Chapter 441: The Outskirts of Guang'an City in the Smoke of Gunpowder
On May 4th, at dawn, the South Korean Navy on the front line of Guang'an City suddenly launched a large-scale artillery bombardment.
From multiple artillery positions, a total of about 200 artillery pieces began intensive shelling at 5:30 in the morning. During the intensive shelling, the First Division, which was responsible for the first phase of the counterattack, began to launch a counterattack.
However, at this time, senior generals such as Lin Ziran and Xu Zhongshu were not focusing on the seemingly massive counterattack outside Guang'an City, but instead focused on the attack of the Second Army on the left.
About eight kilometers away to the west of Guang'an City, Zhang Hanqiu, commander of the Second Army, was leading his troops to launch a large-scale fierce attack!
After the artillery unit conducted intensive shelling, the infantry of the Second Army began to launch an attack.
The Second Army's large-scale counterattack allowed the Quyang Prefecture soldiers in front of them to see for the first time how troops equipped with breech-loaded rifled weapons and using new tactics launched an attack.
It is not the traditional line formation that slowly moves forward. Even in the early stage, the defensive forces cannot see many soldiers of the South Navy at all, because the offensive formation of the South Navy is very scattered, and they all use the terrain to quickly jump forward.
, and would not be stupidly exposed to the firepower of the defensive forces.
At the same time, they will organize firepower to suppress the enemy's defensive positions. The 75mm howitzer will bombard the enemy's defensive positions from two to three kilometers away.
When the infantry advanced to about four to five hundred meters, they began to use the rapid-fire mortars assigned to the infantry battalion to fire rapidly.
In just one minute, a dozen or more rapid-fire mortar shells may fall on a target trench of tens of meters. At this time, the infantry will launch a charge with their guns in hand.
At this time, the enemy's infantry is often unable to resist.
They were first bombarded by dense long-range artillery, and then by medium-caliber howitzers, and then by rapid-fire mortars. Even though they had built a trench defense system, they could not withstand such a density.
of shelling.
When they were bombarded, a large number of their personnel had been killed and wounded, and their morale had dropped. When they were charged by the infantry of the Southern Navy at this time, they would often collapse without a fight.
Occasionally, the enemy troops on some fronts resisted stubbornly, but the attacking infantry would throw a large number of grenades in the final stage, that is, when they were twenty or thirty meters away from the enemy trench. The power of these grenades was naturally not great compared to the artillery shells.
, but this is still not something that the infantry can resist, and there are many of these things. When thrown at the same time, they can often be thrown directly into the enemy's trench and explode.
After this series of explosions, the infantrymen of the Southern Navy launched a charge and basically killed the last enemy with bayonets.
This large-scale counterattack is somewhat different from the South Korean Navy's previous offensive mode.
In the past, the South Korean Navy rarely launched direct charges, and more often relied on artillery bombardments. At the same time, it used the range advantage of breech-loading rifles to completely defeat the enemy at an unexpected distance of 100 meters.
However, as the enemy gradually used Fuyuan muskets or similar high-quality smoothbore guns to modify breech-loading rifled rifles, and gradually equipped breech-loading rifled rifles, at the same time the enemy began to dig trenches on a large scale. In fact, the South Korean Navy was attacking
During combat, it is already relatively difficult to gain an advantage in infantry firepower.
This point has already appeared in the previous Battle to the North and the subsequent Battle to the East. The reason why the South Navy was able to win at that time was purely based on tactical advantages.
This situation also further allowed the South Korean Navy to strengthen the training and improvement of infantry tactics. A large number of grenades and rapid-fire mortar equipment were the product of this situation.
What should I do if the enemy starts hiding in the trenches?
Hit the enemy with curved fire!
Rapid-fire mortars and grenades are such direct firepower.
Of course, the Southern Navy's artillery advantage is still obvious.
When this counter-offensive was launched, the artillery force of the South China Sea Navy used the ultra-long range of its own artillery to launch a devastating surprise attack on the enemy's artillery based on previous reconnaissance intelligence.
The first large-scale artillery bombardment in the early morning, especially the intensive artillery bombardment of the previous fifteen minutes, except for some 75mm howitzers directly supporting infantry operations and bombarding the enemy's infantry defense lines.
In fact, the target of a large number of long-range artillery, including 75mm field guns, 100mm field guns, and 150mm howitzers, is not the enemy's infantry defense line, but the enemy's deployment behind the infantry defense line.
Artillery positions, headquarters, ammunition warehouses, etc.
Although Quyang Prefecture's army had learned lessons from other armies, they did not dare to deploy a large number of artillery pieces directly in the open air and expose them to the firepower of the South Korean Navy.
However, their large number of smoothbore cannons were limited by their range, and they could not really retreat to the rear. At most, they would be several hundred meters away from the infantry defense line, or simply concealed.
The same was true for its headquarters and ammunition depots. Although they were several kilometers away from the front line, they still underestimated the effective range of the South Korean Navy's 100mm field artillery.
The 100mm field gun equipped by the South Korean Navy is a long-barreled artillery with a barrel of thirty times the caliber, and its effective range can reach 7,500 meters.
To put it bluntly, in fact, almost all the defense lines currently deployed by the Quyang Prefecture Army outside Guang'an City, including artillery positions and temporary material warehouses and headquarters in the rear, are all within the effective strike range of this artillery.
The only troublesome thing is that it is impossible to shoot directly at such a long range. You can only shoot with curved aim. This requires relatively high technical requirements for artillery fire. At the same time, more importantly, you need to know the specific location of the target in advance.
, only in this way can we calculate the shooting elements and carry out long-range bombardment.
For this counterattack, the South Korean Navy's artillery strategy was still simple. They carried out saturated artillery bombardments on all detected enemy artillery positions, suspected enemy artillery positions, ammunition warehouses, and headquarters, trying to attack them as soon as possible.
Remove the enemy's artillery firepower and reduce the pressure on the infantry when attacking.
Destroy the enemy's warehouses, transportation nodes, and headquarters at the same time.
In this counterattack, the South Korean Navy's artillery superiority is still the South Korean Navy's strategic advantage.
Relying on its absolute superiority in artillery firepower, the Second Army, which launched a roundabout attack on the west side, successfully broke through the enemy's first line of defense in the morning and advanced rapidly.
To all this, Quyang Prefecture’s reaction was panic!
It's not that they didn't expect that the South Korean Navy would counterattack, but they didn't expect that the South Korean Navy's counterattack would be like this.
They thought that the South Korean Navy would launch a charge with the infantry in skirmish formation, supported by their breech-mounted rifled guns. The infantry would advance towards their own trench defense line and fire a large number of bullets.
They are prepared for this. The thick field trench defense system is prepared to resist enemy artillery, and they are also equipped with a lot of breech-loading rifled rifles. If there is a fight, they are confident that they will not be able to defeat the infantry firepower.
There will be too much difference.
But they never expected that after the battle started, before they saw the South Korean Navy's large-scale intensive formation attack, the west side defense line completely collapsed and was completely destroyed by the enemy's superior artillery firepower!
The expected intensive exchange of fire between the infantry of both sides did not occur at all.