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Chapter 1343 Storm (rd update, please subscribe)

On March 3, the Katanga National Army led by Lieutenant Colonel Cardo appeared on the outskirts of Elizabethville and engaged in a fierce battle with the defenders outside the city. The Congolese defenders were destroyed by their vanguard armored forces.

Although only the T34 tank appeared on the battlefield, it was already the king of the battlefield in Africa. After all, neither the Congolese army nor the United Nations forces had almost no anti-tank weapons.

On such a battlefield, tanks are almost invincible. Even this old tank from World War II can run rampant there without restraint.

Just two days later, the defense system deployed by General Chand outside the city of Elizabethville was shattered by an armored force consisting of more than 20 tanks. Tens of thousands of Congolese troops and UN forces abandoned their outer positions and retreated to the urban area.

In the past half month, people in Elizabethville have been digging trenches, setting up barbed wire, laying mines and strengthening fortifications every day. According to General Chand's estimate, the enemy will need at least three entire divisions to encircle Elizabethville.

However, Chand had obviously miscalculated one point. Perhaps three entire divisions would be needed to surround and attack Elizabethville, but if it was just a siege, only more than 3 people would be enough.

After clearing the outer positions of Elizabethville, Lieutenant Colonel Cardo ordered his troops to stop advancing and stationed on the spot. Then he built siege works using the fortifications left by the United Nations forces.

Soon after, General Ryan Buschmann of the 9th Commando also arrived with his headquarters and stationed outside the city of Elizabethville.

Starting from March 3, the Siege of Elizabethville began.

A week had passed in the blink of an eye, and the blockade of Elizabethville was on track. Compared with the chaotic scene when they first arrived, everything was now in order. In the past week, the "Butcher Bird" of the 9th Commando had carried out multiple bombings in the city, and through methods such as throwing leaflets and broadcasting, they demanded that civilians in the city evacuate, indicating that they would carry out a full-scale bombing of the city.

It was under such a warning that the residents of the city fled the city one after another. In the past few days, the United Nations has repeatedly warned Andre Cardo not to make the problem worse. At the same time, the US military transport planes also provided Elizabethville with a large amount of supplies, including anti-tank weapons such as super bazookas and recoilless guns, to strengthen the defenders.

The President of the Republic of Katanga, Tshombe, who was in Northern Rhodesia, issued a statement demanding that UN troops leave Katanga's territory and expressed his willingness to conduct further negotiations with the UN on the status of Katanga.

At this point, everyone seemed to believe that the crisis would be handled through a political solution.

But they apparently forgot

Liddell Hart's famous quote in his book "Strategy" is believed and admired by military strategists: "Surprise is the essence of strategy."

Ensuring surprise is the most important part of many military operations. In actual operations, in order to achieve this goal, people always implement plans carefully.

In the command post, General Ryan Buschman, who had defeated the main force of the Indian Army in the battle to defend Hyderabad, said in a deep voice:
"Okay, now is the time!"

As he finished speaking, his eyes were fixed on the map and a triumphant smile appeared on his face. If someone recognized him, they would definitely say it was the "devil's smile."

General Ryan Buschmann was just his pseudonym. He also had another name - Joachim Peiper. A British person once called him "one of the most outstanding commanders of the German army in World War II. He demonstrated the highest level of military effectiveness and selfless bravery in battle."

Like many people, he left Germany after the war and came to Borneo. Later, there was a German military adviser named Ryan Buschmann. Later, he joined the Black Knight Company and served in the South Asian subcontinent for many years.

Now, he led the 8000th commando to Congo, and the opponent... was a multinational coalition of more than people. In order to implement Chang'an's plan, he had been carefully concealing his plan in the past week.

Now, having determined that Elizabethville had become a ghost town, all that remained was to execute the plan.

"Any new orders?"

Buschman turned his gaze to his deputy, and Zhao Chengrong shook his head.

"not yet."

In the following time it is always “no”.

Faced with this situation, Buschmann became a little impatient, and the artillery group below called again to ask:

"Should we fight or not?"

It was not until 11:15 a.m. that they received a call:
"Fire at 11:30 sharp!"

After receiving this order, Buschman also seemed very excited and said:
"Let's compare the watches together."

So each artillery group was required to calibrate their watches according to standard procedures, and the watch of the highest commander was used as the standard. Therefore, the watch used by Buschmann was their standard time, and the hands of his watch had been calibrated two hours ago.

The 10 minutes before the bombardment seemed very long and very quiet. The only sound was the "tick-tick" of the quartz watch on the table. Looking forward from the position, the weather was clear today, with a few clouds floating in the sky. The sun was emitting strong and intense light, and the city in the distance was clearly visible. From the telescope, it could be seen that everything was normal and the city was still silent. On the outskirts of the city, groups of UN troops and Congolese soldiers were still building fortifications.

In the core of some fortifications, there are several M24 tanks - these are tanks that the US military transported to the United Nations forces using C130 transport aircraft. They not only transported tanks, but also 105mm howitzers.

In short, the White House's plan is simple - to teach NBC, no, to teach the Katangan local armed forces and mercenaries a profound lesson.

In fact, if it weren't for the maximum load capacity of the C130 transport aircraft, Kennedy would have wanted to transport M48 tanks here, just to teach Nanyang a profound lesson.

Of course, this is obviously impossible.

In the past week, with the efforts of American transport aircraft, they not only transported more than 4500 UN troops, but also 32 tanks and armored vehicles and 38 105mm howitzers. At this time, in terms of troop strength, the UN troops in Elizabethville have exceeded 12000 people, plus 16000 Congolese troops.

With nearly 30,000 troops, it is definitely the most powerful armed force in Central Africa.

If it weren't for the lack of air power, Chandler would have launched a counterattack long ago.

At 11:30 am, it was almost time for dinner and this was the time when the defenders were the most relaxed and lazy.

At 11:27, Buschmann issued the order:
"Reload your guns!"

Within seconds, 186 guns quickly removed the camouflage nets, and while shaking the gun bodies, the loaders pushed the first wave of shells into the gun barrels. After closing the breech blocks, the aimers positioned the guns according to the parameters obtained in advance.

Among these 186 artillery pieces, 112 are 120mm mortars, deployed in mortar groups within the rainforest fortifications. Loaders carry 16-kilogram shells, waiting for the last moment to arrive.

At 11:30, when the minute hand and the second hand overlapped, the commander gave an order into the transmitter. The order was just two words:

"fire!"

After saying these two words, Buschmann felt that everything became easy. This was a cannon battle.

At this moment, he seemed to think of the Eastern Front. Perhaps that was the case with the Russian commanders on the Eastern Front. After giving the order, it was as if a heavy burden had been lifted off their shoulders and they no longer needed to consider anything else.

This is how an artillery battle works. Once the order is given, the cannons and the officers and soldiers on the front line play the leading roles.

Therefore, Bushman, Zhao Chengrong and others took some time out from their busy schedules and walked to the command post to enjoy the excitement and scenery outside.

Looking out from the command post, at the command of "fire", clusters of white smoke and orange-red flames appeared in front of each artillery array, as if pressing a button.

The sound arrived a little later, a series of loud noises, mixed with the whistling of shells. In about ten seconds, a bright spot and a column of smoke first exploded inside and outside Elizabethville.

Then, the bright spot turned into a sea of ​​fire. The smoke column formed a cloud of smoke. After more than ten seconds, the sound of explosion came from a distance, rumbling like thunder.

With dense rain of bullets, shells blew up black smoke columns inside and outside the city, and the shells made the red earth seem to boil. Because the wired telephone was blown off, the defenders could only use wireless calls for emergency. The 9th Commando team monitored it clearly.

The whole of Elizabethville was in chaos. The Indians even shouted on the radio, "Their artillery fire is too strong. All the positions have been destroyed..."

Looking at the city boiling in the smoke, Buschman pursed his lips and said:

"In fact, on the Eastern Front, the Soviets concentrated thousands of artillery pieces. This was just like a child playing house, using the cheapest method to launch the cheapest offensive..."

This is not just an artillery battle, it is also a political offensive!
In order to put pressure on the United Nations, in the subsequent shelling, each gun fired an average of 80 to 100 rounds, firing rapidly and continuously. Many gun barrels were even red, especially those mortars, which had to be cooled with buckets of water. Only then did they have to stop and take a breath.

Many sturdy and strong loaders had swollen arms after feeding hundreds of rounds in a row, and they had difficulty even holding a bowl of rice the next day.

It was a clear day with excellent visibility. The entire Elizabethville could be seen clearly. Suddenly, a cannon shot was heard over here. At first, the officers and soldiers of the UN forces over there could be seen running around, but after a while, nothing could be seen. Under the fierce bombardment, the entire city turned into a sea of ​​fire and smoke.

The wind blew the smoke outside the city into the city, where it merged with the smoke inside the city. Then the smoke merged together, forming a thick, huge gray-black wall of smoke above the city. The scene was extremely spectacular.

(End of this chapter)