afterglow

Chapter 425 Cavalry?cavalry!The stars and stripes fall
"Zhou Taizhao, the overall situation in Luzon is very good, but...the Second Paratrooper Regiment is dying of serious injuries..."

When Operation Backlog was implemented, the first echelon of the Ming Dynasty Australian Corps, which had completed rest and recuperation at the Surabaya Naval Base, embarked on the journey again.

On the battleship Longshuo sailing in the Savu Sea, Zhou Changfeng was having lunch with several other naval officers. It was only then that everyone learned such bad news.

Davao Airport has been shrouded in artillery fire, and follow-up troops such as the Third Battalion of the Second Parachute Regiment and the regiment headquarters can only take the risk of forced landing on a runway full of bomb craters.

The No. 215 aircraft on which the regiment leader and his party were traveling had its landing gear broken due to hitting a bomb crater when it landed. The entire transport aircraft leaked fuel and caught fire due to violent friction. They were shaken to pieces while escaping the wreckage. Under mortar fire...

"Haven't the detailed battle report been sent yet?" Zhou Changfeng sighed and shook his chopsticks, "I had previously suggested not to conduct an airborne landing in Davao. It would be unnecessary."

The general information known is that the Second Parachute Regiment has been unable to complete its assembly due to the complex terrain and changes in wind direction, which caused a large deviation in the landing locations of some squads.

Some officers and soldiers had already captured the airport by surprising the enemy, and the Philippine army fled. However, when the large Philippine army organized a counterattack to try to retake the airport, one-third of the paratroopers had not yet returned.

Moreover, the bomber formation performing air raid cover missions failed to successfully suppress the local defenders' artillery positions - only half of the targets were destroyed. This resulted in the Ming paratroopers having to fight hard despite artillery fire.

"Fortunately, the Luzon Army's fighting spirit was not high and they were more timid when fighting." Lin Xunzhen said easily with a smile.

Opposite Zhou's table was the chief navigator of the Jianwu. He gestured with his chopsticks a few times, "Yes, those people in the Air Force need to burn incense. If the enemy is bolder and charges a few times, this will A regiment of soldiers may be scattered."

A huge operation cannot avoid omissions and errors in any case, but qualified training, good cooperation, and sufficient plans ensure that the overall operation can continue in an orderly manner.

Zhou Changfeng was thinking while picking up vegetables, anticipating how the next battle would develop.

Historically, the U.S.-Philippine coalition held on for three months after retreating to the Bataan Peninsula. At first, the 33th Division and the [-]rd Division were overwhelming and suffered heavy casualties on the U.S. defense line, until the "famous" Osaka Division was defeated. The breakthrough was only achieved after reinforcements were called in.

Today's Bataan Peninsula has more complete fortifications and auxiliary facilities than before, and the Ming army is about to face a fortification area with complex terrain.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Oh. Next, the enemy will retreat to the fortress area. This way, the troops will be more concentrated and the width of the battlefield will be limited. Even if our army breaks through one area, it will soon be counterattacked. From a battle perspective, it will be quite tricky."

Lin Xunzhen is still serving as the chief gunnery officer on the Longshuo, not because he is excluded or has no connections, but because he is full of affection for the Longshuo and is only suitable for the position of chief gunnery.

Although the battleships of the Ming Dynasty have many noble men and women, no one dares to play with the selection of captains. They have always been chosen through fair selection and competition——

There are two necessary conditions. First, you must have experience as a captain or navigator of a cruiser or above warships; secondly, you must have sufficient qualifications, otherwise you will not be able to convince the public.

"It shouldn't be difficult, right?" Lin Xunzhen thought thoughtfully, "The Yuan Ding has also gone to support. By then, both battleships will be able to provide support throughout Subic Bay."

Zhou Changfeng, who looked calm, shook his head slightly, "It's hard to say, you think Lu Zhan is too simple."

"Uh... do you think the battleship's gunfire support is of little use?"

"How should I put it? A complete fortification area defense system is composed of several main support points and a large number of minefields, trenches, shelters, and firepower points. Although your main artillery is powerful, it can only annihilate them within a certain period of time. As long as there is only a little bit left in the entire position, it will be enough to slow down the advance. This time is enough for the enemy to redeploy its reserves."

Lin Xunzhen nodded and said: "To be honest, I suddenly felt that fighting on land is much more complicated than fighting at sea..."

During lunch time, most of the entire fleet had passed through the Lesser Sunda Islands and was about to enter the Timor Sea.

After that, there are only 22 hours of flight left to the target Darwin.

I hope everything goes smoothly, but we want to see how Australians fight for their lives.Zhou Changfeng thought so.

On Luzon Island, fierce fighting is still going on...

The large Ming army troops that landed at Lingayen Bay included the [-]nd Marine Brigade, the [-]st Engineering Brigade, the [-]rd Tank Brigade, and the [-]nd Attack Tank Battalion. These troops quickly went into the attack after landing ashore.

The roads and bridges that were blown up during the retreat of the Philippine army were quickly repaired by engineers who raced against time. Tanks slowly drove across the temporary pontoon bridge and continued to pursue the fleeing Philippine army after crossing the river.

In addition, the [-]nd Field Heavy Artillery Brigade and the [-]st Siege Heavy Artillery Brigade were too heavy to be directly unloaded ashore, so they had to wait for engineers to build temporary docks on the beach.

As of the early morning of October 10, the Ming army's forward had approached Clark Airport north of Manila, and the remaining aircraft of the Far East Air Force had to be scrambled to take off.

Facing the Ming army with high morale and hot pursuit, Wainwright ordered his most elite reserve force, the 26th Cavalry Regiment, to stop the attack.

This is a force formed in the Philippines, which includes both local American soldiers and local Filipino soldiers, but the officers are basically Americans. The motto is "Our strength lies in loyalty."

However, this unit has been short of personnel for a long time, with only 807 officers and soldiers until now. The 25th Cavalry Regiment is a cavalry unit in the literal sense. Only the regiment's reconnaissance platoon is equipped with 6 M1 armored reconnaissance vehicles.

But cavalry units seem to be inherently nobler than infantry?The 26th Cavalry Regiment actually installed M1 Garand semi-automatic rifles in batches. This treatment is very rare among today's US military overseas troops.

It was 10:39 that day, the sun was shining brightly, and the climate was pleasant. The Philippines in October was indeed a good place to rest, but it was a pity that people in the war had no time to take a vacation.

A company-level patrol of [-] people from the [-]st Battalion of the [-]rd Regiment of the [-]nd Marine Brigade arrived at a small town called Palayan. The soldiers found no suspicious enemies. There were only nervous and timid civilians and anxious people in the town. police.

"Report, Captain. We have sneaked around a few times. The guide and interpreter have asked the locals. The enemy is not on guard here."

"Okay, leave one squad to be on guard in the west, while the others go into the town to rest, eat and drink."

After trekking day and night for two days and one night, neither the enemy nor we had a good rest. The commander of this patrol was Zhang Zhilin, the captain of the first battalion and the second team. Considering that his subordinates were all quite tired, they really needed a few rests. It's been an hour.

But just as the Ming soldiers were preparing to have a nice lunch and then take a nap, a crisp sound of "bang bang" came from the woods to the southeast.

Is that the sound of... a mortar being fired?
"There's a cannon!"

"hidden--"

A series of 60mm mortar shells fell in a rounded parabolic trajectory, and the "bang, bang, bang" explosions immediately drowned out the shouts of the Ming army soldiers.Zhang Zhilin's face was smeared by the splashed mud. Fortunately, he fell down in time, and the shell fragments only hit the helmet, leaving a dent in the side.

At this time, a scene that surprised him and the others appeared - countless cavalry emerged from the woods to the southeast!
They wore Tommy helmets, rode tall war horses, carried rifles behind their backs, held the reins in their left hands, and held pistols in their right hands.

[picture]

The cavalry charging on the prancing horse formed a huge formation. The horses' hooves trampled the ground, making a thumping sound, and kicked up billows of dust, like a rapidly approaching city wall.

I haven't seen such a scene for many years. Maybe the Ming Army troops stationed in the north can still see it occasionally, but how can the Marine Corps have the opportunity to see such a scene?

Because they were not far apart, the loosely formed Marines had no time to organize decent blocking firepower.

More than two hundred cavalrymen were already in front of them. They started firing with pistols from a distance of tens of meters, and then charged and fired, trying to disperse the Ming army's team like a flood.

The officers and soldiers of the 26th Cavalry Regiment regretted not having any knives on hand - the US military removed the cavalry sword from the weapon list five years ago, so the cavalry can now only use guns instead of knives.

The fierce and sharp charge of the cavalry shocked many veterans. It can be said that the Marine officers and soldiers were stunned by this encounter.

However, the extensive equipment of automatic weapons allowed them to inflict great damage to the U.S. cavalry in such a panic and panic. Intensive "click-click" and "bang-bang" gunfire filled this small battlefield!
The war horse that was hit by the bullet neighed miserably and fell heavily to the ground, and the cavalry on its back also rolled down.

After killing through the Ming army, the cavalry did not turn around, but threw some grenades, then quickly fled towards the northwest, and escaped with one blow.

But at this time, the heavy machine guns and mortars deployed in the woods opened fire again.

Zhang Zhilin, whose face was spattered with blood, raised his hand and wiped it with his sleeve, then changed a magazine for his Type [-] submachine gun.

He looked around and saw a mess nearby - corpses of both the enemy and ours were scattered everywhere, dying horses were struggling on the ground, some soldiers were firing back into the woods to the southeast, and medical soldiers were rolling and crawling towards the wounded... …

He shouted loudly: "According to our direction, fire several smoke bombs deep into eleven or twelve o'clock! Prepare to retreat into the town!"

The patrol, which suffered dozens of casualties, immediately used smoke bombs to block the enemy's view, and then retreated into the town of Palayan under alternate cover.

From a tactical point of view, the well-prepared ambush of the 26th Cavalry Regiment was impeccable, but it failed to meet expectations because it underestimated the firepower of the Ming infantry detachment.

Zhang Zhilin, who was still frightened, immediately ordered the Signal Corps to report the situation here. He believed that since there was an abnormal ambush near Clark Airport, it was basically concluded that an elite US military force was stationed here.

At this moment, Yan Chenwu was moving forward in a command vehicle. After hearing the news, he immediately sent additional troops to Palayan Town and conveyed the news to the nearby third battalion of the third brigade of friendly tanks.

The tank force immediately sent a medium-sized tank convoy to reinforce, and after the two sides met, they rushed to the town of Palayan without stopping.

After discussing with Zhang Zhilin, the officers decided to set a trap for the enemy in person.

So they quietly hid 14 tanks in the northwest of the town, while the Marine infantry formed again, leaving the offensive starting position on the east side of the town, and moved to a more forward position in a low posture.

After the simple and short artillery preparations began, hundreds of officers and soldiers were shouting and ready to move on the assault starting position, assuming a posture of launching a large-scale attack.

The 26th Cavalry Regiment was indeed fooled. The commander of the regiment, Colonel Pierce, ordered Company B of the [-]nd Battalion to quickly maneuver to the west side and stab the attacking Ming army in the waist from the side.

A few minutes later, as the artillery fire ceased, the Marine infantry jumped out of their positions one after another and attacked the U.S. position in a spread-out formation.

Lieutenant Anderson, acting commander of Company B, immediately led his troops to charge, and dozens of horsemen suddenly appeared from the flanks!
As a result, the 14 Type [-]A medium tanks of the Third Tank Brigade also happened to show up. The tank driver put the second gear in second gear and stepped on the accelerator, and the gasoline engine made a loud roar!

The Marines who had just jumped out of their position threw a few smoke grenades, then turned back and ran back to their position.

The tanks fired fiercely with dense 48mm tank guns and 7.36mm machine guns. The more than 70 cavalrymen of Company B in the middle of the open field were like living targets.

The slender horse legs that were blown off by the 48mm anti-personnel explosive bombs spun and flew down like tree branches. The frightened horses ran away, but they couldn't get very far before they were knocked down by bullets flying from nowhere...

In the afternoon of this day, Clark Airport.

When the Ming army approached the airport, the remaining dozen officers and soldiers of the Far East Air Force calmly confirmed that all important documents had been burned before leaving the house.

They quickly rushed to Runway 32, where the last C-[-]A transport plane was already slowly taxiing...

Although the Ming Dynasty Air Force carried out fierce air attacks on the two bridges on the Pampanga River and severely damaged one of them, most of the US-Philippine coalition forces still crossed the bridge.

The few troops who failed to cross the bridge abandoned their heavy weapons and swam across the river with only their rifles, which was considered a successful retreat.

The cosmopolitan city of Manila is ready to welcome its new owner, and the mayor is doing everything possible to eliminate any potential risks that might offend the Ming army.

Thousands of crimson flags and banners printed with "Welcome to the Ming Army" were also produced in batches.

In fact, the banner was originally intended to read "Welcome to the Ming Dynasty to regain Luzon." However, it encountered opposition from some people and thought it was too flattering, so it was changed to its current appearance.

The munitions warehouse was unmanned, and the rogues rushed to rob it of everything that was left as if they had discovered a new world.

On October 10, the advance detachment of the Second Marine Brigade entered Manila first, and subsequent large forces soon entered the city.

Tanks were packed with hitchhiking Ming infantrymen, holding cigarettes and eating captured cans, chatting and laughing quietly.

The newspaper reporters who stayed in the city saw a group of soldiers approaching the flagpole in front of the U.S. Commissioner's residence carrying various musical instruments and brass storage tubes.

The Stars and Stripes fell to the ground, replaced by a bright red and yellow flag.

The flag slowly rose to the top of the flagpole to the accompaniment of melodious music, and Yan Chenwu took a group photo with his soldiers waving the trophy Stars and Stripes.

(End of this chapter)