Beiyang 1917

() "Obey! Your Excellency, General!" The head of the 139th Infantry Regiment didn't feel weak when he heard the words. He stood at attention, paid a military salute, and went out to execute the order. , seeing the grizzled colonel staggering out of the command post.

"I can't wait any longer... Pass my order, the armored train detachment 1 detachment 2 detachment commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt, immediately launch an attack on the Kharkov East Gate Outer Bridge The bombardment of the position, rapid shooting in 10 minutes, ordered the battalion of Lieutenant Colonel von Blomburg of the infantry 140 to attack from the east gate after the shelling began, and the goal was to recapture the Kharkov Bridge! Order the 139th Battalion of the Southeast Group Artillery to bombard Khar Near the three-fork intersection three kilometers outside the east gate of Cove, cut off the opponent's logistics traffic artery...Order the 140th Artillery Battalion to shell the existing position of the Muto Brigade, and execute it immediately!" ..

Major General Sven von Neuhaus, the former commander-in-chief of the German-Ukrainian Allied Forces and commander of the 47th Division of the German Reserve Infantry, issued an order to open fire...

Since wired telephones were set up in all positions of the German army, the command of the headquarters quickly reached the artillery positions. The German artillery who had corrected the azimuth angle earlier immediately took action. Soon, the German artillery fire roared in the city of Kharkov. With a roar, a string of shells soared into the sky from three directions and rushed towards different directions... Falling into the target area in the distance, exploding fires... The flashing and whistling light bands in the night sky looked like truly spectacular...

The coalition forces were not to be outdone, and before the second round of German shelling started, the Japanese heavy artillery on the northern front roared first, and a series of shells whizzed down from the Japanese artillery positions five kilometers north of the city, hitting Kazakhstan overwhelmingly. The location of the Zhongyang railway line in the northern city of Erkov, where the armored trains of the 1st and 2nd squadrons of the German armored armored trains launched the first round of shelling. After the shelling was completed, the armored train drove south for the first time, which caused almost all of the 2 24mm heavy howitzer shells of the Hashimoto Duli Field Heavy Artillery Wing of the Japanese Army to fall into the air, and only blew up the rails and sleepers. , the buildings on the south side of Zhongyang Station were submerged in the sea of ​​flames again... ..

Von Rundstedt's Armored Train Detachment 2 belongs to the 1st Armored Detachment of the German Army. The 10st Armored Detachment of the German 1th Army has two armored trains, each with 16 carriages, 4 of which are heavy machine gun carriages. Equipped with 6 mg08 water-cooled heavy machine guns, there are 8 artillery carriages. The first carriage and the last carriage are each equipped with a German-made Krupp 150mm heavy howitzer, and the remaining 4 carriages are each equipped with 2 105mm light howitzers, and 2 3mm anti-aircraft guns in 20 carriages, and the remaining 4 carriages are infantry carriages, each carrying a company of infantry.

There is a steam-powered locomotive at the head and tail of the German armored train, which makes the steel armored monster on the rails have super power and mobility, thick armor, and hot firepower. The iron armored train of von Rundstedt was originally in One 1mm heavy howitzer and two 150mm light howitzers were lost in the battle with the Riben Yonezawa Cavalry Wing. However, after an afternoon of repairs, the damaged cannons and carriages had been repaired, so the German armored train went to Harko The bombardment fire near the bridgehead on the right side of the Kharkov Bridge outside the East Gate of Kharkov was quite intense.

The shells fired by two 2mm heavy howitzers and eight 150mm light howitzers turned the entire right bank of the bridge into a sea of ​​flames within 8 meters on both sides of the right bank. Controlling the bridgehead on the right side of the Kharkov Bridge is the Mizuno Taisuke Regiment of the Muto Brigade of the Japanese Army The Nakamura Brigade, Mizuno's Wing Headquarters and the remaining Nakamura Brigade have only three squadrons with about 105 people. However, because the former enemy commander of the second echelon, Lv Huanyan, has made preparations to blast and abandon the bridge at any time, there is only one bridgehead. The Japanese team was stationed, and the remaining troops of the Nakamura Brigade and three Chinese armored vehicles reinforced to the Mizuno Wing were hidden in a position on the edge of the forest 300 meters away from the river bank...

The position on the right bank of the Kharkov River can be regarded as the first main battlefield of the Muto Brigade's roundabout operation on the east road. Therefore, the field position built by the Nakamura Brigade on the edge of the forest has been relatively well reinforced in the north, except for the first line along the approach bridge and In addition to the 350-meter-long field fortifications on the left and right sides of the road, the shelters and traffic trenches of the second line were also dug out, and the log roof was reinforced for the anti-blasting holes...

The civil engineering work of the Japanese army's fortifications has been strengthened and valued after the Battle of Ufa, because the Chinese participating troops with better weapons and equipment than the Japanese army must first strengthen the fortifications and rush to repair forts and positions every time they go to a place, compared with equipment and firepower If the Japanese army, which is more than a step behind, refuses to sweat and work hard to repair the fortifications, the casualties in a real fight will be even more unbearable...

The first three rounds of artillery fire on Von Rundstede's iron-clad train basically burned the two wings of the bridgehead on the right wing of the entire Kharkov Bridge into a sea of ​​flames, and then the extended artillery fire began to slowly extend to the forest in the east. At the same time, the German army The subsequent shelling of the 12 105 light howitzers in the southeast cluster accurately hit the three-way intersection in the forest... Although strict curfew and light control were enforced, the geographical location of this three-way intersection is so important and obvious, Lu Huanyan Even if the Chinese engineering troops strengthen their camouflage, they still cannot hide this traffic artery...

Fortunately, what Lu Huanyan's second-echelon logistics and supply troops have been doing since the afternoon is to open a forest road running from northwest to southeast about 800 meters away from the northeast of the Sancha intersection... use "\" The "l" at the three-fork intersection was cut into a right-angled triangle... The logistical material stockpiles of the coalition forces were moved nearly 1 kilometer to the northeast, located on the outside of the hypotenuse of the right-angled triangle, and camouflage and isolation fire protection measures were strengthened , This made the sudden shelling of the 139th Battalion of the German Artillery, although it turned the three-way intersection into a sea of ​​flames, it failed to cause real damage to the coalition supplies, ammunition and vehicles...

The German artillery fire that took the lead in the German counterattack tonight achieved the greatest results. Instead, the 140th Battalion of German Artillery fired on the field fortifications of the Muto Brigade. The positions of the Muto Brigade were temporarily built after retreating to the edge of the forest. Neither hasty nor deep!