Time flies, and more than a month has passed in the blink of an eye. The 42nd Group Army, which had been stationed in Jiexiu and Fenyang for a long time, finally received a combat order to recapture Linfen from the Tenth Theater Command.
After more than a month of intensive training and bandit suppression, these new recruits have become somewhat like veterans. At least they have made great progress in discipline and coordination, and there is some tacit understanding among their comrades.
Xie Tian let Fu Zuoyi fight this battle. This was a battle with basically no suspense. A group army attacked a Japanese brigade in Linfen, 60,000 people fighting 14,000 people. It was an absolutely overwhelming force advantage.
The terrain in Linfen is gentle, which is convenient for armored troops to carry out operations, but the Qingshui Brigade only has a few pitiful Type 94 light tanks. The Type 94 is simply vulnerable to the X-1 main battle tank.
The X-1 doesn't even need to fire, it can rush in front of the Type 94 tank with armor resistance alone, and directly use its huge weight to crush the Type 94 into a discus.
What's more, Xie Tian also ordered the theater flying brigade to coordinate operations. Even if Qingshui Guanmu, the commander of the Qingshui Brigade in Linfen, had three heads and six arms, he might not be able to last for three days, unless he was as shameless as Miyamoto Kujugi, kidnapping civilians and using them lives to prevent the People's Liberation Army from attacking.
However, even if we have an absolutely overwhelming advantage, we cannot be careless. Xie Tian personally chaired the meeting to discuss the combat plan jointly formulated by the General Staff and the 42nd Army. From material reserves to the strategies and tactics used in front-line combat preparations, everything was sorted out in detail. After a thorough review, all responses to emergencies were considered very comprehensively, and even the possibility of Yang Aiyuan's troops in the second theater taking advantage of the situation to plunder the victory was hypothesized.
Yang Aiyuan Department
As a result, the 52nd and 53rd armies of the 42nd Group Army encountered an accident as soon as they marched from Jiexiu and Fenyang in two groups to Xingtang Temple outside Huozhou City.
Ge Dazhuang led the tank division as the vanguard of the 42nd Army to set off four hours in advance. When they marched to Xingtang Temple, they were already more than 30 kilometers away from the Army Headquarters and the 52nd Army behind them.
Ge Dazhuang acted much more cautiously than Li Changshun. If Li Changshun had led the tank division and set off four hours earlier than the main force, he would have reached the gates of Linfen City by now, and might have stormed into Linfen. city.
Just to be honest, the 42nd Army Tank Division is equipped with all X-1 main battle tanks, with a total of 72 tanks. This does not include those armored personnel carriers and armored anti-aircraft artillery vehicles. Such powerful tanks The firepower does not require the support of other troops. This tank division alone is enough to conquer Linfen City.
If Li Changshun is really leading this tank division, then he will definitely not encounter the Japanese Sixth Tank Brigade at Xingtang Temple. The two armies will pass by each other. The tank division will definitely not encounter too many problems when it attacks Linfen. But the 42nd Army General Headquarters and the 52nd Army following the tank division were about to encounter the Japanese Sixth Tank Brigade.
Without heavy armor protection, Fu Zuoyi's general headquarters and the 52nd Army suddenly encountered two tank regiments of the Japanese Sixth Tank Brigade, a mechanized infantry regiment, a mechanized artillery regiment, and a rapid-fire artillery regiment. It will definitely be hit hard.
The Japanese Sixth Tank Brigade has 161 Type 97 medium tanks, 57 Type 94 Adzuki fighting vehicles, 48 field infantry guns, 52 mountain guns, 62 armored infantry fighting vehicles, and 603 trucks, including search teams and air defense teams. , baggage team, engineering team, equipment team and brigade are directly under the non-combat troops, with a total strength of approximately 7,200 people.
With such a powerful firepower configuration of the Japanese Sixth Tank Brigade, if it faced the unprepared 52nd Army, the newly formed 52nd Army would most likely be defeated in one battle.
Unfortunately, luck favors the People's Liberation Army.
The Japanese Sixth Tank Brigade set out from Changzhi and passed through Xingtang Temple. The order they received was to attack Hejin and Senglou, which were heavily defended by Yang Aiyuan's Sixth Army in the second theater, in order to drive the Sixth Army across the Yellow River in one fell swoop.
Persimmons pick weak ones, Okamura Neiji now dare not touch Xie Tian's Tenth War Zone. His conspiracy against Xie Baoqing in the Tenth War Zone is already in progress, but he now urgently needs a victory that can make the Chongqing government tremble. This prompted the Chongqing government to sit on the negotiating table, so he selected Yang Aiyuan's Sixth Army. He even temporarily gave up the attack on Luoyang and transferred the main Sixth Tank Brigade that was preparing to attack Luoyang from Changzhi to the front line of Hejin Senglou.
As a result, the Japanese Sixth Tank Brigade, which was preparing to attack Yang Aiyuan, encountered the Ge Dazhuang Tank Division, which was preparing to attack Linfen, during the march.
Two advancing tank troops appeared from two northeastern roads respectively. They discovered each other almost at the same time and were both startled by each other.
Bei Yuance, commander of the 6th Tank Brigade, saw the advancing Ge Dazhuang Tank Division first and gave the attack order to the tank without hesitation.
Ge Dazhuang spotted Japanese tanks appearing on another road almost at the same time. He grabbed the car radio and shouted loudly: "Japanese tank troops were spotted at ten o'clock. Each regiment immediately changed its formation and prepared to fight."
As the tank stopped and turned its turret, the infantrymen on the tank jumped off the tank to find cover in the nearest terrain.
Fences and handrails are welded to the body and turret of the X-1 tank to facilitate the carrying of infantry. Although this design is insignificant, it solves some of the infantry's marching problems. It can save a lot of physical strength for the infantry and can be deployed anytime and anywhere. Bu and tanks fight together.
At this time, there was an explosion, and the Japanese tank had opened fire first. The shell landed not far from the tank where Ge Dazhuang was riding, like a big fart with smoke.
The explosive power of the Type 97 tank's 57mm caliber shells is actually not too bad, but it depends on who it is compared to. Compared with the 75mm main gun of the X-1 main battle tank, it is simply a weakling.
With the sound of the little devil's cannon, the tank Ge Dazhuang was riding in had also rotated the turret. Ge Dazhuang retracted from the outside of the turret to control the sight himself. After fine-tuning, he fired back without hesitation.
The 75mm armor-piercing high-explosive shell rushed out of the gun barrel and roared towards the Japanese tank that fired first. The distance between the two sides was only more than 300 meters. With the muzzle velocity of the X-1 main battle tank's 75mm main gun of 481 meters per second, it was just In the blink of an eye, the armor-piercing high-explosive bomb had accurately hit the tank directly.
There was a violent explosion. The armor-piercing high-explosive bomb directly penetrated the thin side armor of the Type 97 tank and exploded inside the tank. Without any accident, it caused the Type 97 tank's ammunition compartment to explode. In just an instant, the tank was already dead. It was blown to pieces, and the turret rolled in the air and flew more than ten meters away.
The power of this shot scared the other tanks of the Japanese Sixth Tank Brigade.
