Chapter 1118 The Japanese hold back their ultimate move!
There is no doubt that in the minds of Japanese military reporters, moving forward is definitely not the present.
Don't look at the Japanese army's aggressive attack force, which totaled more than 380 troops in two waves.
But it was actually just a tentative attack.
Before the Chinese heavy firepower points are found and destroyed, blindly sending heavy troops to attack will only lead to death.
Not to mention that center left Yoon Tang Soo-ul, who had spent more than 18 years in the army, would not do this. Even a trainee second lieutenant who had just entered the army would not do this.
The Japanese infantry only rushed as far as 200 meters away from the first trench on the mountainside. When the two heavy machine guns of the 1st Battalion and 2nd Company had to fire to suppress them, they stopped moving forward and found bunkers on the spot to hide.
Then, nearly 6 grenade launchers frantically poured grenades towards the two heavy machine gun fire points.
The two Japanese infantry squadrons have a total of 12 grenadiers, and they basically stay 350 meters away from the front line trenches. That is the limit range of the rifle. Unless you have an extremely good marksman, you should not worry about safety!
Although there is a threat from mortars, the mortars cannot be like having eyes. The accuracy error exceeds 10 meters. If they are spotted by mortars, the grenade is light. One grenade can and two grenade hands.
Runs extremely fast.
Therefore, after discovering two heavy firepower points, how could the Japanese grenadiers not be ecstatic? They would be bombarded if they were caught!
According to their past experience, not to mention several grenades against a heavy firepower point, even if one grenade against one, five grenades in a row are enough to level it.
But this time the Japanese hit the wall. Not only did the two heavy firepower points continue to fire, suppressing the Japanese troops on the front line so much that they couldn't even lift their heads. What's even more terrible is that after a moment of silence, the Chinese also used
'Grenade' counterattacked.
But the power is much greater than that of a 50mm grenade.
That is the French Brand 60 mortar. It has a range of more than 1,500 meters, and the projectile weighing 1.33 kilograms is far more than the Japanese 50mm grenade. It is a typical one-two!
Moreover, this small-caliber mortar, which is placed in the infantry platoon specifically to support the front-line infantry, is not placed behind the mountain. The artillery observers and mortars are in the trenches, always looking for valuable targets.
The Japanese heavy machine guns are all 800 meters away, and in order to prevent being bombarded by mortars, each fire group is far apart, and they are covered by simple fortifications and trees and shrubs. If you want to hit them, you can only use artillery groups to cover them.
That's not what company and platoon-level support artillery does.
60 mortars, which used grenades and light machine guns to follow the Japanese infantry.
The Japanese army's grenades exploded unscrupulously, but their targets were clearly exposed. The nine 60-mm mortars placed by the second company on the second line of defense were already "hungry and thirsty"!
The Japanese grenadiers were like poking a hornet's nest this time. Nine 60-gun guns opened fire here three minutes later!
Each cannon fires five rounds in a rapid fire. The game is not about who is accurate enough, but the main point is a probability. If one cannon can't kill you, then add more cannons!
The six groups of Japanese grenadiers did not have time to appreciate their results. The second company's overwhelming shelling from small artillery directly stunned the Japanese infantry.
After the smoke, there was minced meat everywhere!
When did the Chinese's light firepower become so strong?
Japan's "Asahi Shimbun" military reporter...
Go ahead, DER! The Chinese German armorers are so terrifying, with so many mortars deployed in the frontline trenches.
If the Japanese grenadier's crazy throwing of dozens of grenades and the retaliation of dozens of artillery shells were a kind of "seven-wounding punch" that "hurt both others and themselves", then it would be better to think about it, and at least it can be redeemed.
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But the two MG34s were still spitting out tongues of fire "joyfully" in the smoke, which made the Japanese infantry very depressed.
I'm sorry, these idiots on our side are just like setting off fireworks during the New Year, making people listen a little louder! But the price is too high, and they risk their lives.
The two heavy machine guns are hidden in machine gun bunkers that are half a meter thick and supported by steel plates. Not to mention 50mm small-caliber grenades, even the 70mm infantry cannon can withstand a wave as long as it is not hit from the front!
However, it is not that easy for the Japanese 70mm infantry artillery to bombard a machine gun bunker with a surface area of only a few square meters from 1,500 meters away!
Just like now, at least two infantry guns began to bombard the position from the forest. However, swept by the stormy waves, the two machine gun bunkers discovered by the Japanese army were like extremely stubborn rocks, unmoving.
"Baga!" Yin Tangxiuer, who was holding a telescope in the distance, was so angry that he kept spitting out fragrance, but he was helpless.
This kind of bunker, unless the infantry artillery is brought within 1,000 meters and fired violently, the Japanese army's existing fortress-breaking equipment is completely powerless.
This also means that the first wave of probing attacks did find the heavy firepower point of the Chinese defenders, but it was in vain because the infantry brigade-level firearms could not attack them.
Moreover, the Japanese infantrymen on the front line had an intuition that even though the Chinese infantrymen huddled in the trenches fired very little, as long as they advanced another 50 meters, bullets would rain down like rain.
Their intuition was quite accurate. The hundreds of infantrymen in the first trench were the first and second platoons of the second company. However, they were equipped with nearly 20 semi-automatic rifles, 8 submachine guns, and 8 Czech light machine guns. They broke out in an instant.
The continuous firepower unleashed far exceeded that of the first three Japanese infantry squads.
With the firepower of their more than 100 soldiers equipped with Type 38 bolt-fire rifles, it would take less than ten seconds and no heavy machine guns to join the battle. Just these two infantry platoons could shoot them all to the ground!
With the light firepower currently equipped by the Four Lines Regiment, a 70-man infantry platoon with three infantry squads and one fire support squad would dare to confront a Japanese infantry squadron.
Wei Donglai also requested that as long as the Japanese infantry had not entered the 150-meter cordon, the front-line infantry did not need to suppress it with large-scale fire. Once the Japanese infantry entered the 150-meter cordon, they did not need to leave.
The surging firepower output may not be enough to kill all the Japanese soldiers lying on the ground, but it can completely suppress them in place.
In this sortie, each of the 60 mortars carried nearly 120 shells, which was enough for the artillerymen to kill them one by one by naming them with shells.
However, the lack of large-scale shooting suppression does not mean that the infantry will not participate in the counterattack. The precision shooters of each infantry squad hid in the hidden spots of the trenches and secretly carried out cold-gun sneak attacks on the Japanese troops who entered within a straight line distance of 250 meters.
Those are also six precision shooters. Although they have not reached the ability of the legendary sniper who can "kill an enemy with one bullet", precision shooters who have experienced the battlefield and fed thousands of bullets on the training ground are not the same.
Just 'old bird' can be described.
The Japanese troops in the second-line division saw the terror of the elite soldiers of the "Chinese German Arms Division"!
A Japanese senior officer Hyōkura Hashi who survived the infantry brigade after the war was fortunate enough to say: When I stepped onto the battlefield, nearly 260 meters away from the enemy trenches, and felt the temperature of Ryosuke-kun's blood, I
I had an intuition that the Chinese on the other side were by no means the weaklings who were 'collapsed in a single blow' as the veterans said.
Fortunately, Cangqiao did not describe in detail how his fellow villagers died in the battle. It was not because the scene was too tragic for him to look back on!
On the contrary, compared with the brutality that followed, the first-class soldier who was shot to pieces in the mouth and nose, and who writhed on the ground for three minutes before dying, died a more honorable death.
At least, he still left a complete body!
Fortunately, Kurahashi, who used a first-aid kit to stop the bleeding of his fellow villagers, was sprayed with blood on his face, but he also indirectly escaped a fatal situation by staying 260 meters away and having a rock as a cover!
In just a probing attack, the 4th Infantry Squadron, which was making arrowheads, killed 20 people on the spot and injured 18 others.
Eight of them were killed by small-caliber mortar shells poured in by the Chinese defenders, but as many as 12 people were killed by cold guns and machine guns!
This is still the result of the entire squadron adopting a crawling approach immediately after the first soldier was shot. If it were like bending over and attacking upwards during training...
The frightened Japanese soldiers could not imagine the outcome!
After only holding on for less than 20 minutes, the reporter from the Asahi Shimbun, who was already filled with desolation, saw his heroic infantrymen dragging corpses and wounded soldiers to defeat in embarrassment!
It's understandable to drag a corpse, but dragging a wounded soldier is just a hairy thing?
The cold-blooded gunmen of the Chinese are really abominable. They have been shooting in the dark like poisonous snakes, and their shooting range is as high as 300 meters.
It's already very dangerous to be exposed on the battlefield, but if you have to carry the wounded on your back, it's like killing them!
There was no other way. Captain Hanyu Chikuma, who was then the 4th Infantry Squadron, could only order that all the victims, dead or alive, be towed away from the 300-meter danger zone.
This is great. Seventy percent of the seriously injured people who were originally wounded by bullets and could survive as long as they were treated properly, rolled their eyes on the spot after being dragged for nearly a hundred meters and couldn't even control their urination and defecation!
In other words, the number of war dead will basically increase by another 30%, reaching the number of 30!
An infantry squadron with 192 men was almost completely disabled by a tentative attack!
Needless to say, their morale was instantly low. Some 37-year-old soldiers who had only joined the army less than two years ago and had never experienced a battlefield cried on the spot!
This is a phenomenon that has almost never happened in the Imperial Japanese Army!
Indo Hideru, the center left, was so angry that his face turned purple. If he hadn't been concerned that Captain Hanyu Chikuma also had a relative who served as a center left-level officer in the army, he would have probably pulled out his command sword and chopped him down on the spot, but there were more than a dozen people who cracked and fell.
A big mouth is definitely indispensable.
Fortunately, the subsequent tentative attack by the Second Infantry Group next door also hit the iron wall.
In fact, the number of casualties of more than 45 was higher than that of the 1st Infantry Brigade, which at least indirectly calmed down the anger of Xia Yintang Xiuer's center left.
The penultimate position sounds very annoying, but as long as the penultimate position is at the bottom, the penultimate position gives you a kind of unreasonable peace of mind.
That is also the defense area of the 1st Battalion. The one responsible for the main defense is Zhao Daqiang's company. Compared with Wei Donglai's forbearance, Zhao Daqiang is not polite to the Japanese army. He doesn't care whether you are tempted or not. When the Japanese army enters the 200-meter area, he will give orders.
The frontline trenches are firing with all their might!
Indiscriminate killings with long and short rifles, mixed with free hunting by precision shooters, one guy stunned the Japanese troops on the position, and drove them away in just ten minutes.
Of course, this also caused the first company to have several times more wounded than the second company, and they were basically all shrapnel wounds!
The Japanese army's grenades and infantry artillery were not indifferent either. After a round of counterattack, seven or eight soldiers of the First Company were hit by shrapnel.
But it was basically not fatal. Four people were sent to the back of the mountain, and four lightly wounded people were bandaged and remained in the trenches. Even if shooting was restricted, it was still possible to help send some bullets and grenades to the comrades.
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Lei Xiong received reports of casualties from each company, and did not question or appreciate the different fighting styles of the two infantry company chiefs. Everyone has different personalities, and naturally their fighting methods are also different.
All advantages and disadvantages must be summarized after the entire war. The number of casualties, number of enemies killed, and ammunition consumption are all important data to consider.
After being given a head-on blow by two infantry companies, the Japanese army temporarily ceased its activities!
However, both Chinese and Japanese commanders knew that this was just the last calm before the storm.
The Japanese army did not fully reveal its trump card, and China did not reveal its trump card!
Until three o'clock in the afternoon, a huge roar echoed across the battlefield.
One of the trump cards of the newly formed 21st Division, the Chariot Brigade makes its debut!
It was a huge steel behemoth convoy consisting of three tank squadrons and a total of 45 tanks.
On the battlefield in North China, once this steel behemoth was sacrificed, the Japanese army was almost invincible.
In addition to the small number of 37mm anti-tank artillery equipped by China, which is a sufficient threat to the Japanese Type 89 main battle tank, the 12-ton steel beast has a front face of 17mm thick forged nickel-chromium armor steel that is not afraid of any Chinese firearms.
On the battlefield of the Battle of Xuzhou, the Chinese side, which used superior force to destroy two Japanese brigades in Taierzhuang, once captured an 89 tank and published a photo of the tank in the newspaper.
The 89 tank in the photo is riddled with scars, with hundreds of bullet marks visible to the naked eye, which fully illustrates the bravery of the Chinese soldiers who fought with it, but more importantly, it is helpless.
The Civilian 24 heavy machine guns and Maxim heavy machine guns equipped by the Chinese army have certain armor-breaking capabilities. But when facing a steel behemoth of this level, even if it is as close as 100 meters, it will leave a bullet hole several millimeters deep.
, is already the limit.
When up to 12 Type 89 tanks were lined up in front of the infantry front, and the engines emitting black smoke erupted with a huge roar, the momentum was really quite scary.
The morale of the Japanese infantrymen who had previously been depleted was instantly replenished, including the superior Hōkurabashi Yuki, who was dragging the bodies of his compatriots back, and was also waving his arms and shouting loudly with his colleagues in the trenches.
With such a giant steel beast as a shield, they did not believe that the Chinese could still be as tenacious as before, even if they had machine guns with an exaggerated rate of fire, and even if they had strong fortresses with grenade launchers and mountain cannons that could not be destroyed even if they concentrated fire.
The 89 tank is not only thick and durable, it also has a 57mm short-barreled cannon with 100 rounds of ammunition. It can reach a distance of 500 meters, which is enough for them to accurately blast any semi-permanent fortifications that are not made of reinforced concrete into the sky.
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In addition to the 12 Type 89 tanks, there are also 33 Type 94 armored vehicles, which are light tanks nicknamed Little Douding by Chinese soldiers.
Although the Type 94 armored vehicle is somewhat disliked by the Japanese army itself, with only 10 mm of frontal armor, it cannot completely guarantee safety when faced with close-range fire from the heavy machine guns equipped by the Chinese army, but it is still a tank, isn't it?
It can not only provide cover for the infantry, but also have two 7.7mm heavy machine guns to provide fire support. If the Chinese light machine guns and infantry dare to show up, the flexible little Douding can also use the heavy machine gun to kill them.
To put it bluntly, although the tank is scummy, if it is to deal with the Chinese army with worse equipment, the Type 94 Xiaoduding can still be regarded as a small killer!
The entire battlefield was filled with the roar of Japanese tanks and the deafening cheers of "Banzai" from the Japanese infantry!
But the Japanese army didn’t take any action!
"Order, except for the air defense company, the entire regiment should leave a small number of observation posts on the front line. Everyone else should immediately enter the hidden tunnel. The Japanese planes are coming." Tang Dao, who was still staying on the cliff in the distance to patiently observe the Japanese army, had a cold look in his eyes.
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Based on the Japanese army's previous eagerness to attack, Tang Dao judged that the previous use of mountain artillery to bombard the hill must have completely angered the Japanese army. Although he did not know the outcome of the battle, it must have caused damage to the Japanese army.
However, the Japanese army only suffered a small setback, and even after the arrival of its tank brigade, they brazenly drove dozens of tanks to the front line for demonstration, but did not immediately launch an attack. This contradictory performance of rushing and slowing down can only have one
a possibility.
They are still waiting for stronger support!
Tang Dao’s judgment is correct!
A hundred kilometers away, on the clouds at 3,500 meters, a group of small black dots were moving at high speed. If it hadn't been for the low roar, people on the ground would have hardly noticed that there were such a group of aircraft flying above their heads wielding death scythes.
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This time, it was not the 12 or 24 Japanese aircraft that the Four Troops had experienced before, but a whopping 48!
In order to cooperate with General Gen Sugami's plan to destroy China's Jindong Army, the Japanese North China Front Army Provisional Aviation Corps, which received less than two days' notice, assembled nearly a hundred aircraft belonging to its seven aviation groups and four independent squadrons.
Fighter planes join the battle.
After receiving a request at noon from Major General Nagano Kameichiro, acting division commander of the newly formed 21st Division, which had begun a fierce battle with the Chinese army at the Niangziguan defense line, the Japanese North China Front Army Staff Headquarters immediately issued military orders to the provisional aviation regiment that was on standby.
The news of the death of Lieutenant General Washizu Matsudaira in battle was not actually announced. Only the commander of the North China Front, General Gen. Sugamimoto, and the chief of staff, Saburo Okabe, knew about it.
To be honest, the moment the two senior Japanese generals who led the war received the "announcement of mourning" telegram from the headquarters of the 21st Division, their eyes went dark, and they were almost stunned by the "What can I do?"
The dead man who was the first to give gifts to the poor was so angry that he lost his temper.
You said that you, a lieutenant general in charge of an army of 20,000 people, had no time to go to the front line to fight for the ball! Now it’s better! Not to mention that you have become a roast pig, and the Imperial Japanese Army has also lost its face.
In the future, when we have a war with the navy, just one sentence: "Not a single lieutenant general in our navy has died" is enough to break the defense of the entire army, okay?
If possible, Gen Sugami and Saburo Okabe really want to kick these pig heads of the 21st Division into the sea.
It's a pity that the arrow is already on the string and has to be fired. How can we prevent these idiots from killing the lieutenant general and the division commander and still can't kill the Chinese? Then we can only increase the support!
The weak will always get more help, this saying is true.
Therefore, under the quiet instruction of Saburo Okabe, General Tokugawa of the Provisional Aviation Corps dispatched 48 fighter planes, four squadrons, to bomb Niangzi Pass!
Zuo Zuomu, the lone star of the Heavenly Evil, sets off again!
