The 22nd Division distributed its forces in Sagaing and Mandalay on both sides of the Yinrawaddy River in a forward-light and rear-weight manner. In Sagaing, the 84th Regiment was deployed for defense, while in Mandalay, the 85th Regiment and the 86th Regiment were deployed. The main force was deployed towards the river.
Mainly to prevent Allied forces attacking from the west.
After the division commander Lieutenant General Saburo Yoshida sent out the artillery regiment, he urgently requested a new batch of artillery from the 15th Army. A new artillery regiment had just been formed, but this time it basically used 75mm mountain guns and field guns. Lord.
The strength is much worse than that of the original artillery regiment.
The good news for the 22nd Division is that Mandalay is an important place that the Japs must defend. After occupying it, they established two fortress-style artillery positions with heavy artillery, one on Sagaing Mountain and one on Mandalay. By the river.
There is an artillery position consisting of four 150mm cannons in the middle of Sagaing Hill, and there is a fort consisting of 203mm naval guns on the Mandalay River.
The range of these heavy artillery is more than 15 kilometers, and the 150mm cannon has a range of up to 18 kilometers. It is obviously a huge threat to Gao Jianwu. Compared with Monywa, the Mandalay Japs defensive position is stronger. too much.
Not only do they have larger-caliber artillery, but they also have artillery fortresses built of reinforced concrete to protect the artillery, which can effectively prevent bombardment from 155mm heavy artillery.
Unless the shell directly hits the small space in the direction of the muzzle.
But for long-range artillery, this probability is almost zero.
Even if Gao Jianwu had a high-precision map indicating the exact coordinates, the bombardment still had an error of tens of meters. Even covering bombardment is of little use against such a fortress-style fort.
When the little devil was designing, he also formed a crossfire of firepower between the two fortresses, so that the two important locations in Sagaing and Mandalay were basically within the defensive range of the two fortresses.
Colonel Smith still does his best to collect all kinds of intelligence here. Gao Jianwu looked at Mandalay's defense system and felt that it would be a bit of a headache if only the army was dispatched. But don't forget that he still has an air force of 6 fighters.
...
"No. 2, No. 2, I have seen the enemy's fortress. It's at 1 o'clock on the right. I'm going to start dive bombing." Lu Xingguo said to his wingman.
As the main force in bombing the enemy's fortress this time, Lu Xingguo took the lead in undertaking the first wave of bombing missions.
There were four fighter planes in the air waiting behind him to bomb these fortresses. If Lu Xingguo can't succeed.
The Mustang fighter can carry two 500-pound aerial bombs. In the face of such heavy aerial bombs, all fortresses are rubbish.
The air force of the Mandalay Imps has been killed by the Allied air force.
Like a turtle with its air defenses peeled off, it appeared in front of Lu Xingguo.
Lu Xingguo took a fancy to the location of the fortress and began to dive towards him. In order to ensure the accuracy of the bombing, he lowered the altitude to 500 meters. After calculating the lead time, Lu Xingguo dropped the bomb decisively as he was about to approach the fortress.
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Then quickly pull up the fighter plane. The Japs' anti-aircraft guns on the ground began to fire wildly, and bullets whizzed around the Lu Xingguo fighter plane.
But it's of no use.
The hit rate of anti-aircraft guns against fighter planes is really impressive.
Lu Xingguo's wingman was observing the effects of the bombing from behind. The bomb was dropped next to the fort, raising a corner but apparently not blowing the fort back.
It's just that I don't know how long the little Japanese artillerymen in the fortress can survive.
Judging from the power of the bombshell, there should not be even one left.
But as long as the fort is still there, their mission is not over.
Lu Xingguo's wingman is a comrade he once fought with. At this moment, I observed from behind that the target had not been destroyed, but that the anti-aircraft fire had exposed its head. Without hesitation, I lowered the nose of the aircraft and began to dive.
The Mustang fighter jets roared towards the Little Devil's air defense cannon position. The four anti-aircraft cannons next to the fort were aimed at the Mustang fighter jets and fired wildly. However, they could not keep up with the changing distance of the fighter jets, allowing Lu Xingguo's wingman to find an opportunity to attack the small Japanese fighter when they were about to arrive. The Japanese air defense machine gun position dropped the 500-pound aerial bomb without hesitation.
With a loud bang, the little Japanese anti-aircraft cannon and artillery were instantly reduced to a pile of fragments!
"Number 2, great job!" Lu Xingguo praised loudly to his wingman.
Turning the corner, he pointed the Mustang fighter towards the fortress turret again. This time he lowered the height even lower, and dropped another 500-pound aerial bomb at a place that might not even be 300 meters away!
This time the bomb fell right above the fortress. After the violent explosion, the entire fort also cracked!
The second fortress fort was quickly killed by the air force.
As long as there is no interference from anti-aircraft fire. That kind of fixed fortress turret is a perfect candidate for heavy aviation bombs.
...
"Okay, everyone, now the Air Force has finished their work. It's our turn to start working." Gao Jianwu heard that the Air Force had solved the enemy's fortress fort. Start directing the three attack groups to move forward.
This was the first time Gao Jianwu felt the benefits of air superiority. After taking down the fortress fort, the little Japs in Mandalay had nothing to stop him from moving forward.
The three attack groups of Chu Yunfei, Xu Shida and Zhang Dabiao immediately began to advance simultaneously according to the plan.
Chu Yunfei's second attack group advanced towards Sagaing Town. His mission was to capture Sagaing Town and completely destroy the position of the 84th Regiment of the 22nd Infantry Division.
Xu Shida's third attack group advanced to the north. Its mission was to bypass Sagaing and build a pontoon bridge about 10 kilometers north along the Yinlowaddy River. There are multiple Jiangxin Islands there as springboards. Most of the rivers are two to three hundred meters high. meters, it is relatively easy to build a simple pontoon bridge.
It's just that they have to pass through a section of wetland and the sandy land of Jiangxinzhou. Infantry has no problem, but heavy weapons like 105mm howitzers are very difficult.
Fortunately, there are enough engineer rubber boats. When the time comes, the mountain cannon can be disassembled into several parts and used to cross the river in rubber boats.
Zhang Dabiao's fourth attack group followed Chu Yunfei to outflank Sagaing Town to ensure the complete annihilation of the 84th Infantry Regiment, and if possible, directly rushed to the bridge to seize the bridge.
The battle for the general offensive started soon, and Gao Jianwu still directed his artillery to fire artillery shells at the enemy's positions. After eliminating the firepower deterrent of the enemy's fortress turret, the 75mm mountain cannon owned by the Little Devil Regiment can no longer threaten him.
According to the position information obtained from previous reconnaissance, the long-range main artillery commanded by Gao Jianwu continued to pour heavy artillery shells on the Japs' position.
Chu Yunfei's second attack group almost stepped on the impact point of the shells and moved forward. After the reorganization, especially a lot of ideological work, most of the battalion and company commanders were replaced. Now the combat effectiveness of the second attack group is also very strong.
In addition, the last main attack became a back-up choice. The soldiers were all holding back their breath, and now they let it out. The position of the Little Japanese 84th Wing suffered a disaster.
Because they are no match for artillery. The fixed fortifications were either baptized by long-range artillery fire or directly bombarded by bazooka rockets.
After all the heavy firepower points of the Little Japs' fixed fortifications were knocked out by the opponent, the Little Japs were even less of an opponent in the infantry confrontation. Their 38-meter guns were no match for the Garand rifles.
Even if there are trenches to help them defend. But the number of mortars equipped by the infantry of the Second Attack Group far exceeded the little devil's imagination. Mortar shells fell like raindrops into the trenches one after another.
The battle was extremely fierce, but all the artillery fire was almost unilaterally poured on the little Japanese position. With absolute firepower superiority, in this war it was like slaughtering chickens. Groups of little devils were torn to pieces by artillery fire!
There is no ability to fight back at all.
...
On the east bank of the Yinlowaddy River Bridge, Captain Yin Dong'an, who was in charge of defending and blowing up the bridge when the situation was unavoidable, looked very nervous.
There was roaring artillery fire everywhere in Sagaing, as well as the deafening sound of gunshots and shells.
He was guarding a field phone with sweat on his forehead. Next to him were several detonators with explosives buried in them. Once he got the order to blow up the bridge, he would not hesitate to order it to be detonated.
But the construction of the Yinlowaddy River Bridge is not easy. Unless it is a last resort, the little devil is reluctant to blow it up. You must know that this is the only bridge from Mandalay to Sagaing.
Yin Dong'an had just been staring at the phone for a long time, unaware that there was a roar in the air. It was the Lu Xingguo flying squadron that had completed the bombing of the fortress fort. At this moment, it was ordered to start protecting the bridge.
They lined up in three echelons and flew towards the bridge. The leader was still Lu Xingguo. He lowered his altitude to 300 meters and flew along the bridge at a low altitude!
There was no one in the middle of the bridge, but there were little Japanese troops guarding both ends of the bridge.
The entire bridge is not too long, about a little more than one kilometer. From this height, Lu Xingguo can see it clearly.
"No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4, follow me and fly straight along the bridge. Attack the defense forces at both ends of the bridge in sequence at intervals of 1.5 kilometers! No. 5 and No. 6 are hovering in the air and on standby!" Lu Xingguo looked at the little Japs. For defense, I guess 4 rounds of strikes should be enough.
"Received on the 2nd!"
"Received on the 3rd!"
...
When Lu Xingguo confirmed that all team members had received the order, he rushed to Yin Dong'an Zao's bridgehead without hesitation, then pressed the fire button, and four Browning heavy machine guns immediately sprayed hot bullets towards the bridgehead.
Directly plowing out four bloody gullies on the spot from the defending Japs, Lu Xingguo pulled the nose of the aircraft, raised its altitude and passed over the position, turned in the air, and prepared to start the second round of attack.
However, after he passed by, No. 2 came one after another. Yin Dong'an Zao, who had just managed to escape Lu Xingguo's aerial fire, was not so lucky this time. The firepower of the four Browning heavy machine guns was about half Nearly half of the little devils were killed.
However, this is not the end of the little devil's dream. No. 3 and 4 are lining up to fight for the last few heads of the little devil.
At this moment, on the west bank of the bridge, a group of fifty or sixty people suddenly appeared on both sides of the bridge and attacked the two small Japanese teams guarding the bridge almost simultaneously.
Before the infantry charged, several mortar shells and bazookas were fired one after another, almost sending away the little devils behind the sandbags in one encounter!
This is the vanguard commando of Zhang Dabiao's fourth attack group. They bypassed Sagaing Town directly and came to seize control of the west bank of the bridge. After they succeeded, a dozen team members were left to defend on the spot. The rest were Run to the east coast!
