Lieutenant Colonel Hatori was crazy at the moment, but that didn't mean that the artillery squadron leader was also crazy.
If he wins after the war, it will be easy to say that victory can cover up all the ugliness. But if he fails in this critical battle and the six infantry cannons under his command blow up one of his own men, then he will be unlucky.
Not only the remaining infantry commanders on the front line are going to cause trouble for him, but I am afraid that he will also face a military court. The order given to him by Lieutenant Colonel Hatori is to bombard the Chinese positions, not his own people, even if the distance is just 200 meters.
meters at this critical point.
Damn it, a cannon is not a gun. It hits where you point it. There is a slight error in the angle of the muzzle, and the actual artillery strike is hundreds of meters or even hundreds of meters away. This is still an infantry cannon that can be used as a direct-aiming gun. Howitzers like mountain cannons are different
Even Lieutenant Colonel Hatori, who was in a state of madness, did not dare to use the mountain cannon to blow both the enemy and ourselves into ashes before the fight was over.
If you don't dare to disobey military orders and don't want to be blamed after the war, you can only work hard to improve the hit rate. If you want to improve the hit rate of the infantry cannon that can be used as both a direct-fire cannon and a curved-fire cannon, you can only continue to get closer.
distance.
Therefore, the artillery captain of the 77th Infantry Regiment, who had greeted his temporary boss, Lieutenant Colonel Hatori, all the women in the family over and over in his heart, could only bite the bullet and take the initiative to advance the 1,500 meters in the order.
300 meters away from the main position of Jiuguan, only 1,200 meters away.
Moreover, because it was firing from above, after several consecutive test rounds passed over the Jiuguan position, the artillery squadron leader who considered not seeking no success but no mistakes still asked the artillerymen to increase the muzzle elevation angle.
Now we would rather miss the Chinese positions than blow our own infantry into the sky.
Six infantry cannons fired together, which was pretty awesome. Not to mention the effect of the bombardment, the thick smoke rising from the artillery position even covered the 300-meter-wide artillery position, making it difficult to see clearly.
However, only twenty-three out of ten of the artillery shells fired could land on the Jiuguan position. Most of the artillery shells passed over the top of Jiuguan Mountain, landed in the mountains and ravines behind, and exploded.
This stunned the gunners of the three fire platoons who were hiding behind the position and had prepared nine 82 mortars from a battalion.
Although the Japanese are bad enough, their military quality is absolutely outstanding. Even the 8th Division that was defeated in the Battle of the Great Wall, whether it is the soldiers' Bushido spirit of fighting to the death or the precise individual shooting skills or the accuracy of their artillery
The shelling left a very deep impression on the remaining veterans of the independent regiment.
This is also the motivation for them to lead the recruits to train hard and never slack off on the training ground day after day, year after year. If they don't work hard on the training ground, what will they do to fight against the Japanese invaders who are armed to the teeth in the future?
However, the Japanese infantry artillery gunners opened their eyes. It turned out that the Type 92 infantry artillery could be used like this? MMB, it was not designed to blow up the ambulance soldiers who were carrying stretchers to take the wounded to the hospital, right?
Looking at the sound of the bombed mountain behind the mountain in the distance, and the ambulance soldiers lying down one after another rushing to the temporary field hospital under the bunker in the ravine. The mortar crews were angry.
They have endured so far that they have not bombed the Japanese infantry at the front of the position, nor have they bombed the Japanese heavy machine gun position that is showing off its power. Aren't they just waiting to beat the infantry artillery of the artillery squadron directly under the Japanese infantry brigade! The only way to get rid of this big scourge is to kill the Japanese heavy machine gun position.
Only when the machine gun firepower is high can it fire at full power. The ability of infantry artillery to carry out fortifications is not a joke.
"Observer, find the location of the infantry artillery position for me. Damn it, I've got it all right. I'm going to kill those idiots. No one can escape for me." The temporary commander of the mortar team
Firepower platoon deputy commander Liu Jinzuo puffed out his cheeks and roared.
He defected to the Independent Regiment with 200 civilians, and he was the elder brother of Liu Jinyou, a wounded soldier of the Independent Regiment. Liu Jinzuo, who had a "good foundation" and outstanding marksmanship and good skills, had been in the Independent Regiment for four years.
He rose from the rank of sergeant to sergeant, and was eventually promoted to sergeant major after half a year of training in the teaching brigade, serving as the firepower platoon deputy, just one step away from the second lieutenant platoon leader.
Moreover, under the influence of his direct instructor and his direct commander, deputy battalion commander and first company commander Ye Zifei, this Orion from Tongguan, Shaanxi Province, who once did not know a single big character, even submitted an application for joining the party and was included in the list of party activists.
ranks.
Judging from this progress, he basically belongs to the same sequence as his regimental commander.
"Target, J113830, target, J113913, target, J113916, target...repeat, target J113830, target J113913...the maximum straight-line distance is 1250 meters." Put the huge artillery observer on the rock.
, the two artillery observers, who turned a deaf ear to the shells that were exploding a hundred meters or even dozens of meters away, tried to look into the distance through the smoke while shouting at the top of their lungs.
What they reported was not the altitude, latitude, longitude, straight-line distance and other shooting data required by artillery reported by traditional artillery observers, but the grid format artillery parameter reporting method brought by Liu Lang from the future.
It means that the entire war zone will be drawn into an overall military map through scouts. The military map is drawn with a grid and numbered. First, letters are used to divide the latitude, and then numbers are used to divide the longitude. For example, the position of the Jiuguan front line is 800 meters to 1500 meters.
They are all J11, 5000 meters to 6000 meters are J1, and so on. Almost all positions on the Niangziguan front line are within the range of this square. However, due to the geographical relationship, this square is very large and it is impossible to accurately locate the target. So
Draw 10 more vertical and horizontal grids in the large square grid, shrink the grid 100 times, and express each grid with a 2-digit number. For example, the entire Jiuguan front line is 800 to 1500 meters, and the width is 1400 meters, covering an area of millions of square meters.
In the J11 square, if you subdivide each square, it will be tens of thousands of square meters. Divide the grid multiple times in this way, shrink the grid 100 times each time, and add 2 more digits to express it, until it can be accurate to one hundred square meters.
Up to the meter, whether it is a hillside or a mortar, it can effectively kill an area of less than ten meters in length and width.
In this way, the characters are relatively long, and the location of each artillery battle is relatively fixed. It must be fighting in a certain large square. In fact, the code name of the large square can be omitted and only the last few digits are reported. In fact, the artillery map
It also means that this map was prepared long before the battle.
Before the entire war, engineers and infantry were working hard to build fortifications. In addition to the artillerymen selecting gun positions and constructing gun position fortifications, all artillery observers were busy with this grid work.
During artillery operations, the observer only needs to observe and calculate which small grid the target is in, and then report the target information and the grid number where the target is located to the commander. The commander quickly checks the data table to find out the relative distance and shooting parameters.
The order is passed to the artillerymen, who then adjust the muzzle and start firing according to various shooting parameters.
This not only improves accuracy but also greatly reduces the time for artillerymen to adjust the muzzle.
Less than a minute after the Japanese infantry artillery fired, the 82nd mortar of the Independent Regiment, which had not spoken for a long time, began to counterattack.
The 82 mortar with a range of up to 2,500 meters should not be too easy when shelling the Japanese artillery positions about 1,300 meters away.
Under Liu Jinzuo's order, eight mortars fired nearly 80 rounds at one go, with an average of ten rounds per gun.
The six infantry cannons lined up directly, with a horizontal and vertical distance of 40 meters between each infantry cannon, were all submerged in the smoke of gunfire.
The artillery squadron leader, whose face was tight because he was afraid of taking the blame, was really aggrieved before he died. Damn it, my buddies have already fired cannons into the sky, why are they still reluctant to let go? There are so many mortars.
If you hadn't said anything, if you had told me earlier, my brother wouldn't have come so close to seek death!
No matter what, you have to hide behind that bastard Lieutenant Hatori. If he wants to fight, you should hit him first.
"The Chinese still have so many large-caliber mortars..." Lieutenant Colonel Hatori, the bastard infantry battalion captain who was scolded by the artillery squadron leader before he died, watched as the six infantry cannons he ordered to approach and shell were destroyed.
Covered by artillery fire, his vision went dark and he almost fainted.
That is half the strength of the artillery squadron directly under the wing that the wing commander has personally authorized him to command with full authority! In addition to the 4 mountain cannons staying in the artillery position 4,000 meters away, there are also 2 37mm battle defense cannons that are not in use.
All six infantry guns of the artillery squadron directly under the wing are here.
Unexpectedly, after just one minute of shooting, before the mountain top was even on fire, the Chinese retaliated with artillery fire.
Moreover, the firing was so accurate, including a few test shots, almost all of which were within the range of the artillery position. The artillery position that was lined up nearly 300 meters laterally was hit by large-caliber mortars falling from the sky.
Although the entire artillery position was shrouded in thick smoke and could not be seen clearly, the loud bangs that kept erupting hundreds of meters away reminded the sad old lieutenant colonel that it was the sound of artillery shells exploding on the position.
It was over. Lieutenant Colonel Hatori closed his eyes in pain, not wanting to see this tragic scene again. At the same time, the situation on the battlefield where the fierce fighting was going on on the mountain seemed to be tilting towards the Japanese army.