This deployment of the Japanese army can be described as a three-front battle, dealing with three opponents at the same time.
The battles in the third-line area began one after another and quickly became intense.
Taihang base area, the former enemy headquarters of the Eighth Route Army.
The boss and the deputy chief of staff controlled the overall situation of the entire battlefield with the military map in front of them.
One day ago, news came that Kong Jie and Li Yunlong led the mobile troops to officially kick off the battle with the tank brigade of the Mongolian Army.
At a certain node in the western Inner Mongolia region, the deputy chief of staff planted a small flag belonging to the rapid reaction force directly under the Taihang of the Eighth Route Army.
"Boss, according to the news sent back by Kong Jie and Li Yunlong, they have successfully completed the secret deployment, and the planned final battle is in this area.
But the pressure on Kong Jie and the others is probably not small. In addition to the Japanese armored brigade, there is also the Japanese 26th Division in northern Shanxi, which has been eyeing them.
It’s hard to say how this battle will ultimately turn out! "
The boss nodded, his expression quite solemn.
"This old guy Okamura is an insidious chess player, and I have to admit that this old boy is very courageous and dares to take risks and play big chess.
So far, the battlefield in Shanxi around the five cities of Licheng, Shexian, and Liaoxian has been completely reduced to a mess. The Japanese army's raids on various base areas such as Taihang, Taiyue, and even Zhongtiao Mountain have also begun.
After the security army troops originally stationed in Shanxi were transferred to the war zone by the old devil Okamura, they have all been dispatched to Shandong for mopping up. "
To put it bluntly, our comrades in Shandong are conducting the most difficult anti-mopping operations. "
The deputy chief of general staff took over and said: "Yes! Coupled with the fighting in the direction of northern Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, this old devil Okamura played three big games in one breath."
"It's just that this old devil is too big. He wants to play against the three of us. I want to see what he can win?"
The boss's words revealed a particularly domineering tone.
Today, the improvement of equipment of a large number of elite units of the Eighth Route Army and the rapid economic development of the base area have given the boss the confidence to say this.
As the boss lamented:
"This battle is no smaller than the Battle of Shota, but speaking of it, when we fought the Battle of Shota, I felt very unsure.
But this time, we can really show off our muscles and have a good showdown with the little devil! "
…
...As for which one of the two sides has stronger skills, perhaps we can use some local battle conditions to briefly reflect.
In the western Mongolia region, on an unnamed pasture generally controlled by the Mongolian army.
The two elite tank squadrons of the Nanzhi Tank Brigade, in pursuit, finally caught up with a retreating Eighth Route Army armored force.
Seeing that they could not escape the pursuit of the Japanese army, the Eighth Route Army soldiers on the opposite side seemed to have given up their plans to continue retreating. Instead, they turned around and set up formations in the pasture, preparing to fight the Japanese tank troops.
Among them, the Japanese commander was none other than Major Nishizono, captain of the First Tank Regiment of the Nanzhi Brigade and the Pioneer Search Brigade.
…
The organization of the Japanese Army is different from that of other countries. It refers to the organization of old Germany and ingeniously constructed an organization system of detachments, squads, squadrons, brigade, regiments, brigades, and divisions.
In terms of firepower and number of people, it is based on the US military during World War I.
In addition, the Japanese army specially studied the equipment level and organizational system of the Chinese army, especially for the army that invaded China, and made corresponding standards.
Among them, the Japanese armored forces are affiliated with the Army, and their organization ranges from tank squads, tank squadrons, tank regiments, tank brigades, tank divisions, to tank clusters.
Of course, the size of the tank cluster may be large or small, and there is no unified standard for this.
For example, the current Nanzhi Chariot Brigade is actually just a tank group.
The Japanese's tank troops, that is, armored units, often use tank squadrons as the basic tactical combat units and tank regiments as the basic operational-level combat units.
The Japanese army's tank regiment is equivalent to the Central Army's tank regiment in terms of organization.
For example, the Central Army spent a lot of effort to buy tanks from abroad to build the armored corps led by Du Yuming.
It is a pity that such a Chinese army, in the true sense, was also the only armored force after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War. Shortly after the Battle of Songhu broke out, it was completely defeated on the battlefield.
That's it.
In the battle between armored forces, the Chinese army basically has no power to fight back.
Until now, there has been no movement from the Central Army, but the Eighth Route Army has created a mobile combat unit directly under Taihang.
This includes a considerable portion of the armored force.
Regarding this news, the Japanese army only collected intelligence later.
According to the enemy's investigation, the original armored unit of the Eighth Route Army, known as the Armored Corps, was built by a team led by Kong Jie.
And the news seemed to have spread early.
Unfortunately, under the deliberate propaganda of the strategic disguise department led by Shi Dahu.
It's obviously the truth, but the little devil doesn't believe it at all.
Therefore, it can be said that the real first armored regiment of the Eighth Route Army built by Kong Jie was completed under the eyes of the little devil.
When the old devil Okamura learned about this later, he almost felt regretful, but there was nothing he could do.
Then Datong was attacked by the Eighth Route Army's mobile troops. The Eighth Route Army took over all the mechanized vehicles of the 26th Division, and the mechanical combat force grew stronger.
However, to put it bluntly, the Eighth Route Army even built a rapid reaction force directly under Taihang, including an elite tank unit.
If compared with the strong foundation of the Japanese army, it is still far behind.
Take the simplest data as an example.
According to the speculations of the Eighth Route Army intelligence department, as of May 1942, the Japanese army was only an armored force in China, and there were at least 40 tank regiments.
This is equivalent to more than 40 armored corps!
And what the Central Army spent so much effort to build was nothing more than an armored corps.
The gap in military strength between the two sides is truly astounding.
For example, at the moment, under the command of the old devil Okamura, the Japanese army launched an unprecedented scale of May Day raids. Even if they mobilized troops in a hurry, even the elite armored units of the Kwantung Army could not be easily mobilized because they had to be wary of the Soviet Union. in the case of.
The Japanese army also casually deployed an additional Nanzhi tank group and placed it in the western Inner Mongolia area.
To guard against rebellion between the 35th Route Army and the Eighth Route Army in northern Shanxi.
In addition to the Nanzhi chariot brigade, the little Japanese troops stationed in Mongolia also have many chariot units, including the Japanese troops who cooperated with the Shanxi and Shandong battlefields to encircle and suppress the Eighth Route Army base areas. Many elite units are also equipped with tank units.
It can be seen that a skinny camel is bigger than a horse.
To this day, the overall military strength of this little devil is still much stronger than that of the Central Army, including the Eighth Route Army, the Shanxi-Sui Army and all other Chinese armies.
Just like this local battle between the Japanese army and the armored forces of the Eighth Route Army.
On the Japanese side, only two tank squadrons from the Nanzhi Tank Brigade were dispatched.
One of them is a squadron of medium tanks and the other is a squadron of light tanks.
Okamura, the old devil, also spent a lot of money this time.
The armored cluster created has particularly enhanced the tank configuration, taking one of the medium tank squadrons as an example.
The medium tank squadron has a tank squadron headquarters, plus three medium tank squadrons, and a baggage squadron.
Among them, each medium tank team is equipped with 5 97 modified medium tanks.
There are also 15 trucks, 6 armored vehicles, and 5 search motorcycles.
All in all, even a medium-sized tank squadron, the Japanese have more than 40 mechanized vehicles of various types.
Even there are more than a dozen tanks.
In addition, another light tank squadron is equipped with a larger number of Type 95 light tanks.
In the battle of armor strength between the two sides, although they have not yet taken action, there are only a dozen tanks and armored vehicles, and the somewhat shabby Eighth Route Army is already at a complete disadvantage.
Major Xiyuan was full of anger at this time. He had discovered this Eighth Route Army armored unit an hour ago, so he immediately led the search brigade, and also called the follow-up tank squadron to pursue it quickly.
As a result, during the pursuit, I didn't even have a real face-to-face confrontation with the Eighth Route Army's armored forces, so my energy was consumed in competing with the real and fake fortifications, real and fake minefields, real and fake tanks and armored vehicles that I encountered along the way.
These cunning ways made Major Xiyuan furious.
The various positions, minefields, and anti-tank firepower are real and fake, and the reality is fake.
Major Nishizono was already cautious enough, but in the end he was fooled many times during the pursuit, resulting in the loss of troops.
Just on the way of pursuit, the two light tank teams, plus a medium tank team, were basically disabled.
Otherwise, the number of tanks that can be used to strangle these damn Eighth Route Army at this moment will be even greater.
"Your Majesty, Major, the Eighth Route Army cannot escape. They have already set up their battle formations, and it looks like they are preparing to start a decisive battle with our army!"
The Japanese squadron leader of the 1st Medium Tank Squadron was analyzing the situation beside Major Nishizono.
Major Xiyuan suppressed his anger and nodded, then frowned and solemnly instructed: "Tell the warriors not to be careless.
According to the relevant intelligence we have detected, the Eighth Route Army seems to have invented a very special anti-tank gun similar to a trumpet, which is specially designed to suppress our armored vehicles.
This type of artillery can even be operated by a single soldier and used for anti-tank operations.
Before the enemy's artillery of this type is exposed or completely destroyed, we must not act rashly, exposing the tank to danger. "
Xiyuan, this old devil, obviously still has a good command of things. He deliberately ordered the tank to keep a certain distance from the Eighth Route Army's armored vehicles in the target area.
As far as he knew.
Although the individual anti-tank artillery built by the Eighth Route Army is powerful, due to the weakness of the empire's armor, even medium tanks cannot stop it.
Even if the front armor is bombarded, it will be severely damaged in an instant.
However, the range of this artillery is quite limited. The current combat data of the confrontation with the Eighth Route Army shows that the longest striking range of this type of artillery of the Eighth Route Army will never exceed two hundred meters.
Therefore, Laojiazi Xiyuan believed that as long as he deployed the tanks beyond the 200-meter range, the Eighth Route Army would not be able to use this type of anti-tank artillery to attack.
Out of caution, the old devil moved his team back an additional 200 meters.
The two sides were separated by a distance of nearly 400 meters and looked at each other on a relatively flat plain terrain. In addition, both sides were protected by armored vehicles, so conventional infantry had lost the meaning of combat.
So, across the gentle terrain, the air on both sides seemed to be stagnant, and the tanks and guns exchanged fire.
The artillery used by the Japanese army, the medium tank squadron mainly used a 47mm tank gun equipped with the 1997-modified medium tank.
This artillery is extended from the Type 1 47mm anti-tank gun. Although the diameter is reduced from 57.7 times to 47.8 times, it can penetrate 70 mm of vertical armor within an effective distance of 500 meters.
The performance is much better than the 57mm short-caliber gun equipped with the original Type 97 medium tank of the Japanese army.
Also used is the Type 94 37mm tank gun attached to the Type 95 light tank.
This type of artillery has a relatively long barrel, with a total gun length of 1.36 meters and a weight of only 64 kilograms. It has a certain armor-piercing power. At a shooting distance of 300 meters, it can theoretically penetrate 45 mm thick armor.
And the armored vehicles used by the Eighth Route Army troops.
Major Nishizono saw clearly through the observation of the telescope that most of them captured some Type 95 light tanks of the 26th Division. The armor of this type of tank, even the thickest front armor, was only 12 mm.
Once hit by its own tank gun, it can be easily destroyed.
only……
"Your Excellency Major, I can tell the models of the tanks on the Eighth Route Army at a glance. They are some light tanks and medium tanks captured from us.
But why do their tanks look so weird? "
Through the perspective of Major Nishizono’s telescope, you can see:
The Eighth Route Army's original Japanese-style Type 95 light tanks, including some 97-modified medium tanks, are generally still the original tanks.
However, there seem to be some thicker steel plate devices installed on the front armor of the tank and directly in front of the turret.
It is the partial improvement made by the Eighth Route Army Arsenal to various armored vehicles.
It's very simple, saves materials, and centralizes defense.
This is the same reason that in order to keep the aircraft lightweight, some thicker steel plates are installed at locations that are prone to breakdown and injury to the pilot to protect the core pilot.
For this reason, Kong Jie believes that tanks should integrate firepower, mobility and armor defense.
Putting aside the increase in firepower for now, in order to enhance the armor defense of an armored vehicle, the armor must be thickened, which will cause the vehicle to weigh too much and affect its mobility.
In this case, we might as well consider focusing on defense at key locations.
For example, the front armor is vulnerable to artillery fire, as well as the location of the turret.
It can be completely extended and welded, and the specially thickened steel plate, coupled with the protection of the partition, looks like an anti-collision layer at first glance.
Kong Jie also drew a corresponding sketch at that time, a sketch about the improvement of tank armor reinforcement. As a result, the sketch was taken out to Li Wenjie and Xu Guoan for a look.
The two of them were stunned and didn't see what it was.
Finally, Xu Guoan asked tentatively: "I'm talking about Lao Kong, what you drew... couldn't be a tank, right?"
Kong Jie did not change his expression.
"If you really want to have fun, just be practical. Is it that important whether it's ugly or not?"
When Xu Guoan heard this, he was speechless for a moment...
(End of chapter)
