Age of Rebirth

The shelling by the left-wing offensive group, the fierce shelling, lasted for more than half an hour, turning the Japanese beachhead that had been turned over by the bombs once again, and in the area where the landing was scheduled to be landed, a strip of more than [-] kilometers wide appeared. , In a blank area with a depth of more than ten kilometers, all Japanese officers and soldiers disappeared in the independent division aviation, warships and fire strike ships, two rounds of bombing and shelling were enough to melt rocks!

No one could survive such fierce bombing and shelling, and the Japanese soldiers were no exception. Feng Jiwu did not send out infantry, and the left-wing attacking group, relying on the superiority of sea and air firepower, was on the first line of defense in the northwest of Japanese Honshu Island. A big hole was opened, but it was not enough, far from enough. For the vanguard of more than [-] people, the breakthrough was still narrow.

After the shelling stopped, Feng Jiwu looked at the smoky beach, smiled, and said to Chief of Staff Zhang Hansheng: "Hansheng, order the troops to start landing. After landing on the beach, immediately attack the left and right flanks with six brigades. , expand the breakthrough, and hold the landing field, you command five brigades to land at Shimonoseki in the northern part of Kyushu Island, and the rest of the troops will immediately attack the second line of defense of the Japanese army!"

More than [-] soldiers of the Niangziguan Garrison Corps began to land. Large landing ships, full of soldiers, quickly approached the beach. The heavy iron gate opened. The first thing that appeared was not infantry, but a group of soldiers. This is a heavy tank, which is the experience summed up by the independent division troops in many landing operations.

In conventional landing operations, after the landing craft approached the beach, the hatches were opened.Soldiers will face the ferocious firepower of the enemy guards.A large part of the casualties of the landing force occurred at the moment when the soldiers left the landing craft.For this reason, the Marine Corps of Hantie studied new tactics for landing operations.

That is, on each landing craft or landing ship, rather than carry less infantry, it must also be equipped with a heavy tank. After approaching the beach, the tank will go out first, so that the soldiers have a movable bunker to resist the oncoming, densely packed A rain of bullets.

certainly.During the landing process of the vanguard of the left-wing attack group, there was no situation of dense bullets flying head-on. The Japanese soldiers defending this area were all fragmented corpses, but the tactics that had been practiced countless times were used by various troops. It is strictly enforced.

After the first batch of soldiers landed and controlled the landing site, those large troop carriers lowered their small boats one after another, and batch after batch of soldiers began to land.The battle to land in the northwestern part of Honshu went extremely smoothly. The troops boarded the beach in batches without any casualties.Then, immediately began to clear the landing site and build fortifications.Guard against the counterattack of the Japanese army, on the sea in the distance.Countless small boats continued to carry soldiers.

Feng Jiwu jumped onto the uneven beach.Looking ahead, he beckoned, surrounded by more than a dozen staff officers, and he gave an order: "Order, all tanks must be assembled immediately to form a two-way assault group to cover the infantry attacking the second line of defense of the Japanese army. At the same time, call the air force Fire support!"

What Feng Jiwu wanted to seize was this opportunity. Taking advantage of the Japanese army's first line of defense being torn open, he stormed the second line of defense. After opening the breakthrough, he continued to expand the results. The Japanese army attacked horizontally on both sides of the second line of defense. After completely occupying the two lines of defense of the Japanese army, they suspended the attack and adopted a defensive posture, waiting for the arrival of follow-up troops.

Feng Jiwu wanted to take advantage of the situation and keep fighting, but he couldn't. The left-wing attack group had more than 75 troops. After all of them landed, he knew how big the landing field would be. Moreover, the main task of the left-wing attack group was not to attack continuously. The defense line of the Japanese army was mainly to attract Japanese troops.

The tanks roared. According to the deployment before the war, the two tank brigades of the vanguard of the left-wing attack group quickly assembled and divided into two armored assault groups. Jumping over, behind, there are more than [-] soldiers from the four brigades of the Niangziguan Garrison Corps, like a tide of people.

Feng Jiwu's swift offensive action achieved remarkable results. The two divisions of the Japanese army on the beachhead with more than 6000 troops were hit by the superior ground-to-air firepower of the independent division and the swift and violent attack of the superior infantry. , suffered heavy casualties, and there were not many left. The remnants were no more than [-] people and fled to the second line of defense.

By the evening of the battle, the landing field had expanded to a vast area of ​​more than 2000 kilometers wide, more than [-] kilometers deep, and an area of ​​more than [-] square kilometers. The last five brigades had all landed, and immediately invested in the second line of defense against the Japanese army. Attacking.

Less than two hours later, the Niangziguan Garrison Chief of Staff Major General Zhang Hansheng commanded five brigades of more than 130 troops and landed at Maguan in the northern part of Kyushu. The fierce resistance of the [-]th Division of the defensive troops, after paying certain casualties, defeating the division and annihilating most of it, gained a foothold, expanded the landing field, and then turned into a defensive posture.

As night fell, the second line of defense of the Japanese army, under the fierce attack of two tank brigades and nine mechanized infantry brigades with 10,000+ people under the command of Feng Jiwu, was finally torn open a wide opening more than ten kilometers wide, and Niangziguan was on guard. The troops of the Corps poured in along the breakthrough like a tide, and immediately defended with three brigades, while the remaining six brigades spread out on the left and right wings to sweep and continue to expand the breakthrough.

At midnight, the Niangziguan Garrison Corps, which broke through the second line of defense of the Japanese army, and the three brigades defending from the front repelled many counterattacks from the Japanese army, and firmly controlled the front of the breakthrough. The other six brigades, after fierce battles, The battle expanded the breakthrough to an area with a width of more than [-] kilometers and a depth of more than [-] kilometers, and the attacking spearhead was directed at Yamaguchi Castle, where the headquarters of the defense zone in the northwest of the Japanese army's Honshu Island is located.

Also on this night, the second echelon of the left-wing offensive group of the Independent Division, with more than 45 troops, under the command of Lieutenant General Ma Chaoyang, the deputy commander and commander of the Southeast Mobile Corps, began to board the troop carrier from the first-line port of Busan. At night, it rushed towards the northwest of Honshu Island.

The independent division troops landed in the northwestern part of Honshu Island and the northern part of Kyushu Island one after another, causing the top commanders of the Japanese army in the two places to break out in a cold sweat. They were so shocked that they couldn't be more shocked. The first one who couldn't sit still was Yoshiroshi Shirakawa, commander of the Kyushu Island Defense Zone Headquarters. Lieutenant General Ze.

Lieutenant General Shirakawa Yoshizawa knew that the successful landing of the China Independent Division in northern Kyushu would have a great impact on him. Chiba was defeated, and he could lose his official post. If he allowed the China Independent Division to stand in northern Kyushu Keep your feet on the ground, Prince Zairen will definitely chop off his own head. At the last military meeting, the harsh reprimand to him still echoed in his ears, which can only explain one problem, he is not welcome by His Highness the Prince.

The rumbling artillery and explosions in the northwestern part of Honshu made Lieutenant General Shirakawa terrified, while the Chinese Independent Division troops that landed in the northern part of Kyushu made him feel like a catastrophe was imminent, terrified and stabbed in the flesh. Generally uncomfortable, only by counterattacking immediately, taking advantage of the unstable foothold of the China Independent Division, to drive it down the Korean Strait, can we turn defeat into victory and keep Kyushu Island.

Just after midnight, Lieutenant General Shirakawa personally led a group of people from the headquarters of the defense zone to Kumamoto City in the central part of Kyushu Island, formed a frontline headquarters, and urgently mobilized four first-class divisions with nearly 10 troops to divide them into four divisions. On the way, they launched a fierce counterattack against the positions defended by the five brigades of the Niangziguan Garrison Regiment commanded by Zhang Hansheng. The Japanese counterattack was so powerful that it even surpassed the intensity of the main battlefield in the northwest of Honshu Island.

In the northern part of Kyushu Island, the original fortifications of the Japanese army were basically destroyed by the bombing of the independent division during the day and the attack in the evening. In the severely destroyed areas, it is impossible to rebuild the fortifications. What's more, Lieutenant General Bai Chuan's counterattack did not give Zhang Hansheng time to build the fortifications. From all perspectives, it was not good for the troops of the Niangziguan Garrison Corps.

However, Zhang Hansheng is also a general who fought on the battlefield. Before he served as the chief of staff of the Niangziguan Garrison Corps, he was the commander of the Sixth Brigade directly under the Corps. The idea of ​​building fortifications on the spot was dispelled. Instead, the tanks of a tank brigade were lined up at the front to serve as temporary shelters, movable forts, and fortifications. Temporary fortifications were dug between tanks to establish firepower points. The artillery unit mainly suppresses Japanese artillery fire and protects temporary bunkers.

Then, Zhang Hansheng got in touch with the escort fleet and the headquarters of the Northern Flying Group to seek sea and air fire support. Just after the deployment was completed, the Japanese counterattack came. Lieutenant General Bai Chuan was also dizzy. In China, nearly 150 troops from four divisions were deployed at the same time to carry out multi-channel counterattacks. The density of troops is really rare.

Under the night, nearly [-] Japanese soldiers ran across the wilderness shouting, rushing forward without fear of death, but this meant the beginning of a disaster for the Japanese soldiers. First of all, the numbers of the Northern Fleet of the Independent Division on the sea Ten warships, large-caliber naval guns with long-range and powerful shelling, threw the Japanese soldiers into the bloody wind, and then the firepower hit the ship, a burst of shells like a storm, let the Japanese soldiers lie down on the way to charge. There are many corpses.

After that, there were more than a hundred fast gunboats nicknamed "Assassins", equipped with 32 tubes of "Thunder" rocket launchers and three fast gunboats. One salvo fired more than 1 [-]mm rockets, which smashed the way the Japanese soldiers charged. It became a sea of ​​flames, and the bodies of countless Japanese soldiers were reduced to ashes under the high temperature of thousands of degrees.

(to be continued) (to be continued...)