afterglow

Chapter 206 Chapter [-] Do it yourself; trust us
Looking at the clouds of smoke rising from high places, Miller murmured: "That doesn't look good..."

At this time, the field phone rang, and he hurried over to pick up the receiver, but as soon as he picked it up, he heard an urgent call for help from inside: "Poison gas! They used chemical poison ammunition!"

From not knowing French at the beginning to being able to communicate proficiently now, it took Miller about a month or so, which can be said to be quite fast.

But the rumbling explosions had significantly affected the wired communication, so he thought he had heard it wrong.

poison gas?That is something prohibited by international conventions!

"What's the situation?" Zhou Changfeng on the side was eating canned meat with an iron spoon.

"They said they might have been attacked with a chemical agent, I'm not sure..."

Zhou Changfeng threw the half-eaten can aside with a "boom", picked up the binoculars, and strode out.

He bowed his body and drilled out of the command post from the passage behind, then raised his telescope and looked up at Height 109.

I saw that the smoke that filled the entire mountain was indeed a bit weird. Generally speaking, the white phosphorus or red phosphorus smoke bombs commonly used by armies of various countries emit off-white smoke.

But now it can be seen that the color of the smoke is a bit dark, and if you look closely, you can see that some strands of smoke that have not yet dissipated are brownish green.

"It may be a compound gas containing chlorine." Zhou Changfeng briefly stated his judgment, and then ordered without hesitation: "The artillery group fires and attacks the enemy's artillery positions. After six effective rounds, move immediately."

His guess was correct. The poison used by the Italian army was diphenylchloroarsine, a sneezing gas born during the European War. It was used by both sides, and Italy was no exception.

Although diphenylchloroarsine is now lagging behind, as a typical representative of pauper imperialism, Italy, with limited industrial capacity and financial resources, is naturally reluctant to spend more money on upgrading in this area. Anyway, the ammunition in stock 20 years ago is not unusable. .

As for the artillery group of the [-]th Brigade, because it took a lot of effort to collect some property and lacked anti-aircraft weapons, it has not fired until now, in case it is exposed and incurs an air attack by the enemy.

But after weighing the pros and cons, Zhou Changfeng immediately made a decision—to do immoral things, one must have the consciousness of being violently beaten!

After receiving the order, Chretien personally commanded more than two dozen cannons of different models, calibers, new and old to fire at once.

"Area D15, polar coordinates 345214, enemy artillery unit, instant fuze, six rounds, effective fire, fire when ready."

The artillery positions of the 26th Division of the Italian Army have not changed in the past few days. At first they were worried that the opponent would counterattack with artillery fire, but they have not noticed the opponent's movement for so long, so everyone subconsciously relaxed their vigilance.

Just as they were unhurriedly unlatching and reloading, suddenly, a series of rumbling sounds like dull thunder came from a distance.

aha?Thunderstorm coming again?

A few seconds later, sharp "squeaks" and low "pops" came to the ears, and the artillerymen realized that disaster was imminent.

What fell was not raindrops at all, but dense shells!
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

More than a dozen explosive sites appeared almost simultaneously, and the rapid shock wave knocked the artillery to the ground. Hundreds of fragments scattered at high speed, and the artillery position with a radius of nearly [-] square meters instantly turned into hell!

In fact, when the instant fuze is used, the crater that the shell can explode is quite shallow, and the 105mm high-explosive bomb can only blast a shallow crater the size of a bathtub on the ordinary soil layer.However, due to the aging of the fuze, many shells manufactured 20 years ago have almost naturally evolved into delayed detonation, resulting in large craters with a diameter of three meters and a depth of about half a meter.

The blasted soil and various debris fell one after another, followed by stumps, broken arms and viscera, just like rain.

A sergeant who was dizzy from the bombing staggered up from the ground, and what came into view was a deformed and twisted 75mm field gun, and a section of it hung on the red-hot gun barrel that was scorched and scorched. Sizzling intestines.

What frightened him immediately was that the bombardment just now caused the explosion of some ammunition, and gray-green and yellow-brown diphenylchloroarsine gas also rose from the messy position!
The leaked poisonous gas undoubtedly brought secondary damage to the heavy-loss artillery position. The wounded who were bleeding all over the ground were stimulated to cough and vomit, which greatly aggravated the bleeding and shock.

The horrified medical soldiers hurriedly put on their gas masks, and then rushed into the billowing toxic smoke.

However, the battle was still going on. A few kilometers away, the 109th Heights went underground, and the Italian army, who knew that there was no opportunity to miss, immediately launched an attack.

The Italian army, determined to win, prepared a full eight echelons of offensive troops, one round after another like surging waves.

After discovering that it was attacked by chemical weapons, Company C of the 72nd Battalion stationed quickly put on a gas mask, but because this thing is easy to be cut and damaged, many soldiers took it out of the canvas belt before discovering damaged.

The German iron can container, which has been criticized by people, is bulky and inconvenient, but it can effectively protect the gas mask from damage.

The defenders on the 109th highland also suffered numerous losses against the Italian army's almost crazy repeated attacks. At the same time, because the extended artillery fire blocked the route, the follow-up reinforcements could only look at the fierce fighting on the 109th highland and worry.

The fierce battle lasted until three o'clock in the afternoon, the seventh echelon of the Italian army, and more than 100 people attacked the top of the mountain again. This is the third time.

Many of the poisoned French expended a great deal of physical strength from constant tears, coughing, and vomiting, but the Italians still met fierce resistance.

The two sides fighting together are using everything that can kill the enemy to attack each other, grenades, sapper shovels, bayonets, fists!
But as the eighth echelon of the Italian army also followed up, the remaining twenty or so soldiers of Company C had to abandon their surface positions and retreat to the tunnel.

At this point, the Italian soldiers really realized the horror of the 109 Heights.

For more than half a month of the previous confrontation, these guys from all over the world actually dug this hill full of caves and secret passages?

Dazed, they tried for half an hour but made no progress—although it seemed that they had seized the high ground, it was only on the surface, and there were still an unknown number of defenders under their feet!
At this moment, more than a dozen grenades suddenly flew down from the west, startling the Italian soldiers to scatter for cover.

Company A of the 73rd Battalion had actually received an order to reinforce the 109th Highland long ago, but it has been unable to pass due to enemy artillery blockade.The Americans waited for several hours, and finally figured out the interval of the artillery fire, so after paying the price of ten casualties, they passed through the blockade without any risk.

After throwing a round of grenades, Company A, which had climbed to the top of the mountain, immediately launched a counterattack, and more than a hundred American volunteers rushed towards the disheartened Italian army with bayonet-mounted rifles!
The high ground fell into a fierce hand-to-hand combat in an instant, blood spurted, and screams filled the small mountaintop in an instant.

In a quarter of an hour...

Looking at the rout of the Italian army retreating in embarrassment, Ricardo, Enrique and others looked gloomy, while the officers of the other battalions gloated a little.

I have already said that there is no need to continue attacking this difficult place. This is the consequence of paranoia.

If you don't hit the south wall, you don't look back. If you hit the south wall, you have to hit your head and bleed before you give up.

However, the offensive and defensive battle at Heights 109 was only a part of the whole battle.

On the left flank of the 30th Brigade, the No. [-] Second Infantry Division of the Republican Army also suffered a large-scale attack in the past two days.

The Tsarist Russian Intervention Army made its debut on the stage. Its Eighth "Sakarov" Infantry Division cooperated with the No.90 Sixth Infantry Brigade of the National Army and crossed the Tejo River in many places downstream.

The 32nd Division was attacked in four directions, the front line was in a hurry, all the outer positions were lost, the second-line positions were in danger, and the casualties were close to 2000.

A brigade heading for reinforcements was hit by air strikes three times in a row, and the brigade headquarters was hit directly by an aerial bomb. The commander survived, but the staff suffered heavy casualties, and the entire army was in disarray.

"Sir, the 32nd Division requests our help."

"veto."

Under the watchful eyes of the officers, Zhou Changfeng refused decisively.

This had nothing to do with the lack of strength, but mainly because the strength of the [-]th Brigade itself was limited, and it was already stretched to hold the existing positions, so it was obviously impossible to divide the troops to help.

Because of this, on the night of June 32th, the [-]nd Division withdrew eight kilometers after the night, and then got a respite and barely stabilized its position.

The 47th Brigade on the right wing will collapse at the first touch, and the 32nd Division on the left wing will be defeated in two days?

The fall of the defense area of ​​​​the neighboring troops caused the [-]th Brigade to be attacked by the enemy, and a dangerous salient was formed here!
The Republican Army Command, which had calculated well, belatedly realized that the situation was not good.

At first they thought that the opponent's attack was just a tentative attack, so they planned to wait and see for a while before making plans, but they didn't expect their own side to retreat so quickly.

All of a sudden, the original battle deployment was disrupted, and the chain is intertwined. Now the entire front may collapse.

However, even at this juncture, the Republican Army Command and the government's dignitaries are still shirking responsibility and talking to each other.

The German General Staff as far away as Berlin smelled the crisis. The Red Eagle Corps received a secret telegram, and the Berlin side asked, "It seems that there is no possibility of victory or stalemate in the strategic decisive battle."

Although there is little hope, the Red Eagle Legion and the International Brigade have come up with a counterattack plan - quickly deploy a part of the strategic reserve team, cooperate with the [-]th Brigade that is still holding on, launch a fierce counterattack against the enemy who has crossed the river, and regain the South bank position, thus temporarily reversing the passive situation.

Obviously, the Germans are also very upset now. They believe that the internal struggle of the Republican Army has seriously affected the prospects of the regime, and the hope of victory in the strategic decisive battle is slim.

Even if this counterattack achieves a tactical victory, it does not mean that it will win in the end!
It wasn't just the German military advisers on the staff committee who were vigorously complaining about Spain's internal affairs, Zhou Changfeng couldn't help scolding her too.

"Fuck this kind of bad battle!"

However, he complained in Chinese and everyone naturally couldn't understand him.

After calming down slightly, he sighed in English: "A normal strategic decisive battle should be a stalemate with both gains and losses. After a period of fighting, the disadvantaged side gradually loses. It almost collapsed at the beginning... There is no need for this battle to continue."

While Chretien and Roald were feeling relieved, Miller, who was a little joyful, rushed into the headquarters.

He stood at attention and saluted: "Sir, the German liaison officer has arrived on time!"

A gray-green Fi-156 liaison plane flew to the location of the [-]th Brigade, looking at the wilderness covered with craters like the surface of the moon, the pilot circled the plane twice in the sky before finding a place suitable for landing.

This type of high-wing, three-seat, single-engine small aircraft produced by Fizelle Company is not eye-catching, but it is indispensable for military operations, such as the transportation of officers, the observation of artillery shells, frontier reconnaissance, etc. It can do all kinds of chores, and its unique design makes it have a rather exaggerated take-off and landing distance - 50 meters of flat land is enough.

When two officers of the Red Eagle Legion stepped into the headquarters, Zhou Changfeng was leaning over the table with a pencil in his mouth and another in his hand, writing and drawing on the large-scale map painting.

"Where is your commander?"

A female voice came to his ears, interrupting Zhou Changfeng's thoughts.

He stood up straight in surprise and displeasure, reached out and took off the pencil biting from his mouth, "I am."

A man and a woman both have the rank of captain. The man looks like a standard German - his face is as tough as a knife and an axe, with brown hair and brown eyes; while the woman is blond and blue-eyed, probably with Nordic hair. lineage.

Probably because they were surprised by Zhou Changfeng's age and style, the two were a little surprised, and they were stunned for a second before the male captain saluted: "Mr. Commander, the plan of the staff committee has been approved by the headquarters, and we are here to convey the order." .”

Zhou Changfeng calmly took over the combat order in the document package, quickly browsed through it, then looked at the two, and asked seriously: "This is related to the lives of all volunteers of the [-]th Brigade and the value of sacrifice. Can you promise to be there on time?"

"Sorry, Mr. Commander, we are only responsible for conveying the order to you and confirming your agreement." This captain of the signal soldier is probably the kind of person who speaks and does things with a strict eye.

This plan intends to use an armored battalion and a motorized infantry regiment of the Red Eagle Legion as the spearhead of the attack, supplemented by the No.11 International Brigade, the 14th International Brigade, and the No.2 Infantry Division of the Republican Army, with a total strength of [-] People, detoured to the west, crossed eastward along the Tejo River, divided, surrounded and wiped out the enemy troops on the south bank.

The plan is good, but the key is to wait for these troops to be deployed in place, that is to say, the [-]th Brigade has to fight alone and stick to the salient, so as to attract the enemy troops on the left and right wings to continue the siege.

To be honest, Zhou Changfeng didn't want to accept this task, but the addition of the Red Eagle Legion made this plan seem a lot more reliable?

And the time required is not particularly long - 48 hours.

He knocked on the table, frowned and said, "If you can't guarantee 48 hours, I refuse to perform this task."

At this time, the female captain said, "We will do everything possible to ensure transportation and assembly, please trust us."

　This branch is almost over.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)