afterglow

Chapter 41 Shrinking the Line of Defense
"I respect your opinion, but now the main force of the brigade is only one day and night away from us, and the second battalion will probably arrive in the early morning of tomorrow." Zhou Changfeng pointed to the map and said calmly: "The rainy day is more beneficial to us, as long as we are still stuck here , this group of enemy troops will be hard to get off."

When the large troops from the Third Mixed Brigade arrived, the offensive and defensive situation changed in an instant. If the Wilson task force did not want to be beaten up, they had to run away tonight.

"That's right, judging from the current situation, no matter how bad we are, we can delay it for two days." Xie Wancheng, who had been silent all this time, said nonchalantly, "In two days, even the large troops can climb up."

After the opinions were unified, everyone re-discussed some plans. Zhou Changfeng also reiterated the essentials of defense, and asked the officers to be cautious.

In order to stabilize the morale of the army and boost morale, all soldiers were told that their main force was only a hundred miles away from here, and as long as they persisted until tonight, they would be done.

Now, the three teams with the least losses are in charge of the southern part of the city, the first team is in charge of the northern part of the city, the second team with the biggest losses is transferred to the hospital building, and the team from the reinforced [-]th regiment is the reserve team.

Last night, in accordance with the street fighting regulations and Zhou Changfeng's request, several teams mobilized elite personnel to temporarily form some close combat teams, five or six people, equipped with two submachine guns and two automatic guns, and the remaining one or two were additional Carry lots of grenades or Molotov cocktails.

Interestingly, the soldiers also found three unexploded aerial bombs, two 250-pound and one 40-pound.Everyone appreciated the kindness of the British, and Zhou Changfeng said that it would be better to return these things to the British.

He ordered these dud bombs to be placed 150 meters west of the hospital building. The soldiers spent a lot of effort digging holes to bury them, and placed oil drums full of bricks, tiles and glass fragments next to the bombs. Finally, the explosives and wires are arranged, and it is planned to detonate through electronic control.

At about 07:30, the shelling of the British and Indian troops began again, and their mortars and heavy machine guns also appeared on Height Zero.

The most conspicuous hospital building in Dmagee naturally became the target of public criticism. 3.7-inch grenades, 4.5-inch grenades, 2-pound high-explosive shells, and 76.2mm mortar shells fell nearby like rain, and shells continued to hit the building directly. body.

The first platoon leader of the second team held a handful of soybeans in his hand, and a steel helmet was placed on the ground. Every time a shell fell, he threw a soybean into the helmet.As a result, the bombardment by the British and Indian troops was dense and urgent, and a series of explosions came all at once, so the second lieutenant was stunned.

After Sun Cheng died of his injuries, the deputy captain was also killed in the shelling last night, and the command of the second team was transferred to the first platoon leader.

Zhou Changfeng said with a smile: "It's useless to count this. They have railway support behind them. All kinds of supplies are loaded on trucks after getting off the train. The shells are constantly flowing."

The building trembled slightly when it was hit, but Zhou Changfeng still tried his best to keep calm, walking through the whole building as if nothing had happened, inspecting the defense and the status of officers and soldiers.

It is not difficult to distinguish false feelings from true feelings. Chinese soldiers, mainly of peasant origin, are very simple. In a highly hierarchical army, the gap between officers and soldiers is not small, but your own chief does not put on airs?

Most of the wounded were concentrated in a dozen or so rooms on the east side of the first floor. The soldiers had already cleared the surrounding obstacles and piled up the debris around the outside of the first floor according to the order, so the entire first floor was like a basement. generally.

The east side of the first floor was filled with the smell of blood, sweat, and alcohol. Some of the wounded soldiers were sitting on benches, and some were lying on the bed, gritted their teeth and endured the pain of the wound, and the moaning sound was audible. trembling.

He whispered to a passing military doctor corporal: "Is there not enough painkiller?"

The latter shook his head slightly, and said in a deep voice: "There are too many injured people, and they are almost used up. There are still more than 90 sticks left for surgery."

Those kinds of painkillers last for about four to five hours, and the wounded have to face bursts of unbearable pain not long after the operation.

The military doctors had no choice but to make them take aspirin, because there were a hundred pills in a bottle, which was enough.However, as a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, aspirin's analgesic effect is very limited. It can only deal with mild pain. At this moment, it can only be said to be better than nothing when applied to severe trauma.

An orderly hurried down the stairs and shouted: "Battle Commander! The enemy is moving!"

Zhou Changfeng then returned to the third floor. When he picked up the binoculars, several soldiers beside him were stacking soil bags around a hole that had just been blasted by shelling. This place could just be used as a light machine gun fire point.

A large number of enemy troops could be vaguely seen coming from west to east under the cover of smoke, and they were accompanied by a whole row of tanks, at least seven or eight, but it was difficult to observe clearly because the smoke obscured the sight.

From last night to this morning, the reconnaissance teams of the British and Indian troops have been continuously infiltrating the defense line of the Ming army, but basically to no avail.

Now the enemy in front of us is ready to attack on a large scale. Smoke bombs stretch forward like jumps, and hundreds of British and Indian troops approach the city.

The previous shelling has almost destroyed the surrounding ravines, brick piles, barbed wire and other obstacles, so their operation went smoothly.

Except for the continuous firing of mortars, the firepower of the machine guns of the Ming army remained silent, otherwise, once exposed, it would lead to direct fire from enemy tanks.

The second squad of the mortar platoon near the post office was countered by the MkII 76.2mm mortars deployed by the enemy this morning on the No. return.

"The enemy is approaching! Two hundred meters! Get ready!" a corporal roared.

The soldiers immediately opened the rifle safety, and the second lieutenant next to him shook the detonator three times to charge, and then put his hand on the pressure handle.

The Royal Fifth Tank Battalion has lost one-third of its vehicles so far. Facing the elusive anti-aircraft gun team and the powerful anti-aircraft machine guns of the Ming army, the company where Captain Besil belongs can be said to have suffered heavy losses. The cruise tank was so aggrieved to be destroyed by the Chinese?

Bethel believes that cruiser tanks are not suitable for this kind of coordinated infantry combat mission, and brisk cruiser tanks should be used intensively for mobile operations.However, he also heard that a prototype tank specially designed to cover infantry operations has been tested, which is a heavily armored and slow-moving infantry tank.

Due to the surrounding ruins and bomb craters, the width of the battlefield was limited. The tanks were divided into two rows, front and rear, more than ten meters apart, and they were parked at a distance of about [-] meters from the hospital building, ready to fire at any time, while the infantry continued to alternately cover and advance.

The sky covered with dark clouds was extremely gloomy, and it seemed that it would rain heavily at any time.

Our own infantry is constantly moving forward, but the Chinese army has not had any grenade and machine gun fire except for sporadic rifle fire?

Besil, whose eyes were glued to the periscope, was puzzled. Although he didn't know the Chinese saying that "if something goes wrong, there must be a demon", it didn't prevent him from realizing that something was wrong.

It was also at this second that someone on the second floor of the hospital building pressed the pressure handle and rotated it 180°, and a direct current gushed out at the speed of light!
"boom!!!"

(End of this chapter)