February 7, 1941, Wuhan
The Japanese aircraft group appeared, and the Yamashiro Air Force pounced on it like a chicken blood. The two sides started fighting in the sky above Wuhan. During this period, several light explosive aircraft tried to leave the battlefield. The domestic and international Chuguan, faced with this In this emergency situation, several Guangxi-made bi-wing light fighter jets that had been cruising around the periphery of the battlefield crashed directly into it without any hesitation.
But that's it. Still, a light explosive aircraft got rid of the entanglement and rushed straight towards the Chuguan. It plunged into the bow of the warship. At the same time, a deafening explosion was heard on the radio from the highest authority. For a moment, the heartstrings of the entire country were tightened.
But after only a few dozen seconds, the broadcast was restored, and someone could even clearly hear someone reporting to the highest authorities that the bow of the Chutong was hit and caught fire. It turned out that the Chutong was hit just now. After all, there were three warships. They are almost exactly the same, and it is even harder to tell when looking from the sky. It is normal to admit a mistake.
After everyone breathed a sigh of relief, they heard the words from the highest authority. He would not retreat and would continue to stay here to supervise the war. He would not leave until the navy completed its attack on Japanese targets around Wuhan. For a while, The people in front of the radio were full of expressions, some were excited, some were worried, some were crying, and some were angry and cheering. For a while, the whole country exploded again.
Even along the Yangtze River around Wuhan, a large number of people appeared, cheering for the fleet with national flags that had been treasured for many years. It was not until the Japanese army sent troops to risk an attack on the river bank that they dispersed. But from the beginning to the end, there were people on the river bank. Some places on the side shouted to the fleet, but there was no way. It was not easy for the Japanese to rush to the river bank now. The artillery fire on the Shancheng fleet was not very powerful, but there was no shortage of machine guns and small-caliber artillery. As long as they appear in each other's sight, they will be greeted without hesitation.
Faced with the Japanese air threat, the fleet did not rely solely on its own poor anti-aircraft firepower. Instead, it began to release smoke on a large scale. In order to expand the coverage of the smoke, all ships lowered lifeboats and used these to release smoke. smoke.
For a moment, the entire fleet was obscured by thick smoke. A few Japanese fighter jets that broke away from the battle group suddenly found that they could not find their target. However, looking at the Yamashiro Air Force fighter jets that were closely pursuing them, they could not retreat. , had no choice but to ram the Chu Tong ship which was still burning.
When the air battle ended, Chu Tong's ship was hit by seven Japanese fighter planes one after another. It used its own firepower to shoot down three Japanese planes and damaged one and forced it to land. The old warship's superstructure had turned into a sea of flames. Only a few secondary guns that were still firing stubbornly showed that he had not given up yet.
In fact, this was indeed the case, but the fire was too great. The deck burned through, the steel plates burned red, the ammunition depot exploded, and finally even the coal bunker was ignited. By the evening of that day, Navy Commander Admiral Chen had no choice but to When the order was not given to abandon the ship, there were only thirteen officers and soldiers left on the ship, and all of them were injured. An hour later, the Chu Tong ship sank.
However, the Japanese attack did not end. While the Japanese air force attacked the fleet, the several Japanese torpedo boats that had been dormant also emerged in the evening. Under the cover of the setting sun, they rushed towards our fleet from the west. Heading straight to the flagship Chuguan,
Although the Yamashiro fleet launched blocking fire as soon as it discovered the Japanese army, even the air force formation that had just arrived to replace them also pounced on those torpedo boats. After a while, several torpedo boats with almost no armor were blown up. , but even so, a torpedo boat rushed into the launching distance and launched two torpedoes at the Chuguan ship. The two high-speed torpedoes rushed towards the Chuguan ship one after another.
The Chu Guan ship quickly took evasive action, but at this moment the Chu Guan ship happened to be in the shallow water area. In addition, the warship was too old and had no maneuverability at all. Therefore, no matter how it was adjusted, it could only avoid one torpedo, but Just when the torpedo was about to hit the Chu Guan ship, the Tongxin ship guarding the side crossed over and blocked the Chu Guan ship with its own hull.
Just a few seconds later, accompanied by a huge explosion, this submersible gunboat, which was launched at Jiangnan Shipyard in 1935 and had a displacement of only 509 tons, was hit. The violent explosion instantly broke the warship into two pieces. The hull of the ship was thrown into the air, and then fell heavily. The concentric ship sank in battle.
At this time, the bomber formation from the mountain city also arrived. This was the last large-scale bombing today. In less than two hours, it will be completely dark, but this is enough, because after these few days After high-intensity bombing, they had successfully driven the Eleventh Army headquarters into Hankou Middle School near Nanhu. In order to prevent further bombing, the Japanese military police also detained the students of Hankou Middle School.
However, for the Yamashiro government, this was enough, because unknowingly, the security forces around Lieutenant General Sonobe and Ichiro were no longer one squadron, and even the staff and civilian staff of the headquarters were mostly under the influence of this commander. The official sent him out to supervise the battle at the nearby puppet army.
As night fell, the fleet cruising on the river finally stopped shelling the Japanese army and began to sail towards the west under alternate cover. Seeing this scene, the Japanese army finally breathed a sigh of relief and began to hurriedly clean up the mess and lick their wounds, preparing to meet the second enemy. The attack may be more violent the next day. Lieutenant General Sonobe and Ichiro even sent out the last armored regiment in their hands, hoping to stop the overwhelming armored troops of the ninth theater. It was so fierce that in one day, I was stunned. Relying on the Renault R35\/40 tank's speed of less than 20 kilometers per hour, it advanced 100 kilometers. If the road conditions were not so bad and the fuel supply was not enough, it is estimated that the madman in the Ninth Theater Zone could have reached Wuhan directly.
This is also the inherent shortcoming of the Renault R35\/40 tank. As an infantry tank, the highway speed of this thing is only 20 kilometers per hour. If it is replaced by the dirt road in Jiangnan, it can barely exceed ten kilometers, and the engine with a fuel consumption of 212 liters per 100 kilometers can only The tank is provided with a 130-kilometer road journey. Even if it travels 100 kilometers a day, it still relies on the crew members to carry 20 liters of fuel. Otherwise, it would have been dead long ago.
The Japanese army has obtained the specific parameters of the Renault R35\/40 tank from the Vichy government. After some "research", Lieutenant General Sonobe and Ichiro confidently believed that they had an armored regiment equipped with Type 89 Chinese tanks. Still capable of fighting.
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