Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 665 BHIM Howitzer

The White Tiger Division's fire preparation was very accurate and lasted for a long time, and it seemed to have the ability to continuously supply ammunition. This also showed that its artillery unit was still under the command of the first-line tank group; As well as the two division commanders, the principal and the deputy, they still did not fall into chaos. After a night of attacking fortifications, and after suffering a huge setback in the battle with Wang Zhenbei's army in the morning, the formations of the various troops under their jurisdiction were basically completely preserved, and they were still being unified. under command.Such a performance can be said to be unique in the Indian Army with low average organizational capabilities.At this time, most of the Indian army was in a state of disintegration during the pursuit. The commander of the 26th Infantry Division was captured 20 kilometers away from his troops. He himself no longer knew where his troops were.Throughout the morning, the Chinese-Pakistan coalition forces had wiped out more than 4 enemy troops, and the last essence of the Indian army was right in front of He Fan, ready to fight for his life.He Fan's 40 tanks and about 2000 paratroopers will determine whether the enemy can escape and join the defense of New Delhi. Lin Huaisheng did not strictly order He Fan to block the enemy, but He Fan does not intend to let them escape easily .

The new reconnaissance shows that the remaining 5 armored regiments of the White Tiger Division have gathered together. Although each regiment has only about one battalion of troops left on average, their strength still exists. The air defense force is the most well-preserved, and the air force can only carry out strikes outside the area for a while, and when the long-range firepower loses the instructions of the drone, its accuracy and firepower delivery are greatly reduced.

He Fan observed that the enemy in front of them continued the way of the 23rd Armored Regiment. They still concentrated their forces and tried to break through with a strong striker to tear through the defense line. It seems that there are not many new tricks, but the strength of the troops has increased. .

He ordered to abandon his position, retreat backwards, and call for long-range rocket launchers to launch anti-tank missiles on the enemy's offensive route to complete a huge minefield 4000 meters wide and 500 meters deep, which is used to hinder the enemy's speed of movement, so that he can calmly Reverse the car and retreat, always aiming the muzzle at the enemy.

Launching landmines does not require precise target designation, and it is a good way to delay the action of an enemy with a narrow front.Once the enemy slows down, or is forced to go around, his purpose is achieved.He Fan then asked the Air Force to carry terminal-sensitive bomb dispensers and put them into combat when necessary, and the request was immediately approved; the various fire support requested by He Fan in the morning could not be fully satisfied, but with the arrival of the White Tiger Division, Lin Huai Sheng became generous. He even allowed the disintegrated Indian 1st Armored Division to escape from another direction, and he tried his best to hit the White Tiger Division with shells.

After occupying the position He Fan gave up, the enemy tanks wanted to break through the second line of defense in one go, but they saw an explosion in the sky ahead, as well as a small floating parachute with small mines hanging under it.This is a strange tactic, the mines are just dropped on the ground, even dragging a conspicuous parachute, no concealment at all, but these mines are powerful enough to blow up the tank tracks; the tanker is forced to turn in front of the minefield , abandon the original plan, and move towards the direction chosen by the opponent. Before the battle, the initiative has changed hands.

At the same time, Yahini has been secretly operating on the west side of the enemy. He has no infantry to drag him down. He can use the abandoned villages around him to implement large-scale maneuvers on the chaotic battlefield. At this moment, he has circled to the enemy's rear.During this period, he saw several drones being shot down by enemy missiles. He knew that without the cover of the air defense force, the tank would become meat on the cutting board, so the key to the current battlefield lies in the enemy's air defense force.He had already observed the enemy missiles that were constantly rising into the air, and judged that the enemy missile positions had been moving, basically following the actions of the tanks in front.

The 3rd company he sent out (actually only one platoon) scouted 1 km ahead and found the enemy's self-propelled artillery units and logistical supply lines.But this is not the target Yahini wants to destroy. In his opinion, the value of these artillery units and the short-range anti-aircraft guns scattered around the battlefield is not too high. What he wants is to find a field air defense system.He judged that it should be within 5 to 10 kilometers behind the enemy tank group.

The 3 t 84s took courage, drove out of the village, and acted behind the enemy artillery positions in broad daylight. Their tricks succeeded again. The Indians who were busy firing did not notice that these were actually Pakistani tanks. After the tanks of the friendly forces passed by a group of oncoming routs, the company commander saw a warning radar vehicle in the distance that was folding its radar down and preparing to march. It was obviously at the approximate location judged by Yahini Above, there are more missile launching vehicles in the distance. The enemy equipment is very complete and the number is huge. It seems to be a mixture of a Sam 17 and a Sam 6 troops, and there are some infantry fighting vehicles on the periphery for protection.The satellite-guided glide bombs dropped by the Chinese Air Force all fell behind the enemy's route of travel, basically doing useless work.

Apparently the Chinese are still using the old-fashioned method of sneak attacking this mobile unit with electronic reconnaissance planes and out-of-area munitions, but the enemy's combat skills make the conventional use of satellite-guided munitions or anti-radiation missiles always slower .

The company commander of the T84 company reported the enemy situation to Yahini. He described that the enemy was scattered, and several key radars were separated by 4 to 5 kilometers, and they were moving very fast.

Yahini knew he had to make a difficult decision, and he had to move across the battlefield to eliminate the biggest hidden danger.At this moment, his troop strength has dropped to 16 tanks. Some tanks were destroyed by the infantry in the battle just now, so he had to give up. The external antenna of his own vehicle was also damaged, and he lost his long-distance communication ability. However, no matter what, Such a force is still considered an extremely powerful force behind the enemy's rear.

Although he couldn't accept the drone video, he was able to see through the entire formation of the enemy from a corner of the battlefield. The White Tiger Division concentrated all the tanks that could fight to the front, while the anti-aircraft troops, artillery and infantry fighting vehicles stayed behind. They followed closely in the loose formation, probably to guard against the large-spread weapon attacks like rocket launchers. Once a breakthrough was opened in front, they would quickly gather their formation and rush out together.The enemy's formation is inherently reasonable, but it is chaotic. It is suitable for a commander like him, leading a force to harass every corner; of course, if the command is not proper, his dozen or so tanks will be quickly consumed by the enemy fleet This time, it is not a battalion to challenge a battalion, but a reinforced company to kick a division's ass, and there is no cover of night.

On the radio, he explained the mission to the eager 3rd company commander. His company will attack first and must not let the enemy's important target escape. He emphasized that there is only one priority target for attack, which is the enemy's radar; the 3rd company has only 3 vehicles Tanks must eliminate the most important targets at the first time. The core of the Sam 6 missile force is naturally the guidance radar, but every launch vehicle of the Beech has an irradiation radar, which is difficult to eradicate at once, so we can only eliminate its warning radar suppression Overall Combat Capability

13 tanks drove out from the ruins and were exposed in broad daylight. Like the T3 of the 84rd company, they lined up and passed behind the enemy artillery regiment. The muzzle pointed at the enemy. Yahini still had the luck to slip past the enemy Psycho, did not give the order to fire.Of course, it is not so easy to get away with it this time. The sharp-edged turrets of these two types of Chinese tanks are easily recognized by the Indian artillery with high tactical literacy; Yahini saw that the enemy formation began to become chaotic 2 meters away. It wasn't the usual fleeing in all directions, but an attempt to turn the front of the car around and aim the cannon at himself.

"We've been exposed. Each team chooses the nearest target and fires immediately!"

Although the antenna outside the turret was broken, the inter-vehicle communication within a few kilometers was still unaffected, and he could still command the troops very well.

The two types of self-propelled artillery on the position all have no hoe, and they have a strong ability to start quickly.In particular, India's self-produced BHIM155 artillery uses a main battle tank chassis and is quite powerful.

This kind of self-propelled artillery, which uses the Arjun tank chassis and a 52-caliber howitzer produced in South Africa, has only been equipped with a small number of independent artillery battalions due to insufficient performance. In the artillery brigade of the 21st Army, he was finally stuffed into the artillery regiment of the White Tiger Division by the eccentric Spanga. As a large and bloated White Tiger Division, a division artillery battalion under its jurisdiction.The performance of this kind of weapon in combat is very limited, but the courage of the soldiers is indeed extraordinary. Of course, they know what will happen to the tank that challenges the dominant position, but they also know another thing, even the heavy armor of the Type 99 tank , It is impossible for the direct hit of the 155mm grenade to be effective. If they can be allowed to turn around... the contest will be more fair.

The commanders of Yahini are all veterans, so naturally they will not leave time for the enemy to turn around. The armor-piercing shells fired first penetrate the weak vehicle body of the enemy from all sides. During the interval between the operation of the automatic loader, the commander The 12.7mm machine guns they manipulated kept shooting at the commander of the self-propelled artillery and the weak armor on the side and rear, without giving the enemy a chance to probe and observe.

Even the firepower of the 12mm machine gun poses a great threat to the rear armor and the US-made M7 ammunition supply vehicle that follows the self-propelled artillery.These loaded tracked vehicles could easily be detonated by armor-piercing explosive incendiary rounds fired from machine guns.The explosion was so powerful that it sometimes overturned the self-propelled artillery next to it.

In this war, many U.S. aid plans to India were interrupted as the war situation deteriorated sharply. They were afraid that the expensive weapons aid would be in vain. It is very clear that in order to enhance the long-lasting combat capability of the Indian army, special assistance has never been interrupted, even collecting parts for Indian tanks all over the world, and these humble and outdated equipment have a great impact on the continuous strike capability of the Spanga artillery The benefit is equivalent to directly increasing the number of artillery.

In a blink of an eye, the output of Awadi Heavy Vehicle Factory for one and a half years was cleaned up by Yahini.

A British-made as90 self-propelled howitzer backed up behind a pile of wrecked BHIM tanks in the chaos. It couldn't turn its head around, but could only secretly turn the turret 180°. During this period, the surrounding tanks were constantly hit and exploded, but only No shells flew at him.

The commander saw clearly that the enemy tanks were passing by quickly, and he was probably a little negligent. He ordered the gunner to aim at the rearmost Type 96 tank and fire, explaining that he only fired one shot, and then fled the tank as fast as possible. Of course he knew that he There will be no second chances.

The gunner skipped the laser rangefinder, and directly used the simplest sight reticle to complete the distance estimation. At a distance of 400 meters, he didn't have to consider too many factors that affect the trajectory, but the muzzle was slightly too high, and then he cut off the fire decisively. .The Type 2 tank that fell to the bottom of the second company was instantly engulfed by a huge explosion.

After succeeding, the Indian gunner immediately jumped out of the tank from the hatch on the side of the turret. Even if he fell to the damaged track shoe and broke a leg, he still desperately jumped to the nearest cover, and the other soldiers who had already been hiding there The crew members hid together.

After the smoke cleared, only the burning chassis remained of the Type 96 tank, and the turret flew 100 meters away. Yahini searched for the target immediately and instructed the gunner to fire a shot at the empty tank.

Such a loss must be worth it, because he believes that he is burying the whole of India through actions.

The 1.5rd Company, 3 kilometers away, launched a final attack on the enemy's air defense positions at the same time. They posed a great threat, but the company commander decided to carry out Yahini's orders to the fullest and waste no time in attacking these secondary targets, which were too numerous to count.

The 3 tanks got out of the hiding place, dispersed at the first time, and rushed towards the main radar vehicles scattered in all directions. The radar vehicles loaded on the chassis of these tanks can slip away quickly, so they cannot be left with such an opportunity.

Similar to the situation of the artillery regiment, the air defense unit of the White Tiger Division is composed of two originally independent units. However, due to the same source of equipment, some systems of the two sets of missiles can be interchanged, which makes the Chinese Air Force try to attack important nodes. It is very difficult to paralyze the entire air defense position.

In a daze, they completed the first step of the plan and each found an important target. These radar vehicles are usually hidden in the core area surrounded by tanks.When Yahini's guns sounded behind him, the Indians here seemed to have exploded. Some infantry fighting vehicles recognized the Pakistani tanks that had sneaked in and started shooting.

The 30mm cannon continuously hit the side of the tank, testing the tenacity of every inch of armor.The debris falling from the inside of the turret flew around, and the rockets fired by the Indian soldiers dragged their tail flames around the tank. It was only a matter of time before the tank was hit.

A SAM-6 guidance radar that had no time to escape was the first to be destroyed by a 125mm armor-piercing projectile. The shooting angle was very clever. After the projectile penetrated the main target, it destroyed the power supply equipment on one side.However, a Laura self-propelled anti-aircraft gun galloped over, covered the successful T84 with a dense barrage, and immediately destroyed the engine, causing the tank to stop and burn. The automatic fire extinguishing device was activated three times, but the fire was too large to be controlled. , and finally a shell got into the turret and detonated the ammunition.Before the tank was reimbursed, it fired 3 times, destroying a command vehicle and a tanker on the position.

The company commander of the 3rd company faced the same fierce counterattack on the other side. Unlike the enemies in the past who would panic and even disperse when they encountered a sudden attack, these Indians were very good at using His own weapon is by no means ordinary.

The dense small-caliber fire quickly knocked out the steering clutch in the tank's seat ring, which made the gunner lose his ability to aim, but the driver stepped up his horsepower and rammed a beech launch vehicle ahead, knocking it over.The firepower of India's 35mm anti-aircraft guns followed the tank, and the dense fire net detonated nearby ammunition vehicles. The commander of the 3rd company and his crew escaped from the tank in chaos and hid in an irrigation ditch.

When Yahini's 12 tanks arrived, there was only one T84 that lost the ability to walk and was still fighting. It didn't waste any shots on the tanks that poured ammunition on him, and it was still fleeing in panic. The enemy's field air defense forces opened fire.

Yahini's troops began to sweep across the enemies who refused to retreat in front of them. A large number of destroyed enemy radar vehicles and missile launch vehicles had been scattered on the battlefield. Seeing that the enemy's air firepower was basically disintegrated.

(End of this chapter)