Rise From Eight Hundred

The 39th Infantry Brigade before Chen Bing arrived at Xuehua Mountain seemed to have no intention of breaking the 17th Division's defense line in a short time.

From the afternoon to eight o'clock in the evening, the 105 heavy artillery and the 75 mountain artillery took turns to fire, and 18 Japanese planes were summoned to drop bombs during this period!

According to post-war statistics, in this wave of more than 5 hours of artillery and bombing alone, the 20th Division Artillery Regiment consumed 3,000 artillery shells of various types and 100 aerial bombs of various types!

This ammunition consumption alone has exceeded the consumption of the entire battlefield of the 40th Infantry Brigade and the 17th Division in the five-day and five-night battle last year.

This shows that Takagi Yoshito is obsessed with artilleryism.

But this does not mean that Takagi Yoshito does not want to earn merit. On the contrary, he needs this Jindong military merit too much, but this Japanese Army Major General with extremely rich battlefield experience is well aware of the truth that haste makes waste.

The personnel transfer of the 20th Division has long been a hot topic. Kawagishi Saburo is about to be transferred due to his age. Unless he is airdropped, the only two people who are qualified to become the commander of the 20th Division are him, the major general commander of the 39th Infantry Brigade, and Major General Kamitsuki Yoshio of the 40th Infantry Brigade.

In this wartime, airdropping a supreme commander who is not familiar with the battlefield has always been a taboo in the army. The possibility of the new division commander being promoted from within is as high as 80%.

Especially when he thought of the smile on the face of Mr. Kawagishi Saburo who was sitting in Shimen before the expedition, and in addition to leaving less than 2,000 troops to guard Shimen, he insisted on assigning most of the direct troops of the division to his command, Takagi Yoshito's heart was hot.

As long as the current defense line is broken, the triangle defense of the Chinese army in eastern Shanxi is completely broken, and the Chinese army with tens of thousands of troops is finally annihilated, the position of Lieutenant General Division Commander seems to be within reach!

As for Shangyue Liangfu, Takagi Yoshito was secretly happy.

The division had received intelligence that the main force of the Chinese army on the defense line was the 921st Division of the 80th Army of China. That unit was recognized as a tough nut by the front army. Even a proud man like Itagaki Shiro was helpless when he mentioned fighting with this unit.

Such a tough nut would definitely break a mouthful of teeth if he wanted to bite them, and the one who dominated the battlefield there was not the 20th Division, but the 18th Division.

After all, the 18th Division was not only commanded by the front army headquarters to make a large-scale detour, but also attacked as a whole division, and the general division commander was the highest commander of the attack line. He had military merits, and Shangyue Liangfu was lucky to get some of the dregs.

Under such good news, Takagi Yoshito had to be more cautious and never allow himself to make any mistakes.

There are plenty of artillery shells. For this operation, the front army headquarters, which has always been stingy, has spent a lot of money this time. It has prepared up to 20,000 artillery shells and 4 million machine rifle bullets for the 20th Division alone. The arms are continuously transported from Pingjin to Shimen, and then loaded on special trains to Jingxing and HD. Moreover, all the baggage troops are still provided by the front army, just so that the front divisions can fight the enemy with all their strength!

With such strong support, Takagi Yoshito, who has always believed in "artilleryism", must not pour all his firepower on the high ground occupied by the Chinese?

If possible, he even planned to bombard the positions of Xuehua Mountain for two days before starting the infantry attack, but the news that the 21st Division suffered a heavy blow on the Niangziguan front reached Takagi Yoshito in the evening, and he knew that his wish would be difficult to achieve.

The pressure from the front headquarters will soon be transmitted to him layer by layer. General Shanshan Yuan, who has been planning this plan for so long, originally hoped to regain the face of the previous setback in the Southeast Shanxi Campaign. He would never allow this battle to fail again, and he would not consider casualties at all.

The 21st Division said that it would attack the main defense line of Niangzi Pass in the afternoon with all its strength, but only used two infantry battalions. Compared with the three infantry regiments under its command, with a scale of tens of thousands of infantry, it was actually just a tentative attack. It used a tank battalion, which looked spectacular from the scene.

Facing the roar of this group of steel behemoths, the 1st Battalion of the 4th Regiment was finally forced to reveal its trump card, and the 7mm heavy machine gun made its debut.

The MG34 heavy machine gun was not placed in the machine gun bunker at all, because its overall gun was much lighter than the Maxim machine gun, so the four heavy machine gunners basically fired 100 rounds of ammunition and immediately changed their positions with their guns.

In order to prevent being attacked by infantry guns and grenade launchers, this opportunity is also taken to cool down the barrel!

The faster the firing rate of the machine gun, the more likely it is that the barrel will heat up, thus affecting the firing rate and accuracy. Although each MG34 machine gun is equipped with 3 spare barrels, in order to ensure continuous firepower output, the machine gun shooters will not take the initiative to replace the barrel unless it is absolutely necessary.

The machine gun bunkers are stationed with 7mm heavy machine guns and 20mm machine guns, both of which have sufficient armor-piercing capabilities.

Especially when the Japanese tanks appeared, the 7mm heavy machine guns were all replaced with steel core bullets, and the armor-piercing capability of 300 meters can completely penetrate 13mm armored steel plates. Perhaps the front armor thickness of the Japanese Type 89 medium tank is 17mm, and the steel core bullet cannot effectively penetrate the front steel plate, but when this heavy machine gun bullet with a firing rate of up to 400 rounds per minute continuously hits the steel plate with bullets, making that creepy "dongdong" sound, even the most resilient tank driver can't bear it!

Because you never know when you might be pierced by such a large bullet, and that feeling is even more terrifying than being pierced through a steel plate by a cannonball!

If the continuous firing of the 7mm machine gun posed a huge threat to the Type 89 tank, causing it to stop advancing after reaching 400 meters of the first trench, and only provide support to the infantry with the 57mm short-barreled gun, the Japanese infantry would be angry. Swearing and looking pale, when the 20mm cannon started to ring out the battlefield with its "Winter!" winter! ’ When the sound of artillery fire entered the war, the Japanese infantry and tank soldiers simultaneously

The wrinkles shrink and the little face turns pale!

The target of the 20mm machine gun will not be anything other than the Type 89 tank, but at a distance of 400 meters, if it hits, it will no longer leave deep bullet marks and frightening metal impact sounds like the 7mm machine gun. , that will really penetrate the armor!

Regardless of the fact that Yin Tangxiuer, center left, ordered four infantry artillery pieces to enter the dangerous distance of 1,000 meters, which can continuously fire directly at the targets with heavy firepower. However, the machine gun bunker on the second line of defense was first exposed to the surface for less than one meter, leaving There is very little space for the gunner to maneuver, and it is extremely sturdy.

Four 70mm infantry guns and the 57mm short-barreled gun of the 89 tank all bombarded this machine gun bunker that emitted deadly flames, but they did not hit it and blast it away as they imagined!

In addition to blowing up some sandbags piled on the outer edge, the bunker is still spewing deadly bullets!

The most powerful offensive equipment under Yin Tangxiuer's left hand was ineffective, which caused the two 7mm machine guns and a Suluotong 20mm machine gun located on the second company position to chase four 89 tanks and 12 94 tanks on the position. tanks.

What's even more terrible is that after the infantry artillery opened fire, the Chinese mortars hidden behind the mountain began to fire. It was a small artillery group consisting of 6 82-caliber mortars and 3 80mm howitzers.

The distance of 1,000 meters was too close. Even if the infantry artillery was hidden in the dense forest, the thick smoke rising from the shelling could easily be seen by the lurking artillery observers of the battalion.

The nine mortars did not engage in any precise burst fire, but concentrated fire barrages. One round of salvo fire of nine shells covered a certain area, and then another round of coverage, with a continuous salvo of 15 rounds. More than 120 rounds of artillery shells were extremely scattered. The area with the four infantry guns opened was plowed back and forth twice, allowing the 21st Division to fully appreciate what unlimited artillery fire meant!

"Baga! Didn't you say that the Chinese artillery is very limited and the ammunition reserve is extremely low?" Yin Tangxiuer looked at the artillery position less than a mile away from him being pressed to the ground by the roaring Chinese artillery fire, feeling painful roar.

He must have fought a fake Chinese army. Compared with the Chinese army opposite, his infantry brigade seemed more like the Chinese army.

That was what the stunned Japanese Army center left didn't know. This was only the artillery firepower of the Four Lines Regiment Artillery Battalion. The 12 Bofors Mountain Cannons and 12 150-caliber heavy guns of the Four Lines Regiment Artillery Battalion had so far been destroyed. Still hiding under the camouflage net and waiting.

In fact, the two infantry brigades participating in the attack now only have 2,000 troops, so it is not worth using them!

Tang Tuanzuo's philosophy has always been that once he wields a big stick, he will hit the opponent so hard that he can no longer relax!

I don’t know if Yoon Tang Sooul would have had the courage to continue the attack if he could see the high-pitched but unfired cannon muzzles 1,000 meters away behind the mountain.

But at least we haven't completely lost confidence yet. Even in the previous attack, three 94 tanks were beaten into sieves. They were all masterpieces of Browning's 7mm machine guns!

After trying to shoot through the Type 89 tank parked hundreds of meters away, the two 7mm heavy machine guns set their targets on the fast-running little pods.

8 Little Dougins were ordered to use machine guns to provide fire support to the advancing infantry. Due to their small size, powerful diesel engines, and tracks, they showed their mobility and flexibility on the hillside, just like a small motor. Jumping back and forth more than 300 meters away, 16 machine guns opened fire so fiercely that the Chinese officers and soldiers in the front line trenches could not raise their heads.

If it weren't for the fierce firepower of two heavy machine gun-type MG34s, nearly 400 Japanese troops would have crawled to the most dangerous 100 meters!

But as the saying goes: If you often walk by the river, your shoes will not get wet! After going up a lot of mountains, we finally encountered a tiger. When a small car drove into a bomb crater in a hurry, it was a crater more than half a meter deep caused by a 105 grenade. The engine at the rear was spewing black smoke, and the whole vehicle was still struggling to escape. At that moment, the 7mm machine gun chasing him finally found an opportunity.

Shooting 40 rounds of bullets in one breath, the steel plate with only 5 mm of steel on the side of Xiaodouding was completely unable to withstand the steel core bullet with a muzzle velocity of 940 meters at a distance of 330 meters!

Big holes visible to the naked eye continue to appear on the body of this poor little kid!

There was no explosion, but this Type 94 armored vehicle did not get out of trouble until this round of offensive and defensive battles came to an end. It just stayed quietly in this small crater with its head down and its butt up, just like a car burying its head in the sand. ostrich.

Both China and Japan included it in the battle results (battle damage) at the same time, because in the small space of the Type 94 tank, as long as a bullet can break through its armor, the three members inside will be dead, not to mention that at least the side will be shot out. Fifteen or six big holes.

This is indeed the case. When the Japanese army raised the white flag in the evening and sent the corpse collection team to collect the bodies on the battlefield, the three bodies pulled out of the small tanks were almost three pieces of minced meat. More than a dozen large bullets shot into the tanks produced fragments similar to artillery shells when they hit the steel inner wall of the tanks. Even mung bean-sized fragments are enough to penetrate the human body, and such fragments may be as high as hundreds. The Japanese tankers were lucky to be able to maintain their human form.

The four 89 tanks were quite smart. After firing several shots in a row and finding that the effect was not good, they immediately reversed and retreated to 600 meters away, finally avoiding the shooting of the 20mm machine gun.

The Japanese tankers, who have always been full of arrogance, knew very well that so far it was not a full-scale attack, but still in the trial stage.

Although the Chinese machine gun bunkers are very strong and powerful, I don’t know how many artillery observers are constantly calculating their coordinates and positions. The four 105 howitzers and 36 75 mountain guns will be the focus of the subsequent artillery attack.

If one shot doesn't work, then use more shots! Only when the fortifications that the Chinese have worked so hard to build are completely destroyed, will the infantry commanders issue the order for a general attack.

In this case, why should they risk their lives with the Chinese? Why don't they just run away quickly!

It can only be said that this group of Japanese soldiers belonging to the technical branch have clear minds, but they didn't expect that they did run away, but the 20mm machine gun shooters who fired two bullet plates in a row without getting anything vented their anger on the Type 94 tanks that were running happily. The other two Type 94 tanks that were damaged in the battle were basically destroyed by machine gun shells as thick as cigars.

Is this a fight against the enemy? The tankmen of the Type 94 tanks saw that they had a total of 8 tanks, but they lost three in less than 10 minutes. Does that mean that in another 20 minutes, everyone will be beaten into a pile of minced meat?

Although the Japanese tankmen are usually armored and are a big shot, they know their own business. Let's take the level of tank design of the Empire! There was no consideration of any escape design, and the internal space was extremely small, and the protection of the magazine was also very fragile. It would be fine if the enemy did not break through the armor, but once it was broken, it would basically be a dead end.

Whether it was the Type 89 or the Type 94, a large number of them were destroyed by the 37mm anti-tank guns equipped by the Chinese army in the Battle of Songhu last year, especially the Battle of Taierzhuang that broke out at the end of March. The Isogai Lian Division, known as the Empire's First Mechanized Corps, was equipped with a full 60 tanks of various types. "Super fierce men"!

But what was the result? The steel behemoths that were frantically besieged by the Chinese with 37mm anti-tank guns and 20mm Suroton machine guns were also beaten up!

Even the Chinese, who were so angry that they wanted to kill, used infantry to hold six clusters of long-handled grenades and drill into the bottom of the tank to blast it. The fragile chassis and tracks of the tank could not withstand such explosive energy at all. Once the tanks were lying down, the fate waiting for the tank soldiers was either being burned into charcoal or being blown into a pile of minced meat!

Even if the infantry died in battle, most of them could still keep their bodies intact, but this was not the case for the tank soldiers.

So, those who didn't run were idiots!

As for the military order, it was the order of Xiuer Zhongzuo. They didn't care about their tank regiment. They only listened to the commander of the regiment, Xikang Zhongzuo.

Seeing the Japanese tanks running away, Wei Donglai smiled: "Tanks can run, but infantry must die! Since you are here, stay for me!

Order each platoon, 60 guns for me to shoot, no limit on the target, one base number for each gun, shoot it empty!

Heavy machine guns, machine guns, also shoot me, those who hide behind the rocks, then shoot the rocks for me!"

Cruel!

There is no other word to describe the firepower on the Chinese position at this time except brutality.

The Chinese not only used mortars to carpet bomb the Japanese infantry hiding in various places on the hillside, but also used the 7mm heavy machine guns and machine guns that had just hit the tanks!

As said in the memoirs of Corporal Kurahashi who was lucky enough to withdraw again: That was the most tragic battle I have ever experienced. Ma Tianjun, who was less than 10 meters away from me, was hiding behind a rock that was at least half a meter high and tens of centimeters thick. Unless the mortar shells that rained down like raindrops from the Chinese hit within a three-meter range, he would have had a chance to withdraw to the main camp with me.

But because he bravely fired a grenade at the Chinese, the Chinese machine gunners targeted him.

The fierce machine gun actually began to bombard his rock shelter with warheads, like a giant hammer, constantly hitting the rocks, and the flying stone fragments even left a wound of several centimeters on my face.

The Chinese must be crazy. That was a precious shell that could penetrate the tank armor, but they used it to attack a grenade launcher.

I still remember the terrified and helpless look that Mada-kun cast at me, but who can blame him? No matter how brave the imperial infantry was, they would panic under the attack of a 20mm machine gun!

I know he hopes I can save him, but how can I save him?

I can only look at him sadly, watching the cruel Chinese, who spent dozens of 20mm caliber shells to tear apart the rocks where Mada-kun was hiding and Mada-kun himself!

Mada-kun's blood, nearly ten meters away, fell on my face, and I can still feel the warmth! "

The words written by Corporal Kurahashi made the Japanese people deeply feel the cruelty of war, but obviously, the corporal did not write the battlefield situation that day completely truthfully.

For example, his rifle was placed horizontally in front of him, and the muzzle was pointed at the grenade thrower who was looking at him with great sadness.

If someone tried to rush to the temporary shelter where he was hiding, and perhaps attracted the brutal machine guns of the Chinese, what do you think he would do?

The corporal didn't know what choice he would make in the end, but his hand was very firm on the trigger, and accidental discharge might be possible!

The humanity that was burned in the fierce flames of war was destined to be like the sky, where there is light, there will be darkness!