Beiyang 1917

() "Report...an elite infantry regiment of the 2rd Brigade of the 3nd Division of the Ukrainian Volunteers has assembled behind the main position of the 140th Regiment..."

"Report... The main forces of the 4th and 2nd Ukrainian infantry divisions have assembled and entered a position ten kilometers southeast of Kharkov, less than 5 kilometers away from the current position of the Japanese Muto brigade. and air strikes suffered serious losses. If they participated in tonight's counterattack, they could only gather the strength of one main regiment at most. The Artillery Regiment of the 4th Division could not participate in the battle tonight because the ammunition was exhausted and had not yet been replenished. The 4nd Infantry Division could use only An infantry regiment... 2rd Infantry Division lost radio contact..." ..

"Report... just received a telegram from the Ukrainian 1st Army Command. General Koval's 3rd Infantry Division was attacked by the main force of the coalition's armored force in the eastern part of the Kharkov Forest. It is now retreating south. Commander Koval Ask the headquarters to order the 4th and 2nd Divisions to send troops to meet his flank... I repeat, the main force of the Allied Armored Forces is probably heading for the town of Katina and the North Donets Bridge!"

In the evening of the same day, Muto of the Allied Forces sent Chinese armored troops to strengthen the strength of a brigade of the Japanese Army, and launched a tentative attack on the Lopan River Bridge, the gateway to the south of Kharkov. The first battalion repelled the attack of the coalition forces. Since the long-range artillery fire of both sides had never participated in the battle, the tentative attack this time was basically the M139 large-caliber heavy machine gun of the coalition armored vehicles, the Browning 2mm light and heavy machine gun of the vehicle-mounted infantry, and the M7.62 platoon subordinates. Mortars, m60 battalion mortars against the mg81 heavy machine guns in the German machine gun fortress.The Bergman m08 light machine gun and the 1915cm light infantry mortar in the trench mortar position. ..

The battle between the two sides was mainly concentrated in the distance of 1000 meters and 500 meters. The m1 Garland cavalry rifles, 98-type rifles and Mauser 08 rifles in the hands of the infantry basically came in handy. Melon grenades and long-handled grenades It is also useless. Although the German MG17 heavy machine gun is no match for the Chinese FD30II wheeled chariot of the Allied Army, it has caused the Japanese Sasaki Squadron who accompanied the attack to suffer. 20/7.6, of which more than 150 people were killed, the price paid by the German army was the loss of more than a dozen machine gun groups and nearly 2 10cm mortar groups, and the casualties were close to [-]. Offensive, so only lost [-] armored vehicles, less than [-] casualties...

The offensive and defensive sides have their own needs in this test. The equipment and firepower of the Japanese infantry are slightly insufficient compared to the German army, while the power of the Chinese armored forces is obviously far superior to that of the German army and the Japanese army. The German army's mortar tactics are quite flexible. , and the accuracy is extremely high. The disadvantage is that the 7.6cm light infantry mortar was originally an improved trench mortar. Although the mortar grenade weighing 4.5kg is more powerful than the m60 and m81 mortars of the coalition forces, but The range is only 1000 meters, which makes the German mortar only a threat to coalition targets within 1000 meters. In the confrontation between the mortars of the two sides, the German army was completely defeated by its own short-legged range...

The follow-up to this tentative attack was that the reconnaissance plane of the Allied Air Force discovered the movement of the main forces of the two German regiments heading north along the railway line for reinforcements, and promptly notified the Muto Brigade on the ground. No matter how proud and arrogant Muto Nobuyoshi was, he was outnumbered In such a situation, he had to bow his head and order to turn in. Although the former enemy headquarters of the coalition forces gave guidance in time and only asked him to guard the three-way intersection outside the east gate of Kharkov, the strong Nobuyoshi Muto was only willing to retreat to Kharkov. The edge of the Cove Forest stopped, relying on the forest to organize defense lines and positions, and transferred back the artillery unit with 11 75mm field guns that were previously used to relieve the Okamoto Brigade from the north...

In this way, at night, about 7 kilometers southeast of Kharkov, the assembly and defense positions of the Muto Brigade of the coalition forces were formed, or in other words, relying on the edge of the Muto Xinyi Forest and the Uda River, a formation facing Kharkiv was established. The semi-circular defensive position of the Lopan River Bridge in Erkov, the 8 German-made 105mm light howitzers of the Wu Keren Duli Artillery Battalion and the 11 75mm field guns returning to the team formed a new artillery cluster. The width of Muto Nobuyoshi’s position is close to Five kilometers, stretching from the north bank of the Uda River to the Kharkov forest path... His artillery position is spread out on the east side of the path 2 kilometers behind the position. From here, it can directly bombard the east gate of Kharkov, Uda Three kilometers across the river, and the southeast corner of Kharkov New Town...

Nobuyoshi Muto asked Li Shang to send an armored company as a mobile firepower support point for the frontline position, and let the main force of the three armored companies hide on the two wings of the position. The head of the Japanese brigade did not let the Ukrainians in the east of the forest go. In his eyes, the task of Lu Huanyan's second echelon was to annihilate the rest of the three Ukrainian infantry divisions. What he had to worry about was to withstand the German counterattack and wait for an opportunity to counterattack. For a defensive position at one point, the Guzhuang brigade is held in the hands as a reserve team... In the center of the defensive circle is an artillery cluster composed of eight 2mm light howitzers and eleven 8mm field guns...

The brigade's logistics and logistics unit rushed from the base camp at the three-way intersection to the south to rush to hoard ammunition and supplies, but because the bottleneck of the entire logistics transportation line of the coalition forces on the right bank of the Kharkov River was the two buildings across Kharkov. Therefore, the speed of replenishing ammunition for the main force of the Muto brigade, which consumes a lot of ammunition, is far from ideal... This is why Lu Huanyan of the second echelon gave priority to giving up more than half of the road and the hoarded ammunition.

After nightfall, the situation of the entire Kharkov battlefield is roughly as follows:

在北线，联军中路军的ri本第3师团步兵第5旅团菊池旅团部和所属的杉本步兵第6联队、柳金阿列克谢耶维奇沃罗涅ri指挥的联邦步兵第13师均就地转入了防御，背后则是强大的ri本第3师团桥本晃司大佐的du li野战重炮兵第3联队和田中斗笠王大佐指挥的野战炮兵第3联队，以及联邦步兵第15师的2个75mm野炮营，当然，坐镇中路军前敌指挥部是ri本第三师团师团长大庭二郎中将。

Due to the loss of the circular defense line of the northern city of Kharkov, after nightfall, it is the rest of the 1nd Brigade of the 2st Division of the Kharkov Volunteers of Ukraine, and the 1st Division of the 1st Brigade. The rest of the two regiments defended the western wall positions of the Old City of Kharkov and the southwest positions of the New City of Kharkov, while the 2th Brigade of the 4nd Volunteer Division defended the eastern wall of the Old City of Kharkov position, the 2rd Brigade of the 3nd Division defended the position southeast of the New City of Kharkov.