North of Suzhou River, Sihang Warehouse
"Captain, look what that is. It's so big. It's flying in the sky. Is it a plane?"
Luo Ying raised the telescope and took a look, and his face suddenly changed. He didn't expect that the Japanese would use airships to deal with them. This thing was a product of World War I. After airplanes ruled the sky, airships had withdrawn from the mainstream of air combat, and they were no longer the mainstay of air combat. I know where the devils got it from;
In Shencheng now, the Japanese have completely mastered the air superiority ship, so this thing can still come in handy. Its speed is slow, its bomb loading rate is high, and it can stay in an area for a long time. This pair of lone troops on the roof of the building The threat from fortifications is very great.
"Lao Xie, inform Ma Biao to remove all the thunder cannons on the roof. Those missiles are very accurate;
In addition, the commander of the second battalion was informed and asked to gather the sharpshooters and machine gunners of the second battalion and ambush on the roof of the building in advance. The maximum range of the M1924 rifle exceeded one thousand meters, and the Japanese airship could fly up to 4,900 meters. If the Japanese wanted to bomb the warehouse On the top floor, they have to lower the height.
The concession is separated from us by the Suzhou River. Just as a precaution, the Japanese did not dare to fly their bombs too high. If they floated to the other side, they would not be able to explain it. As long as they lower their altitude, we can hope to shoot them down. . "
Luo Ying didn't know if it would be effective, so he could only be a dead horse. If they were kept hanging above his head, this battle would be impossible to fight. If the lone army wanted to block the attack of the Japanese group, a few heavy machine guns on the roof could not Exploded by the Japanese.
The Japanese airship was too great a threat to the heavy machine gun position on the roof. Their fortifications could block the mortar bombardment, but they could never stop the more than 100 kilograms of aerial bombs dropped from the airship.
Even the sixth floor was no longer safe. Luo Ying withdrew the reserve team from the sixth floor to the fifth floor for safety reasons. There were two concrete roofs on the fifth floor as the headquarters, so the problem should not be big.
Soon after the lone army adjusted its deployment, two Japanese airships flew over the warehouse building. The airships are used to bomb fixed targets. Their attack power is good, but their defense capabilities are average;
The airship uses a lightweight airbag structure, usually made of airtight materials, such as polyester film or urethane materials. The airbag is filled with helium, and a bullet with a fully charged pointed bullet can easily hit the target. It penetrates them, so if they want to avoid being hit, they have to fly at least to an altitude of more than 2,000 meters.
If they are bombing other targets, an altitude of 2 kilometers is fine, but bombing the Sihang Warehouse is obviously not possible. They have to guard against accidental bombing. If the bomb is dropped into the concession across the river, it will be troublesome;
Moreover, at an altitude of more than 2 kilometers, the bombs dropped will be affected by wind speed and air resistance. It is normal for the error to be tens of meters, so the Japanese can only lower the bombing altitude.
"Takeda-kun, we can't lower it any more. The instrument shows that the altitude is only 1,500 meters. It will be dangerous if we lower it any further."
"Hirai-kun, there is no guarantee of hit rate from this distance. It will easily fall into the concession area."
The pilot, Lieutenant Hirai Ichiro, said nonchalantly:
"Takeda-kun, this is simple. We can move the airship's position a few dozen meters north, just in time to bomb the location in front of their building, so it's within the error range."
Lieutenant Hirai's proposal was agreed to by Captain Takeda Ryōchi, the commander of the bombing unit, and he was the commander of the entire airship.
Under the unified command of Captain Takeda, they moved back thirty meters, so that they could bomb the top of the building to the north, away from the concession.
After the airship fixed its position in the air, it bombed the building under the command of Captain Takeda. Two heavy bombs weighing 50 to 100 kilograms were dropped from high altitude. One missed the target and landed in the open space in front of the building, and another bomb exploded. a big hole;
Another one hit the roof of the building. Fortunately, it did not penetrate the roof, but it also killed the two machine gunners who were ambushing in that area.
This was just a test firing, but it also excited the Japanese who were watching the battle from a distance. Major General Zhi Lian also promptly issued the order to fire. More than 30 Japanese direct-fire cannons violently bombarded the wall of the building again. If you were lucky, you could also fire. When a big hole comes out, the reinforced concrete wall is not invincible.
Although the Japanese rapid-fire artillery could occasionally penetrate the wall, the concrete wall blocked a large amount of the kinetic energy of the artillery and also blocked a large amount of killing fragments, so it did not do much damage to the defenders hiding in the building, where they were hiding. A large number of sandbags were piled up to block most of the stray bullets.
Unless they can blow up the entire building, the lone army can hold on, and many buildings that have been blown into ruins can hold on, not to mention the Sihang Warehouse whose main building is relatively intact.
The airship has been bombing continuously, throwing bombs one after another to the roof of the building. From time to time, one will be hit. There is even a heavy bomb that penetrates the roof and explodes in the room on the sixth floor. Fortunately, the people inside We have withdrawn, otherwise there will be heavy casualties. *
After the artillery preparations were completed, the Japanese infantry began to launch a long-lived charge, with Yasuda's battalion at the forefront;
The soldiers of the Yasuda Brigade did not carry bombs. They were more about attracting firepower from the Chinese. To put it bluntly, they were consuming the ammunition of the lone army.
They formed a very loose formation, jumping up and down from crater to crater, and it was not easy to hit them;
When the Japanese infantry was dispatched, the two machine guns on the front of the building took the risk of being bombed by airships and fired wildly at the charging Japanese, knocking them down one by one.
In addition to destroying the charging Japanese infantry, their other purpose was to lure the airships to lower their altitude and bomb them, creating conditions for the ambush gunners to shoot them down.
The two machine guns on the front of the building were discovered by the Japanese airship as soon as they opened fire, but the fire point of the machine guns was too far forward. They tried twice at the current height and failed to hit. One flew downstairs, and the other flew downstairs. It landed more than ten meters away and just penetrated the roof of the building.
Seeing the rows of infantry being mopped down downstairs, Hirai was completely angry. He kept lowering the height of the airship. This time Takeda did not stop him. They only saw the opportunity to blow up the Chinese machine gun positions, and there was no chance at all. Be aware of your own danger.
Marksman Ning Tieniu has been targeting the Japs' big guy for a long time. Since his rifle is equipped with a sniper scope, he can still hit the opponent with great confidence at about a thousand meters. The main reason is that the airship's airbag is too big;
The regiment leader had told them before that to hit their airbags. It would be too easy for an airbag as big as a small house to hit them, but his goal was to hit the head of the big Japanese guy because there were drivers there. member.
The Japanese airship kept descending, and finally even Takeda couldn't stand it anymore and warned:
"Hirai-kun, there are only 800 meters left. This distance is very dangerous, and a machine gun can hit us."
"Takeda-kun, don't worry. The Chinese machine gun positions use the Imperial Nine Ground heavy machine guns. They can't be raised to shoot in the air. There are no other Chinese people on the roof. It's very safe. Just this distance, this From this distance you should be confident that the bomb will hit the hateful Chinese people."
Captain Takeda said very confidently:
"No problem, it's easy to hit them from this distance!"
At the same time, another airship also lowered its altitude. They wanted to use concentrated bombing to blow up the exposed Chinese machine gun positions.
Just when they were getting carried away, Ning Tieniu pulled the trigger and was so lucky that he actually hit the driver Hirai Ichiro.
"Hirai-kun——"
At this time, other ambushing aircraft and riflemen opened fire wildly at the two airships. The airbags parked at an altitude of 800 meters were easily hit. They did not expect that there were more than twenty gunmen lurking on the roof. , the Chinese were so well disguised that they were not discovered at all. Even if their comrades beside them were killed in battle, no one would move.
Naturally, they couldn't see the camouflaged gunmen at an altitude of more than 1,000 meters. After the fragile airbag was hit by more than a dozen bullets, the helium inside quickly leaked, and the two airships were like deflated rubber balls. It fell down and landed in Suzhou Hanoi, just on the other side of the concession.
"Ba Ge Ya Lu! These arrogant guys, who asked them to lower themselves to such a low level?"
Seeing that the two airships that had high hopes were not only shot down by the Chinese, but also fell into Suzhou and Hanoi, Major General Zhi Lian turned pale with fright. If he failed to capture the Sihang Warehouse this time, it would not be a shame. If it goes wrong, his future in the military will be completely ruined. It is the best outcome for him to retire and return to China.
Zhi Lian was really unwilling to accept this result. He put all his hopes on capturing the Sihang Warehouse and issued a general attack order:
"Kill the chicken and give it to me!"
