afterglow

Chapter 362 Jump high and open low; airborne soldiers!
In order to ensure that the location can be distinguished in the night, every Yiluan Division officer and soldier had a flashlight tied with tape to his right calf.

Although it is safer to open the parachute after mid-to-high altitude skydiving, it is more likely to deviate from the intended location, and it may be moved several miles away when the wind blows.

Therefore, the officers and soldiers of Yiluan Division took great risks and used the high-jump and low-open parachute method. Nowadays, there is no automatic parachute opener. Everything is done manually. If you are slow, you may fall to death.

After landing, an accident unexpectedly occurred - someone was forced to use the emergency parachute because the main parachute failed to open. However, the altitude was less than [-] meters at the time. He touched the ground before he could fully decelerate, and his left leg was fractured.

"Make a splint and tie it up, then tidy it up." Cai Zhichen raised his hand and looked at his watch.

Everyone hurriedly cut down two thick branches and used them as simple splints to fix his legs, and then hid him in a hidden place.

At this time, several men wearing gray Shell Oil Company employee uniforms also ran over, and the soldiers on guard in front immediately pointed their guns at them.

"Stop! Don't come here! Who knows Zhuxi Road?"

"Gechui is Yangzhou!"

After meeting the code, those few people were allowed to come closer - they were the agents who had previously used lights to indicate the landing point.

One of them is an agent of the Government Intelligence Department who successfully applied, and the other two are his informants.

Zhong Baiquan came here on orders in the 35th year of Zhichang, and the other people who came with him at the same time have been arrested——

Although the Nanyang region has been penetrated like a sieve through the Ming Dynasty's decades of continuous efforts, the Dutch have also suffered considerable losses due to the counter-intelligence attacks that the Dutch have done their best in the past two years.

"Is everything okay? Is the car ready?" Cai Zhichen asked while opening his notebook.

"Three cars, just enough to fit you all."

"Have the Dutch army begun to prepare for destruction?"

Zhong Baiquan shook his head, "Not yet. It was originally planned to send some engineers yesterday, but it was shelved again."

Ming Dynasty's efforts were obviously very effective. The Dutch planned to wait and see for another two days and not rush to prepare for sabotage work.

The group set off immediately and divided into two groups.

The first detachment of the Fourth Combat Team went to the planned airborne field and placed instruction signs, while the remaining 30 or so people directly infiltrated the refinery.

Which one should be prioritized to ensure the integrity of oil storage depots and oil production wells?Naturally it is the latter, this is the difference between fish and fishing.

But the embarrassing thing is the refinery in the middle - say it is important, but it is not as important as the oil production well; say it is not important, the crude oil cannot be used directly.

The aromatic hydrocarbon-based crude oil produced in the Balikpapan oil field can be used directly, but it will damage the boiler and is volatile and flammable. This is why the Taiho armored aircraft carrier died.

The officers and soldiers of the Yiluan Division came to the road connecting the suburban oil field and the urban area, while Zhong Baiquan rode his bicycle with the two informants to a car repair shop a few kilometers away.

There is another agent lurking here, and his identity here is disguised as an automotive engineer. These Shell trucks were deliberately damaged by some parts by Zhong Baiquan, and then sent here for repair.

Several people then drove over in three trucks and picked up the officers and soldiers hiding in the wilderness.

Garrisoned in the oil field is the 3th Regiment of the 8rd Division of the Royal Indus Army of the Netherlands, as well as an independent light air defense company and an armored vehicle squad.

Because they are confident that the Ming army will not dare to air attack oil field facilities, this air defense company can be regarded as attached to this infantry regiment, and the same is true for the armored vehicle squad.

The several sentries standing guard were all recruited local aborigines. They were all bleary-eyed and seemed to be unsteady on their feet. They barely cheered up until the car approached. The two Dutch non-commissioned officers were even more reckless and fell asleep directly in the guard box. On fire.

Zhong Baiquan threw out a pack of cigarettes, and the sentries gathered together to divide them up, ignoring the trucks at all.

After safely passing through, the officers and soldiers of the Yiluan Division who were hiding there breathed a sigh of relief and put the safety on the guns in their hands.

The core of being a commander is to remain calm at all times, quickly weigh the pros and cons and make decisive judgments.

As the leader of this airborne raid, it was obviously impossible for the Yiluan Division to handle the whole thing independently. Their mission was to confuse and delay the Dutch and Indian troops, so as to buy time for the main force of the Ming Army's paratroopers to follow.

Cai Zhichen's original plan was to randomly place some mines in the Dutch-Indian army camp, then set off a few fires, while his own side fired randomly from a distance.As a result, it may take a while for this rabble to figure out the situation.

However, when passing through the parking lot, the rows of trucks and armored vehicles caught his eye.

Suddenly, he thought of what Zhou had done in Batavia.

Do you want to boldly follow suit?
Based on the intelligence in his mind, Cai Zhichen knew that the armored vehicles currently equipped by the Dutch and Indian troops were mainly Mamun MkIII, and there were also simple armored vehicles modified by the Dutch using truck chassis.

Cai Zhichen, who was sitting in the passenger seat, turned his head and asked, "What kind of armored vehicles are these? They look very rough."

"The Dutch couldn't wait any longer, so they just took a truck and modified it into a six-mm thin steel plate."

This armored vehicle team has four vehicles in total. The shell of each vehicle is welded from pieces of inclined steel plates. It is simple and tough, and looks quite decent. It is equipped with a Lewis light machine gun and has the ability to carry personnel.

However, after weighing it, Cai Zhichen still gave up this plan and made a decision, "Get off the car! Prepare to lay mines!"

If our own paratroopers cannot arrive on time, then these armored vehicles will become a restraint on Yiluansi. It is safer to leave after laying the mines.

The Kuojian mine was officially designated as the Type [-] anti-infantry directional mine, while the Type S mine was also imitated and modeled as the Type [-] anti-infantry bouncing mine and mass-produced.

However, because the Ming Army has been in an offensive posture to this day, and the Commonwealth Army and the Dutch and Indian Army in the Nanyang region do not have the habit of night attacks and counterattacks, these excellent mines have never had a chance to shine.

Yiluansi arranged the two types of mines staggered next to various passages and barracks. Some people even carefully arranged serial mines. In addition to triggering directional mines, trip wires were also connected to two jumping mines.

The sun had already jumped above the horizon at this time, and the surrounding sky was bright.

The three trucks left the station in a swaggering manner and drove straight to where the oil wells were.

The officers and soldiers of Yiluan Division got off the car halfway and hid on the reverse slope of an undulating land, monitoring and waiting patiently.

During this period, employees from Shell Oil Company were passing by on their way to work. Some were riding bicycles, some were whizzing by on motorcycles, and some were riding on trucks transporting parts.

But at this time, there was no movement at the 8th Infantry Regiment's station?
Civilian employees got up earlier than army soldiers, and this was during a war, which was a rare sight in the world.

On an air defense position in the northeast of the old port city, an air defense listening device was parked here, with four large square speakers pointing diagonally towards the sky.

The monitoring soldier who had just changed his shift suddenly heard something strange - was it... the sound of an airplane engine?And there are so many of them?

第六轻轰炸支队的21架三六式轰炸机和14架三七式俯冲轰炸机在8架战斗机的护航下径直扑来。在机场周围巡逻的3架荷印军陆航的P-36战斗机勇敢地前往迎击，但转眼间就遭到了明军护航战斗机的围攻。

Because this encounter was relatively hasty, the several P-36 fighter jets did not have time to seize the altitude advantage, and the Dutch pilots could only engage in close combat.

There were fighter jets on the airport trying to take off in an emergency, while the Dutch and Indian soldiers were rushing to their respective fighting positions. Then the Oerlikon 20mm anti-aircraft guns and the Browning 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine guns opened fire one after another.

The Dutch-Indian Army is equipped with many American-made weapons. For example, the Browning M2 water-cooled heavy machine gun, the predecessor of the M7921HB, was installed on a truck by the Dutch-Indian Army as a low-profile version of self-propelled anti-aircraft firepower.

Facing the sparse anti-aircraft firepower, the bomber formation flew safely over the airport, and the bombs detached from the bomb bay one after another, shaking and falling down.

Hundreds of aerial bombs turned the entire airport into a sea of ​​flames in the blink of an eye, filled with billowing smoke and dust.

A P-36 fighter jet almost had enough speed to take off, but at the last moment it was overturned by the huge shock wave of a 250kg aerial bomb explosion.

Five or six P-36s on the apron next to the runway were also blown up in place and turned into fragments.

Some of the dive bombers did not drop bombs. They formed two three-plane formations and flew towards the garrison station in the northwest.

A Yiluansi second lieutenant took out a reflector and reflected the sunlight to the bombers. The pilots were caught by the light from the ground and noticed them all at once.

Subsequently, the officers and soldiers of Yiluan Division fired three red signal flares in succession and used a 64mm mortar to fire two smoke screens at the garrison.

The two Z-shaped formations rushed directly towards the location of the 8th Dutch Infantry Regiment. The soldiers there were inevitably going to be unlucky.

"Enemy bomber! Take cover!"

"Go, go! Get out of here!"

"Where's Lieutenant Whitney? Get your men to man the anti-aircraft guns!"

He originally fled the barracks in a hurry to find cover to avoid the air raids, but as soon as he stepped out, he was bombarded by various landmines and booby traps, making him howl like a ghost.

The flying prefabricated fragments caused a bloody storm in the crowd, and a single jumping mine could cause horrific casualties to the crowded soldiers.

Immediately afterwards, the dive bombers roared in and plunged into the ground. During this period, they used machine guns to fire violently. They did not pull up until the last moment. The closest distance to the ground may be only a few stories high.

Although the officers and soldiers of Yiluan Division did not have time to lay too many mines during the previous infiltration, it was enough to cause great trouble to the panicked Dutch and Indian troops.

Lieutenant Whitney, the acting commander of the air defense company, finally arrived at the position with a group of disgraced soldiers, and then had to confront the arrogant Ming army dive bombers.

Several Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns without unified firing command are really difficult to pose a threat to dive bombers, especially since the Dutch and Indian anti-aircraft artillerymen have not experienced several shooting trainings at all.

The only two types of target training they occasionally receive are shooting at balloons and target drones towed by slow biplanes.

Obviously, there is a huge difference between the situations of "after-class exercises" and "actual exams".

After leaving a mess behind, the Ming army fleet left calmly.

At this time, a huge fleet of transport planes also arrived at their destination.

"Come on, come on, I was almost half an hour slower thanks to these guys!"

The dozen or so officers and soldiers of Yiluan Division who had acted separately at first finally waited for this moment. The lieutenant leading the team took out matches, took out three sticks, pinched them together, burned them, and then threw them away.

The five-meter-square cross-shaped firewood placed on the ground had been doused with gasoline and burned with a puff.

Some of the people stood, some sat, and some lay down, looking at the dense cluster of aircraft in the sky with great interest.

Tens of seconds later, densely packed small black dots "flowed" out of the fleet, and then bloomed into dandelions.

In just a few breaths, the entire blue sky seemed to be covered by white umbrella flowers, which could be said to block out the sky and the sun.

A corporal seemed to have thought of something. He quickly reached into his inner pocket and took out a small spy camera. He pointed it at the sky and captured this spectacular scene on film.

The 53st Battalion and the Heavy Firearms Battalion of the [-]st Parachute Regiment carried out the parachute drop on [-] transport aircraft; the [-]nd Battalion carried out the parachute landing on a glider towed by the transport aircraft; the [-]rd Battalion was still on standby at Dingyangbao Air Force Base and would later serve as the second wave of reinforcements. .

This was an operation against the Sumudara Old Port oil field; at the same time in Balikpapan, Borneo, the Second Parachute Regiment was also performing the same mission.

Such a large-scale airborne operation was unprecedented and was larger than the German operation against Norway.

Halfway through, two transport planes had to return due to mechanical failures; later, another glider entered an unpowered gliding state in advance due to the collapse of the towing steel cable. Fortunately, it did not crash into the sea, but made an emergency landing three hundred miles away from the old port. The distant Jambi.

However, these unexpected situations could not affect the overall situation. Seeing this, Lieutenant Colonel Bernat, the commander of the 8th Regiment of the Dutch Indian Army, who was disgraced by the air raid just now, was shocked.

"Damn it! These damn Chinese deceived us! We need support!"

The leg bags that were rushed into production played their due role. These gadgets allowed the Ming paratroopers who fell from the sky to immediately pick up their weapons and join the battle.

It is difficult to ensure order in a dense airborne landing. Once you land, you may not be surrounded by people from your own squad, which can easily lead to chaos.

For this reason, the paratroopers of the Ming Dynasty Air Force adopted a unique model of drawing lots to eat in peacetime——

Lots are drawn every ten days, so that dining tables are randomly assigned, and the people eating at the same table each time are people from other classes.As time passed, everyone got to know each other one after another.

"That slope is a good place. You go there. Hey, the two guys with the machine guns will go too; then you guys will go to the northeast..."

Officers were directing any nearby soldiers to set up positions, and everything was now based on rank.

In the wilderness, a Dutch-Indian army patrol of more than 20 people became the first victim - they were frightened and knocked down by bullets that covered their heads and faces, or they were blown up by rifle grenades and their flesh and blood were scattered everywhere.

The Ming Army paratroopers suppressed these enemy forces with grenades and Type [-] light machine guns, then dispersed and leapt forward, pressing forward step by step, leaving no room for respite.

"Da da da da-"

"Bang! Bang!"

The Dutch-Indian army patrol was overwhelmed by this sharp siege and was unable to parry at all.

Several grenades were thrown over and exploded. The remaining soldiers were immediately shot to death by the swarming paratroopers.

(End of this chapter)