The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 274 Battle of Annihilation 7
These infantry officers were the main officers in the reinforcements sent by Tetsujiro Yamada to support the artillery. They led the two subordinate infantry brigades and two regiments directly under the Type 94 37mm rapid-fire artillery squadron and more than a dozen vehicles. The reinforcement composed of light armored vehicles was a lieutenant general.

This Lieutenant Colonel officer is a Lieutenant Colonel staff officer at the Sasaki Detachment Headquarters. Although the action of dispatching a forward command post to the Chinese army's position was led by the 41st Infantry Regiment of the Kunisaki Detachment, the Sasaki Detachment also sent a communication Liaison personnel, this Lieutenant Colonel is one of them.

Among the reinforcements sent by Yamada Tetsujiro, the two main infantry brigades were all from the 38th Infantry Regiment to which Sasaki's detachment belonged. Lieutenant Colonel Yamada became the leading officer of the reinforcements without hesitation.

Nowadays, this support army has spent a lot of effort, marching all the way, running desperately and struggling, but what can be seen is that the artillery unit has almost been defeated, and the tragic appearance of running away abandoned their helmets and armor. The infantry officers of these reinforcements Naturally, they won't look down upon the artillery troops.

As a result, there was a scene in which the artillery major was anxious, embarrassed, and forced to calm down to clean up the mess caused by the artillery unit's defeat, while several infantry officers from the reinforcements looked on with contempt and ridicule.

To be fair, the two Japanese artillery brigades that were raided did not have any fault themselves, because the two artillery brigades on the march were destined to lose no matter what they did in the face of the raid by the tank troops. This brigade can still maintain a basic combat structure and has brought back six artillery pieces and a batch of baggage. In fact, its performance is quite good.

But those Japanese infantry officers who were reinforcing the army could not care about this. They only knew that the artillery unit that needed their support was defeated. Not only was it defeated, it was also defeated miserably. They also left a lot of equipment and fled, and they were defeated in the same way as they always were. The Chinese army men looked down upon.

Therefore, these infantry officers naturally did not hesitate to ridicule the artillery.

"Your Excellency, Captain, what should we do now? The captain of the First Battalion, Major Imada, and his two lieutenants are also broken. The command system of the First Battalion has almost been completely destroyed, and we still have many wounded soldiers who need help. deal with."

The artillery second lieutenant who reported to the artillery major continued to speak to the major eagerly.

The artillery major's face turned green and white, and he suppressed the order: "Let the officer with the highest rank in the first brigade take over the position of captain and temporarily be under the command of our brigade. All the wounded soldiers will be evacuated for treatment, and the rest will be Rest on the ground, organize your organization, and wait for orders."

Just as the artillery major finished speaking, the Japanese reinforcements lieutenant colonel, who had been taunting the artillery major with a sneer, came over and interrupted forcefully: "I don't think there is any need to rest. Your original mission was to advance to the main position. Support the main force of our army in the main position. Now that it is out of danger, the wounded soldiers should move in immediately, go to the battlefield, collect your discarded weapons and equipment, and continue to move toward the main position! "

Faced with the unquestionable tone of the Lieutenant Colonel, the Artillery Major immediately agreed: "Yes! Sir, please give me half an hour, and I will definitely organize the organization of the two artillery brigades!"

"Half an hour? It will take you half an hour to organize the troops here, and it will take at least an hour to collect the artillery equipment and baggage abandoned by you on the battlefield. What about marching? What about driving in? If it continues like this, it will take a day. It’s not enough for you to waste, huh, I’ll give you twenty minutes at most. After twenty minutes, you will immediately leave with the headquarters and return to the main position! Continue to carry out the combat mission you are supposed to perform!”

"Mr. Major, your two brigades were almost completely defeated by the surprise attack. You also threw away the precious artillery equipment that His Majesty the Emperor gave you. You must be ashamed! Now is the time for you to avenge your shame. How can you Are you wasting precious time again and again?”

The Lieutenant Colonel snorted coldly and ordered forcefully.

"Yes, sir!"

The artillery major knew that he could not refuse, so he bowed and agreed, and then went down to rectify the two artillery brigades that had been beaten up with bruises and faces.

The Japanese infantry lieutenant who led the reinforcements ordered to several surrounding officers: "Our reinforcements will also take a short rest. When the artillery unit is reorganized, we will immediately prepare for battle with tanks, two infantry brigades, and two rapid-fire artillery squadrons." Rapidly advance towards the main position in a marching posture, cover the artillery troops and collect the lost and discarded weapons and equipment, and then immediately return to the main position to support the main position! "

"Yes!"

All the Japanese officers around Lieutenant Colonel stood at attention and replied.

Therefore, half an hour later, the Japanese reinforcements, which merged with the Japanese artillery, began to change their marching direction and march towards the captured main position of the 48th Division.

At this time, the strength of this support army is already quite impressive. It has two field infantry brigades, two rapid-fire artillery squadrons each equipped with four Type 94 37mm rapid-fire cannons, and two of them have six guns left. A mountain artillery brigade of Type 94 75mm mountain guns, and a dozen Type 94 light armored vehicles.

After the reorganization was completed and the task of reinforcing the artillery that was raided was completed, this large-scale reinforcement was called a huge reinforcement. It followed the field preparation march formation of light armored vehicles - two field infantry brigades - two rapid-fire artillery squadrons - artillery, with a rapid march. The method was to return to the direction of the 48th Division position occupied by the Japanese army.

At this time, the mobile team sent by He Wei was already standing on the road blocking the Japanese reinforcements' return. The strength of this mobile team was only one tank company, one infantry company and one artillery company.

A collision with huge disparity in strength is about to begin.

"Quick, quick, quick, dig the hoe pit and fill it with sandbags."

"Bring over two more boxes of shells!"

The mobile team's artillery position was bustling with excitement and noise.

Under the command of Chen Xinsheng, the officers and soldiers of the artillery company of the Secret Service Battalion, after emergency operations, cleared out a total of fourteen Type 94 75mm mountain guns from the artillery baggage left by the Japanese artillery.

These two Japanese mountain artillery brigades were equipped with a total of twenty-four Type 94 75mm mountain guns. The retreating Japanese artillery took away six of them. Of the remaining eighteen, the officers and soldiers of the special agent company killed them in one breath. Fourteen doors were found.

The only fly in the ointment is that the other four suffered various damages during the tank company's surprise attack on the Japanese artillery. They were either damaged by the tank, crushing parts and shooting devices, or lost parts and could not be assembled and combined. A cannon that can fire normally. But even though all the artillery equipment left by the Japanese army could not be fully utilized, the fourteen mountain cannons that had been used still made Lieutenant Chen Xinsheng, the commander of the artillery company of the Secret Service Battalion, excited and full of fighting spirit.

What is the concept of fourteen mountain cannons? In the national army, these artillery can equip an artillery battalion with a surplus. Chen Xinsheng, who was born in the Artillery Section of the 10th phase of Huangpu, mainly learned how to command and shoot mountain field artillery in the military academy, but after leaving the army, he has been commanding tank defense. Cannons and 81mm and 82mm caliber mortars, such as infantry team artillery, now have the ability to command artillery operations at the level of an organized battalion, which of course makes him extremely excited.

On the hastily formed artillery position, the muzzles of fourteen Type 94 75mm mountain guns were raised high. The officers and soldiers operating the artillery were either busy distributing the shells or carrying shell boxes still stained with the blood of the Japanese army. In order to strengthen the position, the artillery equipment left by the Japanese army included not only artillery, but also a large number of artillery shells.

Including the new Type 94 explosive grenades specially used for the Type 94 mountain cannon, as well as shrapnel shells, illumination bombs and smoke bombs, there are more than 4,000 rounds, which can fully support these fourteen mountain cannons in a fierce battle.

In order to gather enough gunners for these fourteen mountain cannons, Chen Xinsheng also put a lot of effort into it. He decisively changed the tank defense artillery platoon under the Secret Service Battalion Artillery Company into a mountain artillery unit, and also changed the two originally equipped The Austrian-made 47mm tank defense gun was temporarily handed over to the tank defense gun platoon of the Army Armored Corps for use.

At the same time, Chen Xinsheng also recruited officers and soldiers with experience in using mountain cannons from the entire artillery company, and pieced together enough gunners for these fourteen mountain cannons.

Of course, the Japanese artillery sent not only mountain artillery, shells and observation equipment, but also the shooting list, operation manual and even the operating instructions of the Type 94 mountain artillery. Therefore, Chen Xinsheng used these materials left by the Japanese army to create a short Within a short period of time, the artillery officers and soldiers barely mastered the basic operation methods of the Type 94 mountain artillery.

However, of course, this mastery cannot be the ability to skillfully adjust the firing parameters of the artillery according to the firing command order. After all, these gunners just touched the Type 94 mountain cannon for the first time today, and they are not even proficient in the most basic gun maneuvers. Not to mention the self-adjusted and precise artillery to shoot at Zhu Yuan.

Chen Xinsheng adopted a fool-like operation method, dividing the predetermined target shooting area into several areas and numbering these areas. Each area has corresponding shooting parameters. In this way, he has mastered the operation of Japanese artillery. Unskilled gunners only need to remember the shooting parameters corresponding to different areas, which greatly simplifies the difficulty of artillery shooting operations.

In the firing command post behind the artillery position, Chen Xinsheng was standing in front of a Type 93 artillery mirror and observing the direction of the predetermined firing zone. Behind him, several artillery company sergeants were debugging the rifles that had also been captured from the Japanese army. Type 93 telemeter and Type 92 simple observation scope.

An artillery sergeant held up the phone leading to the infantry company position and reported to Chen Xinsheng: "Company commander, company commander, the benchmark gun is ready to fire and can now be tested. Should we inform Company Commander Fu and Company Commander Zhao?"

"Okay, test fire as soon as you are ready. Send someone to tell Company Commander Fu and Company Commander Zhao that they should retreat to the two wings first to avoid accidental damage. We will bring the troops back after we have finished the test fire. Our gun was captured from the Japanese. My brothers have never fired. It would be bad if the cannonball misses and lands on one of our own heads."

Chen Xinsheng said excitedly, full of expectations for the test firing of these captured artillery pieces.

The mobile team's defense is also quite hierarchical. The mountain artillery directly commanded by Chen Xinsheng is at the innermost level, while the first infantry company of Fu Chen's special agent battalion has strengthened four tank defense cannons and four 81mm mortars. A defensive position was then set up in front of the mountain artillery firing position.

Zhao Huzhen led the tank company to conduct mobile searches and warnings in front of the infantry company's position, forming a defense system configuration of peripheral tank roaming firepower - infantry holding the position - and mountain artillery fire support positions.

"Yes!"

Just as the sergeant was about to shake the phone to the infantry company position, suddenly, a burst of rapid and violent gunfire came from the front of the artillery position, and then, two fiery red signals flew into the sky.

Chen Xinsheng looked at the signal flare slowly falling in mid-air and immediately shouted: "No more test firings. Everyone enters the designated position and prepares to fight. Damn it, contact Company Commander Fu immediately and ask them what's going on."

The sergeant immediately got on the phone and asked the infantrymen in front about the source of the gunfire, and quickly figured out the situation. The gunfire came from the tank company, and the signal flare was also fired by the tank company.

It turns out that just now, the tank company that was performing a search and alert mission at the front encountered an encounter with the current tank company. Coincidentally, the tank company that encountered it turned out to be the same Japanese armored vehicle unit!

After the Japanese reinforcements were ready, they also began to return to the main position of the captured 48th Division. At the front of the march were more than a dozen armored vehicles. These two armored vehicles were traveling in opposite directions. The armored forces encountered a sudden encounter without any preparation.

The collision between the Japanese reinforcements and the blocking mobile team sent by the Chinese army kicked off a unique tank battle.

In the battle zone between the two sides, there was dense and rapid gunfire everywhere. The turrets of more than thirty tanks shot out streams of dark red fire, and strings of tracer bullets formed dozens of dazzling flashes. In the intense exchange of ballistic fire, the tanks of the Chinese and Japanese armies approached each other in two horizontal formations, forming two parallel lines about to collide.

When the Japanese light armored vehicle unit and Zhao Huzhen's Army Armored Corps tank company were performing their respective search and alert missions, they discovered each other almost at the same time, and then opened fire at the same time. Faced with the sudden appearance of enemy tanks, both sides responded invariably. Adopted proactive tactics.

Therefore, more than a dozen tanks from each of the two armies quickly spread out in a horizontal tactical formation and launched an assault on the other side.

bang bang bang
Da da da da
The Taisho 13-type light machine gun on the turret of the Japanese Army's Type light armored vehicle and the twin-mounted mg light machine gun on the turret of the Chinese Army's No. tank produced a scene as different as popping beans in the crazy exchange of fire. The sound of gunfire was mixed with the sound of bullets hitting the tank body.

The current duel between the two sides is not so much a duel between tanks, but a duel between armored vehicles.

The Japanese Army's Type 94 light armored vehicle is not even a combat vehicle in the Japanese army's equipment sequence, and the Chinese Army's No. 1 combat vehicle is only the most primitive light tank. The armament and performance of the tanks on both sides are very average.

The weaponry of the Type 13 armored vehicle is only one Taisho -type vehicle-mounted machine gun, and the weaponry of the No. tank is only a set of two twin German-made mg light machine guns. Firefights can only be achieved with machine guns of mm and mm calibers.

(End of this chapter)