Chapter 592: It’s not advisable to stay for a long time!
Just when the 150mm howitzer was intensively shelling the Japanese artillery position.
The new regiment's 105mm howitzers and 75mm mountain guns, as well as 60mm mortars and 82mm mortars, were also firing shells at the Japanese positions.
It was still a little dark at this time, but orange-red cannonball trails could be seen in the sky like shooting stars.
Boom boom boom...
The artillery shells continued to fall towards the area where the Japanese troops were gathering. Fierce explosions and smoke rose around the area where the Japanese troops were gathering. One artillery shell even landed dozens of meters away from the brigade headquarters, frightening the direct subordinates of the brigade. The guards were covered in cold sweat.
Because the brigade headquarters needs a good field of vision to be able to see the battlefield situation, and because the location of the headquarters needs to be concealed enough, even though the headquarters is well camouflaged, it is still within the range of the Eighth Route Army artillery.
If the brigade headquarters was hit by a shell, the consequences would be disastrous and there would be no need to fight this battle.
I heard that Li Yunlong is very good at decapitating people with cannons. Wasn't the cannonball just fired a test shot?
The artillery shells hitting other areas are likely to be fake. The artillery target of the new regiment is likely to be the brigade headquarters...
Thinking of Saburo Miura here, he couldn't help but tremble all over.
"The brigade headquarters will change positions immediately."
"Inform the 39th Wing and the 40th Wing to block the eight-way attack!"
After finishing speaking, Miura Saburo grabbed the major general's sword and strode outside the headquarters. Chief of Staff Ohno Bino quickly followed.
It is said that there are two regiments, but in fact they only have a little more strength than two brigades.
However, the target of the new regiment's shelling this time was not the 8th Brigade headquarters, but the area where Japanese troops were gathering.
Although the Japanese infantry and tanks were behind a hill, observers could not see the specific location of the Japanese.
However, the new regiment has many artillery shells, so it must fire a few rounds of artillery shells before attacking, otherwise it will always feel like something is missing.
The infantry has become accustomed to fighting with artillery support.
I have to say that this way of fighting is very comfortable. Now that tanks are fighting together, the soldiers are gradually getting used to this way of fighting.
Infantry-artillery coordination, infantry-tank coordination, this is large corps operations, and in the future there will be three-dimensional operations such as air-ground coordination.
The current new regiment is a model unit created by the Eighth Route Army headquarters.
After bombarding the Japanese positions for a full 15 minutes, four infantry companies of the Second Battalion of the New Regiment, in coordination with 6 Leopard tanks, 4 Joffre tanks and 4 Spitfire tanks, began a fierce attack on the Japanese.
Fourteen tanks advanced in battle formation. Behind the tanks were hundreds of infantrymen from a new regiment. The gray waves rolled towards the Japanese position.
Among the infantry, there were three artillery observation groups following the infantry advance, and elite infantry squads were arranged for special protection.
The three artillery observation groups can respectively call in 150mm howitzers, 105mm howitzers and 75mm mountain artillery to carry out precise artillery fire on the Japanese fire points.
As the tanks and infantry of the new regiment entered the attack position, the Japanese's 12 tanks drove to the position and opened fire suddenly at the tanks and infantry of the new regiment.
"boom……"
A ball of flame burst out from the muzzle of a Type 97 tank, and the shell landed among several soldiers of the New Regiment, knocking them over.
"Da da da……"
The 7.7mm heavy machine gun in the Japanese tank screamed wildly, and in conjunction with the Japanese light and heavy machine guns on the position, it sprayed barrage after barrage towards the attacking troops of the Second Battalion of the New Regiment.
At this time, the Panther tank was still 250 meters away from the Japanese position.
In order to avoid the rain of bullets coming towards them, all the soldiers shrank behind the tanks.
As the Leopard tanks and Jiafei tanks advanced, they suddenly opened fire at the Japanese positions. Soon, two Betting tanks were hit by tank artillery, and a fire broke out into the sky.
The tank's on-board M2 large-caliber heavy machine gun continued to fire, suppressing the Japanese machine guns.
The machine guns on the Japanese army's position and the machine guns of the Eighth Route Army fired at each other. The air was filled with dense orange-red ballistics, and the bullets were flying randomly.
The tanks of the new regiment stopped 200 meters away from the Japanese position, and the tank guns began to fire accurately at the fire points on the Japanese position.
The three artillery observation groups were not idle either. They used high-power walkie-talkies to convey the shooting instructions to the artillery positions in the rear.
The artillery shells tore through the air and made a terrifying whistling sound. 150mm, 105mm high-explosive grenades and 75mm artillery shells continued to fall towards the Japanese positions.
Boom boom boom...
Shells fired from artillery and tanks of three calibers rose up on the Japs' position. The Japs' position soon turned into a sea of flames, with explosions and smoke covering the sky.
The Japanese's mountain artillery position had been destroyed by the new regiment's heavy artillery 20 minutes ago.
Although there were Japanese mortars and Type 92 infantry artillery firing at the attacking troops of the new regiment in the distance, they were not many in number and were far less powerful than mountain artillery and field artillery. The power of grenade launchers was even worse. Even tanks The fur cannot be hurt.
After 10 minutes of artillery coverage and precise shelling from tank guns.
This Japanese position has become like the Xiaoliangshan position. All the civil engineering works on the surface of the entire position have been destroyed, and it looks more complete than the plowed ground.
Under Li Yunlong's order, the artillery group immediately stopped shelling.
As the shells from the artillery group stopped falling on the Japanese position, the tank restarted, and the track transmission made a metallic sound as it headed towards the Japanese position.
The enemy's machine gun firepower point was firing at the tank, and the machine gun bullets made a clanging sound when they hit the tank.
When they arrived at the forward position, the tanks stopped and the infantry jumped out from behind the tanks and rushed toward the Japanese positions.
Ten minutes later, the position defended by an elite Japanese battalion and 12 tanks was successfully captured by the Second Battalion.
"Report to the brigade commander that the position has been lost and the entire tank brigade is in pieces!"
Tatsuharu Yamaguchi, the captain of the 40th Regiment with bandages on his hands and head, walked into the brigade headquarters with a depressed face and bowed his head to report to Major General Saburo Miura.
A 75mm artillery shell landed near the 40th Regiment headquarters, but Yamaguchi Tatsuharu survived and was only slightly injured.
Miura Saburo's face suddenly turned as dark as the bottom of a pot.
Not to mention recapturing the Xiaoliangshan position, more than half of the brigade's strength was lost in less than half an hour.
"Brigade commander, as soon as the shelling ended, the tanks and infantry of the Eighth Route New Regiment rushed into the Locust Army's position. My soldiers suffered heavy losses under the shelling of the Eighth Route New Regiment..."
Looking at Miura Saburo's expression, Yamaguchi Tatsuharu's heart skipped a beat and he quickly explained.
Before the war started, if anyone said that the new Eighth Route Army Regiment was more powerful than the 10th Division, he would definitely slap the opponent hard.
But now that he has been defeated, or in other words, he is afraid of being beaten, the new regiment's artillery fire is so accurate and powerful that he cannot withstand it at all.
Before the war, the 40th Infantry Regiment was at full strength, with a total of more than 3,600 men, all of whom were elite.
But now, there are only a few hundred people left in the 40th Infantry Regiment, which is comparable to the strength of two squadrons, one of which is still the strength of the regiment headquarters.
Miura Saburo wanted to slap Yamaguchi Tatsuharu twice to vent his anger, but finally held back. Now even beating Yamaguchi Tatsuharu to death would be of no avail.
It's not that the Locust Army is incompetent, it's just that the Eighth Route New Regiment's firepower is too fierce.
Major General Saburo Miura looked at Chief of Staff Ohno Binfu: "Ohno-kun, report the battle situation to the division headquarters immediately. The 8th Brigade requests to be transferred to Heyuan County!"
"Hi!" Ohno Binfu lowered his head.
…
Heyuan County.
The headquarters of the Japanese 10th Division is the frontline headquarters of the Japanese offensive in northwest Shanxi.
"Nani, the 8th Brigade requests to be transferred to Heyuan County?"
After listening to the communications captain read the telegram, Ishikawa Jiro and Tanabe Moritake suddenly fell into deep thought.
Although the 8th Brigade is a remnant, it has a tank brigade, a reinforced artillery brigade, three full infantry brigade, and an engineering brigade, totaling 5,000 elite troops.
Can't you even stop the Eight Route New Group for one day?
It's outrageous, just outrageous.
The two old devils originally thought that the New Regiment's defense was the ceiling of the Chinese army. It was not until they faced the New Regiment's attack that they realized how strong the New Regiment's combat effectiveness was.
"Hi!" the communications captain lowered his head and said, "The communications team of the 8th Brigade in the base area reported that the artillery position of the 8th Brigade was bombarded by the Eighth Route Army's 150mm artillery group. All 16 mountain field guns were lost. The Eighth Route Army used the artillery group to attack the 8th Army Group again. At the brigade position, heavy tanks cooperated with the infantry to attack, and the 8th Brigade suffered heavy losses. Currently, there are less than 2 brigades left!"
The 8th Brigade was completely crippled and almost wiped out.
"Tanabe-kun, what should we do now?"
Ishikawa Jiro looked at Tanabe Moritake with a gloomy expression:
"Once the 8th Brigade cannot withstand it, the new 8th Brigade will be able to march straight in and attack all the way to Heyuan County. We must not follow in the footsteps of the 36th Division."
"Of course I know this!" Tanabe Shengwu looked gloomy.
The old Japanese also knew very well that once the Eighth Route New Regiment was allowed to attack the city of Heyuan County, the 10th Division would definitely follow in the footsteps of the 36th Division.
And this mopping up operation in northwestern Shanxi will eventually evolve into a battle to defend the 10th Division.
Then, Tanabe Moritake looked at Ishikawa Jiro: "How is the defensive battle situation of the other two groups of locust armies?"
Ishikawa Jiro said: "According to the reports of Chief of Staff Asada and Major General Okada, the attacks of the other two enemy groups were also very fierce and fierce, and there was no way any troops could be spared to reinforce the 8th Brigade."
What Tanabe Moritake thought before was that once the Eighth Route New Regiment attacked one of the routes, the other two routes would draw some troops to reinforce this route.
But the idea is full of ideas, and the reality is cruel. The New Regiment of the Eighth Route Army mainly attacks the Heyuan County Road. Even if the other two routes are attacked by sheep, the Locust Army cannot withstand it.
After finishing speaking, Ishikawa Erlang stared at the map and suddenly shrank: "Tanabe-kun, Li Yunlong's strategic target is probably our frontline headquarters. It is not appropriate to stay in Heyuan County for a long time."
Tanabe Moritake's expression also changed when he heard this.
