The Bofors Mountain Artillery, which had a carrying capacity of three bombs, ran fairly fast, and the ones that followed covered the entire valley.
More than a hundred artillery shells can turn the mountain artillery batteries of the artillery battalion into dust in the valley.
This is the advantage of heavy artillery. The shells are powerful and have a long range. Even the Bofors Mountain Cannon with excellent performance can only barely compete with it, let alone suppress it.
However, a dozen artillery shells fired only two to three hundred meters away from the Japanese artillery position also frightened the howitzer brigade. They took the initiative to withdraw their position by nearly 1,000 meters.
As for sending infantry for a sneak attack, Liu Lang could only give up temporarily based on the intelligence sent by the special forces who were a thousand meters away from the artillery position.
Obviously, in the Battle of the Great Wall, whether he attacked the 4th Infantry Brigade or the 8th Infantry Division first, Liu Lang's tactics of two sneak attacks on the artillery units had been thoroughly understood by the Japanese commanders.
This time, Yoshito Takagi had prepared a defense force of three infantry squadrons for the howitzer battalion, which could withstand an infantry regiment's attack for at least four hours.
If Liu Lang still expected to ambush and attack the Japanese artillery like he did in the Great Wall Battle a few years ago, don't even think about it. The warning range of the artillery position has been extended to a full 800 meters, and the special forces can only hide within 1,000 meters.
Observe quietly in the mountains and forests outside to avoid being discovered.
Even if you want to make a cold shot and harass them, it will be difficult.
Starting from 9 a.m., the 105 howitzer launched artillery fire coverage on the main Jiuguan position and the two flank positions for half an hour, pouring at least more than 300 artillery shells on the entire front line position.
After seeing the power of the Japanese howitzers, the officers and soldiers of the 772nd Regiment finally understood why the Chinese army was defeated in consecutive battles despite being far more numerous than the Japanese. Compared with the Japanese artillery, the old soldiers they encountered on the way to the strategic shift of thousands of miles
The opponent's mountain artillery and mortars are like children's play house, and they are not on the same level at all.
The only thing that made Commander Ye and Deputy Commander Wang who were on the front line happy was that not only did they spend six days and nights digging on the stone mountain at the front line with the supervision of Liu Lang and the help of the engineering company of the independent regiment, they
The hiding trenches were also divided into infantry platoons. The defense line of each infantry platoon was blasted with explosives. Two layers of logs were built with logs as the roof, and two meters of loess were laid on top, enough to hide more than 30 people.
A medium-sized bombproof hole will basically not collapse as long as it is not hit head-on by an aircraft bomb weighing more than 250 pounds.
Of course, the most critical thing is the anti-slope tunnel fortifications of the three lines of defense built by Liu Lang. On the first line of defense, no matter on the two wings or the main position, only one infantry platoon is left as the early blocking force, and the main force is hidden.
In the fortifications behind the mountains that cannot be covered by artillery fire.
Therefore, although they were bombarded indiscriminately for more than half an hour, the 1st Battalion of the Independent Regiment and the 772nd Regiment, which had been well prepared, did not suffer as many casualties as the Third Army.
The Japanese army's fierce artillery fire flattened many of the hard-built fortifications. On the entire Jiuguan defense line, only six people were killed and three were seriously injured. The strength of an infantry company on the front line was basically not greatly reduced.
However, the Japanese invaders only used howitzers.