Rise from eight hundred.

Chapter 1433 Shipai No. 2 Meat Grinder (Part )

Early in the morning of the 22nd, the artillery of the Fourth Bank Regiment began shelling again, using incendiary bombs.

The Japanese infantrymen had not even had a chance to drink their hot porridge when they were frightened by the overwhelming incendiary bombs that fell on them, and all the porridge spilled on the ground.

Compared to a delicious breakfast, life is obviously more important.

The Chinese incendiary bombs are different from the sulfur bombs equipped with Japanese artillery. They are mixed with white phosphorus and other chemical substances. The sparks look beautiful, but it is terrible if they fall on your body. Not only can they burn through cotton clothes, but they can also burn into your skin and all the way to your bones.

Even though there are many evergreen trees here that cannot be ignited by ordinary fire, they burn vigorously under the power of this incendiary bomb.

Originally, the early morning in the coldest days of winter was the coldest, with temperatures well below zero degrees. However, after the rampage of incendiary bombs, the temperature of the entire battlefield rose by at least ten degrees, and cotton clothes could no longer be worn.

Fortunately, after the lesson yesterday evening, Major General Jingu ordered the entire army to build individual anti-artillery holes and other fortifications overnight. The main destructive effect of incendiary bombs is burning, and the destructive power to fortifications is not as great as that of explosive grenades. As long as you hide in the anti-artillery holes, you can still save your life unless you are too unlucky to be hit directly by a shell.

However, under the intense bombardment of 12 mountain cannons and a dozen mortars, more than a dozen hilltops were engulfed in flames, and thick smoke rose into the sky.

The 24 mountain guns of the Zhengu Detachment also began to retaliate, also causing the Sifang Bay high ground to be filled with smoke.

The artillery of both sides fought back and forth, making the battle very lively.

But soon, the artillerymen on both sides, who were sweating profusely and wishing they could go shirtless in the middle of winter, slowed down their movements.

Because a dull roar came from the sky, and within two minutes, a large number of black spots flew in the light of the winter morning sun.

Compared with the Chinese artillerymen who were shouting and pushing their artillery into concealed fortifications, the Japanese artillerymen looked much more relaxed.

If nothing unexpected happens, the ones coming should be Imperial fighter planes. Although the Navy idiots are not trustworthy, their bombs are still reliable and there are very few cases of accidental bombings.

However, as the fleet approached and began to lower its altitude, the Japanese commanders who were looking at the sky with high-powered binoculars waved their hands in fear and shouted at the artillery to stop the bombardment and take shelter.

Because the paint on the tail of the plane they saw was not a bright red sun, but a white one.

This time, the fighter planes that came were not from the Japanese Navy, but from the Chinese Air Force, totaling 24 Wildcat fighters and 8 bombers.

The fleet of 32 fighter jets is a large-scale bomber fleet that has rarely appeared in the Chinese Air Force in the past two years. Even the bombing of Yiling and Jingmen airports did not use such a large-scale fighter fleet.

  Then how come such misfortune befell such a small unit called Zhengu Branch?

Commander Tang knew how bad this guy was, but the Chinese Ministry of Military Affairs and the Air Force Command did not. From a tactical perspective, it would not be the turn of anyone but the Jingu Detachment to suffer such a bombing.

That was all the idea of ​​Commander Chen who was stationed in Enshi. On the evening of the 21st, this civil engineering boss received a battle report from Division Commander Hu about the Japanese army's movements that day. The clouds on his face were so thick that they were almost dripping with water.

The so-called "Civil Engineering" can be divided into eighteen parts. To put it bluntly, without the 18th Army, the Civil Engineering Department will lose its foundation. The Battle of Shipai is not only related to the survival of the country, but also to his future position in the army as the leader of the Civil Engineering Department.

The two main divisions of the 18th Army were already in a very difficult situation on the central battlefield and the right wing battlefield of Shipai. Although the division commander surnamed Hu still had two reserve regiments that had not been pulled into the battlefield, which meant that they still had a chance to fight, that was only the position of the 2th Army and did not represent others.

Especially the extremely important left wing position. If the flank was breached, no matter how strong the 18th Army was, it would be difficult to resist the encirclement of tens of thousands of Japanese troops on three sides.

The combat effectiveness of the Four-Line Regiment had actually far exceeded the imagination of the commander-in-chief Admiral. They had already blocked the attack of 1.4 Japanese troops at Niuchangpo and Zhujiaping. From any perspective, Commander Chen could no longer ask the Four-Line Regiment to do better.

But on the afternoon of the 21st, the battle situation took a sharp turn for the worse as a large Japanese army of more than 7000 troops bypassed the Zhujiaping defense line and attacked the flank of the Shipai central position.

If Commander Chen's guess is correct, the main force of the Four-Line Regiment has already been deployed to resist 1.4 Japanese troops. Although there are still a lot of troops in Sifang Bay, it is impossible to stop the fierce attack of 7000 Japanese troops.

The central position of Shipai, nearly 10 kilometers away from Sifang Bay, was also in danger. The division commander surnamed Hu was determined to fight the Japanese army to the death on the second line of defense and never retreat. The reserve troops of the two regiments had already gone to the battlefield, and they were powerless to support the flanks.

As the saying goes, "the lips are cold and the teeth are broken." Commander Chen thought for a long time and actually bypassed the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs and used his personal relationship to find Commander Zhou of the Air Force and asked him to use fighter planes to assist the Shipai left wing battlefield.

  Little did he know that he also owed Tang Dao a big favor. Without Tang Dao, his air force would only have a hundred or so old fighter planes available. Where did the nearly a hundred Wildcat fighter planes come from?

Over the past six months, with the addition of Wildcat fighters, the Chinese Air Force has completed several bombings of airports occupied by the Japanese army, providing extremely strong support for the ground battlefield in the two lakes region, so much so that it has been specifically praised by that person on many occasions.

After receiving Commander Chen's request and also returning a favor to Tang Dao, Commander Zhou summoned Zheng Ruoyu, who had been promoted to deputy squadron leader of the Air Force, and Shen Chonghai, who had been promoted to deputy commander of the 13th Air Force Squadron, to his residence overnight to listen to the opinions of these two ace pilots and Air Force commanders.

What else did these two have to say? When they heard that they were going to support the Four-Line Regiment, they naturally expressed their willingness to do their best.

The three of them hit it off immediately and gathered all the fighters and bombers at Jiulongpo Airport and prepared them for departure. As soon as the sky was getting light, the largest air support force of the Chinese Air Force in the past two years took off one by one.

Tang Dao was awakened from his sleep. Before setting off, the Air Force sent a telegram to the 18th Army Command, requesting the front-line infantry to mark the bombing area for them.

The Air Force actually came to support, which was something Commander Tang had been hoping for very much. Of course, he ordered Pang Dahai to use incendiary bombs to bombard the area where the Japanese troops were located.

Looking down from a high altitude, the clearest sign is the thick smoke. The smoke caused by the explosive grenades looks thick on the ground, but it is too unclear at an altitude of thousands of meters.

Of course, before that, Tang Dao also sent the coordinates of its own position to the Air Force for confirmation, so as not to bomb the wrong place. Only one hit of that 500-pound bomb could send an entire infantry platoon into the sky.

Zheng Shaoyu was the air force commander this time, and Shen Chonghai was the second commander. After arriving above the battlefield, the fleet was not in a hurry to drop bombs. After circling for two full circles and finally determining the bombing target, they began to order the fleet to be divided into four batches and take turns entering the 4-meter airspace to drop bombs.

The Chinese Air Force dared to be so calm because, first of all, "the early bird catches the worm". They took off at 6:50 and were only 330 kilometers away from the battlefield. It only took one hour to fly there at cruising speed. Even if the Japanese spies detected the take-off time of the fighter planes and notified the Japanese Navy at Jiangxia Airport, the Japanese Navy fighter planes, which were 1 kilometers away, would not be able to make it in time.

Another important reason is naturally a huge shortcoming of the Japanese Army itself. Because the Chinese Air Force was weak in the early days, the Japanese Army's troops below the division level rarely had anti-aircraft weapons. Even if they did, the only thing they could show was a 25mm twin-mounted machine gun.

This is the inertial thinking caused by the weakness of the opponent. The Type A divisions of the Japanese Army that entered China found that carrying these heavy machine guns was completely useless. Only a fool would carry this thing around. Even if they were equipped, they were basically placed in the warehouse where the division headquarters was stationed.

The Hariya Detachment originally came from the 34th Division, a Type B division, and was not qualified to be equipped with this 25mm machine gun. The only weapon that could shoot into the air was the 92 heavy machine gun, which had to be replaced with an anti-aircraft machine gun mount.

However, facing the 32 Chinese fighter planes circling in the sky, how many machine gunners would have the courage to stand in the simple fortifications and face the enemy with a machine gun that can only effectively shoot at a height of 800 meters?

What's more, the Chinese fighter planes had no intention of descending to an altitude of one thousand meters. After diving to an altitude of one thousand meters, they opened the bomb release valve and dropped bombs one after another on the mountains that were emitting thick smoke.

24架野猫战斗机总共携带了近10吨炸弹，8架进口自米国的轰炸机差不多又是8吨，接近20吨的炸弹刚刚被燃烧弹肆掠过的山岭又蹂躏了一遍。

These bombs are all high-explosive and have potential energy of over a thousand meters. Their power is unmatched by artillery.

Apart from the high-level air-raid shelters with a top thickness of five or six meters, there were also individual anti-artillery holes that the Japanese infantry spent a whole night digging. They did not need to be directly hit at all. Even if there was an explosion more than ten meters away, the huge vibration could cause such anti-artillery holes to collapse.

The worst were not the Japanese infantry, but the Japanese artillerymen who were still firing hard after the planes arrived. Their busy figures were seen through telescopes by Chinese pilots flying over the battlefield. It was like a pillow when you are sleepy! Just when they were worried about not being able to find a target for accurate bombing, these Japanese took the initiative to send it over.

Of the 32 Chinese fighter planes, more than half dropped bombs on the valley where the two Japanese artillery battalions were located.

  Six 500-pound bombs alone were accurately dropped into one of the cols!

A valley is only 2 square meters, but it was hit by six heavy bombs. What kind of scene do you think that would be?

That's hell!

The blast created by the explosion of a heavy bomb could easily throw a Type 700 mountain cannon weighing more than 20 kilograms more than meters away, let alone a fragile human body weighing only a hundred kilograms.

The field trenches built by the Japanese artillery next to the gun positions, which were only 1.5 meters deep, were as fragile as noodles.

After this round of bombing, a Japanese major who entered the valley to check on the casualties looked at the wreckage on the ground and burst into tears on the spot.

An artillery battalion deployed in this valley had only three usable guns, nine of which were destroyed, six of which were either twisted into pieces or broken into parts. The death rate of more than 3 artillerymen and 9 pack horses was as high as 6%. Those who were still alive were either deafened by shattered eardrums or were bleeding from their mouths and noses and were not far from death.

The losses of another artillery battalion were slightly lighter, but four mountain guns were also destroyed, accounting for 30% of the artillery losses.

After this round of bombing, not to mention the losses of infantry and other arms, the artillery lost 50%, and the sharpest fang of the Jingu Detachment was broken by the Chinese.

"The Chinese actually gathered all their air force's strength to provide air support to this small position, which shows the importance of this position to the entire Shipai. More importantly, it shows that the Chinese are panicking. They have no confidence in resisting the attack of our detachment with infantry strength alone." Major General Hariya Itsuhara is worthy of being an experienced general. Not only can he quickly recover from the setback of being hit again, but he is also very skilled in reverse thinking and can quickly analyze favorable information from unfavorable situations.

It was this amazing reverse thinking that completely pushed the Jingu Detachment into the abyss of death.

Because this air strike that gathered the main forces of the Chinese Air Force was the idea of ​​the Chinese theater-level commander, not the commander of the opposite side of the Jingu Detachment.

According to Commander Tang's tactical plan, even without the air force, he could gradually wear down these 7000 Japanese troops.

And now, the Japanese army, which had lost half of its heavy firepower, was attacking, which was undoubtedly more to his liking.

"Attack! We must kill the Chinese while they are trembling, and hang their bodies as flags of victory on the top of this beautiful mountain, to let them know that this is the price of being an enemy of our Jingu Detachment." Jingu Yiyuan gave the order with a ferocious look in his eyes.

"Also, send a message to the entire detachment: after this battle, our detachment will march to Zigui and destroy all Chinese villages encountered along the way. The property harvested will belong to the imperial officers and soldiers."

This military order was quickly spread to the entire army, and the Japanese infantrymen of the Hariya Detachment, whose morale had been low due to artillery and bombing, were instantly revived.

Killing and looting are the best rewards for the beasts. With the promise of Major General Itsuhara Hariya, the bloodshot eyes of the Japanese infantry were filled with the howlings of Chinese civilians and all kinds of property. That was the fastest way for their poor families on the island to become rich.

However, the bestial Japanese overlooked one point: how could they defeat an army with artillery that was not inferior to theirs by just blood and courage?

Before them, several major Type A divisions in North China had proved with the lives of countless Japanese infantrymen that they were not very effective.

What about the Type B division? Obviously, it is even worse.

The Japanese infantry, who were stimulated by the blood of their colleagues and the orders of the major general's detachment commander, adopted a wave-like charge from the first wave of attack.

The MG1 machine guns deployed by the 42st Battalion on various heights did not tolerate them. In just one morning, the MG42 machine guns of each squad fired 15 rounds of ammunition, which was 4100 rounds of ammunition for each machine gun.

This exaggerated amount of ammunition consumption would make the Japanese, who paid a heavy price, drop their jaws in shock. Even Director Zhuang, who was in charge of logistics, couldn't help but twitch his lips in pain when he saw the ammunition replenishment reported by the Chief of the Logistics Section of the 1st Battalion.

The ammunition of the Fourth Regiment was not blown in by the wind. Not to mention how much money was needed to buy it, how much manpower and effort was spent on transporting it. Do you, the battalion commanders, know that the officers and soldiers of the baggage battalion transported it from the Taihang Mountains over 2000 miles with wheelbarrows?

15 rounds of bullets weigh about 1500 kilograms, which would require eight pack horses or 8 baggage soldiers to work hard to carry them.

As a result, your 1st Battalion finished it in just one morning.

  Moreover, these are just machine guns. If you add rifles and submachine guns, wouldn’t your 1st Battalion have fired 30 rounds?

You know what, the self-taught statistics director Zhuang Da really guessed it almost right. The total ammunition consumption of the 1st Battalion in the whole morning was more than 28 rounds.

This number is close to the ammunition allocated to the Jingu Detachment, which mobilized 4000 infantrymen to attack.

Remember, that's the distribution, not the firing rate.

In fact, most of the infantrymen of the Hariya Detachment who died on the battlefield only fired one-tenth of their allocated bullets.

兵力远远高于四行团1营守军的针谷支队在这个上午的子弹射击量不足10万发，其中还有1半是40多挺92重机枪和30多挺96式轻机枪完成的。

Leng Feng, the chief of staff of the Sihang Regiment and commander of the 1st Battalion, was best at head-on confrontation. He did not use any surprise attack tactics at all. He just relied on the massive output of ammunition to turn the morning of January 1 into a bloody morning.

The Jingu Detachment will probably never forget this bloody morning.

Because, this morning alone, they lost more than 2400 infantrymen in front of the Chinese high ground.

  But, how could an organization that could be called the No. 2 meat grinder of the entire Shipai battlefield end up with a loss of 2400 people?

After a short rest of more than an hour, Major General Hariya Itsuhara, who had completely gone mad, wrapped his head with white cloth and deployed 1 Japanese troops, including baggage troops and engineers, less than 800 meters away from the front-line positions to continue the attack.

  The crazy Japanese major general who has already sat at the gambling table is determined to go all in. If he fails, he will die!

Cai Yongguan's 4th Battalion, which had been waiting for a long time, finally got the chance to go to the battlefield. The major battalion commander personally led his spearhead company to the front line.

Moreover, under his order, the attack sequence composed of 300 Japanese engineers was placed at a red line distance of 50 meters in front of the position before the battle began.

What does it mean to be in chaos? The battlefield created by Captain Cai himself vividly demonstrates this scene.

The 300 Japanese engineers managed to get more than a dozen soldiers to jump into the trenches by piling up their lives, but Captain Cai, who was holding a thick-backed knife in the trench, did not give them a chance to breathe. He killed seven people in three minutes and threw out the round heads and helmets.

300 Japanese soldiers were completely wiped out in front of an infantry platoon of the 4th Battalion, and not a single one escaped.

There is no particularly typical battlefield, because all highland battles are extremely fierce and there is no other word to describe them except death.

During the entire day on the 22nd, the sound of gunfire only stopped for more than an hour. The fighting was so intense that the division commander surnamed Hu sent six telegrams in a row to pay attention to the Sifang Bay battlefield.

Until the evening is lonely!

The "shit-yellow" remains were scattered all over the front lines of the high ground positions in Sifang Bay, shocking the Japanese naval pilots flying high in the sky.

In the words of the Japanese Navy lieutenant: It was a battlefield I had never seen in my life. The remains of the Imperial Army were so numerous that they were like dead grass and could be seen clearly without a telescope.

  The workload of the Fourth Regiment's Field Medical Brigade was also overloaded, with 300 stretchers alone!

The bodies of the fallen soldiers carried to the valley and stored there filled an area the size of a basketball court!

(End of this chapter)