Landing craft one after another were dropped into the sea by the transport ship like dumplings, and then they rushed towards the beach at high speed like arrows leaving the string;
After a while, the sea was covered with dense landing craft. They carried 8,000 officers and soldiers of the First Chinese Marine Brigade and began their first amphibious landing operation.
At the forefront were the 70 Sherman DD amphibious tanks of the Amphibious Tank Regiment. This is a new type of tank that was only put into service at the beginning of the year.
The First Chinese Marine Brigade was established according to the standards of the First Marine Division of Yingjiang Marine Division. It is about half the size of the First Marine Division and has one amphibious tank regiment and two Marine regiments under its jurisdiction;
The directly-affiliated troops include 1 combat engineer battalion, 1 amphibious reconnaissance battalion, and an artillery battalion (equipped with 16 Weishen cannons).
In order to facilitate supply, Chu Xiong replaced the heavy howitzer with the Wei Shen Cannon, which was easier to carry;
The first-level company of the Marine Regiment is also equipped with three Wei Yixiao cannons, which is a characteristic of the Independence Army. Chu Xiong believes that the modified Wei Yixiao cannons have a better effect than mortars in the battle for the islands, so in Insist on equipping each company with three Wei Yixiao cannons as company-level support firepower.
Each marine company has a fire platoon, equipped with 3 Weiyixiao artillery pieces and 3 mortars.
The Marine regiment is equipped with 8 Weishen cannons, and the battalion is equipped with 4. It can be said that the Marine brigade is responsible for the heavy firepower of the Weishen cannon.
When the attack echelon was a few kilometers away from the beach, the Japanese coastal defense guns hidden in the mountains opened fire;
These coastal defense artillery were hidden by the Japanese in the stone mountains near the coastline. They were helpless against naval gun and aircraft bombing. With a caliber exceeding 200 mm and a range of more than ten kilometers, they were a real killer weapon.
The disadvantage is that the firing rate is slow and the accuracy is not high. Due to the limitation of the shooting angle, they can only hit targets 3 kilometers away. Once they enter the three kilometers range, they lose their effect.
Because there are too many ships on the sea and they are densely packed, it is easy for them to hit the target. As long as the landing craft hit by them will be destroyed, the boat will be destroyed.
At the beginning, the Japanese artillerymen were a little greedy. They targeted large ships, such as large frigates, cruisers and transport ships. If the aircraft carrier was not out of reach, they all wanted to attack the aircraft carrier.
After firing more than ten rounds, the Japanese artillery found that the effect was not very good. These big guys have thick armor. It is difficult for the old shore defense artillery shells with a diameter of more than 200 mm to penetrate their armor, unless the lackeys are lucky enough to hit them. If you don't touch the vulnerable parts, otherwise it won't have much effect.
Hundreds of shells were wasted and only one frigate was damaged. The price/performance ratio is very poor.
Later, the Japanese artillery commander became smarter. They turned the target of the artillery bombardment to the landing troops. Now it was the turn of the 1st Marine Brigade to suffer. From time to time, landing craft or tanks were hit, causing many casualties to the landing troops. .
The 1st Marine Brigade had no power to fight back at sea and could only endure it silently, speeding through the artillery blockade area.
Chen Xiaohua's team was lucky. The landing craft they were riding in was hit just a few dozen meters away. The huge waves caused by the bombardment made them all wet.
He witnessed with his own eyes that the landing craft of Class 7 and Class 8 were hit by a shell, and the entire landing craft was blown to pieces. None of the comrades on board were spared.
"What a bastard! I will take care of you when I get ashore, and pay with blood!"
Seeing his comrades being engulfed by artillery fire, Chen Xiaohua's eyes almost burst out with fire, and he wanted to rush forward and eliminate all the Japanese.
The landing craft rushed towards the beach at a high speed of more than 40 knots per hour. After several minutes of life-and-death suffering, they finally escaped from the artillery blockade area;
At this time, the amphibious landing tank group of the tank regiment was only a few hundred meters away from the beach.
The enemy's machine gun fire points along the coast emerged one after another and began to fire wildly towards the sea. The bullets jingled on the front fender of the landing craft. Chen Xiaohua and others lay down in the cabin with their heads down to avoid the rain of enemy bullets.
A few minutes later, the tank regiment took the lead in rushing onto the beach. They stopped on the beach, set up artillery and fired at the Japanese, blowing up every fire point.
Perhaps God blessed China. There were not many reefs at their landing location. The landing craft rushed directly to the beach, and then lowered the baffle. The deputy squad leader of the third squad led a group of people who were the first to follow the landing craft. A machine gun fired at the deputy squad leader. The squad leader was shot more than a dozen times and fell on the beach, his blood staining the beach red.
One group suffered two casualties in an instant. The remaining rifleman held his gun and charged forward without fear;
Immediately afterwards, the second group all rushed out, and Chen Xiaohua led the third group onto the beach like an arrow from a string. They finally set foot on land.
After landing on the ground, I felt relieved. The third and fourth squads landed on the beach almost at the same time. The third squad sacrificed 2 people, and the fourth squad sacrificed 1 person and injured 2 others;
This is a landing battle. Before landing, they are all living targets and have no power to fight back.
After landing on the tidal flat, they gained some autonomy. There was no mud at the landing site of their detachment, so they were lucky;
There was a large area of mud where some companies landed, and the landing craft could not reach the shore at all. The soldiers could only wade through the knee-deep mud to attack step by step, and were swept down one by one on the mud flat by the Japanese machine gun fire.
Fortunately, the Japanese were poorly prepared. Affected by the expeditionary force's tactical deception, they were not prepared for an anti-landing war at all, and had a serious shortage of troops and firepower. Otherwise, the casualties of the 1st Marine Brigade would be even greater.
After Chen Xiaohua's team landed on the beach, they quickly ran towards a tank. According to the requirements of the training syllabus for infantry-tank coordination, they had to provide protection for the tank;
Tanks without infantry protection can easily be destroyed by the opponent. The Japs in Luzon are also equipped with imitation Mulan cannons. Once their gunners get close to the tanks, it will be troublesome, because tanks have blind spots and can easily be destroyed. Rocket launcher sneak attack.
The bazooka imitated by the Japanese was named "Sakura bazooka" after mass production. Its effective range is only 120 meters, which is far inferior to the second-generation bazooka of the Expeditionary Force's Hua Mulan.
Chen Xiaohua's squad ran close to a tank numbered 007, and the two squads quickly separated to protect the safety of the tank on the left and right wings respectively.
As more and more Marines came to protect the tanks, the tank regiment began to advance deeper into the Japanese, and the landing force initially gained a firm foothold.
